80 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



most palates, and consequently depreciates their 

 value for table use. If dug in the fall and carefully 

 packed in boxes, with a suiticicnt quantity of mould 

 from the beds in which they were grown, (in order 

 to secure to the rents the same degree of moisture 

 they were supplied with in their growing state,) they 

 mav bo preserved until summer in the full power of 

 all their more valuable and desirable qualities. 



It has been asserted by some cultivators who have 

 introduced this crop into their routine, that it was 

 preferable to the carrot ; and that wlien boiled, mixed 

 with meal or steamed grain, it makes one of the 

 richest, cheapest, and most healthful feeds for swine 

 that can be obtained. In one of our leading agricul- 

 tural publications, it is asserted that from eight to 

 fota-teen hundred bushels of parsnips may be reason- 

 ably relied on per acre, and that experience has 

 already demonstrated the important fact, that taking 

 one season with another, whore only ordinary atten- 

 tion and expense in manuring and cultivation are 

 bestowed, it costs one third less than the carrot, and 

 considerably less than the potato. Horses eat the 

 roots with avidity, fatten rapidly on them, and are 

 capable, when confined to them as their only food, 

 of performing as great an amount of labor, with less 

 fatigue, than when fed on hay and grain. No insect 

 appears to injure the parsnip ; the odor of its foliage 

 is probably its protection ; and as to the roots, we 

 are not aware that they are ever scarified or perfo- 

 rated by worms. From these evils, so commonly ex- 

 perienced in the cultivation of almost all other root 

 crops, and which so greatly increase the expense of 

 producing them, the parsnip enjoys a most singular 

 and happy exemption. 



A NEW CORRESPONDENT. 



PniLADELPniA County, Dec. 19, 184!). 

 — Germantown Telegraph. 



CHARCOAL FOR PLANTS. 



With respect to charcoal, whether it be wood, peat, 

 or animal, I think that its value, either in agricul- 

 tural or floricultural application, is not nearly so well 

 known, nor so much appreciated, as it ought to be : 

 that from wood I have long used with the greatest 

 advantage, both in the drainage of pots and as an 

 absorbent in the preparation of manure. For the 

 former it is well suited, when placed over the hole in 

 pieces large enough to prevent their falling through, 

 and to the height of about a fourth of the pot, in the 

 same manner as potsherds are employed. Owing to 

 its highly antiseptic qualities, it will continue for 

 several years in an undecaycd state, and consequently 

 afford an efficient drainage for a much longer period 

 than moss, while it is calculated not only to act in 

 like manner as a conveyer of moisture to the plant, 

 but will also tend greatly, from its powers of imbibing 

 and gradually giving out any ammonia with which it 

 comes in contact, and other fertilizing alkalies or 

 gases that may exist in the soil, to produce a more 

 healthy growth in the plant. " The peculiar property 

 of charcoal," says Mr. Squarey, in his Treatise on 

 Agricultural Chemistry, "and the only one that 

 makes it iiseful in connection with the subject of 

 manures, is its powers of absorbing various gases in 

 the pores of its structure, and subsequently yielding 

 them to moisture. It is proved beyond all doubt, 

 that pure, fresh-burnt charcoal possesses the power 

 of absorbing ninety times its volume of carbonic acid 

 gas." And he further states, " If any manure has 

 been applied, containing ammonia in its free state, 

 that is liable to pass off in a gaseous form, the char- 

 coal will absorb it a.s it rises, and retain it until the 

 first rain, when the gas will be dissolved by the water 

 and carried into the soil, there to be applied for the 

 assimilation of plaixts ; aaxd the removal of the gas by 



the rain from the charcoal, restores its original power's 

 of absorbing gas ; so that this substance, when ap- 

 plied to the soil, acts as a constant reservoir for these 

 valuable gaseous substances^ a property which neither 

 time nor any circumstances can alter. Even Mhen, 

 in the course of cultivation, the chai-coal originally 

 applied on the surface of thb land, is ploughed under 

 the surface — even there it does not lose its power of 

 absorbing the gases, but carries on its operations 

 with undiminished energy." Professor Johnston, in 

 his valuable work on the Elements of Agricultural 

 Chemistry, strongly recommends the mixing of 

 charcoal, particularly animal charcoal, with liquid 

 manure and other rich applications to the sod, but 

 apprehends that the cost and scarcity of this sub- 

 stance may preclude its being brought into general 

 vise. — Gard. Chron., 1849, p. 485. 



SMUT-ITS PREVENTION. 



It is one of the happy advantages of the farmer's 

 business, that he is less dejiendent on man and more 

 upon his Creator, than those engaged in other occu- 

 pations. Whether sowing, or reaping, or gathering, 

 he must trust to Providence for most of his success. 

 But there is one source from which the farmer often 

 meets with heavy loss, in regard to which, ProAd- 

 denee has left it to each man either to avoid it cer- 

 tainly, or run the risk of leaving his crop to take its 

 chance ; I mean, that every farmer may secure his 

 wheat against smut, or he can let it alone. Soak, 

 steep, or wash your M'heat in brine, and roU it 

 in fresh slaked lime, and there will be little or 

 no smut, according to the care you take in pre- 

 paring it. 



" 1845, June 23, four positions (in my Egyptian 

 wheat, unprepared) from which I gather all the smut 

 heads within reach of my arm, give as follows : 9, 

 35, 15, 12. Four do. in that soaked, 0, 0, 4, — 

 being 68 to 4. 



" Five positions in white wheat imprepared, give 

 34 smut heads, whilst ten positions in that prepared 

 only give 1." 



And to show the necessity of using lime to roll it 

 in, — and mine was slaked just before using it, " in a 

 walk through my blue-blade, I find thirty-three 

 smut heads in the part brined only ; whilst a walk 

 across that brined and limed gives only three. The 

 smut this year is general, and in some fields forms 

 one third of the crop. The land sown with wheat 

 which had lain in brine all night, looks thin, and has 

 looked so all the time." 



I must call particular attention to the last sentence 

 from my journal, as subsequent experience has satis- 

 fied me that if the wheat is allowed to remain too 

 long in brine, it will not come up well. Another 

 extract will both illustrate and explain my views : — 



" Oct. 7. The Mediterranean is up line, except that 

 brined and limed, which is slow coming up, the dif- 

 ference being marked on both sides. This was soaked 

 for ten or twelve hours. I suppose it to be owing ta 

 the extreme dryness of the ground and atmosphere 

 which abstracted the moisture from the grain soaked." 

 Since then I have merel}' p\it the wheat in, stir it 

 round, skim it, draw off the brine, roll it, and sow. 



W. II. G. 



Frederick County, Ya., 1819. 

 — Dollar Newspaper. 



Youth and Old Age. — As I approve of a youth 

 that has scmething of the old man in him, so I am 

 no less pleased with an old roan that has something 

 of the youth. He that foUows this rule may be 

 old. i'.i body, but can, never he so in talnd.— - Cicevo^ 



