2 SO 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MARCH 19. 1S34. 



NKW ENGLAND FAR3IEK. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 19, 1834, 



FARMERS' WORK. 



Spring Wheat. The old maxim, "better late 

 than never," does not apply to the sowing of 

 Spring wheat. It is better not to sow Spring 

 wheat at all, but to use the land for some other 

 purpose, than not to sow it in due season. 



Seed wheat should first he run through a screen 

 to take out the seeds of cockle and other weeds. 

 It will then he advisable to wash it thoroughly, 

 and prepare it for sowing by a suitable application 

 or process. Young's Annals give in detail a 

 number of experiments ill steeping seed wheat in 

 ley, lime-water, and water impregnated with ar- 

 senic. The result was that very smutty parcels 

 steeped in ley twelve hours, and in lime-water 

 twenty-four hours, procured crops entirely free: 

 from smut. The following process has been re- 

 commended by an excellent practical farmer. 



"The only successful course is to prepare the 

 seed about ten days before sowing time. This is 

 done by selecting clean plump seed, passing it 

 through water in a tub, about half a bushel at a 

 time, washing it, and skimming off all the matter 

 that floats, then empty it into a basket to drain, — 

 then lay it on a clean floor and rake in two quarts 

 of slacked lime, and one quart of plaster to the 

 bushel, and if too dry, sprinkle on water and con- 

 tinue to stir it till all is covered with the lime and 

 plaster. In this way you may proceed till the 

 whole is prepared. Let it remain in a heap one 

 day, then spread it and remove it daily until it be- 

 comes perfectly dry ; it is then fit for sowing, and 

 you may sow it if the land should be quite wet." 



Quantity of seed to an acre. Payson Williams 

 Esq. of Fitchburg, Mass. in bis account of raising 

 a crop of the Black Sea Wheat,* observed that he 

 sowed his wheat in April, at the rate of two and 

 a quarter bushels to the acre; " on the same acre 

 from which 613 bushels of potatoes were harvest- 

 ed hist autumn." 



The wheat plants will be less liable to drought 

 if the seed is ploughed in with a shallow furrow. 

 A light horse plough will answer this purpose. If 

 it is meant to lay down the land to grass, it will 

 be best to harrow and roll the ground smooth after 

 sowing. 



It is recommended in Bordley's Husbandry t" 

 sow a border of rye round a field of wheat to pie- 

 vent its 'being blasted. That writer states that 

 " Mr. Isaac Young of Georgia, mixed rye among 

 his seeil wheat, and thus escaped the blast of his 

 wheat. It was repeatedly tried till he was con- 

 vinced of ils efficacy ; and then he sowed five 

 acres with wheat surrounded with a list (or bonier) 

 2jj feet in breadth of rye: this also succeeded, and 

 being repeated is found a certain security for 

 wheat." We do not recollect having seen this 

 mode of preserving wheat from blast recommend- 

 ed by any other writer, but think the subject de- 

 serving of further investigation and experiment. 



Grass seed. Spring wheat is a very good crop 

 with which to sow clover and other grass seeds, 

 and plough or harrow it in with the wheat. 11 

 it be scattered on the surface without being well 

 covered, a part does not vegetate, and that part 

 which does will be liable to injury from drought. 

 Mr. Alexander St. John, of Montgomery, N. Y. in 

 a communication to the New York Board of Agri- 



culture, published vol. ii. p. 247, alter mentioning 

 se.veral experiments in which he sowed too small 

 quantities of grass seed to procure profitable crops, 

 observes in substance that he finds eight pounds 

 of clover seed and seven of timothy seed is the 

 proper quantity to be sown ou an acre for mow- 

 ing, or twelve pounds of clover seeil on each acre 

 for pasture. " Fr land in a good state of culti- 

 vation, thus seeded, 1 now cut four tons of hay to 

 an acre, which is of good quality. The expense 

 of mowing is not so gri at as formerly, as the grass 

 grows rich and hue. If it lodges down it gener- 

 ally falls one way, so that the mower can proceed 

 much (Sister than when it lies in every direction. 

 The extra fall pasture produced by this manner of 

 seeding, pays me the first fall for the extra seed 

 sown, the grass being so rich it preserves a mois- 

 ture on the surface of the eaith, and is not so liable 

 to be injured by the dry weather as it is in the 

 coin moo mode of seeding, and it leaves no room 

 noxious weeds: the pastures are clean and hand- 

 some. When I wish to break up land which is 

 thus stocked, (which I do every fourth year,) I 

 find the soil increased in quality, easy of cultiva- 

 tion, and in a good state for wheat or corn." 



N. E. Farmer, vol. xii.p. &8. 



GARDENER'S WORK. 



Lettuce may be sowed every month, from Feb- 

 ruary, or the opening of spring, till July. Sow 

 broad cast on land recently dug, rake in lightly a 

 quarter of an ounce of seed for a seed bed ten feet 

 Inns and four feet wide. It may also be sowed 

 between vacant rows intended for other plants, 

 and pulled out for use before the other plants are 

 large enough to be encumbered by it. 



Peas. Of the small early kinds, one pint will 

 sow a row of twenty yards ; for the larger sorts, 

 for main crops, the same measure will sow a row 

 of thirty-three yards. For early sorts, make the 

 drills one inch and a half deep, and from two and 

 a half to three feet asunder. For summer crops 

 and large sorts, drills two inches deep, and four, 

 five, or six feet asunder. Along the rows of the 

 smaller peas, sow three in an inch, and the mid- 

 dling sorts two in an inch. The larger sorts from 

 an inch to an inch and a half apart in the drill. 

 Early peas cannot be sown too soon after the 

 ground is thawed. 



Parsnips. Sow as early as the ground is thaw- 

 ed, if not too wet. Loudon says " For a bed five 

 feet by twenty, the plants to remain thinned to 

 eight inches distance, half an ounce of seed is the 

 usual proportion." Deahe recommends sowing 

 them " across beds, fifteen inth is apart, and to al- 

 low fifteen inches from plant to plant at the lasl 

 thinning, which may be early, as they are not 

 often hurt by insects." 



Radish, Sow each sort separately ; and for a 

 bed four feet six inches by twelve feet, two ounces 

 of seed will be required for the spring sorts, and 

 an ounce and a half for the autumn varieties. ]>r. 

 Cooper observes that " Radishes ought to be sown 

 on rich ground, and carefully tended, so as to 

 grow quickly ; if not, they become stringy, in 

 which state they are very unwholesome." A scat- 

 tering of the smaller growing sorts may be sown 

 among other crops of larger and later growth. 



Cucumbers. In a Treatise on Gardening by J. 

 Armstrong, N. Y. we have the following passage : 

 "To obtain early cucumbers we must have recourse 

 to artificial heat, and with the less reluctance, as 

 of all plauts, the cucumber is that with which it 



i agrees. To this end then hue scoop as many 

 turnips as you propose to have lolls, — lill them 

 wiih good garden mould, sow on each three or 

 four seeds and plunge them into a hot bed. \\ hen 

 the runners show themselves, spare them or pinch 

 then), Or bury them as you think best ; and on the 

 10th of .May transfer them to the beds where they 

 are to stand. The advantage of a scoop, <| turnip 

 as a seed bed, over pots or vases will now appear 

 — for instead of the ordinary difficulty of sepa- 

 rating the mass of earth and the plants from the 

 pot which contained them, and without injury to 

 either we re-inter both pot and plants, and even 

 fmd in the one an additional nutriment to the oth- 

 er. The subsequent treatment does not differ at 

 all from that of plants cultivated in the open air." 

 It will be well to make a hole through the bottom 

 of the excavation in the turnip, otherwise the roots 

 of the young plan! may be too much confined. 

 Other plants, such as summer squashes, melons, 

 early corn, &c. might be forwarded in the maimer 

 above stated. 



Plants may also be brought forward early by 

 sowing their seeds in small pieces of turf or sward 

 ground inverted placed in a hot bed, and the plants 

 transplanted together with the tint', when the 

 season is sufficiently advanced to permit them to 

 flourish in the open air. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

 A poem on " 77ie Virginian Silk Worm" printed 

 in London, in the year 1655, shall appear in our 

 next. Several other favors under consideration. 



Old Specimen of Silk Manufacture. A gentle- 

 man has left in the Office of the N. E. Farmer 

 some patterns of silk, manufactured 4.5 years ago, 

 in Branford, Con. by Miss Fowler, who made her 

 wi - ling dress of silk, including the coloring, with 

 her own hands. It were well if the manufacture 

 of a silken wedding dress were considered a single 

 lady's indispensable to connubial felicity, in these 

 times, when economy is more talked about than 

 practised. 



The gentleman, who requests information re- 

 lative to a bill before the Legislature of Mass. 

 for granting a premium on the culture of the Mul- 

 berry, is informed that it is indefinitely postponed. 



ITEMS OF INTELLIGENCE. 



We saw yi sterday, the sheep purchased by Mr. Shnrck 

 of Mr. Barney, the tenant of the Girard homestead, on 

 the neck. They are truly splendid samples of the real 

 ■ ell breed, with back broad enough for a rail-road. 

 The sheep will be for sale at the shambles, Nos. lfl and 

 I'.', in South-second Street Market. Those who like to 

 I good things should pay a visit to the place on 

 Thursday, and those who like to eat good fat mutton, 

 should purchase liberally. — t . S. Gazette. 



Manufactures. The condition of the manufacturing 

 interest is 1 at this time extremely depressed. Doth cot- 

 ton and woollen goods are lower than they were last 

 fall, by one quarter. Notwithstanding the moderate 

 price of the raw material, cotton goods of the common 

 qualities cannot be manufactured short of a net loss of 

 ten or fifteen per cent. There are other sources of pe- 

 culiar embarrassment at this time. The manufacturers 

 have many of them neither cash nor credit with which 

 to buy the raw material, though their condition in this 

 respect is not at all singular. In addition to this, they 

 have no means of negociating to raise money on their 

 manufactured goods, for the commission merchants will 



