106 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Oct. 19, 1831. 



I prepare the ground, and let it be until 1 tliiiik tlie 

 wheat will not be up before sprin;;. I then cast on 

 the wheat and cover it wi:h a liarrow. I think 

 this would be the best plan to pinsue on tlie sea- 

 board, but a little experience will decide the point. 



It is well known that what is called good wheat 

 land is a stiff clay soil. In such a soil I should 

 prefer the Red Chaff to the Black Sea Wheat. In 

 this section of country we have almost every varie- 

 ty of soil. In a single field, in passing through uiy 

 wheat I observed it did well on light sandy soil 

 loam, which suggested the idea to ine that it 

 would be a profitable crop in New England. 



From my own experience and observation I 

 think wheat and corn are much improved by get- 

 ting the seed from their natural soil. There is a 

 region of country about 20 miles south of me where 

 they raise very little wheat from tlicir own seed, 

 but by getting seed every season from near the lake 

 they have fine crops: and we have our corn as 

 much improved by sending to the State of Ohio 

 where the soil is better for corn than our own. 



If your farmers should find it for their advan- 

 tage to grow wheat in preference to rye, and 

 should find that the seed which I send does better 

 than their own, with due notice I can furnish yon 

 in common seasons one month earlier than the 

 present. We have now a good threshing machine 

 in operation which will fit for market more than 

 100 bushels per day. 



SHEEP KILLED BY WILD CHERRIES. 



Norfolk County, Oct. 10, I8:U. 



Mr Fessendkn — In your last paper I ohserveil a 

 notice of cattle and sheep being poisoned by eating 

 wild cherry leaves. This is the first time I have ever 

 heard of such a thing. I own a farm in N. Hamp- 

 shire on which I have a considerable flock of vahnible 

 sheep, and on the same farm there are very many 

 of the small ivild red and black cherry tree stalks. 

 My farmer is a very intelligent observing man, and 

 I iiave never heard him mention the idea of the 

 sheep or lambs eating the cherry leaves, liut it is 

 a fact that for several years I have lost very many 

 sheep and particularly lambs before they were one 

 year old, from some cause for wiiich we cnidd not 

 account. It very probably may be from this ca'ise. 

 Your correspondent Mr Tulty at Saybrook, and 

 any others knowing the facts, would greatly oblige 

 me and no doubt many other sheep owners by des- 

 cribing the appearances and marks of the effects 

 produced, and enable us to judge, if this is the cnufc 

 of our loss. Yours, very truly, J. P. 



OKRA. — Hibiscus esculenlus. 

 Mr Russell, — I send you a specimen of this 

 plant, which I have cultivated the past season with 

 good success. I planted the seed in a rich loamy 

 soil mixed with a small proportion of sand, and 

 as early in May as I thought the ground sufficient- 

 ly warin for the seed to vegetate. The plants soon 

 made their appearance, and grew thriftily. Judge 

 BuEL mentions, in the present vol. of the N. E. 

 Farmer, jtage 44, that they are liable to be atlack- 

 efl by the grub, but my plants all continued in a 

 flourishing state, producing a succession of pods, 

 which were fit for use from the first of August 

 until the frost checked their growth. 



I was gratified to find the Okra so highly 

 recotnmended by the eminent horticulturist aliove 

 referred to. As I find it easy of cultivation I shall 

 give it more attention for the future. 



Yours, &c, Philip P. Spalding. 



Chelms/ora, Oct. 13, 1S31. 



Horticulture 



Proceedings of the JMassachusetIs Horticultural So- 

 ciety, at a meeting held at the Hall of the Insti- 

 tution, on Saturday, Oct. 15, 1831. 

 Report made by the President. 

 When the communication from ■ John S. Skin- 

 ner, Esq. in relation to the Pinus Pinea, was read, 

 at the meeting held on the ISlli of August, I stat- 

 ed that I had a number of plants of that species 

 of pine, which were produced from seeds, planted 

 last spring, and that in the autumn they should be 

 distributed among the members of the society. 



As this valuable and beautiful tree is a native 

 of the European shores of the Mediterranean, and 

 has not enlured the rigorous climate of the most 

 northern nations of the eastern continent, I was 

 doubtful whether it could be acclimated in New 

 England ; and having presented some of the 

 jilains to the lion. John Lowell, with an intima- 

 tion that they jjrobably would require protection 

 during the winter, he sent me the following let- 

 ter. 



Enxbury, Oct. 6, 183'. 

 Hon. H. a. S. Dearborn. 



Dear Sir — I received your present of plants. The 

 |)inu3 pinea is no slianger to me, ami yet 1 am happy to 

 be able to make a second trial of them. I had some 

 seeds so long ago as in the life lime of Professor Peck. — 

 I raised two plants, and kept them in my c;reen house 

 tliree years. I then planted them out under shelter of 

 other pines. They endured the first winter well. The 

 second was fatal to them. But I have acquired much 

 experience since. I think I could preserve Uiem now. — 

 I should keep them in winter in my green house.* and 

 plant them out every year early in April. Wlien they 

 had attained some solidity of wood, I shovild leave them 

 out, mulching their roots, and surrounding iVe lops 

 with branches of pines, and other evergreens. Thi-, is a 

 new European discovery, which I have tested »nd 

 found to be wonderfully efficacious. In two or tVee 

 years thi-t pine will be as hardy as any of our ovn. — 

 There are facts on this subject which have passed mder 

 my own eye, wbich convince me that we may n:tural- 

 ize the plants of the Grecian .\rchipc!ac;o, of japai, and 

 Northern China, by the aid of evergreens. It is amuch 

 better screen than wooden or other artificial cover;. 

 I hereiecommcnl to those who have the Chinese cliss of 

 Roses, the varieties of which are so numerous, orwho 

 have the Rhoilodendron poiiticuni.or any other semi-hrdy 

 plants, to try the effect of surrounding then;, thi kly, 

 with branches of any of the pine family. I kept a Ibo- 

 dodcndron ponticum, in p'-rlect vigor, by p-otectiiir it 

 by pine brauches. So I did the C\g. in a buildinj, vilh- 

 oiit fire beat. There is an inletinable power in iIk liv- 

 ing principle of eveigr-en plants, the same, whichpro- 

 tecls themselves from the frost of the severest winers, 

 and wbich equally enables lliem to afford the same pro 

 lection to other plants. The philoophy of it is no ex- 

 actly definable, but the fad is so, and it is with the 'act, 

 that all modern rational pbilosopliy has any concert, or 

 condescends tu take any notice. We do not now Iroihlo 

 ourselves with what ought, to be the effects of any e»cr- 

 iment, but what are its cflects on trial. 



1 am, dear sir, respectfully, yours, 



J. LOWELL 



• I have no doubt, that even plants as young as yurs 

 could be preserved in a dry cellar, giving them wtsr 

 very sparingly. 



Besides the pleasing intelliifonce, that it is 

 probable we may naturalize the Ston9 Pine, by 

 adopting the method described by Mr Lowell, we 

 have the gratification of learning, that one of ur 

 most distinguished patrons of rural and intellecu- 

 al cultivation, not only continues to jirosecute x- 

 perimeuts of horticulture, with characteristic zal, 

 but hastens to jiromulgate the results for the pui- 

 lic good. For more than a quarter of a CGntuy 

 he has cininently advanced the science of Fam- 

 ing and Gardening, by practical illustrations, witj- 



in his own highly cultivated and endiellished 

 grounds, while the Agricultural Repository, New 

 England Farmer, and ii.any other periodical pub- 

 lications, have been rendered intcresiing and in- 

 structive, by his numerous, lucid and able com- 

 munications. No man in the Commonwealth has 

 done so much to encourage a taste for useful and 

 ornamental tilliigo, both by precept and example. 

 His laudable efforts to dissendnate intelligence, 

 have been ardent and unremitted, and their aaluta- | 

 ry influence will be felt, and gratefully remember- 

 ed, by succeeding generations. 



In confirmation of the justness of these remarks, 

 I submit another lelt-r front that meritorious gen- 

 tleman, accompanied by the specimen of fruit he 

 as so kindly presented. 



I!nxbiiry,Ocl.92. 

 Dear Sir — 1 send you a Passe Colmar Pear, which 

 Mrs Pjrmeiuier ivas kind enough to send me with great 

 care. It proves to be idenlical witfi Mr Knight's. This 

 is gratifying, as hers came direct from Flanders, I pre- 

 sume. Very respectfully, yours, 



J. LOWELL. 

 P. S. I have understood that MrParmenlicr received 

 his Pears from his brother at Enghien. 



Tlie following letter has been received from 

 Gen. Joshua Wingatc, jr. of Portland, with the 

 new variety of pears therein named, besides an 

 apple from a garden of choice fruit which he es- 

 tablished some years since in Bath, and now own- 

 ed by J. Robinson, and a basket of fruit from the 

 garden of the Hon. J. F. Wingate of that town. 



Portlani), Oct. lOlti, 1S3I. 



My Dear Sir — I shall send you b., the Steamboat 

 this evening, a few Pears which grew on the f.irm of 

 Mr William McLaughlin of Scarborough, who informed 

 me that a person in (Oxford County, (whoso name he be- 

 lieved was Robert Lamb,) many years since raided a 

 number of Pear trees from the seeds, all of which pro- 

 duced, as be understood, fruit of an interior quality, wilti 

 the exception of one tree — and from that seedling ti'ce 

 the scions, which were engrafted on the ti-ees of Jlr 

 McLaughlin were obtained, and from those engrafted 

 trees, the Pears I have sent you were picked. 



I will tb.ink you to present some of these Pears to tho 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society, for the purpose of 

 ascertaining whether, in the opinion of the Society, this ■ 

 variety is worth being propigate I. If they should giro 

 a favorable decision on this Pear, scions may be obtained 

 the next spring from Mr McLaughlin. 



The I'ears were picked in the list week ol September, 

 and would have been, I have n3 doubt, much better, if 

 hey had remained on th? trees some days longer. — 

 Those I send you are a fair samjde of the sizes anl 

 quality of the Pears, as selected from about two bushelf. 



Mr McLaughlin's trees were engrafted iu 1326. 

 I am, with respect and esleetn, 

 Your obedient servant, 



J. WING.ITE, Jb. 

 Hon. H. A. S. Dearborn, 



Prea. of the Mass. Hart. Sec. 



In consequence of the information, ohtalnetl 

 by ftlr Lowell, I have considered it most eipedi- 

 eiit, that the plants of the Piims Pinea ihouldbe 

 confided to the care of such members as possess- 

 ed green houses, and hate therefore, presented 

 them to the gentlemen whose names are designa- 

 ted on the pots, in which they arc contained, with 

 the fullest confidence that thorough expsriments 

 will be made, to ascertain whether this jiine can 

 be successfully cultivated in this state. It is r». 

 commended that the plants be remored into larger 

 pot=, placing hut one in each. 



Respectfully submitted by 



H. i\. S. Dearborn, 



Pre». of tlw MaH. flott. Sot. 



