186 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Aug. 



THE ' RHUS m ERBE ; ' OR HINTS TO VILLAGERS. 



[Though many of the following hints are unseasonable 

 at this time, the article will keep quite as well in print as 

 in our pigeon hole — and perchance prove valuable to those 

 who preserve the Farmer. — Ed.] 



As more than a pro rata portion of the readers of 

 the Farmer live in villages — and as it is a very- 

 thankless task, however irrepressible your enthusiasm 

 may be, to write for the benefit of those of the country 

 who only call you a pretender or an empiric — I will 

 now say a few words for the benefit of the villager 

 who delights in growing his own corn and cabbages. 



Cabbage Plants. — Never attempt to grow cab- 

 bage plants in any thing but a loose vegetable mould j 

 — here the roots will grow large and strong, so that 

 when transplanted they never fail to grow with ra- 

 pidity. I have often heard it said that a cabbage j 

 planted by a Dutchwoman was sure to live and thrive. I 

 One-half the secret of her success is that her plants j 

 have large spongioles; the other half is in the early 

 hoeing they receive at her hands: for vegetable, like 

 animated nature may be improved by female culture. 



The Time to Plant. — When a farmer tells you 

 to w T ait for the new or old of the moon before you 

 sow or plant, don't mind him, unless your faith is as 

 expansive as his own; but plant early if all things 

 are right — and the moon, crazy as she is, will not 

 molest your crop. 



Onions. — Few people in Western New York 

 know the true value and culinary office of onions: 

 stiil fewer know how to grow them aright. If you 

 want early onions, plant the black seed after the 

 summer droughts are over, take them up in Novem- 

 ber and put them in the cellar — in April, set them 

 out in beds. They will soon mature, and are much 

 better than what are vulgarly called top onions. If 

 you have a few small onions in the ground all win- 

 ter,' they will come forward very early in the spring, 

 and may be eaten as a salad, tops and all. For the 

 main crop of onions, always plant new black seed in 

 March or April; the surplus young onions will pay 

 for the thinning and weeding. They may be used 

 in soups and stews, or eaten en salade, tops and all. 



Indian Corn. — For early green corn, plant a row 

 or two of Borne early variety, then plant sweet corn 

 in rows 2| feet apart, once every two weeks, until Ju- 

 ly; thin the plants to six or eight inches in the row, 

 pull or cut off the suckers, and as the corn begins to 

 ear, cut out barren and diseased stalks. You will 

 then have a supply of green corn from July until Oc- 

 tober, and sweet corn to cure for winter's use, to boot. 

 Select the largest ears for seed from two or three ear- 

 ed stalks. The soil for < orn can hardly be made too 

 rich. Hoe as soon as the plant appears above the 

 surface. Some suppose that when corn is planted 

 early, comes up and turns yellow, it is stunted, and 

 will be overtaken by the thrifty plants of a later 

 growth. No such thing; the early plant is often 

 gaining root when the top is stationary, so that its 

 growth will be much more rapid in the succeeding 

 warm weather, than that of even thrifty later grown 

 plants. 



Beans. — Being tender plants, they must be plant- 

 ed later than most other seeds. Pole beans, though 

 not as early as bush beans, are much more palatoa- 

 ble in the green state. No man can have any pre- 

 tension to the character of an epicurean, who says 

 it is too much trouble to pole beans. 



Radishes. — Early planted radishes grow so slow 

 that they are injured by worms on a manured soil; 

 a virgin sandy loam is the best for early radishes. — 

 Later in the season they grow so rapidly in a rich 

 soil, that they outstrip the worms. 



Cucumbers. — Manure prepares the best soil for 

 cucumbers. Whenever I see a farmer's wife with 

 a barrel of cucumber pickles for sale, I instinctive- 

 ly feel, before I make the inquiry, that the stumps 

 have not yet rotted in her garden. A virgin soil, 

 composed by nature's unerring hand, is best for all 

 the delicate feeders of the whole vegetable kingdom. 

 Corn and roots are gross feeders not easily cloyed. — 

 Potatoes want a moist, cool climate, and moist, rich 

 soil. When potatoes fast for want of due moisture, 

 Indian corn luxuriates. 



a word about trees and shrubs. 



Let every, villager who takes the Genesee Farmer, 

 read, learn, mark and inwardly digest its Horticul- 

 tural Department, by P. Barry. He will there find 

 that Mr. B. did not go to England to eat turbot, nor 

 to Paris to hurry through the Jar din des Plants, to 

 eat oyster soup at the Rocker da Concati. The 

 Yankees who first began to build villages in West- 

 ern New York, extirpated every tree that the far- 

 mer's axe had spared, as though a forest tree was 

 the natural enemy of civilization. Stingy of every 

 inch of ground, their houses were built out flush with 

 the street, so that when the village grew into a city, 

 they might sell the rear at a high price. To copy 

 the worst example of the city, or of the decayed 

 New England town, seemed to be their highest am- 

 bition; hence, instead of those indigenous trees, 

 shrubs, flowers and creepers (call them not para- 

 sites,) which now adorn the villager's home, little 

 of the kind was to be seen ten years ago, except now 

 and then a starvling exotic in a pot, stuck out on a 

 window sill, or the door step, bringing to mind the 

 little disconsolate flower in Picciola's prison yard. 



Great has been the progress of sylvan and floral 

 embellishment in our villages, in the last two or 

 three years, and choice fruit trees and vines begin 

 to abound. Next to our favored climate, many 

 thanks are due to D. Thomas, Downing, Barry, and 

 other late writers on horticulture, for such a rapid 

 consummation. But much still remains to be done. 

 Little money is needed to efiect it; all that is neces- 

 sary to promote such improvements, is some read- 

 ing, the cultivation ol a correct taste, some care 

 and attention; but no more time is required than 

 that which is daily passed in idleness — and what is 

 the labor to him or her who loves nature for herself ! 

 S. W.— -Seneca County, JY. Y., 1849. 



THORN HEDGES. 



Messrs. Editors: — As you expressed a wish 

 in your last number of the Genesee Farmer, to 

 hear from suc'n of your correspondents as have had 

 any experience in growing hedges, I beg to send you 

 a litte account of my experience on the subject. 



Five years ago I procured from the Botanical Gar- 

 dens of Messrs. A. J. Downing &c Co., j° Newburgh, 

 N. Y., a quantity of young plants of that variety of 

 thorn called the Newcastle Thorn {Cr-itagus Crus- 

 galli) — a native, as Mr. Downing informed me, of 

 New Jersey, and much better adapted to this climate 

 than the English hawthorn. I planted them a foot 

 apart in a single row, and as they were charged six 



