170 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



DECEMBER 11, 1«33. 



loaf, three or four feet high ; then pile your .-pil- 

 ot" dried clay closely round this, leaving a hole on 

 one side to kindle the tire, and another in the top 

 for the smoke to pass off. Surround the pile again 

 with two more enclosures of the spits of clay, and 

 then kindle the fire. When it has gotten well on 

 fire, stop up the holes with clay, and the innate 

 heat will so fire the mass, that wet clay may !»' 

 thrown on in great quantities. Care must however 

 he taken, not to Ky it on so fast, nor so closely, 

 as to put out the fire, as in that case you must be- 

 gin anew. By raising a stage round the pile, you 

 •may throw on clay till you get it as high as you 

 please. The pile must be watched day and night, 

 till fully burnt. 



Farmers possessing clay lands will do well to 

 make experiments of this manure. From ten to 

 twenty loads of it is a suitable dressing for an acre. 



From the Bucks County (Perm.) Intelligencer. 

 WINTER PLOUGHING. 



Tut; editor of the Bucks County (Pa.) Intelli- 

 gencer, from whose paper the annexed extract is 

 taken, says that "it treats upon a subject which 

 must be interesting to farmers generally. If win- 

 ter ploughing be au effectual remedy against the 

 ravages of the wire worm, it is certainly a valuable 

 discovery, and one which should be made public. 

 Prejudice should occasionally give way to experi- 

 ment ; and if the coming winter should prove aus- 

 picious, it would perhaps be well for those who 

 are troubled with this enemy of the husbandman 

 to try what virtue there is in winter ploughing, 

 and make known the result of such trial for the 

 benefit of others." 



Various opinions have prevailed in relation to 

 the most suitable time for breaking up the soil, 

 preparatory to a crop of corn. Those who have 

 respectively selected periods in the fall or spring, 

 have imagined advantages peculiar to each time; 

 and different circumstances of soil and climate 

 may occasionally give a prepojxlerance to one or 

 the other. A sward ploughed down very early in 

 the spring may, when put in order, be as favora- 

 ble for a crop of corn as when exposed to winter 

 frosts. But I cannot believe that the plan of de- 

 ferring breaking up the sod to a period immediate- 

 ly preceding the time of planting is a good one, as 

 the soil thus managed cannot be in a suitable state 

 to impart nourishment to the young corn, as tin- 

 decomposition of the vegetable matter cannot be 

 effected under such circumstances until several 

 weeks after the tender blades make their appear- 

 ance. It is, therefore, left in a situation peculiarly 

 exposed to the ravages of noxious insects. 



Fast winter, observing several weeks of open 

 and mild weather, unsuitable fur threshing, I 

 ploughed up a stiff sward, in a field which had 

 been infested with the wire worm for nearly thirty 

 years. The ravages of this insect had even been 

 so great, that not often more than half a crop had 

 been raised on the field during all this time. The 

 ground was ploughed a good depth ; say from 

 eight to ten inches. About the middle of April it 

 was well harrowed, and afterwards ridged. 1 

 planted about the first of May ; and, from the pre- 

 sent prospect, I should think the field would ave 

 rage forty bushels of corn per acre ; and no wire 

 worms appeared. I know not whether success is 

 to be attributed to the time of ploughing ; but it is 

 an experiment which, giving a favorable result in 

 one instance, may induce others to examine into 



the best means of guarding against this potent 

 enemy to agriculture. Agricola. 



from the Maine Farmer. 

 POMACE. 



I have been not a little surprised to see the 

 refuse of cider making, commonly called pomace, 

 thrown out from year to year, and left to heat, and 

 cattle and swine go on to it, and leave their drop- 

 pings, and soon rendered useless except as manure, 

 ami indeed not even used as such ; but there left 

 to rot. So much of it in heaps actually does an 

 injury to the laud where it lays, as all kinds of 

 manure would be found to injure the land if left 

 in large heaps. 



Why this waste? Fet it he taken from the 

 press and immediately spread thin on the barn 

 floor or any out-building, and fed out to stock in 

 the early part of the foddering season, in small 

 quantities daily, and I have no doubt but a com- 

 mon cart-load is equal in worth to 500 lbs. of hay, 

 then as it passes the cattle, it is certainly good 

 manure. But I have no doubt if ploughed into 

 land, the acid woidd become thereby neutralized 

 so that it would be valuable on land. All bruised 

 sour apples become very different from what they 

 were before bruised. 



Hereafter I hope to see no more of it cast into 

 such heaps to spoil, and even into the highway 

 and ditches ; but fed out to stock as above sug- 

 gested — all kinds of stock are fond of it. Some 

 have intimated, if not ground fine, it is as good as 

 apples, if not pressed harder than people generally 

 have pressed it the present year, bushel for bushel. 

 Care should be taken that it does not heat, for this 

 spoils it for stock. A. N. 



MINERALS IN VEGETABLES. 



Ik many parts of the East there has long been 

 a medicine in high repute, called Tubasheer, ob- 

 tained from a substance found in the hollow stem 

 of the bamboo cane; some of this was brought to 

 England about twenty years ago, and underwent 

 a chemical investigation, and proved to be an 

 earthy substance, principally of a flinty nature ; 

 this substance is also sometimes found in the bam- 

 boo grown in England. In the hot-house of Dr. 

 Pitcairn, at Islington, subsequent to this time, there 

 was found in one of the joints of a bamboo which 

 grew there, on cutting it, a solid pebble about the 

 size of a pea. The pebble was of an irregular 

 rounded form, of a dark brown or black color ; 

 internally it was reddish brown, of a close dull 

 texture, much like some martial siliceous stones. 

 In one corner there were shining particles, which 

 appeared to be crystals, but too minute to be dis- 

 tinguished even with a microscope. This sub- 

 stance was so hard as to cut glass. The cuticle, or 

 exterior covering of straw, has also a portion of 

 flinty matter in its composition, from which circum- 

 stance, when burnt, it makes an exquisitely fine 

 powder for giving the last polish to marble, a use 

 to which it has been applied from time immemo- 

 rial, without the principle being philosophically 

 known. In the great heat in the East Indies, it is 

 not uncommon for large tracts of reeds to be set 

 on fire in their motion by the wind, as I am told 



by Captain N -, which I conjecture must 



arise from the flinty surface of their leaves rubbing 

 against each other in their agitation. These facts 

 cannot avoid presenting to the mind, at one view, 

 the boundless laws of nature; while a simple veg- 

 etable is secreting the most volatile and evanesceut 



perfumes, it also secretes a substance which is an 

 ingredient in the primeval mountains of the globe. 

 — [From " Elements of the Science of Botany as 

 established by Finnans," an entertaining and in- 

 structive work. Martial, in the above extract, 

 means containing iron, and siliceous means flinty.] 



VIRTUES OP OLIVE OIL. 



An extraordinary effect of Olive Oil is reported 

 by Mr. Baldwin the British Consul at Smyrna, 

 who observed that among the numerous tribe of 

 uil porters, none were infected with the plague. 

 Fed by this hint, he proposed unction of the body 

 with oil ;o keep off the plague, and the following 

 was the result of the first trial : — In 1792, twenty- 

 two Venetian sailors lived five days with three in- 

 fected persons, all of whom died ; but the 22 sail- 

 ors, wl o had been repeatedly anointed with oil, 

 remained free from the infection. — Three Armen- 

 ian families, consisting of 27 persons, occupying 

 the same floor, closely attended the sick of the 

 plague, but being daily rubbed with oil, were pre- 

 served from the infection. The nurses in the hos- 

 pitals cf Smyrna, who attended the sick night and 

 day, hsve by the same method, been happily pre- 

 served from the contagion. After this, the oil was 

 employed in the first stages of the plague at Smyr- 

 na, am. with the happiest effect. The body was 

 rubbed all over with tepid olive oil. And it was 

 esteemed sufficient to effect a cure. The Caflies, 

 who constantly smear the body with lard or oil, 

 remain :'ree from the yellow fever; and the Es- 

 quimaux tribes, who also regale on seal oil, remain 

 also free, and when the plague raged in Fondon, 

 tallow mslters and butchers were found exempt. 

 Instead of clogging up the pores, as might be sus- 

 pected by' some, the pores become open, and the oil 

 produces a salutary perspiration. 



GRUBBS AND BOTTS. 



Ox all occasions sweetened water should be the 

 first application, and it should be very sweet, of 

 this they fill themselves so full they are quite 

 clumsy I believe, after sucking one hour, then 

 about five pints of meal or hominy is sufficient to 

 discharge them without medicine, one pint of 

 urine is sufficient, more will kill your horse, a de- 

 coction of elder toys, buds or bark one quart, of 

 fish brine one quart. If your horse is eaten through 

 you can smell it in his breath, if so you give the 

 s-veet water, and then, in one hour a strong decoc- 

 tion made of white oak bark, one quart ; this will 

 close the holes so as to give the other medicine, 

 and may often succeed in saving your horse. Hor- 

 ses are naturally fond of sweets, and were you to 

 give them a good suck once a year and in one 

 hour a mess of hominy, would save you giving 

 him medicine and your horse from much distress, 

 especially your old horses after they rise seven 

 years. — .V. 1". Farmer. 



From the New-York Farmer. 

 THE PROFESSION OP A PARMER. 



The North American Magazine, reviewing P't. 

 Findsley's Address, which we noticed in former 

 numbers of the Farmer, makes the following ex- 

 tract and comments : 



" I have long thought that our college graduates 

 often mistake their true path to honor and useful- 

 ness, in making choice of a learned profession, in- 

 stead of converting agriculture into a learned pro- 

 fession, as it ought to be, and thereby obtaining 



