NEW ENGLrAND FAKMER. 



PUBLISHED Py GEO. C. BARRETT, NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agricultukai. VVARKHOUsr,.)-T. G. FESSENDEN. EDITOR 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 6, 1833. 



NO. 30. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 AGRICUIiTtTRAIi JESSAYS, WO. XVI. 



Mowing late uo advantage, as the days grovv 

 .shorter, and heavier dews fall — but mow close, or 

 you wiH lose more than your wages every day 

 you mow. Comeings, as they are called, are a 

 disgrace and a loss to the former. Cut the tliick- 

 est grass first ; the thinnest next ; and then that 

 which is middling — mow early in the morning, 

 and late in the evening. 



Mowing Land when bound, if not convenient 

 to plough it, may receive a severe harrowing. A 

 top dressing of old cow dung in the fall, or of 

 other dung in the spring, bushed over to break it 

 small, will increase your crop surprisingly as it 

 will be almost double; and all mowing land should 

 be thus treated, once at least in every two years. 

 If you do not dress them, feed off the crop 

 once in three years, never feed them in the 

 spring, nor close at any time. If your lands be 

 rich the drought will have little effect upon them, 

 and you will often have two good crops in the 

 year. It is not the quantity of land, but the care 

 which is taken of it, that increases hay. 



Measles in swine, to cure. Take half a spoon- 

 ful of spirits of hartshorn', two ounces of bole 

 armoniac, mix it with meal and water, and give it 

 in the morning, fasting or when he is lumgry ; 

 and repeat it four or five days going. 



NuRsERT should not be placed on a soil quite 

 so rich, as that on which the young trees are to 

 be transplanted — should not be on a spot where 

 large trees have lately growed ; nor on a soil very 

 wet or very dry. To prepare the soil, plongli, o"i 

 dig deep, in the latter ])art of summer. I'lanl 

 either seeds, or stones in the latter part of October, 

 Apple seeds may be sowed in the pomace. When 

 two or three years old you may place then in the 

 nursery, in lines three feet apart, trenching in pro- 

 portion to the length, &c. of their roots ; ta) roots, 

 and all small fibrous ones to be trimmed of — take 



up the stock with as many roots as possille let 



them be placed in the trenches 12 or l-J inches 

 asunder. Never cut the main branch for llie top, 

 side or lateral branches should be pruned iff, and 

 in proportion to the roots. Let the stock sand in 

 this position, until they are six or seven fe-t high 

 — when they will be fit for transplantirg into 

 orchards, until which time, hoe, or dig iimong 

 them every spring and fiiU — root out all gnss anil 

 weeds, keep off all suclvrs and buds. 



obtain for the very best, more than a quarter part 

 of the lowest price your correspondent names, and 

 sometimes they woidd not sell at any price. Now, 

 Mr. Editor, under the discouragement I had de- 

 termined to raise but very few, if any, tlie next 

 sununer. Not being a regular attendant on the 

 Boston market, perhaps your correspondent may 

 give me some valuable information about the sale 

 ■of this vegetable, which will induce me to alter 

 niy determination, and thereby have my heart 

 made as light by the sale of them in 1833, as my 

 purse was lightened by their culture in 1832. 1 

 agree with " Epicm-us" that it is a " healthy" and 

 " most delicious vegetable." 



Quantum Sufficit. 

 Cambridge, Jan. 1833. 



For the New England t-jrm-r. 

 CAULIPLOWER. 

 Mr. Fessenden, — Permit me througi your 

 valuable paper to ask your correspondent " I'^pi- 

 curus" at what season of the year " Caulifowrrs" 

 will " bring from 2.5 cents to a dollar" n Bos- 

 ton marker, and what sort they ought D bo to 

 command it. I procured the last sumiier the 

 most ai)proved seed from your office, aid de- 

 yoted much time and space to the culture of the 

 cauliflower, and raised some that were acelleni, 

 notwithstanding the season was so unpnpitious] 

 but to the mortification of my purse, if notliin;.' 

 more, after this trouble and expense, I ould not 



CUIiTURE OF HEMP. 



We presume that the length of the following 

 Essay will not prevent its being read with atten- 

 tion, sanctioned, as it is, by the signature of so 

 eminent a man as Henry Clay, and containing 

 results of his experience as an Agricuhurist. The 

 Editor of the American Farmer, iii some remarks 

 on this Essay, observes as follows: — 



" The plan recommended by Mr. Clay of stack- 

 ing and sweating, is getting more generally into 

 favor in the West and appears to answer an ad- 

 mirable purpose. We have seen a good deal of 

 the hemp thus prepared. About three years ago, 

 we received a lot of it from Kentucky, which we 

 sold at a price approaching to that of the best 

 Russia. In color, strength of fibre, and softness, 

 it appears fully equal to Russia hemp ; but whether 

 it will prove, on a fair trial, to be equal in du- 

 rability, we believe is not certainly known, though 

 so far every thing seems to indicate equality, il' 

 not superiority, even in this respect. It is sup- 

 posed, by some, th^t there is an acid in the fibre 

 of hemp, ^vhich must be got rid of, or it will 

 cause the ropes made of it to rot internally, (sim- 

 ilar to the dry rot in timber;) and hence that hemp 

 prepared by any of the new and expeditious pro- 

 cesses will not answer for durable ship rigging ; 

 and that the processes of water rotting and stack- 

 ing and sweating, (according to the plan of Mr. 

 Clay,) either destroy or neutralize this acid. The 

 experiment mentioned by Mr. Clay, in which 

 the ropes were found rotten, seems to favor 

 this idea ; or rather to confirm the opinion, that 

 there is some principle (whether an acid, an oil, 

 or something else, it' matters not) that requires to 

 be corrected by processes similar, as to time and 

 application, to stacking and sweating and water 

 rotting. 



We ought to have mentioned, that, in a letter to 

 the Editor of the American Farmer, of recent date, 

 Mr. Clay reiterates the opinion that the sweating 

 process is superior to all others. He has discov- 

 ered nothing, since the date of his paper, by 

 which the njethod of culture and management of 

 hemp, as therein given can be improved ; nor has 

 his subsequent experience required him to ex- 

 punge or amend any part of the process. 



From the Western Agriculturist. 

 HEMP. 



Sir, Having promised you some account of the 



method of culturing and preparing hemp in this 

 state, I now proceed to redeem it. 1 shall en- 

 deavor to describe the general practice of the cul- 

 tivators, without noticing all the deviations of par- 

 ticular individuals. 



The district of country in which the, plant is 

 most extensively cultivated, is the Elkborn region 

 around and near Lexington, which derives its 

 name from a stream discharging itself into the 

 Kentucky river, whose branches are supposed to 

 resemble the horns of an elk. It is also produced 

 in considerable quantities in the counties of Jeffer- 

 son, Shelby, Mercer, Madison, Clarke, Bourbon 

 and Mason. The soil of that region is a rich, deep 

 vegetable loam, free from sand and with but little 

 grit. It lies on a bed of clay, intersjjcrsed with 

 small fragments of iron ore, and this clay in its 

 turn reposes on a mass of limestone lying many 

 feet in depth in horizontal strata. The surface oS^ 

 the country is generally undulating. The rich 

 land, (and there is but little that is not rich,) in 

 this whole region, is well adapted to the growth 

 of hemp, where it has not l^gen too much exhausted 

 by injudicious tillage. The lauds which produce 

 it best, are those which are fresh, or whicli have ' 

 lain some time in grass of clover. Manuring is 

 not yet much practised. Clover is u.sed in lieu of 

 it. Lands whicli remain in clover four or five 

 years witk(out being too constantly and closely 

 grazed, rect)ver their virgin fertility. The charac- 

 ter of the sokl in tlie other counties above mentioned, 

 does not vai-; -.aterially from that in the Elkhorn 

 district. 



The preparation of the ground, for sowing the 

 seed, is by the plough and horses, until the clods 

 are sufliciently pulverized or dissolved, and the 

 surface of the field is rendered even and smooth. 

 It should be as carefully prepared as if it were for 

 flax. This most important point, too often ne- 

 glected, cannot be attended to too nmch. Scarcely 

 any other crop better rewards diligence and care- 

 ful husbandry. Fall or winter ploughing is prac- 

 tised with advantage— it is indispensable in old 

 meddows, or old pasture grounds intended for pro- 

 ducing hemp. 



Plants for seed are ordinarily reared, in a place 

 distinct from that in which they are cultivated for 

 the lint. In this respect, the usage is different 

 from that which is understood to prevail in Europe. 

 The seeds which are intended to reproduce seeds 

 for the crop of the next year, are sowed in drills 

 about four feet apart. When they are grown sul^ 

 ficiently to distinguish between the male and female 

 stalks, the former are pulled and thrown away, 

 and the latter are thinned, leaving the stalks sepa- 

 rated seven or eight inches from each other. This 

 operation is usually performed in the bloomings 

 season, when the sexual character of the plants is 

 easily discernable ; the male alone blossoming, and, 

 when agitated, throwing ofl" farina, a yellow dust 

 or flour which falls and colors the grotmd, or any 

 object that comes in contact with it. A few of the 

 male plants had better be left, scattered through 

 the drill, mitil the farina is completely discharged 

 for an obvious reason. Between the drills a plough 

 is run sufficiently often to keep the ground free 

 from weeds and grass ; and between the stalks in 

 each drill the hoe is employed for the same object. 



