14 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



July 25, 1832. 



Boston, Wednesday Evening, July 25, 1832. 



FOR THE TfEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BUTTER IN LONDON. 



Thch. G. Fe!>endk:<, Esft. 



Dear Sir — I" o"e of your late papers it is 

 observed, that a London paper says, that one hun- 

 dred and twelve million pounds of butter are con- 

 sumed in London annually. 



The population of London consists of about 

 1,300,000, and therefore allowing this statement to 

 be correct, eat eightysix pounds a year, each head, 

 ineu, women, children, and sucking babes. 



I am the head of a family, and we are, as the 

 saying is, " well to live ;" l»ave butter on the ta- 

 ble three times a day, and always within reach for 

 a luncheon or a damper, and there are seven of ns 

 in the family. Take the year round, we consume 

 something less than two pounds a week, probably 

 as near eightysix pounds a year for the whole 

 seven, as any other quantity. Now is it to be 

 credited, that the inhabitants of London consume 

 seven times as much butter in proportion to the 

 population, as the goo.d old fat town of Boston in 

 her palmy days? 



This is a small matter, Mr Editor ; but by-and- 

 by you will be giving us some good accounts, I 

 hope, of our brethren in the country turning out 

 eight or ten hundred bushels of potatoes or car- 

 rots to the acre, and one hundred and twenty 

 bushels of Indian corn, besides rafts of pumpkins; 

 and then some ill-natured and incredulous JIadame 

 TroUope may remind us of the butter story. 



' BETTY. 



those who manufactured, than those who unwit- 

 tino-ly had given currency to the falsehood. But 

 it ispossible the original author of the obnoxious 

 bidyraceous pajagraph might have reference to the 

 quantity of butter sold in Loudon markets, a part 

 of which might be consumed in the suburbs and 

 villages in the vicinity of the metropolis, viz. 

 Southwark, Ilampstead, Ilighgate, Islington, Chel- 

 sea, Greenwich, Ware, &c. And then, for aught we 

 know, butter may be sui)plied from London mar- 

 kets for the use of the navy, for exportation to the 

 colonies, &c, &c. At any rate, we advise " Bet- 

 ty " to be sure of her statistics before she takes us 

 to do for what we did n't do ; and to make some 

 allowances for human frailty, before she twirls 

 her mop of hypercriticism over our inoffensive 

 columns, which we are fully sensible are far from 

 being immaculate. 



Remarks by the Editor. 



If Mrs or Miss " Betty" was the conductor of a 

 newspaper like the New England Farmer, and by 

 ■ virtue of said office found it incumbent on her to 

 provide every week, and week after week, for 

 sundry years in succession, twentyfour columns 

 of matter for the press, and all this adapted to a 

 particular class of readers, she would find it im- 

 possible so far to scrutinize every article, previous 

 to its insertion, as to be willing to make oath to its 

 truth. Some of this matter, like the subject of 

 " Betty's" animadversion, must be snatched on 

 the spur of occasion, to keep the compositor's fin- 

 gers in motion, and supply the sine qua nan to the 

 mechanical part of the concern, which, like time 

 and tide, must keep moving. In such a case, and 

 being instigated by the (printer's) devil, clamoring 

 for copy, it would be no wonder if the poor para- 

 graph grinder, whose mind is presumed not to be 

 an inexhaustible fountain of matter, being at his 

 wits' ends, should find himself also at the end of 

 his wits. In such case he borrows « Betty's " 

 scissors, cuts a little article perhaps, not altogether 

 correct, from some other paper, and transplants 

 it into his own premises, generally giving credit to 

 the source from which it was derived. Then 

 comes along Quirk Quibble, Esq. with the bull- 

 dog of criticism in his leash, and bids the cruel 

 creeshei- fasten his incisors in the jugular vein 

 of the poof purveyor of paragraphs, whose hap it 

 was to light on such a mishap as to blunder over 

 another man's blunder. 



If jMadame TroUope should berate us for copy- 

 in" a Munchausen-story from a London paper, vre 

 should advise her ladyship rather to deal with 



VEGETABLES IN ROWS, STIRRING THE 

 GROUND DEEP, &c. 

 W. B. Rose, a correspondent of Mr Loudon, for 

 the Gardener's Magazine, observes, that " the ad- 

 vantages of frequently stirring the ground about 

 plants is known ; but it may not be obvious to ev- 

 ery one, that the soil can be stirred much deeper 

 when the hoe works along a continued straight 

 line, as it does between the rows, than it can be 

 when it works in cin-ves or irregular roundish 

 spaces of limited extent, as it does among crops 

 sown broad-cast. I sow my onions in rows six 

 inches apart, and I can stir between them to the 

 depth of nine inches, or a foot if I choose ; but if 

 they were sown broad-cast, and every plant was 

 six inches from each other, I could not stir be- 

 tween them, with a common hoe, deeper than one 

 or two inches. 



" Stirring deep and frequently renders watering 

 unnecessary, because a porous surface is less per- 

 vious to the heat of the sun than a solid one, and 

 therefore keeps the ground beneath both cooler 

 and moister. Any gardener who doubts this 

 being the case, may convince himself of the fact 

 by covering part of a bed of onions with three 

 inches of rotten tan, and comparing the soil be- 

 neath the tan with that left bare, as to heat and 

 dryness. 



"" Such a summer as the last proves the value of 

 my plan ; while the seedling crops of many of my 

 neighbors were burnt up, mine were in luxuri- 

 ance ; my onions stood regularly at six inches 

 apart, and were from eight to twelve inches in 

 circumference ; my carrots and parsnips stood at 

 eight and ten inches, and measured from ten to 

 fourteen inches in circumference. Some young 

 trees, such as acacias (Cobbett's locusts,) which 

 I drilled in May last, and thinned out and stirred 

 between the rows, are now three feet high. I 

 have these and other articles ready to show in 

 proof of what I assert. 



" My soil is a deep sour clay, which I dig and 

 dung before vrtnter, going as deep as the soil will 

 admit, as I find it a great advantage to bring up 

 fresh earth." 



noyance to cultivators, and must request our pat- 

 riotic correspondents to aid us in subduing it. We 

 will also be on the look out for weapons for assail- 

 ing this vegetable pest. 



We will, however, say a word or two respecting 

 weeds in general ; and expect in so doing to utter 

 some truisms applicable to the above mentioned 

 as well as to other green serpents, which rob our 

 soil, and thereby pick our pockets and take the 

 bread from our mouths, to an extent not realized 

 by superficial thinkers. 



No |)lant can be naturally propagated at any 

 distance from its location unless by seeds ; nt 

 least, if you never permit it to ripen its seeds it 

 will not spread very rapidly. Therefore if thistles, 

 skunk cabbage or any other vegetable nuisance 

 shoidd make its unwelcome appearance on any 

 part of your farm, and you cannot conveniently 

 extirpate root and branch for lack of time or 

 help, you must guillotine the intruder with a 

 scythe or a sickle a^ often as he shows his hateful 

 head. 



" Any plant," says the Farmer's Assistant, "when 

 long divested of its leaves or of its stalks if it bear 

 no leaves, must eventually perish. The roots 

 alone cannot long exist. All therefore that is ne- 

 cessary for extirpating any weed, is to keep all that 

 grows above ground constantly cut or pulled off; 

 and the more frequently this is repeated, the soon- 

 er will the roots lose all further vegetative povir- 

 er." 



This observation may be useful, though we 

 think the author is incorrect in part. Some plants 

 will bear to be shorn of their tops, and that very 

 closely, for a long time whhout destroying their 

 roots. The roots of grasses on a common are 

 not destroyed by close feeding, and you may shave 

 a lawn or bowling green for years and not injure 

 its tmf nor tarnish its verdure. Yet grasses in 

 improper places are weeds, not however to be de- 

 stroyed by cropping. But by decapitating weeds 

 you prevent their semination, and of course they 

 will be almost if not entirely confined to their na- 

 tive beds. Aquatic weeds such as flags, rushes, 

 and perhaps skunk cabbage are only subdued by 

 draining the land in which they grow. 



A good preventive of the increase of weeds 

 is burning the stubble as it stands after reaping. 

 This will destroy the seeds of many weeds, as well 

 as the eggs and larvie of insects, and will warm 

 the groimd and fertilize it by the ashes of the 

 burnt substances. A succession of hoed crops 

 will eradicate weeds, or laying down land to grass, 

 with plenty of grass seed will stifle and destroy 

 almost any weeds, especially if the land be previ- 

 [ ously well manured and mellowed, so that the 

 "rass mav obtain a strong hold in the soil. 



WEEDS. 



A very respected friend wishes to obtain fro 

 us some information relative to the best means of 

 destroying a certain troublesome weed, called 

 skunk cabbage, which infests water meadows, &c. 

 Now, it so happens, that during the time of our 

 officiating as a practical farmer in our early days, 

 we never came ia contact with this particular an- 



MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL 

 SOCIETY. 



SiiOKDiT, Julyai, 1832. 



Fruits presented— By Mr S. Walker of Roxbu- 

 ry, five varieties of Gooseberries for premium, viz : 

 Hopley's Globe ; Lancashire Lad ; Bank of Eng- 

 land ; Waiting-maid and Barry's Greenwood ; very 

 fine sjiecimens, particularly the Bank of England, 

 and Hopley's Globe, which were very large. 



^ S. DOWNER. 



A fine specimen of the Wax jdant, (Hoya car- 

 nosa) was exhibited by Mr Haggcrston. Messrs 

 Winship exhibited small but beautiful bouquets of 

 choice and rare flowers. 



