142 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



November 14, IS32. 



Boston, Wednesday Evening, Nov. 14, 1832. 



ITEMS or RURAt ECONOMY, 



Ori-inal and SelecteJ, by the Editor. 



(when sown in sprino^) they are so small, when half of this I watered with the wash previous to 

 they first appear as not easily to be distinguished sowing, and tlie other half was sown witliout ; the 

 from the weeds. If no rain fall at that season, ditlerence was very great ; the part watered bore 

 some of the seeds will not vegetate, till late in suml I turnips of a fine clear skin and color, and at least 

 mer ; and the few plants which do appear wilj [ a third larger than the unwatered land. Any of 



scarcely pay for the expense of cleaning them 

 Besides, they will never grow to any size, but b( 



Indian corn are fully ripe, they should be gather- i 

 ed when they are dry, and in a clear air. The 

 outer hard husks are to be rejected, and the soft- | 

 er inner ones to be fully dried in the shade. Cut 

 off the hard end formerly atiaclied to the cob, and 

 draw the husk through a hatchel, or suitably di- 

 vide it with a coarse comb. The article is now 



fit for use to be put into an entire sack as straw 



is or to be formed into a matrass as prepared hair 

 is. Any upholsterer can do the work. This ma- 

 terial is sweet, pleasant and durable. 



Preservation of Cabbages. — Among other modes 

 of preserving cabbages which have often been de- 

 tailed in our paper, the following, in some circum- 

 stances may prove most eligible. After the heads 

 are gathered and freed from their loose leaves and 

 stalks, so that nothing remains but the sound part 

 of the heads, head them up in a tijrlit cask. By 

 thus excluding them from air they may be kept a 

 long time. Those intended for the longest keep- 

 ing should be put into small cask?, as they will 

 soon spoil, when exposed to the air. 



Watering Grass Lands. — Mr Arthur Young 

 says, " in November you may begin to w.iter your 

 inowing ground and pastures, wherever it can be 

 done ; and be assured that no improvement will 

 pay better: a winter's watering will answer for 

 hay land fully equal to a common manuring of 

 the best manure you can lay on the land ; and the 

 expense is. in some situations very trifling. The 

 lower parts of a farm are generally in grass, and 

 the farmer should attend to his ditches, so that the 

 water from all the higher parts of the farm may 

 have an unobstructed course to a ditch a little 

 above the bottom land, from which it may be 

 spread at will over the meadows, observing that it 

 only runs over them, and does not stagnate. 



Fattening Beasts. — It is said by Arthur Young, 

 that " the best food for fattening cattle is pars- 

 nips ; next carrots ; then come cabbages, potatoes 

 and turnips. If a farmer has a due provision of 

 these plants, with good hay for cutting into chafl' 

 ■with straw, he will not find grain and oil cake 

 profitable unless beef promises to be very high, 

 and grain and cake very cheap. Whatever the 

 food, it cannot be too often repeated, that small 

 quantities are to be given at a time ; that troughs, 

 cribs, &c, are to be kept very clean, and that litter 

 must be plentiful, that the beasts have clean hides 

 and warm beds." 



Parsnips for field culture have been neglected 

 in this country, though highly apjjreciated as a field 

 crop in many parts of Europe. The seeds,. ac- 

 cording to some English writers, are best sown in 

 autumn, by which means they will appear early in 

 the following spring. " Frosts," says a writer in 

 Monk's Agricultural Dictionary, "never affect the 

 seeds, nor do the yoimg plants ever suffer from the 

 severity of the soasens. Not only on this ground, 

 but for many other reasons, autumn is preferable 

 to spring sowing, as the weeds at this latter time 

 will keep pace with the parsnips; and often when 

 they are hoed or cleared, a great part of the crop I durin 



your readers who wish to excel in growing veget- 

 ables, may stir up a small quautily of cow-dung 

 with the wash, and if applied when the plants are 

 in a growing state, I hesitate not to say it will an- 

 swer their highest expectations : this I speak from 

 experience, as cauliflowers, cabbages, and goose- 

 berries, which h.ive obtained the jirizes, 1 have 

 watered with my own hands. I am satisfied, if 

 T ARTE POTATOES i farmers in this country were to have a barrel 



The Genesee Farmer of the 27tli' ult. mentions sunk in one corner of their cow-houses, and the 

 a potato left at the office in ,yhich that paper is] wash dramed into it, and with a water-pot or oth 



Corn husks for beds. — As soon as the husks of gtic^y, or cankered, and consequently will be des 



titute of nutrimental juice ; while on the contra- 

 ry, those which are sown in autumn will be large.' 



.Sec jXew England Farmer, vol. is. p. 406, vol. x 



p. 122, .331, 394. 



published, by Mr Kimball of Henrietta, weighing 

 4S lbs., and continues "But our neighbors at Pal- 

 nijra have produced one which ' beats all' that 

 we have ever seen or heard of. The Palmyra 

 Sentinel says, Mr John Rogers of this town raised 

 the past season, a potato weighing 5 lbs. 10 ozs. 

 We challenge the whole ' Genesee Country' to 

 beat this.' 



Wc have a potato left at the ofiice of the New 

 England Farmer, which we should call very large 

 if we had not seen notices like those above. Thi 

 weighs about two pounds, and was raised bj 

 James Otis, Esq. Lyme, N. H. 



er means, apply it to their land in moist weather, 

 they would find their labor would not be lost. — 



Gardener's Mag. 



Henry Pekrine, Esq. Consul of the Unitet 

 States at Campeche, offers a premium of on< 

 thousand dollars for an invention to separate from 

 the fresh leaves of the Jlgaves, those fibres which wiather becomes cool, they appear to lose their 



CALVES. 



There is no part of the live stock upon a farns 

 that requires more care through the month of No- 

 vember and December than calves. We do not 

 believe it a matter of economy to allow stock of 

 any description to become poor at any time, but if 

 one part suffers more by it than others, at any par- 

 ticular time, we believe it is when calves are al- 

 lowed to become poor the finst fall and winter. 

 The condition in which a young creature is kept 

 tlu! first year has a wonderful effect upon its future 

 sliai>e and size. Unless there is some pains taken 

 o learn calves to eat meal or grain before the 



c called Sisal Hemp, by a machine which will 

 save as much labor as Whitney's Gin in separating 

 the seeds from cotton 



ON THE ADVANTAGES OF USING COW-WASH 



THE GROWTH Or VEGETABLES. 



By Mr VFilsou, Criswili, HiLL, Slaffordsliirn. 



Some of tlie readers of the Register may not 



altogether be aware of the benefits to be derived 



from the use of cow-wash in the growth of vc; 



ables. The market gardeners in the vicinity of 



Glasgow, use it in great quantities, which they pro 



Bure from cow feeders in the city, at the rate of 



four pence per barrel, (a common herring barrel) 



and I can from observation vouch for its efticacy. 



Cauliflower, cabbage, brocoli, celery, and as| 



gns thrive amazingly with it, and I have applied it 



myself to gooseberries, currants, raspberries, iVc, 



with excellent effect. They apply it after this 



p[)etite for ibod ; and it will be found much more 

 idillieult to effect it than when commenced in time, 



nd while they are in flesh and spirits. By placing 

 small trough in the field where calves are pas- 

 turrd, and supplying them with salt and meal, 

 boiled potatoes or pumpkins alternately, they soon 

 become fond of such extra food, even while grass 

 is yet fresh and plenty ; and by increasing the 

 quantity as the frost destroys the nutriment of the 

 pastures, they may be kejit through the first win- , 

 ter with less risk and trouble than when they are 

 allowed to become poor in autumn. For a gen- 

 eral rule, young cattle, that were kept in high flesh 

 the first winter, will be as fit for market at three 

 years old, as they will at four where they were 

 stinted in their growth the first winter by starva- 

 tion. — Genesee Farmer. 



A calf has been sold at Portland, Me. 3| months 



old, which weighed when dressed, meat 21.5 lbs. 



manner: a little earth is drawn round the stern of) ^j^^ 26|, tallow 20, head and pluck about 2.5— to- 



the plant or tree in the form of a basin, into wlucb ,g, gsej n^^ l^ „„s ^j^gj ^y j,,. wiliiam Stinch- 



the liquid is poured. If it be dry hot weather, I g^,^^ 35 pfjsjew Gloucester— short horned breed, 



" Beat this who can," says the 



Family Reader. 



this is done in the evening, hut if the weather he | ^^^ g„|,i f^^ jjj^ 

 moist it may be done at any time. When this has 

 been performed two or three times, the plants are 

 earthed up, and receive no more of it. They ap- 

 ply it to their asparagus beds at any time from the 



Wounds. — The usual application in India to a 



fresh wound is slacked lime. It is also used for 



beginninlg of March to the beginning of April. I burns and scalds. Equal proportions of lime, wa- 



Their celery is planted on ridges five feet wide, I jgr, and any kind of oil, made into a thin paste, 

 in rows across the ridge, at twelve inches from row and immediately applied, and repeatedly moist- 

 to row. Before planting they flood the ridge with i ened, will speedily remove the effects of a burn, 



the wash, having previously dug the bed with a 

 little manure. Nothing answers better than this 

 wash for turnips. I have seen most excellent 

 crops when no other manure was used. The 



even when a blister has risen. 



Cape Cod Productions. — Mr Russell — I send you 



a splendid White Flat Turnip, (raised in tliis lown, from 



. , seed purchased of you last spring) which weighs 17 lbs. 



ground for this purpose was well soaked with it I divested of its top ; with that it wei<;hed 23 llis. It ineas- 



W'inter. To try the experiment I dug a ures 40 inches in circumference, and was raised by M 

 pulled up, cut out, or otherwise destroyed, as | plot of ground without giving it any manure ; one | Dean Gray. Brewster, Mass. Aov. 13. 



