VOIi. XI. NO. 46. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



365 



a n\]nd dissciniiuuion of knowlmlgc amongst tin; 

 whole i)TOlussion. The art of agnculture vvus 

 brought into fasliion, and a tlegree of exertion man- 

 ifeste.l which had never before been exemplified 

 ou that island. 



[To lie continued.] 



From Ihe Ociusce Farmer. 

 USE OP PliASTER. 



Messrs. Editoks, — I became a subscriber to the 

 Genesee Farmer for the purpose of deriving infor- 

 mation, not expecting ever to become one of the 

 contributors to its columns; but some conununica- 

 tions upon the subject of Plaster of Paris having 

 appeared in the Farmer, and a plan having been 

 given for its use, I have thought it not improper 

 to submit to you, sirs, the method generally ado [it- 

 ed by our best farmers here. Plaster is always to 

 be sown on wheUt, unless the land is wanted for 

 a sprhig crop the next year, after clover seed, at 

 the rate of one, two and even three busliels per 

 acre. After harvest the young clover ought not to 

 be pastured much, if any ; the next year the clover 

 is suiferod to grow as large as it can bo, and be well 

 turned over, which is then done, the ground fallow- 

 ed and the wheat sown ; the next year sow the clo- 

 ver seed and [ilaster, and so on from year to year 

 ad infinitum, the land always getting better, as is 

 supposed by those that practice upon this method. 

 Plaster we think should be sown on pasture. An 

 old farmer, and one that has proved his skill by mak- 

 ing a fortune at the business, and who now tills 

 nearly 500 acres, told me to-day, that a ton of plas- 

 ter sown on ten acres of pasture would make it 

 yield as much as fifteen acres under like circum- 

 stances without plaster. If you should think any 

 of this worth printing — you will probably hear 

 more from Onondaga. 



ON PRESERVING FRUITS AND SEEDS. 



An old English writer asserts that " wood ashes 

 1 have experienced to be an excellent preserver of 

 fruits, and much the best tiling we kno'v to pack 

 tender fruits for transportation ; it will not only 

 keep such soft fruits as peaches, nectarine, apricots. 

 Sec. fronr bruising in the carriage, but keep their 

 fleshy parts from putrefaction. Tlie late Lord 

 Capel, who was so famous for his fine gardens at 

 Kew Green, by this means had fruit sent him fronr 

 this place to Ireland, in very good perfection. 

 The method of doing which was to gathtr the fruit, 

 when it was quite dry, and after laying it in flan- 

 nels for some hours, a box was prepared for it, 

 with a bed of fine sifted wood ashes at tire bottom 

 about four inches thick, upon which the fruit was 

 laid so as not to touch one another by about an 

 inch, and then wood ashes sifted over it till all the 

 spaces were filled, and the fruit was covered about 

 two inches, then tnoi-e fruit was laid in as before, 

 and then more ashes, and so on, layer above layer, 

 till the fruit reached within four inches of the top 

 of the box, and then as many ashes silted over it 

 as could be pressed down under the lid of the box 

 by a man of full strength ; so was it carried sever- 

 al hundred miles without receiving the least inju- 

 ry. The fiireness of the parts of these ashes, render 

 them in the fii-st place capable of being pressed so 

 very close together that no air can get through 

 them ; nor are their parts such as are apt to imbibe 

 moisture, atrd are therefore incapable of putrefac- 

 tion ; for we may keep them many years without 

 perceiving them to alter or change from what they 



putrefying quality themselves, but seem also to 

 contain some power, wliich is opposite to putre- 

 faction, and therefore we never find any insects 

 bred among them; for this reason 1 am apt to be- 

 lieve that wood ashes would he the best thing we 

 could use to bring seeds in from foreigrr part.s, as 

 the East or West Indies ; for in long voyages we 

 find most seeds inclined to rot and breed insects. 

 This way 1 believe will keep therrr sound, espec- 

 ially since the ancients afiirm, that the lentils, 

 which are subject to corrupt may be kept by 

 them." — Bradley^s Survey of ancient Husbandry, 



(^uery. Might not Sweet Potatoes be preserved 

 in dry wood ashes ? 



From Ihe IlorlkuUand Register. 

 MOPES OP DESTROYING RATS AND MICE. 



By Mr. John Mowden. 



Take a large flower pot, invert it on a board or 

 slate, and sink it in the ground nearly level with 

 the surface ; opposite the hole in the bottom of the 

 pot and about two inches fronr the surface or en- 

 trance, may be suspended on a crooked piece of 

 wire, a smooth wooden roller, like the caster of a 

 bed post. This the mouse will leap upon, and from 

 thence be precipitated to the bottom from whence 

 it can i\e\et escape; and hundreds may be caught 

 in the same trap without any trouble of resetting. 

 The surface nray be sprrnkled with chaff or short 

 sti-aw, and a mixture of grass and clover seeds 

 about the hole. The roller may be besmeared 

 with lard and dusted over with flour or oatmeal, 

 in wet weather a tile may be set over the hole to 

 keep it dry. 



I have invented another very simple mouse or 

 rat trap, the difl'erence is only in the size. An 

 old packing box four inches deep for mice, and 

 six lor rats, is divided into lodging rooms four or 

 six inches square. Each lodging room has two 

 auger holes in it, the size of a mouse or rat, 

 whichever the trap is intended for, as the rat par- 

 ticularly always requires to have a back door for 

 retreat. The boxes may be placed under heaps of 

 straw or corn in barns, sheds, or gardens. A few 

 sheaves of half thrashed oats may be laid over 

 them in the latter places ; the place will soon be- 

 conre the rendezvous of the vermin, and on remov- 

 ing the straw or corn, they will be found in their 

 lodging rooms with their young ones. The box 

 may be 18 or 24 inches wide, and of any length. 

 The augur holes for ingress and egress may be 

 stopped at once by a false frame or square of hoop 

 iron which may be made to drop down over all 

 the holes at once, and the box may then be carried 

 oft' to a place for the dog to try his agility. 



TO PRESERVE DAHLIA ROOTS. 



A WRri'ER in the Horticultural Register states 

 that he preserves Dahlia Uools through the winter 

 by the following method : — - 



I choose a fine day to take up the roots, and 

 expose them for a few hours to the sun, to dry the 

 mould on them. I then clear away all the dirt I 

 possible can, wiping' each root with a cloth if ne- 

 cessary. AVhen quite clean, I ])ut them into a 

 lioarded closet and a kitchen. In a few days, I 

 scatter thinly all over them some very dry sand, 

 they are then left,. and only examined from time 

 tc time to see that they do not get mouldy, which 

 by the bye I never found happen. 



A HEAIiTIIY SEASON. 



TrtERE is no subject on which our citizens are 

 moreanxiousatprcsent than the i)robability of this 

 city, being favored with the absence of sickness 

 doing this summer. Public opinion varies ou thjs 

 point, but we are fully borne out in saying that the 

 Iropesof a very healthy season are every day gain- 

 ing strength. Cholera has totally disappeared in the 

 Island of Great Britain, and has also become near- 

 ly extinct in Ireland. The Breze, the first arrival 

 fr-om Ireland this season brings very favorable 

 reports, and although she had 125 emigrants on 

 board, there was not one case of sickness. An-' 

 other very promising circumstance has beeir no- 

 ticed here indicating a ver-y healthful state of the 

 atmosphere : several plants which make rapid 

 and early vegetation, have already made more 

 growth at this date than they did all last sum- 

 mer. This is an indication which, we have been 

 informed, seldom fails, and we hope on the pi-esent 

 occasion it wdl be found equally certain. — Canadi- 

 an Courant. 



A. GBOI.OGICAL1 JOULE. 



A GENTLEMAN traveling through a wretched coun- 

 try, stopt for a whUe to convei-se with a man 

 who was manuring his laud. " Friend," said he, 

 "you labor to very lutle purpose — this is the most 

 wretched sod I have seen." " Aye stranger," re- 

 plied the farmer, " bad enough, yet something 

 may be made out of it by hard work." " True — 

 but you must be miserably poor." ," No — not so 

 poor as you think — / only own half of this piece of 

 land." 



A CORRESPONDENT of the American Farmer, says 

 that he destroyed all the Caterpillars in his or- 

 chard, by using mops of cloth, dipped in salt and 

 water, and conveyed to the nests on the ends of 



were when first made, and not only without any | long poles. 



jVfJO Cure for the Cholera. The London New 

 Monthly gives the following as a powerful success- 

 ful remedy in this frightful disease. " My plan 

 has been to give at once fifteen grains of Musk 

 rubbed into a draught, with a lump of sugar and 

 a wine glass full of cold water ; and I am justified 

 in reporting that this first step, if taken promptly, 

 will scarcely ever fail to arrest the progress of the 

 disease, and to leave the patient to easy and ordi- 

 nary convalescence, &c." 



A FEW weeks ago we published a letter, copied 

 from Silliman's Journal of Arts and Sciences, in 

 wliich it was stated that a mechanic in one of the 

 western states had been able, by a sheet-iron buz 

 fixed in a turning lathe, to cut the hardest steel 

 without difliculty. Mr. Cox, chairmaker, of this 

 jilace, on reading the piece, nrade the experiment 

 and found that it succeeded to admiration. He 

 has informed us that he now uses his buz ftr a 

 circular saw, by means of which he is enabled to 

 execute a part of his work with far greater facility 

 than he could by his former nrode. — Muncy Tele- 

 graph. 



Beat this who can— Raised in this town by Mr. D. 

 Felt one hundred heads of barley from one kernel, 

 eighty of which were ripe, yielding too thousand 

 two hundred and fifty kernels.— Aeu) Fpswich Reg- 

 ister. ^^^ 



To take Ink spots out of Mahogany.— App\j 

 spirits of salt with a rag, until the spot disappears, 

 ■ immediately wash with clear water. 



