366 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MAY 83, IS3». 



AND gardener's JOURNAL. 

 Boston, Wednesday, May 23, 1838. 



PARSNEPS. 



There is much reason to regret that this vegetable is 

 not more cultivated among us; and that its value for 

 feed of cattle has not been tested. We have never 

 known a case in which it has been made the subject of 

 field-culture ; and no one thinks of raising more than a 

 few for table use in the spring. Our own cullivation 

 has nev«r extended farther than lo the growing of thirty 

 or forty bushels in a season; but we cannot say why, 

 excepting from sympathy with general prejudice and 

 custom, we have not pursued it much more extensively^ 

 as we recollect having fed them to milch cows in the 

 spring with very great advantage lo their health and 

 milk. 



The cultivation of them is more easy than that of car- 

 rots ; and the yield upon an acre is greater. 'J'he car- 

 rot plant when it first appears is not so distinguishable 

 as the parsnep ; and the weeding and thinning tlierelore 

 are more troublesome. The digging of parsneps is more 

 difficult than that of carrots ; but if planted on ridges, it 

 may be greatly farililatcd by means of a plough ; and 

 after all, the cxlra labor required is not a matter tu be 

 much considered. The parsnep likewise may be »afely 

 left in the ground until the spring ; and then ii furnishes 

 in perfection a succulent food lor cattle of the highest 

 value, and at a season when it is particularly n quired. 

 The butter made from the milk of cows fed upon pars- 

 reps is.said to bo distinguished by its fine fliavor; and 

 in parts of Europe, where it has been cultivated as a field 

 crop it is stated that no vegetable food will produce 

 more or fiTier beef or pork. There is no vegetable which 

 is less liable to accident ; none which lias fewer enemiei 

 among the insect tribe; none for which a suitable soil ia 

 more easily found; and none which requires less ex- 

 pense of seed. They are cultivated in the same way as 

 carrots ; and we recommend for all vegetables that they 

 should be sown on ridges, and in as straight lines as can 

 be drawn. For parsneps as well as carrots, as there is 

 always a liability to sow the seed too thickly we advise 

 mixing the seed with a considerable quantity of dry 

 sand; and it may then be sown evenly either with the 

 hand or a machine. The human hand however, where 

 there is not too much to be done, is doubtless the best of 

 all machines. We advise likewise that carrot seed should 

 be moistened befoie sowing and kept slightly wetted al- 

 most to germination before sowing. It will then appear 

 early above ground before the weeds show themselves. 

 We cannot say that the same method would not be ad- 

 visable in regard to parsneps. We recommend that a 

 trial should be made; but we have made no experiment 

 of this matter ourselves. Parsnep seed is usually long 

 in coming up ; and on account of weeds it is very de- 

 sirable to forward them. 



.Parsneps may be sown in the autumn or the«pring.— 

 The almost universal opinion is, that if sown in the 

 spring it is indispensable that they should be put in 

 very early. We have the testimony of two or more in- 

 telligent farmers, that they have succeeded better by late 

 sowing than by early ; and they avoid sowing until the 

 lastorMay. This was a new fact to us. In IhiB case 

 we should deem it the more desirable if possible lo 

 forward the seed by some artificial means before plant- 

 ing 



article of human food they are not a favorite with most 

 people. This, we believe, arises from their infrequent 

 use. Probably they are quite as palatable and accepta- 

 ble as potatoes were when first introduced. When 

 sliced and fried in bniter like the salsify or vegetable 

 oyster plant, which IS so much esteemed by persons of 

 taste, they are nut easily distinguished from it. 



The loaves ar," said by some to make good feed for 

 cattle, but this does not accord with our own observa- 

 tion. A.s far as that goes, cattle are seldom inclined to 

 touch ihcm. 



We understand that the afterpiece intended to follow 

 the first performance was an attempt to set fire to the 

 asylum for orphan colored children. Good Heavens ! 

 has all humanity fled the earth. Why had not these 

 tr,ue savages these " respectable and well dressed " can- 

 nibals have brought these miserable children into their 

 State House yard ; and having transfixed them with pins 

 splinters, have burnt them in the true Indian style. It 

 certainly would have been good enough for such wretch- 

 es as choose to offend a Christain community by being 

 guilty of wearing a black skin. 



It is stated that upon analysis parsneps yield 99 parts 

 of nutritive matter to 1000, and that o( these 9 parts 

 are mucilage; t!ie rest saccharine matter. As an 



PHILADELPHIA RIOT. 



Since our last a riot of a most infamous character has 

 occurred in Philadelphia, which lesulted in the wanton, 

 unresisted, and deliberate destruction by a mob of a large 

 and expensive public building erected for public lectures 

 and free discussion. The jiapers say that of the many 

 thousands, who crowded in the vicinity to witness the 

 c(mflagration of this beautiful edifice the large part were 

 " respectable and well dresied persons, who evidently 

 looked on with approbation." Can it be so.' Has hu- 

 man nature sunk so low .? Are all the great moral dis- 

 tinctions so obliterated in our minds that we can per- 

 ceive no longer a difference between order and anarchy, 

 between justice and injustice, between liberty and licen- 

 tiousness, between humanity and cruelty ? Are all gen- 

 erous and just affections so paralyzed within us ; have av- 

 arice and tyranny so fixed their gangrene in our souls, 

 that all sentiment of liberty and honor has become ex- 

 tinct within us ? Has divine Providence in its awful 

 and just retiibulion sealed the fate of our Republic once 

 the glittering pole-star of the friends of liberty through- 

 out the world ; so that a moral desolation as blighting 

 as the Simoom of the African desert has come over us ; 

 and human passions, defying all the restraints of govern- 

 ment, of reason, of religion, are suffered to run riot like 

 devils incarnate ; and the terrific scenes of the French 

 Revolutions are to be acted over in our young commu- 

 nity .' Do not men see, where mob violence is suffered 

 to prevail, all laws is at an end; and no man's property, 

 or house, or person, or life, is secure a moment. 



But it is our province only to give facts— yet it seems 

 as though our pen would drop from our hands while we 

 trace these facts. The glare of this conflagration flashes 

 befoie our disturbed vision as though the flames of Hell 

 itself had burst up through the earth— for where else in- 

 deed could such fires, have been kindled .' 



The Hall was dedicated to free discussion excluding 

 only subjects of an immoral character. The Hall was 

 dedicated to " Virtue, Liberty, and Independence." 

 The sole olyects of the particular meetings holden in it 

 on this occasion were the discussion of the great princi- 

 pies of civil and universal liberty and of universal justice 

 and love. This was not to be tolerated, and yet this was 

 the whole of the offence. Yet in a country calling it- 

 self the «nly free country in the world, the rights of 

 speech and the press are to be trampled under foot, and 

 the cause of freedom shall not even be discussed. 



It is said that when the roof of this noble temple of 

 liberty fell in there was a universal shout of triumph. 

 Strange that such a shout in such a city should not at 

 «nce have called the spirits of Franklin and Rush from 

 their graves. Some of the public buildings and squares 

 in this beautiful city are adorned with the statues of 

 these noble sons of liberty, these friends of universal 

 humanity. Let the next efi-orts of the Philadelphians 

 be to melt down these statues, which heretofore they 

 have pointed at with pride ; and let them replace them 

 at once with the appropriate statues of Nero, Caligula, 

 Danlon and Robespierre. 



(Kur tlie N. E. Farmer l 

 OAKLAND FARM, BRIGHTON. 

 The sale of this beautilul place next Thursday offers 

 a rare chance to gentlemen wi-hing to purchase a coun- 

 try residence, or to establish a public summer resort, 

 being unsurpassed by any sitnation in this section of the 

 country, for beauty of landscape and rural scenery. The 

 "arden contains all that is beautiful for the florist and 

 amateur, besides an endless variety of fruit of the most 

 delicious kinds. The ponds are well stocked with gold 

 fish, and the grounds abound with choice and rare orna- 

 mental trees, among which is the beautiful Tulip Tree 

 and the most splendid groves of Oaks and Chestnut to 

 be found in the country. 



Recipe for the Catarrh. — Take the root of San- 

 guisorbia Canadensis or Blood Root, dry it and beat it 

 into a powder or fine snuff, mix it with the gum of 

 Camphor and use it as a snufF when affected with the 

 catarrh. This remedy has been proved to be efficacious 

 in curin" the disease after being practised several times 

 and can be recommended as an almost certain remedy. 



E. Savers. 



Immense Lumber Raft.— We mentioned a few day* 

 ago the fact that a fleet of lumber rafts containing a 

 million and a half feet of lumber had been towed from 

 Port Deposite to Baltimore by the steamboat Relief 

 Captain Turner. We have now the satisfaction to state 

 that the Relief has achieved a still greater work in tho 

 same way. Yesterday she entered our harbor from thei 

 Susquehanna with an immense field of rafts in tow, the 

 a<r»recate contents of which were two million seven hvriM 

 dred thousand feet uf lumber .' This lumber is the prop-c 

 erty of Messrs Stowell and Dickinson, two enterprising 

 citizens of Wellsborough, Tioga county, Pennsylvania/ 

 from which distant section it has been floated on the 

 present Spring tides of the Susquehanna down to Port 

 Deposite, and thence by the steam tow-boat to our mar. 

 ket. The business of towing on so large a scale is yel 

 in its infancy, but the cheapness, speed and safely with 

 which it is effected, prove that when the Susquehannn 

 Canal to Havre de Grace is finished, the boats maybe 

 towed to and from Baltimore with great facility ano 

 economy, and without transhipment of their cargoes.— 

 Baltimore American. 



Easy method of ptjRiFviNG Water.— Take a com- 

 mon garden pot, in the midst of which place a piect 

 of wicker work, on which spread a layer of charcoal o) 

 four or five inches in thickness, and above the charcoa 

 a quantity of sand. The surface of the sand is to be 

 covered with paper pierced full of holes, to prevent tht 

 water from making channels in it. By this procesi 

 .which is at once simple and economical, every per 

 son is enabled to procure limpid water at a very tri 

 fling expense. 



