498 



NEW ENGLAOT) FARMER. 



Nov. 



is of injury to the plants by sudden or ex- 

 treme t hanges. Lettuce is kept in these 

 frames with the same treatment, and trans- 

 planted into another frame early in March or 

 April, and covered with glass. These extra 

 beds are kept from hard freezing by deep cov- 

 ing with leaves, &c., during winter, and some 

 days before the plants are put in, the sashes 

 are put on to warm up the soil, after having 

 it dug over, &c. 



Plants of Cibbage and cauliflower wintered 

 in this way, make hardy ones, which may be 

 transplanted into the open ground much earlier 

 than ihey can be obtained in any other way 

 and endure the season. W. II. White. 



So. Windsor, Conn., Sept. 27, 1869. 



For the New Englar.il Farmer, 

 IMPROVEMENT OF A NEGLECTED 

 FARM 



On publishing in the Farmer of July 31, 

 some account of my farm and of its increased 

 productions, which had necessitated the en- 

 largement of the barns, the editor a^ks, 

 "How did J ou set that ball in motion? How 

 did you get, the manure to start with ?" 



In reply, I would say, that in the tlrst place 

 I began by raking up all the waste straw, ores, 

 cornL-talk butts, weeds, and litter about the 

 yards, scraped out all the holes and corners 

 where manure or any thing to make manure 

 of could be found. I then commenced a pile 

 in the yard, by first a layer of manure, then 

 one of straw, stalk?, chip manure, leaves, 

 weeds, or any thing of the kind I could col- 

 lect, adding a little lime, plaster and salt. In 

 this way I made as large a file as I could, 

 adding thereto all through the month of April 

 every substance that I could collect of any 

 manurial value. 



B} planting time I had compost sufficient, 

 •with two barrels of Bradley's superphosphate 

 of lime, whi'h I purchased, to dress four or 

 five acres that I planted with corn and pota- 

 toes, both of which were good crops. Both 

 the corn and the potatoes were planted on 

 green sward turned over that spring. All 

 that was ploughed the year before was seeded 

 down with clover. As much stock was put 

 upon the place as aU the hay and grain it pro- 

 duced would keep, and a little was bought 

 besides for feeding purposes. 



The next spring — the present season — this 

 corn snd potato ground was also seeded down, 

 on which, v/ish other lind seeded la^t spring, 

 I sowed one hundred and twenty-five pounds 

 of clover and two bushels of herds grass, seed. 



Our grain crops for this season are all har- 

 vested and threshed. We had eighty buahels 

 of wheat, seventeen of rye, two hundred of oats. 

 We have seme eight acres of corn that we 

 shall commence to cut up to-day, and when 

 we get the fodder in the barns we shall not 

 have any spare room. We have sowed some 

 ten bushels of winter wheat, and shall sow 



some more this week. Our potatoes are very 

 good, and the corn looks very well for this 

 year, — think it will be a fair crop. Our plums 

 were good this year. We gathered several 

 bushels last week that were very nice. Our 

 pears are also good, and there will be some 

 fifty bushels. We shall not have quite as many 

 apples as last year, but there will be several 

 hundred bushels, and they are nice and large. 

 Our grapes are looking well ; and if the frost 

 holds off ten days longer, we shall have some 

 as nice peaches as any man need eat. 



Feeding Meadows. 



Now a word in regard to feeding mow fields 

 in the spring and fall. I believe it is cheaper 

 to keep stoik in the barn in the spring than 

 in the mow field, and I don't believe that fall 

 feeding the mow fields is generally advisable. 

 To feed as some farmers do, perhaps a little 

 fall feeding where there is a large growth 

 would not injure the field, but to turn in soon 

 after the hay is cut and keep the field gnawed 

 down by cattle, sheep and horses, I think is 

 a great damage. Some farmers will run an 

 extra fence across thei'' mowing field, so that 

 they can get their cattle and sheep in before 

 the corn is suitable to cut up, to save a few 

 spears of grass that the frost might kill. I 

 think it bad policy to have mow fields fed 

 down so to leave the roots naked. 



Time and Manner of Seeding Land. 



There has been considerable said in your 

 paper about sowing grass seed, particularly 

 as to the time when sown on winter grain. I 

 sowed mine last April, just after the old snow 

 had left and immediately before a rain storm. 

 Some waited till May, and put the harrow on 

 and gave it a good harrowing. I should be 

 glad to hear from those that tried this experi- 

 ment, as to its effect on the wheat. I got a 

 good stock on mine. But I would be glad to 

 know if harrowing up a field of wheat does it 

 good. Amos French. 



Hartford, Vt., Sept. 13, 1869. 



To Cut Off the Neck of a Bottle. — 

 With a strong twine a jard or less in length, 

 make one turn around the neck, rapidly move 

 the bottle from one end ofthe ttririgtothe other, 

 that the friction may heat the part ; while hot, 

 dip in cold water and the glass is cracked off 

 as clean and smooth as if cut by a di; mond. 

 A few strokes or movements with the string 

 are all that is required. A bottle may be cut 

 in two by the same process, if strips of paper 

 are pasted around it, to keep the string from 

 slipping from the place desired. — Rural New 

 Yorker. 



^p" Wheat raising is rapidly on the increase 

 west of the I\^issis.Mppi, while east of that 

 river it remains stationary, notwithstanding 

 the increase of population and use of labor- 

 saving machines. 



