414 



NEW ENGLAND 



FARMER 



JULY », 1S34. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 2, 1834. 



PARMER'S WOltK. 



Preservation of new made Hay. It has been re- 

 commended hy some agriculturists, in housing new 

 made clover hay, especially if it happen not to be 

 thoroughly dry, to mix layers of the hay, while 

 depositing it in the mow, with layers of straw re- 

 served for that purpose. In this way the strength 

 of the clover is absorbed by the straw, which cattle 

 will eat greedily, when thus managed. Another 

 way to preserve clover, or indeed any other kind 

 of grass is to salt it, when stowed away iu the 

 mow. From 4 to 8 quarts to the ton is recom- 

 mended, to be scattered, layer after layer as even- 

 ly as possible, so as to impregnate the whole mass. 



Saving Seeds. Gather seeds of all the sorts, 

 which you intend to sell or to sow from the finest, 

 fairest and most fruitful specimens of the plants on 

 which the seeds grew. It is a fact of much im- 

 portance to he known and practised on by every 

 cultivator, that vegetables as well as animals may 

 be improved by propagating from the best indi- 

 viduals. Some have found their account in cull- 

 ing their seed wheat from fine plants before har- 

 vesting the general crop. 



Manure from Swine. It is a good plan to keep 

 even your hogs at work lazy as they are, they will 

 establish a manure manufactory, if you will furnish 

 the stock and fixtures, and charge nothing for their 

 labor or 1 time. The raw material may consist of 

 brakes from swamps, weeds from fields and gar- 

 dens, turf, scrapings of ditches and other refuse 

 matter, which you had better make over to your 

 swine, and cart to their pens, than keep on hand. 



Fallen Fruit. It will be consonant with the 

 best rules of rural economy for every farmer, gar- 

 dener aud orchardist to gather all his fallen and 

 decaying fruit, as well as such as being set too 

 thick should be picked in part, in order to make 

 room for the remainder. These you will boil with 

 a little Indian meal, oats, refuse rice, or other fari- 

 naceous substance. The fruit will be the more 

 valuable as diet for hogs for having been boiled, 

 and the worms [curculiones] which it generally 

 contains when fallen or decayed are thus sure to be 

 destroyed. 



Pastures and Cattle. Plaster or live ashes, sown 

 upon pasture grounds will not only repay a hand- 

 some profit by increasing the value of feed by 

 bringing in the finer grasses, such as white clover, 

 &c. but will greatly improve the soil for any suc- 

 ceeding crop. It will not be correct husbandry, 

 when you have turned your cattle to grass to over- 

 look or neglect them. It will be well to see every 

 animal every day : and take care to keep salt al- 

 ways within their reach. We apprehend that far- 

 mers often suffer hy their negligence in this par- 

 ticular. Good water is likewise a great accommo- 

 dation in pastures. " Water," says a writer for 

 the American Farmer, " must always be within 

 the reach of all animals at all times, and that of 

 the purest quality. Some farmers, having no run- 

 ning water in their pastures, give their cattle water 

 twice or thrice a day by driving them to a spring 

 or pump, or stream. They may want water at 

 these times, and may not, just as it happens ; but 

 the,y certainly do not get it at all times when they 

 do want it. Of this we can judge by ourselves. 

 Who could possibly do with water only at cer- 

 tain times, and these times always the same ? 



With the human species this would be insupport- 

 hlc. It is the same with all animals, and the 

 whole benefit of water depends upon its being 

 taken when the stomach calls for it. Water, of 

 all substances that contribute to the support and 

 nurture of animal life and health, is least capable 

 nf being regulated in its administration by times 

 and seasons. Animals that have free access to 

 salt require water oftener than those which have 

 no salt ; but those that are salted irregularly re- 

 quire constant access to water more than anj 

 others, as their thirst is fitful in proportion to the 

 irregularity of their salting. 



" Let those who have been careless in this 

 matter try the experiment of giving salt, regularly 

 and plentifully every other day, with constant ac- 

 cess to pure water, and the improved condition of 

 their stock in one month, will induce them to 

 continue the practice hereafter. They will never 

 again, see their cattle licking one another, and fill- 

 iug their stomachs with ' witch halls.' " 



Some writers, however, deny the necessity of 

 water iu pastures for some sorts of stock. Dr. 

 Deane observed that " sheep, calves and horses, 

 unless they are worked, it is said require no wa- 

 ter in their pastures. The want of water induces 

 them to feed in the night, when the dew is on, 

 and the grass the more nutritious. Cows, howev- 

 er, want pure water." This want of coincidence 

 in opinion among the sages of agriculture deserves 

 consideration, and it were well if the matter were 

 decided by the test of experiment. 



We have before stated, page 382, that a mix- 

 ture of salt with unleached ashes, in the propor- 

 tion of one quart of fine salt to one-half bushel of 

 ashes, and placed where cattle and sheep can 

 have access to it, was recommended by a practi- 

 cal farmer ; but it is sometimes useful to give line 

 upon line. 



Hay-making. Make as much of your hay as is 

 practicable in the early part of the season, as there 

 is at that time a greater probability of your being 

 favored with fair weather. The Farmer's Guide 

 asserts that " it has been found by actual observa- 

 tion, for a number of years, that on an average 

 more rain falls in summer after the 15th or 20th 

 of July than before." " Grass" says Mr. Goodsell 

 in his Farmer " after it is mown in wet weather 

 is not materially injured, although it does not dry 

 for some days, provided it is often turned over to 

 prevent its turning white. The loss of nutritive 

 matter does not correspond to its change of color. 

 Timothy (herds grass) cut late, or after the seed 

 has come to its full size, does not look as greeu as 

 when cut in flower, and yet contains more nutri- 

 tive matter, and is preferred by most kinds of 

 stock." 



How to preserve Peas against drought. In an ar- 

 ticle written by the conductor of Loudon's Maga- 

 zine, entitled Notes on Gardens, &c. we find the 

 following passage. "We were struck with the great 

 breadth devoted to late peas, which looked so re- 

 markably well that, considering the extraordinary 

 dryness of the season, we could not help asking 

 Mr. Oidacre (the gardener) if he had any particular 

 method of watering them ? His answer was, that 

 he never watered them at all after they were above 

 ground. He sowed them in the bottom of drills 

 6 inches deep, filled the drill half full of soil, and 

 then gave them such a thorough soaking of water 

 as to saturate all the soil under and about the seed. 

 After this he fills in the remainder of the earth ; 

 and the whole compartments being now dry in 



appearance, he rolls it quite smooth with a heavy 

 roller, and gives no other culture of any kind till 

 the peas are fit to stick. 



ITEMS OF INTELLIGENCE. 



The Crops. Owing to the May rains the wheat fields 

 presertt a more luxuriant appearance than at this period 

 in any of the last eight years, and having thoroughly 

 covered the ground, will prevent the rays of the sun 



from extracting the moisture from the root. Unless in- 

 jured by mildew or some other accidental cause, wheat 

 rises to he unusually abundant; but other crops are 

 all in too backward a state to form an opinion of them, 

 except pasture and meadow, which give promise of abun- 

 .and will be excellent unless parched by hut and 

 'dry weather. If the farmers would manure their mead- 

 ow lands slightly — plough the groimd intended for spring 

 crops in the fall, and plant earlier, they would ran much 

 lees risk from dry summers and early frosts than they do 

 according to their present system ; th( y would also have 

 weightier crops and of a better quality. Fall ploughing 

 is quite as necessary to spring crops as summer fallow- 

 ing is to fall wheat. — Hamilton Mercury. 



Shocking Occurrence. The Norristown Herald states. 

 that on Friday last, a daughter of Mr B. Hoffman, near 

 the Broad Axe tavern, of Montgomery county, who was 

 subject to spasmodic attacks, unfortunately while en- 

 gaged in feeding some hogs, fell into the pen and was 

 partly devoured by the ravenous beasts. When found 

 life was extinct. 



Longevity. A few days since, says the Gloucester 

 Teljagraph, some gentlemen called to see Mr. Pew, of 

 this town, who will be one hundred and two years old 

 the third of August next, but were not successful as he 

 was engaged in hoeing, some distance from home. 



Muzzling Dogs. The Select and Common Councils 

 of Philadelphia, after due deliberation, have passed a 

 new ordinance for the more secure fastening of dogs' 

 mouths. It provides that after the first of July next, 

 instead of the leather strap, now used, all dogs shall be 

 muzzled with a substantial wire basket, placed so as 

 effectually to enclose the mouth, and prevent snapping 

 and biting. 



A beautiful specimen of fine cloth, made from the 

 fibres of the leaves of the pine apple, from Manilla, re- 

 sembling the finest linen cambric, was presented by Miss 

 Eliza Schreoder, at the late Horticultural Exhibition in 

 Baltimore. 



Recruiting Grass Land. We copy from the New Eng- 

 land Fanner a communication from Mr. William Clark, 

 jr. of this town, detailing his method of laying down 

 land to grass. We have recently examined two pieces 

 of grass, sown by him the last season among corn and 

 not noticed in his communication. Both will yield 

 good crops, but the grass on the upland piece is superior 

 to that in the meadow. The upland, an old, worn-out 

 sandy field, has on it one of the most luxuriant crops of 

 clover and herdsgrass that we have seen this season. 

 Whatever others may think of Mr. Clark's experiments, 

 it is' certain that they have been profitable to him. — 

 Hampshire Gazette. 



Clover Seed in Oak Casks. In this country we believe 

 most of the clover seed sent to market is in casks made 

 of oak. This wood injures the color of the seed, giving 

 it a dull brown appearance, resembling old English seed. 

 In England all kinds of clovers are kept in sacks made 

 of hemp. Farmers would, therefore, do well to send 

 their clovers in hags. — JV. Y. Farmer. 



A woman was frozen to death in Scoharie co. N. Y. on 

 Thursday, 15th of May. She was going from one dwell- 

 ing to another, during the snow storm, became chilled , 

 stopped on the road, and perished. 



