NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



223 



what species of hufjs or insects those large ones are, 

 in a vial I have sent you for insiDCCtion, in company 

 with a few cuiTulios. I send them to you, thinking 

 they might be of some use, for you to show to some 

 of your friends. 



I have found that I did not commence soon enough 

 destroying the curculio on the plum-trees, as you 

 ■will find by the punctures on some of the plums and 

 cherries I have sent to vou. Yours, rcspcctfuUv, 



"benjamin boynton. 



Stoxeham, June 18, 1850- 



Remauks. — Among the common curciilios which 

 our correspondent has sent to us, are a few about six 

 times as large, or about twice as long, and twice as 

 large in diameter. We have examined these insects 

 through a magnifying glass; but as the lai'ge ones 

 were dead when we examined them, we could not 

 have so good an opportunity to judge of their ap- 

 pearance. 



The larger ones appear to be precisely of the same 

 form and color as the smaller, but it is rather sur- 

 prising that the same insects should be together, of 

 sizes so widely different. A question arises whether 

 they are of the same species. A few years ago, a 

 friend sent to us some curculios of different sizes, 

 precisely like these. It was then stated that the 

 larger insects did not do any damage, though found 

 in company with the smaller kind, that Averc destroy- 

 ing the plums. A question may arise whether the 

 larger insects were mere spectators, or did their mis- 

 chief unperceived by our friend. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 MILLET. 



Mr. Cole : We have sometimes grown this grain 

 for the purpose of feeding to milch cows, Avhcn 

 green. It may be sown as late a.s the 10th of July : 

 it does not rust like oats and barley when sown late, 

 but it requires a fine, well-pulverized soil, and fine 

 manure. When there is a i^rospect of the hay crop 

 being light, it is well to mow a piece of land early in 

 July, and plough and harrow it well, and sow millet 

 for the purpose of curing it for winter fodder. It 

 does not yield so much as corn for green food, but it 

 is much easier cured, and makes better dry fodder 

 than corn. 



If the present hen fever should rage long, it may 

 become an important crop for feeding young chick- 

 ens, as they arc very fond of it, and thrive well 

 upon it. WM. li. PUTNAM. 



WHY ARE ASHES MORE VALUABLE THAN 

 LIME OR GYPSUM AS FERTILIZERS! 



Our neighbors of I^ong Island have become famous 

 for their trade in ashes. They send their boats the 

 entire length of the Mohawk valley, and they would 

 push their enterprise as far as the Black River valley, 

 if the Black River Valley Canal was complete ; and 

 they could well afford to transport not merely the 

 live ash, but the refuse ash, which has been ex- 

 hausted for its potash. They have been in the 

 habit of buying the refuse of the asheries of Albany 

 and Troy, and paying as much for it as the soap- 

 maker paid originally for the live ash. In looking 

 about for a fertilizer, the Long Islanders have found 

 by experience, that they form the best which they 

 can employ. The question which we have pro- 



pounded demands an. answer ; we therefore proceed 

 to state, that ashes owe their value to their composi- 

 tion. Our reader wiH^ perhaps, say that he knew 

 this before. Very well. We say again, and more 

 to the point, that ashes, spent and unspent, owe their 

 principal value to the potash in the first instance, 

 and to the phosphates, and to lime and magnesia, in 

 the second. We design to speak mainly of spent 

 ashes ; though wo believe farmers had much better 

 keep all their ashes for their corn and wheat lands, 

 rather than sell them for one shilling per bushel. 



Spent ashes, then, we repeat, are valuable for the 

 phosphates they contain, together with the lime and 

 magnesia, which arc in a state of great siibdivision. 

 Besides the foregoing elements, silex, both soluble 

 and insoluble, is present. The amount of the former 

 will varjr in the quantity, by the intensity of heat 

 to which the vegetable may have been subjected; 

 and both will vary according to the plant from which 

 they may have been obtained. Thus the yellow 

 pine, which grows on the sandy lands west of Al- 

 banj% contains in its ash of bark nearly one half of 

 its weight of silica. 



When the value of ashes is sought for, it maj- with 

 propriety be said, that they rank next to bone-dust, — 

 containing, as they do, phosphate of magnesia and 

 iron, together with a large percentage of lime. The 

 ash of the forest, as well as fruit-trees, is as various 

 as their own products ; scarcely two agreeing either 

 in the amount of ash they yield, or in the elements 

 which compose it. — Farmer and Mechanic. 



TURNING IN GREEN CROPS. 



During the last ten years, the practice of turning 

 in green crops has been extensively adopted ; and, so 

 far as my observation extends, it has been attended 

 with the most flattering results. Old, worn-out 

 fields, which had become so thoroughly emasculated 

 as scarcely to repay the cost of cultivation, have, by 

 this process, been thoroughly renovated, and at a less 

 cost, probably, tlian they could have been in any 

 other way. In passing tlu-ough the country, our at- 

 tention is often drawn to farms which have been im- 

 poverished, by an enormous and emasculating sys- 

 tem of cropping, to the state of barren karro fields. 

 Nothing can bo more forbidding than the appearance 

 of barrenness which they exhibit ; yet even those 

 are not hopelessly barren. By ploughing under the 

 slight vegetation they produce, and following up the 

 undertaking by a liberal application of lime, unless 

 the soil itself is of a calcareous nature, and then sow- 

 ing buckwheat, peas, or clover, to be turned in when 

 in blossom, a degree of energy will be communicated 

 which will secure the continuance of increased and 

 increasing fertility, and, under a judicious system of 

 rotary cropping, insure good crops for a period of 

 many years. 



" 'Tis folly in the extreme to till 

 Extensive fields, and till them ill; 

 Shrewd common sense sits laughing by. 

 And sure your hopes abortive die ; 

 For more one fertile acre yields. 

 Than the huge breadtli of barren fields." 

 Some have recommended millet as an excellent 

 article for turning in ; but, of all cultivated crops, 

 with the exception, perhaps, of red clover, I con- 

 sider buckwheat the best. By eoramencing early, 

 three crops of this grain may be turned in in ono 

 season, a dressing wliich will be found sufHcient, 

 under ordinary circumstances, for the most exhausted 

 soil, and which is by no means objectionable on the 

 score of expense or cost. 



A PRACTICAL FARMER. 

 Bald Eaoli; Farm, Ma>/ 22, 1850. 

 — Uermantmvn Telegraph. 



