326 



NEW ENGLAND FAUIMER, 



Anril 25. 1832. 



Boston, Wednesday Evening, April 25, 1832. 



Mistake Corrected. — In our acknowledgments to 

 correspondents, page 302, 3d column of the cur- 

 rent volume of the New England Fanner, we 

 stated that the excellent communication from Mr 

 Wm. Clark, Jr. published in the same pa])er, con- I beatliim off for a little while from their own prem 

 tained the lirst atteiii])t we had seen to form an ises. The interposition of government in this case 



tie, known to be chief and generalissimo of the 

 formidable army of deleterious vegetable intruders, 

 has, during a series of years, been making inroads 

 upon the country, and this too at a ratio of in- 

 crease constantly accelerating. It now prevails 

 to an alarming extent and threatens a speedy and 

 universal conquest of the country. The efforts of 

 individuals against the enemy, can only avail to 



he reads the elements of beaulv, the aliihabet of 

 visible gracefulness. The very inutility of flow- 

 ers is their excellence and great beauty ; for by 

 having a delightfulness in their very form and 

 color, they leail us to thoughts of generosity and 

 moral Iwauty, detached from and superior to all 

 seltishness; so that they are pretty lessons iu na- 

 ture's book of instruction, teaching man that he 

 livetli not by bread, or for bread alone, but that he 

 hath another than an animal life." 



estimate of the amount of injury resulting from 

 cutting corn-stalks at too early a period. But the 

 N. E. Farmer, vol. vni. page 74, presents a state- 

 ment quoted from Lorain's Hiisbanilry., and sent 

 us, together with other valuable articles, by " S. X." 

 in which the difference in the produce between 

 rows topped and stripped and one left entire, was 

 ascertained by actual admeasurement; as follows: 



" Produce of the row that had not been topped 

 and stripped, nine bushels and five eighths of corn 

 in the ear. 



" One of the rows which had been topped and 

 stripped measured seven bushels and six eighths ; 

 and the other topped and stripped row measured 

 seven bushels and three eights of corn in the ear." 



DESTRUCTION OF THISTLES. 



Mr Dan Bradley, of Marcellus, N. Y. has pub- 

 lished in the Genesee Farmer of the 17th ult. 

 " An Appfnl to the Puhlic on the suljert of Canada 

 Thistles," in which he proposes " that a system 

 of tneasures for destroying the Canada thistles be 

 instituted by government, and be prosecuted under 

 its authority. It is certain that no other system 

 than such as will be authoritative, compulsory, and 

 highly energetic, will avail iu the least towards 

 effecting the object. It must also have a general 

 and indiscriminate application to the whole State." 

 He proposes that towns be compelled by law to 

 provide funds for this purpose. That " four or 

 five able and active men, su])plied with implements 

 well adapted to the work, should be entirely de- 

 voted to this business from the first of June to the 

 first of October," &c. 



is absolutely necessary." 



REVIVING PLANTS, &c. 



The London Jlechanic's Register gives a meth- 

 od of reviving plants, &c, which may prove use- 

 ful to those who wish to revive scion buds, &c, 

 when their leaves and buds are faded, and their 

 bark and roots hard and nearly dry. The direc- 

 tions are to dissolve camphor to saturation in al- 

 cohol, adding the former until it remains solid at 

 the bottom of the latter ; a suflicient ([uantity of 

 rain or river water is then to have the alcoholic 

 solution added to it, in the proportion of four 

 drops to one ounce of water. As the camphor 

 comes in contact with the water, for a short time 

 the camphor will float on the water in small floc- 

 culi, but will ultimately combine with the fluid 

 and disappear. ' 



Plants which have been removed from the earth 

 an<l have suflered by a journey or otherwise, 

 should be plunged into this camphorated water, 

 so that they may be entirely covered. In about 

 two or at most three hours, the contracted leaves 

 will ex])and again ; the young, faded, and depen- 

 dent shoots will erect themselves, and tlie dried 

 bark will become smooth and full. That being 

 effected, the plant is to be pjaced in good earth, 

 copiously watered with rain or river water, and 

 protected from the too powerful action of the sun 

 until the roots have taken good hold of the ground. 

 If plants thus treated, are not restored in four 

 hours, their death may be considered as certain, 

 for they cannot be recalled to life by any artificial 

 means. They should, consequently, never be left 

 more than four hours in the camphorated bati 



Recipe for jMildtw. — A writer in the Gardener's 

 Magazine, (John Haycroft,) recommends the fol- 

 lowing composition for fruit trees, as a remedy 

 against mildew. To four gallons of rain or river 

 water add two poimds of soft soap, one ])ound of 

 flour of sulphur, one pound roll tobacco, one 

 quart fresh slacked lime, and one pint of spirits of 

 turjientine ; mix the whole together, and boil the 

 mixlvire slowly for half an hour. 



The writer applied this composition with 

 sponge, where it could be used with effect, and in 

 all the crevices and joints used a painter's small 

 soft sash brush. He does not say how often nor 

 at what times of the year he api)lied his compo- 

 sition. 



To detect stolen posts, pahs, fagots of wood, ifc 

 — An English newsjiaper gives us the following: 

 "Bore holes in them and fill them with gunpow- 

 der, or crackers ; when the thief puts thtm in the 

 fire they will tell tales." 



In speaking of the necessity for adopting some 

 measures for ridtling the country of these vegeta- ] because the exciting action of the camphor, when 

 ble pests, the writer says, " The subject is so im- \ it is continued for a longer period, may injure the 

 inensely important, that considerations of expense plants instead of doing good to them. It is not 

 should scarcely be allowed to have any bearing on i necessary to say, that the final prosperity of the 

 the case. The imi)ort of the question is little less j i)lants thus reanimated by camphor water, must 

 than whether it be possible to rescue the State of i depend on the particular i)roperties of the former, 

 New York from ruin. What then is it worth ? the state of their roots, and the pains that are la- 



nd what may be paid for its ransom ? " 



With regard to the modes of obtaining a remedy 

 for the evil complained of, Mr Bradley observes, 

 " I am aware that this plant is remarkably tena- 

 cious of life, and is not to be overcome without 

 persevering efforts. But as I hope ere long to 

 publish another essay on this subject, in which it 

 will be my principal object to exhibit the best 

 means yet known, for destroying the Canada this- 

 tles, I shall now waive these considerations. Cut 

 ting thisths, if done at propcV- times and in a prop- 

 er manner, will at least stop their further spread 

 by the dissemination of seed. This being done, [ 

 apprehend it will not be dilficult to pursue a sys- 

 tem of operations, by which the Canada thistle 

 may in a little time be entirely overcome, and be 

 banished from the country 

 would be of much 



ken with them. The camphor produces no other 

 effect than to restore life to |)lants nearly dead ; 

 after that, all proceeds according to the ordinary 

 laws, and their ullinjate state must be left to art 

 and nature. 



Blue Color from Buck Iflieat. — The Lontlon Lit- 

 erary Gazette gives the following, as a method of 

 extracting blue color from buck wheat: — "The 

 straw should be gathered before the grain is quite 

 dry, and filaced upon the groimd in the sun, until 

 it becomes sufiiciently dry to be taken from the 

 husks with facility. The wheat having been re- 

 moved, the straw is to be piled up, moistened, and 

 left to ferment till it is in a state of decomposition, 

 when it will become a blue color ; this indicates 

 the period when it should he gathered and formed 

 into cakes, which are to be dried in the sun or in 

 a stove. Ou these cakes being boiled in water 

 it assumes a strong blue color, which will not 

 change either in vinegar or in sulphuric acid. It 

 may, however, be turned into led with an alkali, 

 into a light black with bruised gall nuts, and into 

 a beautiful green by evaporation. Stufl'sdied blue 

 with this solution, which is to he used the same 

 way as vegetable matters of sinular species, em- 

 ployed in dyeing, become of a beautiful and dura- 

 ble color. 



Thoughts on Flotvers. — " Are not," asks the au- 

 thor of Atherton, "flowers the stars of earth, and 

 are not stars the flowers of heaven ? Flowers are 

 the teachers of gentle thoughts, promoters of kind- 

 ly emotion. We cannot look closely at a flower 

 without loving it. They are emblems and mat 

 testations of God's love to the creation, and lluv 

 are the means and manifestations of man's ]o\e to 

 his fellow creatures, for they first awaken in the 



mind a sense of the beautiful and the good. — 

 Such an achievement j Light is beautiful and good ; but on its undivided 

 eater value to the State of] beauty and on the glorious intensity of its fidi 

 New York, than her celebrated and justly appre- strength, man cannot gaze ; he can comprehend 

 ciated canals." | it best when prismatically separated, and dispersed 



There is a prospect of a good crop of peaches 

 The writer observes, that " The Canada This- ' in the many colored beauty of flowers ; and thus ' in the southern States. 



Paper from Wood. — It has lately been discover- 

 ed, says an English Journal, that the best paper 

 for wrapi)ers, writing and printing, may be pro- 

 duced from wood shavings boiled in mineral or 

 vegetable alkali. One himdred pounds of wood 

 and twelve pounds of alkali, will produce a ream 

 of paper. 



Ashes placed in the wood-house of J. Kent, 

 Esq. Pierinont, Ni 11., caused the destruction of 

 that gentleman's |)roperty, and the death of his 

 three daughters — ?o])|]ia, aged 28 ; Mary, 18 ; and 

 Jane, 15. Their remains were collected and 

 buried in one coflin. Five hundred persons as- 

 sembled at Mr K.'s barn, where the funeral obse- 

 quies were |)erformed ! 



