116 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



OCT. 18, 1837. 



(Selected for the New England Farmer.) 

 A New Portable Flour Mill has been iu- 

 vcMtecl, entitled HeberVs Domestic Flour maktr, 

 which, for simplicity, fUirahility, and for not be- 

 iiiu liahle to get out of lepiiir, a|)peiirs fur to sur- 

 pass every thing of tlie kind that has hitherto been 

 made public. For small farmers, who grow a lit- 

 tle wlieat, and for emigrants, it will be invalua- 

 ble. We have seen it at 20, Paternoster Row, 

 London, and had some wheat ground in it. A 

 descrii)tion ol this machine, uceompanied by an 

 engraving, is given in the Meehunic's Mrigazine 

 for May 7th, 1836, which niay be purchased fur 

 .9rf., by any reader who wishes for farther infor- 

 mation. — Loudon's Mag. 



We live in an age when improvements are oc- 

 currences of every day ; yet it is singular that the 

 jjrocess of grinding and dressing wheat is nearly 

 the same as it has been for centuries. The French 

 burr stones, awkward, massive and troublesome, 

 have hitherto been free from the inventive assaults 

 of enterprise and genius. — Mec. Mag. 



Purple Brocoli. — Mr DeWolf, of Brighton, 

 has recently sent into our markets, the longest, 

 most perfect and beautiful heads of Purple Bro- 

 coli ever seen in New England ; and they are as 

 distinguished for delicacy of consistence and fla- 

 vor, as for luxuriance of growth. Of all the cab- 

 bage family, it is decidedly tenderest and best in 

 all respects. It is recommended to all lovers of 

 goo<l eating, to try this superb vegetable, for they 

 will no longer regret tha* the sciison of Aspara- 

 gus, Sea-Kale, and Green Peas, has gone by. — 

 Boiled, in mucli water, --and serred up with sweet 

 !i)Utter, it will claim the atteJniion of the mast fas- 

 tidious epi<.-ure. ,Vr DeWolf is well known as 

 •one of our most intelligent and successful practi- 

 .cal farmOrs and horticulturists, and is entitled to 

 (high coiiimcndation for the .-^kilful manner in 

 which hehas cultivated one of the most delicious 

 «nd magniticent of culinary vegetables. 



0::?="l'his notice is from an oh! and valued cor- 

 n-espondent, once n practical and successful horti- 

 culturist. We can add to all that he says of the 

 value of the Brocoli, as an article for the table, 

 the testimony of our own experience. We have 

 raised it in our garden for three seasons. It is 

 easily cultivated, and richly repays the labor it 

 requires, When the Jlower is cut for boiling, 

 there are left a large quantity of leaves, which, if 

 we may judge from the eagerness with which they 

 eat them, are as delicious a morsel to cows as the 

 flower is to the biped epicure. — Boston Cou. 



CtVBRIES ON PLASTER OP PARIS PROPOUN- 

 DED. 



BY MR JEFFREYS. 



[The following are the queries to which Col- 

 onel Taylor has annexed answers on Plaster of 

 Paris : — ] 



What quantity to the acre have you generally 

 used .' 



On what soils does the |ilaster succeed best? 



In what way is it best applied to the soil — with 

 or without ploughing — with or without other ma- 

 nure ? 



Have you repeated the application of it ? At 

 what intervals, and with what effect ? 



To what kind of grain, succulent and legumin- 

 ous crops can it be beneficially applied ? and in 

 what way is it best apfilied to them ? 



To what kind of grasses can it be beneficially 

 applied.' And in what way is it best applied to 

 them ? 



What has been the increased product per acre ? 

 of grain and grass cro[)S, by means of the plaster 

 alone ? 



What is the result of the experiment which you 

 have made of setting aside two hundred acres, 

 half to lie uncultivated and ungrazed, and the 

 whole to receive an annual dressing of one bush- 



of plaster to the acre ?* 



TheNational Intelligencer states that Mr Fcath- 

 erstonhaugh, U. H. Geologist, has ascertained the 

 existence of seme important deposits of white 

 statuary marble in the Cherokee country. Hehas 

 followed an obscure ridge in the mountains, of 

 six milrs, consisting entirely of that valuable sub- 

 stance, hitherto only seen in the United States in 

 thin beils not exceeding a few inches, and reports 

 one of these deposileries as equal to that of iMass- 

 Carrara, in Italy, with which he is familiar. Mar- 

 ble of this kind has been hitherto brought at great 

 expense from abroad. 



Low blackberry leaves made into tea is ex- 

 ceedingly beneficial for a sore mouth occasioned 

 by taking calomel, or from any cause. 



Mr Brooke, a traveller in Norway, says that the 

 milk grows licher, as you go north. 



Col. Taylor's Replt. 



Port Roynl, March 4, 1818. 



Dear Sir: To your questions of the 4th inst., 

 I reply : 



1. 1 sow from three pecks to one bushel of plas- 

 ter upon an acre. 



2. It succeeds upon all soils to which I have 

 applied it ; those requiring to be drained, excep- 

 ted. 



3. Sown on clover in the spring, it benefits it 

 considerably. Used in any other mode I plough 



* For fear this experiment may not be under- 

 stood by the questions, I will give it more fully in 

 Col. Taylor's own words: 



"I have set aside 200 acres, (divided into two 

 fields) half to be cultivated in corn yearly, half to 

 lie uncultivated and ungrazed, and the whole to 

 receive an annual dressing of one bushel of plas- 

 ter to the acre. The repetition of the cultine be- 

 ing too quick for a perennial plant, I use the bird 

 foot clover, as we commonly call it, to raise cltjth- 

 ing for the land, having found that the plaster op- 

 crated as powerfully on that as on red clover. — 

 One field produces a crop of corn, and the other 

 being enclosed, receives a crop of ungrazed veg- 

 etable matter. The succeeding year the ungraz- 

 ed field is taxed with the crop of corn, and the 

 corn field fed with the ungrazeil vegetable. In 

 one, the plaster is sown upon the bird-foot clover 

 in March or April, and in the other ploughed in 

 at its fallow. The (jbject of the experiment is to 

 ascertain whether an annual bushel of plaster to 

 an acre, combined with a biennial relinquishment 

 to the soil of its natural vegetable product will 

 enable it to be severely (cropt) every other year 

 without impoverishment, or with an addition to 

 its fertility. The first tfl'ect would siifiice to (.'heck 

 an evil, every where demonstrating the wretched 

 state of our agriculture; the second would be a 

 cheap and expeditious mode of improving the soil 

 even where the state of agriculture is good." 



W. G. Jeffreys. 



it in. But 1 have even discontined the first piac- 

 tice, from observing that when plaster is sown 

 and i)loughed in with wheat in the fall, a top dres- 

 sing to the subsequent clover is of little or no use ; 

 and from thinking that the elTect of the plaster 

 sooner ceases as a top dressing, than when plough- 

 ed in. The best ways, I think, of using it, are in 

 the spring, upon the long manure of the preced- 

 ing winter, to be ploughed in with it — upon well 

 covered fields to be sown immediately before they 

 are fallowed — in rolling it very wet with seed- 

 corn, bushel to bushel, and in mixing it vvithseed 

 wheat so as to let the wheat divide in sowing, in 

 such a quantity, as that tlie laud shall receive not 

 less than three piecks to an acre. '1 he latter is 

 chiefly for the sake of the succeeding clover. The 

 wheat is benefited in a small degree, but it pre- 

 vents eiribezzlement of the seed. 



4. I have had a small mill exclusively for grind- 

 ing plaster during 20 years. In that period 1 liave 

 used several hundred tons, and tried a great va- 

 riety of experiments, using it every year to a con- 

 siderable extent. I think it a valuable ally of, but 

 by no means a substitute for manure. That there 

 should be intervals of two, three, or four years 

 between applying it broad-cast to the same land. 

 That its effect is graduated by the quantity of veg- 

 etable matter upon which it is sown. That upon 

 close, grazed land, it does but little good at first, 

 and repeated, would become |)ernicious ; and that 

 it must be united either with the long manure of 

 the winter, or the ungrazed vegetable cover pro- 

 duced in summer. 



5. Corn mixed with plaster is sometimes highly 

 benefited, and almost unexpectedly in a degree, 

 depending chiefly on its alliance with vegetable 

 matter, and occasionally upon the seasons. Its ef- 

 fect upon wheat is before stated. But all crops are 

 ultimately improved by its gradual improvement 

 of the land, including those upon which its efi^ect 

 is not immediately visible. The small crops, veg- 

 etable, succulent or culmiferous, are often benefit- 

 ed by a mixture with plaster when plained, mea- 

 sure for measure. 



6. I have satisfied myself that plaster ought to 

 be used to benefit all kinds of grasses, in the modes 

 explained, and that it ought not to be sown as a 

 lop dressing. By improving the land, it beiiefita 

 all kinds of grasses. 



7. It is impossible to say how far the plaster, 

 valued exclusively of its vegetable ally, may have 

 increased the crops of grain. Used as a top dres- 

 sing to clover, (red) on land never before plaster, 

 ed, I have often had that grass increased four fo'.d 

 to a line, dividing it from similar land and clover 

 Spaces left unplastered across hirge fields, whet 

 sown in wheat, have remained visible during th* 

 whole season of rest, by the inferiority in luxurii 

 ance of a great variety of natural grasses an« 

 weeds. The 200 acres you mentioned, have nevV 

 er received any manure, and the corn stalks hav» 

 been taken oft', But they have been completeljl 

 secured against grazing. They now produce threjl 

 fold more corn tlmn when the experiment coitr 

 nienced. The rest of my farm, having had th 

 manure, will produce five fold moie corn than i 

 could 20 years ago. The casualties attendin 

 wlieat, render that a precarious criterion of iin 

 proveinent. 



[C?°In scalding hogs, it is best to dip them fin 

 in cold water, and then in hot — the bristles coii: 

 out easier. 



