36 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



NEW ENGLAND FAR^FE R. 



SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1824. 



FARMER'S CALENDAR. 

 Seeds of various sorts are now daily ripening ; 

 care therefore must be taken to gather and dry 

 them properly, for on good seeds nil the future 

 excellence of your crops depends ; and if yon 

 have more than you want for your own use, the 

 seedsman will either buy them of you, or ex- 

 change them for others. A good cultivator will 

 very rarely be under the necessity of laying out 

 money for seeds, but will usually save enough 

 to make them a source of profit, besides supply- 

 ing his own wants. 



" As to the method of preserving seeds (says 

 Deane's New-England Farmer) the dry kinds 

 are best kept in their pods or outer coverings ; 

 but the seeds of all soft fruits, as cucumbers, 

 melons, &c. must be cleansed from the pulp and 

 mucilage which surround them ; otherwise the 

 rotting of these parts will corrupt the seeds. 



" When seeds are gathered, it should always 

 be done in dry weather; and then they shoidd 

 be hung up in bags in a dry room, so as to pre- 

 serve them from air." 



•" The selection of seeds (according to the 

 Domestic Encyclopedia) depends principally on 

 a proper choice of grains and kernels, as well 

 as roots, from the most vigorous vegetables, 

 growing under our own inspection : for, though 

 it be conjectured, that the constant cultivation 

 of a particular plant from the same seed, and in 

 the same soil, will at length cause it to degen- 

 erate, yet numerous well attested instances have 

 occurred, in which the contrary effects have 

 been evident. The more healthy stalks or stems 

 should therefore be selected for bearing seeds; 

 and such as attain maturity at the earliest peri- 

 od in the season, ought to be preferred, espe- 

 cially if they grow at a distance from weakly 

 plants of the same species ; lest fecundating fa- 

 rina of the latter be blown upon the stigmata of 

 the former, and an inferior kind, or succession 

 be produced. 



" The proper time for gathering seeds is the 

 period of their perfect maturity, which mav be 

 ascertained by the dryness of the stem; because 

 when the latter begins to decay, it becomes 

 'bleached by the oxygen of the atmosphere,' 

 and DO further nourishment can then be convey- 

 ed to the ripe seed. 



" Various expedients have been devised for 

 the preservation of seeds ; the most simple con- 

 sists in secluding them from light and heat in 

 the bowels of the earth; where they will retain 

 their vegetative power for several years. Thus 

 Dr Darwin mentious instances of mustard seed 

 producing a crop on digging up soil where it 

 had remained in a stale of rest for many years, 

 and ' as was believed even for ao-es.'' In the 

 same manner, the best cucumbers and melons 

 are raised from seeds which are at least three 

 or four years old ; though some gardeners do 

 not en^|doy them till they have been kept ten 

 or twelve years.* 



It appears to be an opinion, which i^ settled 

 among the best practical and scientific cultivat- 

 ors, that very little advantage, in common cases, 

 is derived from changing seeds from one coun- 



try or climate to another ; and it is therefore 

 best, as a general practice, tor a cultivator to 

 raise his seeds and roots on his own premises. 

 This is the least troublesome, least expensive, 

 most independent, and most protitable mode of 

 management as regards that very important 

 branch of rural economy. 



Fnnx Trees. If, in looking over your or- 

 chard, you shoidd hap|ien to perceive any limbs 

 over-burdened with I'ruit, you will pick off a 

 part, or put props imdcr the limbs, or both. In 

 most cases, when yon can possibly afford time, 

 it will be best to pick off the supernumerary 

 apples, peaches, &c. Mr Coxe says, " no error 

 is more universal than an anxiety for early pro- 

 ductiveness in an orchard. It is generally ob- 

 tained at the expense of much eventual profit, 

 and by a great diminution of the size and vigour 

 of the trees ; believing early fecimdity to be in- 

 jurious to the vigour and perfection of plants, I 

 am always attentive to pluck from the trees 

 these evidences of early maturity, in the first 

 stages of their existence." 



Bushes. This is the right time of the year 

 for destroying the bushes which infest your pas- 

 tures. Wet weather is best for this purpose, 

 because the sap vessels will continue open lon- 

 ger, and the sap will be discharged, the roots 

 weakened, and eventually their power of pro- 

 ducing new shoots will be annihilated. The 

 same may be said of thistles, which should be 

 cut in hot weather, before their seeds are ripe. 

 Dr Deane observed that bushes which grow in 

 clusters, as alder, and some other sorts, may be 

 pulled up by oxen ; and this is an effectual way 

 to subdue them. The expense of it, I suppose, 

 will not he more than that of cutting them twice 

 would amount to." 



A writer in the New England Farmer, vol. i. 

 page 306, says in substance, that bushes in pas- 

 tures are best destroyed by sowing plaster of 

 Paris, at the rale of about one bushel an acre 

 on land overrun with them. It should seem 

 that the plaster gives growth and exuberance to 

 clover and other grasses, and the bushes are 

 thus checked, and eventually stifled and exter- 

 minated. 



* For fmtlier rciuarks ou the use of olj and new 

 seeds, see iStw England l-'armcr, vol. i. page 2'ij. 



DisAGRF.E.MENT OF PuiLOsopriERS. A friend of 

 the Editor assures us, that the following asser- 

 tion in our remarks on the subject of lightning 

 rods (see N. E. Farmer vol. iii. page 17) is in- 

 correct, viz "• charcoal is an excellent conductor 

 of electricity," &c. and thinks it would have 

 been more consonant with truth to have styled 

 charcoal a perfect non-conductor. The commu- 

 nication we have mislaid, but we believe what 

 we have stated is the substance of it. The ar- 

 ticle which contained the assertion, supposed by 

 our correspondent to be erroneous, was quoted 

 from the last Philadelphia edition of Dr Willich's 

 Domestic Encyclojiedia, with additions by T. 

 Cooper, M. D. It gave an account of improve- 

 ments in conductors of lightning, stft;gested by 

 Mr Robert Patterson of Philadelphia, for which 

 he received the prize of a gold medal from the 

 American Philosophical Society. 



We have examined a number of authors on 

 the subject of electricity, and they all agree in 

 numbering chaicoal among the conductors of 

 that fluid. The Encyclopedia Brittanica, Greg- 

 ory's Dictionary of Arts, and Nicholsor/s Ency- 



clopedia assure us that charcoal is an excellent 

 conductor of electricity. The last mention- 

 ed work has the following passage. " It is 

 found that black lead is an excellent aid both to 

 affix as a sharp point to the apex [of the light- 

 uiug rods] and to be laid a few feel deep in the 

 earth, where it is moist and surrounded by a bed 

 of charcoal.''^ 



There is, however, a passage in Rees' Ency- 

 clopedia (Art. Conductors) which would seem in 

 some degree to favour the opinion of our cor- 

 respondent. It is as follows : " The conducting 

 power of charcoal is very eqvkocat ; for same 

 pieces of it Ti-ill hardly conduct it at att, and others 

 will suffer the passage of the electric fJuid over 

 their surface only, and not through their sub- 

 stance. The rf-ason of this difference is not 

 quite understood ; but it seems owing to the 

 degree of heat that is applied in the process of 

 making them." 



Pulverized charcoal is, we believe, very re- 

 tentive of moisture, and we have no doubt that 

 when it is damp, as we conceive it always will 

 he if buried to any considerable depth in the 

 ground, it will prove a sale conductor of light- 

 ning. The water which it will retain in that 

 situation, will, we have no doubt, give it a power 

 of conducting the electrical fluid, by no means 

 equivocal. Such is our opinion ; but we may 

 be in an error, and if so should be happy in be- 

 ing corrected by our corresjiondent alluded to, 

 or by any other person who will be so good as 

 to point out our mistake. 



La P'atette. On the 2-lth inst. the Friend of Amer- 

 ica, the heroic Advocate of Liberty, the Favourite of 

 VVashingtoQ, the Man to -Hhom all honour, short of ad- 

 oration, is due from every Columbian Freeman, made 

 his public entrance into this city. An attempt to enu- 

 merate the modes by which the citizens of this .Metrop- 

 olis and the inhabitants of its vicinage endeavoured to 

 manifest that gratitude and affection for Columbia's 

 Benefactor, which glowed in every bosom, sparkled in 

 every eye, and frequently pealed in huzzas from every 

 tongue, would be as unavailing as an essay to count 

 the flowers of spring, or the leaves of autumn. We shall 

 not undertake even a sketch of the proceedings, as we 

 could neither do justice to the occasion, nor give so full 

 a description of the processions, ceremonies, addresses, 

 &c. kc. as has already appeared in our papers which 

 are principally devoted to recording the events of the 

 day. We must therefore confine ourselves to the fol- 

 Jowing Address by the Hon. Mr QciNCV, Mayor of this 

 city, which was delivered at the Rosbury border, pre- 

 vious to the entrance of General La Faxette within 

 the limits of the City ; and the General's Reply. 



(Mr Quincy's Address) 



Sir — The citizens of Boston welcome you on your 

 return to the United States ; mindful of your early zeal 

 in the cause of American Independence, grateful for 

 your distinguished share in the perils and glories of its 

 achievement. When, urged by a generous sympathy, 

 you first landed on these shorts, you found a people en- 

 gaj;cd in an arduous and eventful struggle for liberty 

 with apparently inadequate means, and amidst dubious 

 omens. After the lapse of nearly half a century, you 

 linil the same people prosperous beyond all hope and 

 prtcedent — their liberty secure — sitting in its strengtij 

 — without fear and without reproach. 



In your youth you joined the standard of Three mil- 

 lions of people, raised in an unequal and uncertaiu 

 conflict. In your advanced ?tge you return and are met 

 by Ten .Millions of People, their descendants, whose 

 hearts throng hither to greet your approach and to re- 

 joice iu it. 



