3S2 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



•TONE 4, I«34. 



NEW E NG LAM) FARM EH. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING. JUNE 4, 1834. 



FARMERS WORK. 



Rula Baga. We have frequently described the 

 modes (if cultivating this plant, adopted I > y "in- besl 

 farmers. We will, however, add some particulars 



with regard to its culture and uses, which may he 

 of service to some of our readers. 



Arthur Young, in his Fanner's Calendar, has the 

 following remarks : 



"The inducements to enter freely into the cul- 

 ture of the Swedish turnip are many and import- 

 ant. 1. If he has the right stock of seed, the root 

 yellow in flesh ami rough in coal, it lasts [in Eng- 

 land] through all frosts, and may he depended on 

 for sheep quite through the month of April, though 

 drawn two months before, and spread on a grass 

 field. 2. It is nil excellent and nourishing food 

 for sheep and also for any sort id" cattle. 3. It is 

 equal to potatoes for keeping stock swine ; a point 

 of great consequence. 4. It is next to carrots the 

 best food which can he given to horses. 5. It is 

 sown at a season, which leaves ample time in case 

 of a failure to put in common turnips or cabbages. 

 All these are powerful inducements to urge a far- 

 tner to enter readily into their culture." 



For the mode of cultivating the ruta baga, see 

 Rev. Henry Column's account of his method in 

 obtaining a crop for which he received a premium 

 of $20 from the Mass. Agr. Society, New Fug. Far- 

 mer, vol. ix, p. 284, and Judge Buel's statement 

 N. E. Farmer, vol. xi, p. 277, and page 380 ol 

 this day's paper. 



Hoed Crops. The oftcner you stir the ground 

 among corn, potatoes, &e. the less they will soil' r 

 from drought: Stirring the ground renders tin 

 soil more open and porous, so that it will the more 

 readily receive and retain the dews and rains. 

 Earthing or hilling of plants should be done with 

 Caution. Heaping the earth too much about plants 

 is hurtful, as it does not permit the roots to have 

 so much benefit from the rains, and too much hin- 

 ders the influence of the sun on the lower roots. 

 Whatever hilling is done should be performed by 

 a little at a time, that the roots may gradually and 

 easily accommodate themselves to their change ol 

 condition. 



Advantages of row-culture, or growing crops in drills. 

 JV. B. Rose, in the Gardener's' Magazine, ob- 

 serves, "The plan I adopt for growing all garden- 

 crops usually raised from seeds, and not trans- 

 planted afterwards, such as turnips, carrots, onions, 

 lettuce, radishes, &c. &c. is to sow them in drills 

 of different degrees of width and depth, according 

 to the size of the seeds and of the plants produced. 

 As soon as they rise through the ground I com- 

 mence thinning and hoeing, repeating the opera- 

 lion several times, especially the hoeing between 

 the rows. The advantage of frequently stirring 

 .the ground about plants is known ; but it may not 

 be obvious to everyone that the soil can be stirred 

 much deeper, when the hoe works along a con- 

 tinued straight line, as it does between rows, than 

 it can be when it winks in curves or irregular 

 roundish spaces of limited extent, as it does among 

 crops sown broad cast. I sow my onions in rows 

 six inches apart, and I can stir between them to 

 the depth of nine inches or a foot if I choose ; bin 

 if they were sown broad cast, and every plant six 

 indies from every other, I could not stir between 



rhem, with a common hoe, deeper (ban one or 

 two inches. 



Stirring deep and frequently renders watering 

 unnecessary, because a porous surface is less im- 

 pervious to the heat of the sun than a solid one, 

 and tluri fore keeps the ground beneath both cooler 

 and moistcr. ' Any gardener, who doubts this be- 

 ing llie case, may convince himself of the fact by 

 covering part of a bed of onions with three inches 

 of rotten tan, and comparing the soil beneath the 

 tan with that left bare, as to heat and dryness." 



Tobacco for destroying Insects. Thos. McLaurin 

 in the Gardener's Magazine, has the following ob- 

 servations: " I procure from the tobacconists, liq- 

 uor expressed from tobacco, to every gallon of 

 which I add five gallons of water; this mixture, 

 with Reed's Garden Syringe I sprinkle over trees 

 and plants infested with insects, putting it on the 

 finest rose, and being careful to wet all the leaves; 

 ihis operation is perfumed only in the hottest sun- 

 shirie, as the effect is then much greater than when 

 the weather is dull. In this manner I have with 

 iive gallons of liquor, reduced as above stated, 

 eleam d seventeen peach and nectarine trees, twelve 

 of which average twelve feet in height. The 

 black glutinous insect, provincially called blight, so 

 destructive to cherry trees in the same way wilh 

 equal facility. I have also found, upon trial, that 

 the grubs, which attack the apricot maybe in- 

 stantly destroyed by immersing the leaves infested 

 in this liquor. 



"This is the cheapest and most expeditious 

 manner of destroying the above insects, which has 

 come within my knowledge, and to those who 

 have not seen the operation performed the effect 

 produced is almost incredible. Roses; and in fact, 

 any plant liable to be infested with green fly, and 

 situated where tobacco smoke cannot be used with 

 etii ct, may be easily cleaned by dipping in or 

 sprinkling with tobacco liquor, as circumstances 

 may render most convenient. 



" When trees have got so bad that their leaves 

 ire much curled, some of the flies being protected 

 within the curl, will escape ; in this case more 

 force must be applied to the syringe, and in a day 

 or two the trees should be looked o\er again, and 

 whaiever part of the leaves has not been wetted. 



si hi be washed with a painter's brush ; but a 



can fid person will render this process unnecessa- 

 ry, by taking them in lime." 



Preservation of Seeds. The late M. Zea, tin 

 Peruvian Botanist, asserted that the most delicate 

 seeds of American plants may be sent to Europe 

 in the highest preservation, by being enveloped in 

 that kind of raw brown sugar, which always re- 

 tains its humidity. When the seeds are to be 

 sown it is only necessary to immerse them in luke- 

 warm water, which will take off the sugar. — Hor- 

 ticultural Register. 



Thinning Plants. Do not permit too many 

 melon or cucumber vines to remain in a hill. 

 Some experienced gardeners have asserted that the 

 hills of water melons should be planted S feet apart, 

 and musk melons 4 feet apart each way. And 

 when the plants have become too large to be des- 

 troyed by hugs they should he thinned, so as to 

 leave but one in a hill. Cucumbers should be lell 

 hut little nearer together than musk melons. 



Insects in Salads. To be sure that you eat no 

 insects with your salad and greens, you may wash 

 them first with salt water, and then rinse them 

 with fresh water. 



ITEMS OF ECONOMY, &c. 



Burns and Toothache. Cotton applied to burns 

 works wonders; if difficult to keep in its place, 

 moisten it wiih a little sweet oil or molasses. It 

 is equally good to allay the burning pain of limbs 

 that have been frost bitten. For toothache, attend- 

 ed wilh swelling, put as much as convenient in 

 contact with the affected part of the jaw, both in 

 and outside the mouth. 



The Common Strawberry is a natural dentifrice, 

 and ils juice without any preparation dissolves tar-» 

 tareous incrustations on the teeth and makes the 

 breath smell sweet and agreeable. — BangorCourier. 



Murrain. — A draught of alum and sulphur has 

 been found a remedy for bloody murrain arising 

 from cattle's swallowing leeches. 



Cure for Bolts. I send you a remedy I used 

 while our coals were brought to market ill road 

 wagons, which obliged us lo use a great number 

 of horses ; and I never knew it fail ol giving relief 

 in one (o five minutes, viz : Pour half a gill of 

 spirit of turpentine into the hand, rub it on to the" 

 breast of llie horse while suffering ; let it lip ap- 

 plied to the hollow or pit of the stomach, just at 

 the point where the neck joins the breast, on a 

 space six to eight inches in diameter. The relief 

 is certain, if the grubs have not already rut through 

 the coats of the stomach. — Farmer's Regislir. 



Mixture for Cattle and Sheep. It has been re- 

 commended, by a gentleman who tried it, to mix 

 salt wilh unreached wood ashes, in the proportion 

 of one quart of line salt to one half bushel of ashes, 

 and place llie mixture under cover, where the ani- 

 mals can have access to it. This composition, our 

 informant said, preserves llie health of the animals, 

 increases their appetite, and he believed would 

 preserve sheep against the rot, and horses against 

 hotts. 



To male a sick Horse drink freely. — A horse has 

 a very sweet tooth — when he is unwell and won't 

 drink, mix molasses or coarse brown sugar in the 

 water; he will then drink freely. — Old Colony 

 Whig. 





ITEMS OF INTELLIGENCE. 



It has quite a melancholy influence upon the feelings, 

 and produces reveries of a grand but painful nature, to 

 visit the couatry, which surrounds this borough, and 

 belaid the richness of its budding beauty blasted, and 

 withered beneath the destructive influence of the frosts 

 which have fallen upon it. The grapes, apples, peach- 

 es, pears are all injured, if not destroyed ; the corn and 

 potatoes are cut off ; and the forest trees, which a few 

 days ago were putting forth their leaves in that rich- 

 ness and loveliness which makes the heait throb joy- 

 lully. and turns the thoughts in cheerful channel " from 

 nature, up to nature's tied," are seared and blasted. 

 They still turn the thoughts "Horn nature up to na- 

 ture's God," but in sad and melancholy mood.— Pen*. 

 RepuUipdn, of May 21st. 



Fifteen houses were destroyed by fire in the city of 

 New York, on Thursday afternoon. Most of them were 

 of wood, and they were occupied by forty families chief- 

 ly foreigners.— JV. Y. paper. 



( ■arelessness. On Saturday last, as Mr. Levi Marston 

 was standing at the window of his house, in Portsmouth, 

 N. H. with a child about six mo:.ths old in his arms, a 

 bullet discharged from a rifle on. the opposite side of 

 the mill pond, struck the child on the side of the head, 

 near the top, and tore off a large piece of the scalp. 

 Mr Marstons own life was spared by mere chance. The 

 olBchtff was caused by some idle fellows, who were 

 frine it a mark in the |neigliborhood.-A\ //. Gazette. 



