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NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



AUGUST 7, 1S33. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 7, 1833. 



Black Sea Whtat — May be seen at the New 

 England Seed Store, No. 51 North Market street, 

 a sample of a valuable and beautiful kind of wheat 

 called the Black Sea Wheat. The seed, which 

 produced the specimen to which we allude, was 

 procured by Mr. G.C. Barrett, Proprietor of §aid 

 seed store, from E. Marvin, Esq. a distinguished 

 cultivator of Chatuaque county, N. Y. Mr. Mar- 

 vin procured this wheat originally from the coun- 

 try in the neighborhood of the Black Sea, and has, 

 since that time, cultivated and distributed it exten- 

 sively and liberally. 



Its advantages, according to Mr. Marvin, are that 

 it will bear late sowing, and thus "escapes three 

 important accidents : it will not he thrown out of 

 the ground by frost, nor killed by deep snows, and 

 no insect can find a home in the stalk or root dur- 

 ing the winter; so that if the spring is favorable 

 there is nothing to prevent its coming forward 

 with a strong and rapid growth. 



The sample was raised by Mr. Springer of Ster- 

 ling, Mass. and appears as well as the original 

 kind with which it may be compared. Some of 

 the heads as well as the kernels may be seen as 

 above ; and we are assured that 20 heads have 

 been produced from one seed. We think this 

 variety of wheat will prove a very important ac- 

 quisition to New England. 



To Thos. G. Fessenden, D. A. A. That is Dr. of 



the Agricultural Art, or Dr. of the Art of Arts, 



on which all others, in truth depend. 



Bear Doctor, Don't be offended at the title. I 

 know very well how cheap degrees have got to 

 be of late ; alitj I confess I should feel it some- 

 thing very near to an insult to confer on a man 

 really qualified for the honor any such nick name 

 as LL. D. Yet Dr. in Agriculture, the Art of 

 all Arts, has not yet been prostituted to any mis- 

 erable purpose of party or flattery, and, therefore, 

 of our free will " et pro auctoritate mihi commis- 

 sa" we give it to you as an honor by no one 

 better deserved, and by no one more likely to be 

 respectably worn. 



Now, Dear Doctor, learned in this noble science, 

 please to give us your opinion in a case where 

 your early decision is deemed highly important. 

 What then, venerable Doctor, is your opinion as 

 to the expediency of suckering corn, when the 

 growth is extraordinarily luxuriant. Will it do 

 good or will it do harm, or will it do neither ? 

 What facts have come under your observation ? 

 What does your philosophy dictate ? What does 

 your experience command. 



Now, sage philosopher, occupying the chair of 

 the learned anil the wise ! " Shake your ambrosial 

 curls and give the nod." Shall the suckers fall 

 or shall they remain ? Instruct us in this point of 

 agricultural law, and as in duty bound will ever 

 pray many a listening Discitle. 



July 25, 1833. 



By the Editor. No doubt we have as much 

 reason to boast of our " Disciple" as the celebrated 

 Stagyrite had to be proud of his royal pupil. If 

 our querist is not so great a hero as " Macedonia's 

 madman" he is probably a better man, as well as 

 a more scientific agriculturist ; and we consider a 

 good cultivator to be as much superior to a great 

 conqueror as the top of the atmosphere is above 



the centre of gravity. We will therefore, by par- 

 ticular request, " assume the god, affect to nod 

 and try to shake the spheres." In other words 

 we will take on ourself such airs of authority as 

 may be requisite to cause our official dignity of 

 " D.A.A." [not BAH] with which we have been 

 so honorably dubbed to be as " respectably worn ;" 

 and become us as well as doth the personation of 

 wisdom the Bird of Minerva. Yea, we will sit 

 on our tripod, and utter our oracular responses 

 with as much decision and precision as if our neck 

 and shoulders were surmounted by as genuine a 

 block as ever was carved from a venerable oak, 

 which whilom decorated the grove of Dodona, or 

 cast a shadow to the sunshine which gilds the vale 

 of Tempe. 



But a truce with bagatelle. 



It seems to be a point not yet fully settled 

 whether it is best to cut off or otherwise destroy 

 the suckers of Indian corn. Mr. Nicholson, in the 

 Farmer's Assistant observed that "the growth of 

 suckers is injurious to the crop, and ought to be 

 either pulled up, or bent down to the ground, with 

 earth sufficient to kill them ; and this is believed 

 to be the better way, as by this mean the principal 

 stalk is not injured by wounding." We believe 

 that in cultivating premium crops in Massachusetts 

 the suckers were, generally, taken away. In the 

 Hon. Mr. Ilunnewell's account of his raising a 

 crop of one hundred and eleven bushels of corn to 

 an acre (Mass. Agr. Journal, vol. vi. page 242,) it 

 is stated that " immediately after half hilling the 

 suckers were all carefully cut oft'." In a number 

 of other notices of processes of cultivation in ob- 

 taining large crops of corn, which may be seen in 

 several of the earlier volumes of the N. E. Farmer, 

 we may find that the suckers were generally taken 

 oft'. 



A Mr. Lemuel Davis, however, of Holden, Mass. 

 by an experiment, which is related in the N. E.Far- 

 mer,vol. i. p. 8, ascertained as he supposed that it was 

 injurious to cut off the suckers. This gentleman 

 stated that when he cut off the suckers from the 

 stalks, he found "such a proportion of the juice 

 wept out where ihe sucker was taken off that the 

 growth was not so large and the ear sat higher on 

 the stalk ; on the part where the sucker was not 

 taken off, the corn was thicker set and more prom- 

 inent — the ears set ten or twelve inches nearer the 

 ground, and were a good proportion larger." On 

 the whole, we think that farther and exact experi- 

 ments on this subject, with reports of their results, 

 arc desiderata in the science of agriculture. 



being performed at once, and before the glue of 

 ihe silk has bar lencd, give advantages, which can 

 be obtained by no other machinery heretofore in- 

 vented. The apparatus is small, not complicated, 

 well adapted to domestic use, and it appears to us 

 calculated to introduce as important an era in the 

 manufacture of silk as the inventions of Arkwright 

 and Whitney produced in that of cotton. 



Brooks' 1 Patent Silk Spinner. A very ingenious 

 machine for spinning and twisting silk has lately 

 been invented by Mr. Adam Brooks, of Scituate, 

 Mass. and has been for some days past exhibited 

 at the Agricultural Warehouse and the Rooms of 

 the Mass. Horticultural Society in Boston. It has 

 been highly recommended by the best judges for 

 Ihe following properties, as stated by Rev. Samuel 

 Df.ane, viz.: 



" It performs three operations at the same time. 



I. Reeling from the cocoon :.and in this operation 

 it has an obvious advantage over the Piedmontese 

 Reel in the arranging of the guide wires so as to 

 avoid tangling and breaking the filaments of silk. 



II. Spinning or twisting the silk. This being 

 done immediately as it is drawn from the cocoons, 

 while properly moistened, and its natural glue 

 softened, the silk runs in a perfectly even thread. 



III. Doubling and twisting." These processes 



ITEMS OP INTELLIGENCE. 



A violent storm was experienced at St. Louis, Mis- 

 souri, 27th June. Many houses received injury. Large 

 warehouses were prostrated, buildings unroofed, trees 

 uprooted, &c. A market house was overthrown, the 

 pillars gave way, and the roof was removed at least 25 

 feet. A negro woman was killed by lightning. 



A man residing in East Haven, Conn, was bitten by 

 a rattlesnake last week, and died in half an hour. The 

 snake was about the unfortunate man's wood-house, and 

 was not perceived by him until he felt his fatal fangs. 



Two persons were killed by lightning in Montgomery 

 co. Md. during the storm on the afternoon of the 14th 

 ult. 



A little boy, 8 or 9 years of age, son of Chauncey Bur- 

 rington of Conneaut, Ohio, attended a raising in his 

 neighborhood, and was prevailed upon by several boys 

 older than himself, to drink whiskey in such immode- 

 late quantities that it caused convulsions, and finally ter- 

 minated his existence. 



Extraordinary Mortality. We have been informed, 

 that on the estate of Gen. Wade Hampton, on the Mis- 

 sissippi, a little above New Orleans, out of fifteen hun- 

 dred slaves, more than seven hundred have been destroy- 

 ed by the cholera. — Richmond Compiler. 



It is stated in agricultural periodicals, that stacking 

 orain around a green pole of Sassafras, will effectually 

 prevent any injury from the Weevil. The experiment 

 has been tried in numerous instances, and in all cases 

 the result has been satisfactory. — Vermont Republican. 



A South Carolina paper mentions a lady of that State 

 who has one hundred thousand silk worms busily engag- 

 ed, and that she expects to raise silk enough by the lat- 

 ter part of August, to manufacture more than a hundred 

 yards of cloth Two other ladies are also mentioned 

 who have made silk cloth, and sold it for $3 per yard. 



Another Barn burnt by Lightning. On Saturday morn- 

 mo- last, between 2 and 3 o'clock, another violent gust 

 visited this part of the country, of short duration. The 

 barn of Mr. Philip Kline near Bernville.in this county, 

 was struck by the electric fluid and entirely consumed, 

 with a large stock of hay, grain, &c. This makes the 

 third barn, destroyed by lightning,- in this neighborhood, 

 in less than a week's time. Neither of them were protect- 

 ed h,, lightning rods. Is this not proof enough, that a 

 newly filled barn possesses an unusual degree of attrac- 

 tion to the fluid? Why then do our farmers, who are char- 

 acteristic for their prudence in other matters, neglect the 

 precaution of attaching conductors to their buildings? 

 A few dollars expended by each, in this useful append- 

 age, would have saved them thousands.— V. S. Gazette. 



Cholera. We are glad to perceive, by late accounts 

 from the west, that the cholera is subsiding in place, 

 where it lately prevailed. There are still some scatter- 

 ing cases. It is said, That in Missouri the German emi- 

 grants have been the greatest sufferers being crowded in- 

 to small uncomfortable houses, and otherwise badly provi- 

 ded for. 



It appears that 300,000 bushels of grain have been de- 

 stroyed by late freshets in the neighborhood of Rich- 

 mond, Virginia. 



