NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



191 



One man can attend twenty of the fires, or one 



man can perform as much work in this as ten will 



with drills. The beauty of the process is, that it is 



performed comparatively without danger or expense. 



DENNIS JOHNSON. 



Mt. Airy Ag. Ixstitute, Pa., Feb., 1S49. 



AVe have seen rocks broken by the process above 

 described, and we endorse what our correspondent 

 says in regard to it. — Eds. — Albany Cultivator. 



A FULL STOP TO THE BLEEDING OF 

 GRAPE-VINES. 



Mr. Editor : I devote a few moments of my time 

 to inform all cultivators of the grape how to put a com- 

 plete and final stop to the bleeding of the vines, 

 whether from pruning or accident : I should like to 

 say more about the grape, but have not the time just 

 now. 



Two or three years since, in the month of May, I 

 was overhauling my vines and tying them up for the 

 season, when I found the pruned ends bleeding pro- 

 fusely. I was surprised at this, as the vines were 

 trimmed in December previous, before covering them 

 for the winter. My better half, ilrs. J., heard me 

 grumbling at something amiss, so I told the occasion 

 of my perturbation, and she immediately set to work 

 to find a remedy. This remedy teas found forthwith, 

 and a comical one it is. Here it is, without more 

 ado. Take a little atom of cotton batting, as large 

 as a bean ; dip this into " Turlington's Balsam of 

 Life," and bind it with three or four turns of thread 

 over the pruned end or eye, first wiping the bleeding 

 part dry. If this docs not stop the flow of sap in 

 twenty-four hours, drop on a little more of the 

 ♦' lialsam," and it will stop, certain. 



It was supposed that the balsam would do what 

 nothing else will, eff'ectually, from the fact, that, 

 notwithstanding the saliva, and general moisture of 

 the mouth and tongue, yet the balsam of lii'e will 

 cling fast for many hours to the tongue and interior 

 of the mouth : so, notwithstanding the profuse flow 

 of sap from the vine, which forces through sealing- 

 wax, bits of bladder, and every thing else, yet the 

 balsam stai/s put, and closes up the pores. 



I have tried it repeatedly, and again three days 

 since, with uniform success. I know it will answer, 

 and I know that many a cultivator of the grape-vine 

 will thank us for the information. Try first, and 

 laugh afterwards. Sat vcrbum — (or vcrbum sat r) 



A. J., Jr. 



WiscASSET, May 11, 18.50. 

 — Maine Farmer. 



CORN SUCKERING. 



Your correspondent " J. J." of Centreville, New 

 Jersey, wishes information in regard to suckering 

 corn. If corn hills are four feet apart each way, and 

 not more than three stocks in a hill, there Avill be no 

 necessity of suckering the corn, for the increase, and 

 the excellence of the suckers for fodder, will fully 

 compensate the injury done the maturing of the crop 

 by their growth, and the expense of suckering Avill 

 be saved. If corn has been planted close, it can be 

 suckered ami thinned out soon after the suckers 

 make their appearance, and from that time on, till 

 the ears are set, provided it is carefully done. Dry 

 weather is the best time to sucker or tliin out corn. 

 I will not go inside of my cornfielci. wlien the corn 

 is wet, if I possibly can avoid it. I plant from four 

 to six acres of corn every year ; the hills are four 

 feet apart each way, and six grains in a hill. After I 

 have finished ploughing, and the corn is about two feet 



high, I begin to sucker and thin out as fast as a yoke 

 of oxen will consume the forage, taking out the 

 weaker stalks and suckers from the largest hills, re- 

 serving the smaller, as need may require, to feed my 

 oxen — and so continue on until I have gone through 

 the entire lot, leaving but three stocks in a hill. In 

 this manner, I get a vast amount of feed, and cannot 

 see any perceptible detriment to my crop of corn, as 

 the yield appears to be about as good as my neigh- 

 bors', on the same kind of land. I would advise J. J. 

 to succor his corn by suckering out the hills as soon 

 as the suckers are from six to eight inches high ; but 

 it should be done carefully. The fewer stalks there 

 are in a hill, the larger will be the ears ; and so of 

 consequence M'ith suckers. In proportion as the hot 

 sun gains access to the roots of the corn, after a 

 soaking rain, so will the ears increase in size. If 

 corn don't stand too thick on the ground, and hands 

 are scarce and wages high, and there is other urgent 

 work to do, it would be as well to let nature take 

 her course, and the suckers to grow. P. F. W. 



Newpoktville, Bucks Co., July 24, 1850. 

 — Dollar Newspaper. 



MOVABLE FENCE. 



Eds. New-Yorker : I have become a subscriber 

 to your valuable paper, and would wish to make 

 a suggestion in regard to fences, since the subject is 

 so often referred to by your correspondents. Mr 

 Langworthy wUl recollect the miniature length of 

 fence exhibited at the Monroe County Fair, in 18f 4, 

 (I think.) This kind of fence has been used to some 

 extent, in this neighborhood, and found to do well, 

 as no part of it is to be in the ground. It is made 

 as follows : — 



Saw straight-grained stuff of any hard wood six 

 inches wide and one and a half thick ; saw other 

 the same thickness, four and a half feet long, seven 

 inches wide at one end, and four inches wide at the 

 other; cut with a saw across the wide end, (and 

 eight inches from the end,) one fourth inch deep, 

 and split off so as to form a shoulder. Then cut your 

 six by one and a half stuff, three feet long ; clap the 

 wide end of the other on to this three foot piece 

 in such way as to form a capital T inverted, (tlius j^,) 

 nailing them strongly together ; bore two and a half 

 inch holes at proper distances through this tapering 

 piece for rails to pass through, having the lower rail 

 pass through both pieces. Saw the rails two inches 

 square, and fourteen or si.xteen feet long, having a 

 piece of inch board, with corresponding holes to slip 

 on to the middle of each length or panel. Set 

 these ground or cross-pieces on flat stones, so that 

 they will rest on the stones at each end — cap with 

 inch stuff six inches wide. If you wish to have a 

 movable fence, make each panel by itself; or if 

 stationary, then bore the holes immediately above 

 each other. J. II. 



AuA.Ms's Basin, March, 18(50. 

 — Rural New- Yorker. 



The Seasox. — Our spring here has been un- 

 usually cold and backward; up to the middle of 

 May we had rarely a warm spring day; but it has 

 been a fine season for ])lanting, and all liave had 

 a long and favorable time for com])lcting their im- 

 provements. The weather now. May hi, is fine, 

 and fi-uit-trec3 arc loaded with blossoms, promising a' 

 most abundant crop. The thinning process will very 

 generally have to be resorted to, if no untimely frost 

 or other accident occurs after this date. — Genesee 

 Farmer. 



