146 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



November 21, 1833. 



not naturally so let it lay in the pomace fifteen or of which the farmer knows b>,t l.ttle, or ever takes plant mto that ground trom wh.ch .1 or,..,ually ,s- 

 ™vfn,rs befoe it is PL, into the vat or into his calculations. He has but one way of put- , sued, and manurmg it ac.ordu.g to the quantum 

 Wenty ''--' ^rfo'e 't ^^ V^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^. ^^^^ .,„ p,^„,,_ ^^,ji„g the earth with ma„nre. Butl of juices ,t received frou, the eanh, and with that 



to adapt the plant to the soil from which it origi4 matter liUely to torm a proper compouml adapted 



^ I nally came, to ««i< also the manure to toi/i that| to its wants, in short, attending to the right rules 



LARGEST BEET YET — MANAGEMENT \ they may exactly agree, and not injure the veget-| of vegetable economy, and the common process of 



cheese to be pressed, and take car 

 comes near it. 



able ; that the situation of the plant may be con-| natu 

 suited, with respect to liumidityand dryness 

 that to complete the whole, the aspect a\so m 



, „ '-^'^ ^/^ . .■.„„, ,.pnnrf« nfl Suited, with respect to liumidity and dryness ; andl But I am sorry to say, that, in manuring the 

 Mr FESSENDKN-Havmg observed .epous ot , smteo, ,„.' .^„ ,.,,_,„ .J „_.,-,.„ ,„ay be imum.eraWe far.ns, diverslj, situate,', I Uave but 



too often found this order reversed ; the chalk 

 plant put in sand, the sand plant in clay, and so 

 )n : and what is still more, the watery plant put 

 u dry ground, and the dry vegetable in a wet soil; 

 and in all these cases they cannot fail of making a 

 ifery bad crop. A plant accustomed to a poor 

 oil, ])laced in a good one, rots ; while the one 

 .vliich prefers a rich loam, is starved in a poor one. 



this village, that weighed 'm Pounds, and our agricultural system, as I hope to sl.ow 



meas. ed 27| inches in circumference. It has been a subject of consulerab e rnqmry 



Sho Id you think it advisable, you may publish among agr.cultunsts, as m what consists the food 



cnuiMu J. u I , ., J 1 ^^ plants. Some have attributed it to wate-- »"">» 



the following: 



Having a small spot for a garden, of ight grav- 

 elly soil, I found that during the dry season of the 

 year my vegetables suffered severely fron. drought ; 

 last season 1 manured my garden in th? fall, and 

 ploughed it deep. In the spring I weit over it 

 very thoroughly with a heavy drag or harrow, and 

 the result was, that no part of the garden suffer- 

 ed from drought, but on the contrary withstood the 

 dry weather better than it ever had done. 



Again : on the north line of ray garden, I have 

 a close board fence ; late in the fall I manure a 

 space a yard wide, with old manure, and half a 

 bushel of lime on eight rods in length ; as soon as 

 the frost is out of the ground, I plant my peas and 

 usually have a mess before your city papers re- 

 port them as selling at four or five dollars per 

 bushel. I have found from six years' experience. 



some 

 To all these sources 



to earth, and others to air. 



vegetation is indebted ; the fertilizing principle of \ clayey plant put in sand, is blown out of the 



all manures is referable to the extractive matter ' ''" "" ''' '' ^ ' ' 



arising from decomposed animal and vegetable re- 

 crements, and in this state soluble in water, which 

 is the carrying medium into the vegetable substan- 

 ces. Vegetables in general will not grow in pure 

 earth, or pure water ; some plants are .so organ- 

 ized as to require only mechanical support from 

 the soil, abstracting their nourishment from the at- 

 mosphere by means of tlieir leaves ; whilst others 

 from their roots depend upon the soil for their 

 support. Although many plants will grow in dif- 

 ferent soils, yet they have all their favorite ground ;| 



d it is moio easy to accommodate the plant tokause of innumerable failures, that I am most anx 



the soil than to adapt the soil to the plant. By 

 knowing therefore, what sort of plant the farmer 



aith, for want of those rcictitive poicers the root 

 s used to ; while the sand plant, placed in clay, 

 Iccays at the root from the under moisture which 

 t cannot bear. The chalk plant, also placed in 

 ;ravel, is destroyed by its own acidil)/, which is no 

 onger subdued; for most plants, if the farmer do 

 lot grudge the making of the soil, he may cer- 

 ainly do it, but it can never answer in point of 

 5xpense. It is a strange mistake, and a most fatal 

 )ne, that almost all, even some of our best gentle- 

 nen farmers fall into, viz : that they cannot ina- 

 lure too highly. Now this is so completely the 



■ ' .1 1 .1 is •'oin" to put in, he mav of course he residated 



that the ear er peas are put into the ground, the '*o"i"h '" P"' ■" - 



earlicr they arrive at maturity, and are not so sub- 

 ject to mildew or insects. 



Yours, &e, A Suesckiber. 



Chicopee Factory, Mass. jVoi: 16, 1832. 



with respect to the quantity and species of ina- 

 nnre required, the aspect wanted, and the degree 

 of humidity and dryness requisite for the plant. 

 All plants came originally from a peculiar earth ; 

 either from clay, sand, gravel, chalk, or loams 

 formed from a mixture of some of these, or from a 

 ADAPTING PLANTS TO SOILS. very wet or dry soil : and though many jilanis 



The following valuable remarks, from the pen ofUvill grow indilferently in several species of earili, 

 Mrs Agnes Ibbetson, a lady ceUbrated for her ag- yet they have all their favorite ground, that wljieli 

 ricultural and economical skill, a-e extracted from they evidently prefer. Now to make the soil fit for 



ous to censure the practice. It always reminds 

 ne of the account given by Miller, of what was 

 lone in the IVcst Indies, when some botanists 

 ivcre desirous of bringiiig over some fine plants of 



hat the 



richest 



the Bath and West of England Society's Papers. 

 I have been lately much eniploy;d in endeavoring 

 to show that all plants should be divided, disposed 

 or placed according to the differci t soils, congenial 

 to their habits, from which they originally pro- 

 ceed ; and that it is to the total ii attention to this 

 circumstance, that we probably owe the very 

 strange and contradictory results constantly to be 

 found in all agricultural reports. No person can 

 read with attention the late accounts delivered to 



the plant, is certainly a very expensive thing ; but 

 to adapt the iilant to the soil, is not only an eat^y 

 and expeditious mode, but one which requires in- 

 finitely less assistance in dressing, labor, seed, and 

 care of every kind. It is true that nil cultivated 

 plants demand some manure, because nature gives 

 not salt and oil enoiis;h in any earth, to do without 

 some assistance of this kind ; but the plant that is 

 natural to the soil requires infinitely less than that 

 which is adverse to it, and may therefore be cu 



the House of Commons, respecting the growth of tiva'.ed at a quarter of the expense. Now nature 



corn throughout this kingdom, without being 

 struck with the contradictory returns transmitted 

 of the whole ; and without being convinced that 

 there must be some hidden cause for such a 

 strange diversity in the gains of the farmer : as 

 there are many instances adduced in those reports, 

 of the same excellent management, where the 

 same seed has been sown, an equal degree of la- 

 bor performed, with the same season, time and ma- 



is so bountiful, that there is scarcely a plant ne- 

 cessary to the food of man and animals, that, if 

 we choose with care, has not one peculiar sort, cal- 

 culated for every soil. 



Nature has been bountiful in plants peculiarly 

 adapted to agriculture, and in which there are 

 quite as many species fitted {or poor land, as fornVA 

 land ; and if jilanted in their own soils, give an 

 nfinitely greater return, and are not subject to those 



ivcre desirous ot bringiiig over some nne pi 

 Ihi' cact(B species. They inquired not wl 

 j)ja:us tvere, but wholly iuatteutivo to tlicir 

 ; 4rt plants, they put them into tubs of the 

 Soil tiiey could procure ; the plants all died : but 

 this was looked upon as an accident, and the same 

 proless again followed, when one of the casks brcak- 

 inglhey concluded that the plants niu.st die, as the 

 earii hail left them ; and flinging on them some 

 diTSand which happened to be in the way, 9rdered 

 tlietasks down to the hold, when to their great 

 astonishment the plants so treated lived, while 

 tliosl in the other cases died as usual. This op- 

 eneilthe eyes of the gardeners with respect to 

 rockjplants ; hut to this day sand plants, instead 

 of hjvinga poor soil, generally receive a rich one. 

 Thet is not a more ruinous effect than that pro- 

 ducel on the plant of a poor soil placed in rich 



grOUld. [To be continued.] 



1 RAIL ROADS. 



I mticed that at the last session of the legisla- 

 ture ai application was made for a charter for a 

 Rail Soad between New-Haven and Hartford, 

 and I have since seen an advertisement that the 

 applieition will be renewed at the coming session ; 

 I have also noticed sundry communications in 

 your jiper within a few weeks, full of faith that 

 great 'iches and honor are in store for " Many," 

 in the liree cities interested therein ; the public will 

 judge ihether the benefits anticipated are likely 



nure employed, and one farmer has gained three | dreadful disorders but too common to plants placed 



times as much again as was expended for putting j in improper ground. I have repeatedly traced ; to be rtilized— I hope that no person in Hartford 



will oppse the petition. 



Respcting Rail Roads, I would beg leave to 

 call the attention of our citizens to a mimber al- 

 ready conmenced and in contemplation, all of which 



in the crop, while another has scarcely exonera- 1 maladies arising from this source, that tainted the 



ted and repaid himself for the labor and seed -,1 very means of life in a vegetable: and being con- 



what then could he the cause of the loss of the lat- j slaiitly accustomed, when I heard of any c.xtraor- 



ter, and the gain of the former? It must, I am ! dinary crop, to proceed to the place, and inquire 



convinced, be chiefly owing to the agreement or I thoroughly into the causes and management made 1 have an inportant bearing on our future prosperity 



disagreement of the plant with the soil in which use of by the farmer, I have generally found the j The railroad from Boston to Albany, which has 



it is "placed, its situation and aspect ; three things success to proceed from accidentally putting the been in c.|ntemplation for many years, is now under 



