366 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MAY »0, 1S33. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY Si), 1R33 



FARMER'S -WORK FOR JUNE. 



Hay making will soon claim attention, nnd it is 

 now time to make ready and arrange your plans 

 of proceeding. In cutting grass for hay, a proper 

 attention slioiild l)c paid to the state of its growth. 

 If cut too early, or before it has obtained its most 

 perfect state, there Avill be much loss in drying. 

 If it stands too late it is not only harder to mow, 

 but the seed, the most nutritive part, will shell out 

 ■while drying. But when there is much hay mak- 

 ing to be done, the whole cannot be performed at 

 precisely the right season. It will therefore be 

 expedient to cut the thickest grass, and that which 

 has lain, or is in danger of lying down. The 

 thinnest grass should be cut ne.xt, which is apt to 

 be soonest ripe, and last of all that which is on a 

 medium between thick and thin. If your mowing 

 ground is level, the use of a horse rake will greal- 

 ij lighten your labor. 



If a second crop is expected, the grass may he 

 cut a little earlier than might be best otherwise. It 

 is a good plan to mix layers of green or new cut 

 grass, especially of clover, with layers of straw in 

 the mow. In this way the strength of the clover 

 is absorbed by the straw, which, thus impregnated, 

 horses and cattle will eat greedily. In case you 

 have no straw on hand, (which we told, or ought 

 to have told you to preserve for this very purpo.se) 

 you may mix some of your last year's hay, (on the 

 north east scaffold at the right hand of the barn 

 door) which is doubtless very dry by this time, 

 with such new cut grass, as it may be expedient 

 to house in your barn before it is altogether as dry 

 as a " remainder biscuit." 



It is also recommended in the " ^9gricuUural 

 Report of Scotland,'''' to apply from four to eight 

 quarts of salt to a ton of new hay, while depositing 

 it in a barn or stack. It is found that hay thus 

 salted can be well saved in a greener state, anil, 

 at the same time the benefit, which the hay de- 

 rives from the salt, is more than four times its val- 

 ue. More than a peck of salt should not be appli- 

 ed to a ton of hay, as over salting diminishes its 

 nutriment. 



The art of hay making consists in rendering it 

 sufficiently dry to prevent its heating too much in 

 the stack or mow, and at the same time preserv- 

 ing, as much as possible without danger, the nat- 

 ural juice of the grass. CJ»ver, say some, after it 

 is cut, should remain in the swath tilt it is dried 

 about two thirds of its thickness. It should then 

 not be spread, but turned over, and as little shaken 

 or stirred about as possible before it is put under 

 cover. Others however, advise to spread the 

 swath immediately after the mower, in order to 

 make it as fast as possible, and be careful to carry 

 it to the barn or stack before the leaves are dry 

 enough to crumble. We apprehend that the mode 

 in this case may be varied according to circum- 

 stances. If the weather be fair and settled, spread 

 the swaths, but if lowering and variable let your 

 grass remain as left by the mower, turning it over 

 when half dry, without spreading. 



Salt for Cattle and Sheep. Although it has been 

 thought by some agriculturists that cattle or sheep 

 if allowed as much salt as they will consume 

 are apt to take it to excess, it is doubted by none 

 that a due quantity is beneficial to most or all an 

 mals. Cattle and sheep, it is said, when running 

 in fresh feed, in the fore pan of the season, stand 



in particular need of this condiment ; and a prac" 

 tical husbandman once told us that in giving sal' 

 to these animals, it is best to mix it with unleach- 

 ed ashes in the proportion of one quart of fine salt 

 to one half bushel of ashes. The mixture, he told 

 us would preserve the health and increase the ap- 

 petite of the animals, and, he believed, would se- 

 cure sheep from the rot, and horses from the 

 botts. 



Cucumbers, Melons, Squashes, Ifc. Do not per- 

 mit too many of these plants to remain in a hill. 

 Some experienced gardeners have told us that hills 

 of water melons should be planted eight feet apart, 

 and of musk melons six feet apart each way. And 

 when the plants have becouie too large to be des- 

 troyed by bugs, they should be thinned, so as to 

 leave only one in a hill. Cucumbers should be 

 left but little nearer together than musk n)elons. 

 The oftener you stir the ground among these and 

 other hoed crojis, the less they will suffer by dry 

 weather. 



Culture of Com. If the ground on which you 

 have planted your Indian corn is level, light, and 

 but little infected with weeds, you will do well to 

 use a harrow at the first time of hoeing instead of 

 a plough. In a stift'stoney stubborn soil a plough 

 or cultivator is to be preferred, at least for the 

 second and third time hoeing. Put a handful of 

 wood ashes or plaster of Paris, or some say a 

 mixture of both is better than either separate, on 

 your hills of corn and potatoes, just before the first 

 or second hoeing. These articles are commonly 

 applied immediately after weeding, but it is re- 

 commended, particularly in dry weather, to cover 

 them with earth, as the sun and air will otherwise 

 rob them of fertilizing qualities. 



Soap Suds is among the best of all possible anti- 

 dotes for insects, besides being a valuable manure. 

 If you will sprinkle your fruit-trees, in the spring 

 by the help of a garden engine, or one of those 

 syringes, which may be had at the Agricultural 

 Ware house. No. 52 North Market Street, with 

 soap suds, twice a week for two or three weeks, you 

 will soon find that canker-worms, cut-wornjs, and 

 caterpillars will be almost as scarce on your prfcmis- 

 es as mermaids, unicorns and flying dragons. Soap 

 suds are also a very fine article for watering cu- 

 ciHidier ])lants and other growing products of the 

 garden ; if water from the wash-tub cannot handily 

 be had you may find it worth your while to sub- 

 stitute a weak solution of potash. 



Sea Water. Watering plants, such as potatoes, 

 turnips, and even flax with sea-water has been re- 

 connnended by Dr. Deane. But he says, " Sea 

 Water applied to tender plants most commonly 

 proves too strong for them, if applied when the 

 ground is dry. But if the ground is wet, the 

 strength of the water is abated by mixing with the 

 juices of the soil, before it is taken up by the roots, 

 and thus rendered innocent and safe, as I have 

 found by experience." As asparagus is naturally 

 a maritime plant, and found growing on the bor- 

 ders of salt marshes, it is probable that watering 

 it with sea-water would promote its growth suffi- 

 ciently to pay for the trouble, where such water is 

 handy. 



" Sea-water might he carried, (says the Far- 

 mer's Assistant) from the sea, some distance on 

 the land, to advantage, in the following manner. 

 Take a one horse cart, and suspend a tight box 

 rightly shaped under the axle-tree, the box having 

 a valre in the under side ; drive the cart into the 



water, and the valve opens and lets that fluid into 

 the box ; and when the cart is driven out, the valve 

 closes and holds the water. 



" When the cart is drawn to the grouml nn 

 which the water is to he spread, this operation 

 may be performed in the manner we shall iiext de- 

 scribe: a tube is to he provided, say twelve feet in 

 length, with small holes bored into it at the (Us- 

 ance of six inches apart, and the end of the tube 

 closed; attach this to the under side of the box, 

 crossways, at either end, so as to be out of the 

 way of the wheels of the cart. 



" When you come to wherathe water is to b« 

 spread, it is to be let out oftheliox into a tube, by 

 an aperture for that purpose, and as the cart moves 

 along, the water runs out of each of the small holes 

 in the tube, and thus sprinkles over a piece of 

 ground twelve feet wide, till the whole is ex- 

 hausted. 



" With the next load, begin where the water 

 ceased running before, and thus continue the wa- 

 tered stripe across the field. Then take another 

 stripe of twelve feet wide adjoining that already 

 watered, and thus proceed till the whole has been 

 gone over. 



" In this way a man would carry out say forty 

 cart loads a day, at the distance of half a mile, or 

 half that number if a mile ; as but little time need 

 be spent in loading and unloading. About ten 

 loads of a hundred gallons each would probably 

 he sufficient for an acre at one time." 



There can be no doubt hut the application of 

 sea-water would i)rove fatal to cock-chaflers, grubs, 

 cul-worms, &c. Liquid manure of any kind may 

 be expeditiously applied in the way above men- 

 tioned. 



ICnitling Machine. Our friend who signs " One 

 of your Subscribers" is informed that l\iv notice of 

 a Knitting Machine was originally tak(m from 

 Niles' Register, a paper printed in Baltimore. 

 We believe nothing of the kind is to be found in 

 Boston. 



The stason is on the whole promising, though 

 not so forward as the opening spring led us to an- 

 ticipate. Long continued cold easterly winds have 

 [)ut a temporary veto on vegetation, and May, with 

 us insteaJ of being "Born in yon blaze of orient 

 sky " was in fact 



Born in a fog, and cradled ia a storm. 



Still fruit trees are abounding in blossoms, and 

 the rain^ which, in some parts of the Union, fell 

 in such quantities as to produce destructive floods, 

 iu this vicinity were not sufficiently copious to 

 be attended with any bad eflicts; and we have 

 neither seen nor heard of frosts to blast the hopes 

 of the husbandman. 



IVORKS OF THE APPL.E-TREE BORER. 



A FRiE."JD, residing in Newton, Mass. has sent 

 us a stump, and some of the roots of (we believe) 

 an apple tree, which are full of worms holes, 

 half filled with fine dust and other marks of some 

 insects, which evidently caused the death of the 

 tree ; and requests our opinion relative to the evil 

 and its remedy. We believe the mischief was the 

 work of the Apple-Tree Borer, (saperda bivittata) 

 of which we have frequently given descriptions 

 and notices. 



The Mass. Agr. Repos. vol. v. p. 360, contains 

 a paper on this insect, by John Prince, Esq. by 

 which it appears that worms of this kind are des- 

 troyed "by digging round the tree, and clearing 

 away the earth to the roots, and then with a sharp 



