VOL. XII. NO. 5. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



37 



SH 



strongest interest in the progress of such experi- 1 

 meuts. Now very extensive or expensive experi- 

 ments are not what we recommend to farmers of 

 small means ; but small experiments are perfectly 

 within their reach, and the instruction to he gained ] 

 from them on a small scale may be equally valuable 

 and decisive as from those on a large scale. The 

 effect of lime upon your farms, or upon the differ- 

 ent soils to be found in different parts of them ; 

 applied to corn or wheat, to potatoes, to grass ; 

 used in its air-slacked or unslacked state ; how to 

 be applied ; when to be applied ; — all these are very 

 important inquiries, and may be as easily ascertain- 

 ed bv the use of a single cask, which may cost you 

 a dollar, as by the use of fifty ; and in any event 

 you are certain that the lime is not wholly lost. So 

 too with gypsum and ashes. Some of the most im- 

 portant points in regard to the application of these 

 powerful manures remain to be settled by experi- 

 ments. The result of such experiments may be of 

 great importance to you ; how they are to be appli- 

 ed ; in what quantity, at what season ; iu what form, 

 to what crops; under what circumstances they lose 

 their efficacy ; what kinds of plaster are to be 

 chosen, the dark or the pink colored ; how ashes 

 are to be applied, whether leeched or unleeched ; 

 the comparative value of wood ashes, and of peat- 

 ashes, with which your county abounds ; all these 

 important points can be determined only by ex- 

 periment ; and these experiments on such a scale 

 as to decide them may be made by the smallest 

 farmers and at almost no expense. So too as to 

 the application of other manures ; by the most 

 simple experiments and without cost you can de- 

 cide for yourselves the long mooted questions 

 whether manures are best applied in a green or a 

 rotten state, in the hill or spread ; and buried by 

 the plough, or scattered on the surface and barely 

 covered with a harrow. 



So likewise in regard to your crops : — you can 

 as well ascertain on a quarter of an acre as on a 

 quarter of a hundred, whether your soil will bear 

 wheat or not, or by the application of lime or 

 soaper's waste may or may not be made to bear it; 

 whether the autumn or the spring wheat is best 

 for you ; whether your corn or potato crops were 

 better planted in hills or in drills, and at what dis- 

 tances ; whether your grass seed may better be 

 sown in the fall or the spring, by itself or with 

 other crops ; and whether after a fair trial of the 

 expense and value of the produce you would find 

 it for your advantage to cultivate for the feeding 

 of your stock large quantities of vegetables, such 

 as potatoes, carrots, or turnips ; or to confine your- 

 self to Indian corn and grass. These experiments 

 would lead, if carefully conducted, to most valua- 

 ble results, and fur all practical purposes are as 

 much within the power of the farmer in moderate 

 as the farmer in affluent circumstances. 



Next, in regard to your domestic animals, do 

 not be offended if I ask you, how many of you 

 can tell me, how much hay and provender it re- 

 quires ordinarily to keep a horse ? how much a 

 yoke of medium sized oxen, worked or not work- 

 ed ? how much a common milch cow ? how 

 much your yearling and two year old heifers and 

 steers ? and how near their labor, their produce, 

 or their growth comes towards defraying their 

 cost? These animals are kept at great expense 

 beyond a question. The keeping of them a part 

 of the year is not necessary for their labor to all 

 of you, nor for their manure to some of you, who 

 can procure this article in abundance either from 



the sea shore or from the neighboring livery stables. 

 These then are most important points, which can 

 only be decided by actual experiment ; and such 

 experiments require nothing more than a little 

 trouble or attention, in measuring their food for a 

 certain time. Very few of you would I believe be 

 able to answer these questions with any thing like 

 certainty. The amount of hay, for example, re- 

 quired for wintering a cow is estimated by differ- 

 ent individuals at from one and a quarter tons to 

 two tons and a quarter. This, where hay is a 

 cash article, is a very important difference ; and 

 though there will be differences in the size and 

 appetites of different animals, yet most certainly 

 we might more nearly than that approach the de- 

 termination of the quantity. So too with respect 

 to feeding of oxen and horses, not only as to quan- 

 tity but the kinds of feed which may be most pro- 

 fitably applied, corn fodder, English hay, salt hay, 

 corn, meal, oats, food cooked or uncooked, many 

 queries arise, which can only be settled by experi- 

 ments, careful experiments ; and may be settled 

 by experiments which would cost nothing. 



In regard likewise to the keeping of swine, 

 every farmer who keeps one Vnay soon settle for 

 himself by actual experiment, the often discussed 

 question of their profit or loss ; and other points of 

 equal importance relating to the kinds of food, 

 which may be most profitably, if profitably at all, 

 be given them. 



These and such experiments as these I recom- 

 mend most earnestly and most respectfully to the 

 Essex farmers to make and to repeat and to re- 

 port. The results of them and the faithful and 

 exact communication of those results to the public 

 through the Society will be of the greatest benefit 

 both to individuals and to the community. In my 

 opinion the Society could not better appropriate 

 some portion of their funds than in the encourage- 

 ment of such experiments by giving, where they 

 are well conducted and fully detailed, whether 

 successful or not, such pecuniary gratuities to 

 those who conduct them, as in their judgment they 

 may merit ; and as shall stimulate them to further 

 inquiries, though such objects of premium are not, 

 from the necessity of the case, previously promised 

 in their publications. 



Facts in agriculture are the instructers, which 

 are most needed. The advances of the science 

 have been necessarily slow ; but who can doubt 

 that there are yet many more truths to be discov- 

 ered, other mysteries in nature to be solved; and 

 much more light to break forth on a subject so 

 essentially connected with human subsistence and 

 comfort and the general welfare. He who assists 

 to settle the most simple truth, and to solve the 

 least of these and other controverted points, is to 

 be deemed a public benefactor. He who briugs 

 but a single pebble to the heap, may feel a just 

 claim to his share in the honor of contributing to 

 the substantial foundation on which the subsist- 

 ence of animal life, the exercise of all intellectual 

 and moral energy, and the improvements and com- 

 forts of human society primarily and mainly de- 

 pend ; — agriculture, the mother of all the arts and 

 the basis of all national prosperity. 



Henry Colman. 



elude that an article, on this part of Horticulture 

 will be acceptable. In the first place, the ground 

 about the roots of vines, should be kept loose, and 

 free from weeds. — The vines should be well se- 

 cured to the trellis, by bark or otherwise, and so 

 spread as to admit the sun, and a free circulation 

 of air. The greatest danger to be apprehended, is 

 from the vines becoming too thick, to prevent 

 which such shoots as do not show fruit, should be 

 cut away, and this may be done at any time dur- 

 ing the summer months. The practice of cutting 

 off the points of the shoots and leaves from bearing 

 branches is uncalled for in this country during 

 summer and even at fall pruning. — The shoots of 

 the American varieties of Grapes, may be left near- 

 ly their whole length, or so many of them as can 

 be accommodated with room upon the trellis. 



It is a bad practice, to train grape vines over 

 the top of arbors, or arched trellis, as the fruit will 

 hang below the vines, and is apt to be excluded from 

 the rays of the sun, in which case they do not ripen 

 as well as w hen exposed to more light. 



In training European varieties it is desirable to 

 have a few shoots from near the root of each 

 vine trained particularly for producing bearing 

 wood for the next season. These should have the 

 full rays of the sun to render the wood firm 

 that it may better endure the frost of winter. — ■ 

 Should the mildew appear upon the vines, let them 

 be washed with lime water or dusted with fresh 

 slacked lime as often as once each week until it 

 ceases to spread upon the vines. 



Peas and Beans. Most people are fond of peas 

 and beans during the summer months, but do no 

 appear to be aware that they may be kept through 

 the winter equally as palatable as when first pick- 

 ed from their stems. For this purpose let them be 

 picked and shelled for present use and put into a 

 weak solution of sugar, and boiled for a short time ; 

 then put them into an oven moderately warm, 

 where they should remain until dry ; let them be 

 put into bottles and corked tight and kept for use 

 in this manner, and with little trouble fine dishes 

 may be served up during mid-winter, when they 

 will be found to contribute much to the variety of 

 the table. — lb. 



From Goodseli's Farmer, 

 GRAPES. 



Su/nmer Management of the Vine — We are 

 often called upon to direct as to the management 

 of vines, during the summer, and of course con- 



A REMEDY TO STOP BLOOD. 



The efficacy of soot in stopping blood proceed- 

 ing from a fresh wound, was lately tested and prov- 

 ed beyond a doubt, in the case of Nathan Cornish, 

 near Newark, New Castle County, who while en- 

 gaged in making fence, by a misstroke of the axe 

 cut his leg badly to the hone, which bled profuse- 

 ly. Not being aware at first, of the extent of the 

 injury he had sustained, he continued at work, till 

 perceiving the blood running very freely, he pulled 

 off his boot and was alarmed at finding it drenched 

 with blood. He immediately started for home, 

 the blood from his leg continued to increase, and 

 after his arrival, proceeded to try various means for 

 stopping it without effect. After trying almost every 

 remedy without success, and despairing of stopping 

 the blood, with the loss of which his strength was 

 fast wasting away — soot was applied, and to the 

 surprise of every one the bleeding was stopped al- 

 most instantly. And what is still more singular 

 the pain which was very severe almost as soon 

 abated, and he is now in a fair way to recover. 



Snow Storm. There was a violent snow storm 

 on the White Hills on the 17th of June. 



