406 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JrLY 3, 1S33. 



N E AV ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING. JULY 3, 1833. 



TO SUBSCRIBERS. 



Prices Current, &,'C. We have it in onr power to as- 

 sure our Subscribers that no pains shal) hereafter be 

 spared to give a full and correct account of the prices of 

 Country Produce, and of the Vegetable and Provision 

 Markets. Arrangements have been made to obtain the 

 most accurate Lists of Prices; and if there is any article 

 which any of our Subscribers may desire should be quoted, 

 by giving us information of their wishes they shall be 

 gratified. 



OFFICERS OP THE MASS. AGR. SOCIETY. 



At a late meeting of the Massachusetts Society for 

 Promoting Agriculture, the following gentlemen were 

 chosen officers of that Institution. 



Hon. Thos. L. Winthrop, President. 



Hon. .John Welles, Vice President. 



Hon. Peter C. Brooks, "^d Vice President. 



Hon. R. Sullivan, Corresponding Secretary. 



John He.\rd, Jun. Esq. Treasurer. 



Hon. John C. Gray, Recording Secretary. 



Benj. Guild, Esq. Assistant Recording Secretary. 



Hon. John Lowell, ■! 



E. H. Derby, Esq. | 



Hon. Wm Prescott, I ~ , 



Israel Thornd.ke, Esq. ^Trustees. 



Hon. Daniel Webster, 



Henry Codman, Esq. J 



GoRHAM Parsons, Esq. and S. G. Perkins, Esq. re- 

 spectively, resigned the offices, which they have here- 

 tofore held in the Society. Tliis we regret, for when 

 gentlemen well qualified for stations in which they are 

 rendering services to the community tender their resig- 

 nations, the public sustains loss, and they leave blanks 

 in their official stations, %vhicli it is not easy to fill with 

 well qualified successors. 



FARMER'S AVORK FOR JULiT. 



Improving Crops of Jf'lieat. It is a truth witli 

 reganl to plants as well as animals, that great ad- 

 vantages are derived by propagating from the best 

 gpeciiiiens of their respective species, varieties or 

 ,.aces. It will, therefore, be well to select either 

 p-om the field before harvest, or from tlie sheaf 

 at or after harvest, the largest, fullest, and 

 most perfect heads and stalks you can find and 

 preserve them for seed. Or, if indolence or 

 haste should uot admit of such a proceeding, 

 you can at least pick out the heads of chess, rye, 

 timothy, &c. which have no business in your 

 wheat field, from that part (if not from the whole) 

 of your crop, which you intend to reserve for seed. 



Harvesting. The time at which wheat and 

 other' grain crops should be cut is wlicn the straw 

 begins to shrink, and become white about half an 

 inch below the ear. When a severe blight or mil- 

 dew has struck the stems of wheat or rye, it 

 should be cut inuiiediately, though still in the 

 milk. Afterwards it may lie on the ground, ex- 

 )iosed to the sun till the grain is hardened. 



The " Farmer's Guide" says, " Some fanners 

 determine when grain is fit to cut by tlie following 

 signs: when the straw is all turned excepting at 

 the joints: when the kernel becomes so hard that 

 it cannot be mashed between the thumb and fin- 

 ger; or when the straw below the ear becomes so 

 dry, that no juice can be forced out by twisting it. 

 If the weather is fine, it can be bou'nd, and put 

 into the sliock immediately after cutting; but it 

 he stalk is stout, and the ear full aud heavy, it 



should lie till the after part of the day ; it can 

 then be bound, shocked or carted with safety, pro- 

 vided it is housed whore it can have free air, or 

 the mows do not become too large. Sheaves 

 should not, generally, be larger than can be bound 

 with a single length of straw. Grain should be 

 carted when the air has a small degree of damp- 

 ness, to prevent scattering. 



Lorain observed that " if grain be neither lodged 

 nor entangled, it may be cut ofi" as clean by the 

 scythe and cradle as by the sickle. If it be jiro- 

 perly gathered and bound, but little if any more loss, 

 will arise from gathering it in this way. If the 

 grain be cradled in time, it shatters less on the 

 whole, that when it is reaped and secured in the 

 usual way. It is readily granted that if grain be 

 cradled and reaped at the same time, it shatters 

 more by the former practice. It should be recol- 

 lected, however, that the very tardy jirogiess of 

 the sickle greatly increases the shattering by pro- 

 crastinating the harvest so long that the chaff opens 

 and much of the grain falls out ; whereas the rapid 

 progress of the scythe and cradle cuts off the 

 grain, before any material loss from shattering 

 can take place, if the cultivator commences in 

 time." 



Gardener's Work for July. Clean and prepare' 

 the ground where your early crops of peas, spin- 

 nage, cauliflowers and cabbages have grown, 

 and all other suitable vacant spots, to ciillivate 

 thereon such plants as are proper and profitable as 

 succession crops. In the first week or ten days 

 of this month you may plant a general crop of 

 cucumbers for pickling. Sow crops of small 

 saladiug every eight or ten days, but they should 

 now be sosvn on shady borders, or be occasionally 

 shaded with mats from the mid-day sun. You 

 may obtain not only more plentiful crops, but 

 tbo.<e which will come forward earlier in the sea- 

 son, by selecting seeds from forward and vigorous 

 plants ; and from such jilants culling the seeds 

 which are soonest ripe. It is best in general to 

 keep seeds in pods or husks, and where it can be 

 economically done, with a part of the stems, and 

 spread them in some dry and airy place to dry and 

 harden, gradually ; observing to turn them now 

 aud then, and not to place such a quantity to- 

 gether as to bring on a ferim^ntation, and hazard 

 the loss of the whole. The seeds of all soft fruits, 

 such as cucumbers, melons, &lc. must be ch'aned 

 from the pul|) and mucilage, which surround 

 them ; otherwise the rotting of those parts will 

 destroy the princi|)le of vegetation. 



If you wish to be "healthy, wealthy and wise," 

 you will not suffer the sun to rise before you. 

 Early in the morning is the best time to use the 

 hoe, whether you have reference to your own 

 health or that of the plants you cultivate. Give 

 water to such plants and crops as require it, but 

 use water for this purpose which has been ex- 

 jiosed to the sun during the t|ay ; a[)ply it in the 

 evening that it may have time to soak down to 

 the roots before the sun appears to evaporate it. 



It will reward your trouble to thin off the su- 

 perabundant fruits from such trees as are over- 

 loaded, leaving only a good, moderate, regular 

 crop on each tree. Likewise you will he well 

 employed in picking off all punctured and decay- 

 ing fruits, and giving them to swine; [if boiled or 

 steamed and mixed with Indian or some other 

 meal so much the better.] Also pick up all fallen 

 fruits, and convert them into food for swine, oth- 

 erwise the worms iu those fruits, which caused 



ilieir prcmauire lapse or decay, will e.-^cape and 

 give biitli to a new progeny, which will hereafter 

 prey on the fruits of your labors. 



PROSPECTS OP THE SEASON. 



Extract of a letter from a gentleman in North- 

 nuqiton, Mass. to the Editor of the New England- 

 Farme', dated June 2 1th, 1833. " English grain 

 looks well thus far. There is, probably, four times 

 the wheat sown in this vicinity there has been for 

 some years. Corn and grass are not so forward 

 as usual. The grass crop I think will be large — 

 corn uncertain. All kinds of fruit will probably 

 be plenty." 



Apph. Tree Borer. A friend in N(U'tli Bridg- 

 water, ivho signs "II. II." has sent us an Apple 

 Tree Borer, in the last state of its existence, when 

 it ceases to be a worm, and taking wings in the 

 shape of a bug or beetle, leaves the trunks of trees 

 lo enjoy the privileges of a denizen of air. As 

 this triminal was committed to our custody " to 

 pass examinaiion before proper autliorily," we 

 hereby order him and all his family and kin to 

 be utterly exterminated and entirely annihilated, 

 with' the exception of a few specimens to be de- 

 posited in the cabinets of entomologists. And we 

 hereby call on the posse comitatus of all correct 

 cultivators to put said decree into execution. 



T|ie means of extirpating these evil doers have 

 not been so fully pointed out as could be wished. 

 Somhhing on the subject may be fiiund in the 

 current volume of the New England Farmer, pp. 

 ■252,: 306. 



From Ihf Gaitsie Fanmr. 

 PLASTERED CLOVER. 



Messrs. Editors — Being of opinion that plas- 

 tered clover is injurious to sucking colts, I would 

 advise farmers, at this time of the year in particu- 

 hr, to be cautious in turning marcs with sucking 

 (oltsinlo clover fields that have been plastered this 

 season. 1 have been more unfortunate in this 

 stock than any other belonging to a farm, and 

 could never assign any reason other than the above 

 for it. I am of opinion that mure sucking colts 

 are lost from this cause than any other, especially 

 iu wet seasmis. 



1 should be glad to hear the opinions of some 

 of your corespondents on this subject. 



WOOBBERRT. 



Spring f eld Furnace, May 8, 1833. 



ITEMS OP IBITEIiMGENCE. 



The National Intelligencer states that tlie number of 

 dead letters, returned to the General Post Oflice, and 

 there examined, &c. amount to the enormous number of 

 six hundred thousand annually. This branch of the Post 

 Office is under excellent regulations. Every thing of 

 ifalue is carefully preserved, to be restored to its owners 

 if they can be found. 



The Springfield Republican says, the two principal 

 wlijp factories in Westfield make annually more than 

 ,$100,000 worth of whips, of every variety and price, 

 and the demand for the work is more than equal to the 

 manufacture. 



The Cholera. This dreadful disorder is said to be 

 abating somewhat in New Orleans, Nashville and other 

 places in the great valley of the Mississippi. 



.1 Silk Filature has been established at Baltimore, and 

 the editor of the American Farmer has announced that 

 he is authorized to purchase cocoons at from twenty-five 

 to fifty cents per pound. 



