WEI"" ENGLANB FARMER 



TuiiUSllFU liV WILLIAM NICHOLS, RdGKRS' BUILDINGS, CONGRLSS STRLKT, ROoTON— THOxMAS G. KI'.SiF.NOHN, KDITOR. 



Vol,. III. 



SATURDAY, .TULY 31, 1824. 



No. 1. 



(EtirvfS^JOHiJfurc. 



ON MAKING BUTTER, Sic. &c. 



nninsuHck, Me. .full/ 1, 1824. 

 Tb tht Editor of the .Vrw England Fannr.)\ 



Sir, — While many valuable essays have ap- 

 peared in your pa[ier on buttor malcing, still 

 many dairy nomen, \y1io see tliem, will have 

 (lis ETood hid way, as my neighbour did, who 

 planfed corn on the .same piece of ground Torty 

 vears in succession, hecause, as he said, it was 

 easy hoeing and near his bnni. — I do not recollect 

 ever seeins: any dissertation in your paper on 

 preparing salt for butter, cheese and the tabic. 

 1 have seen basket salt at an enormous price ; 

 but why do we import it ' 1 tried this expei i- 

 ment many years since to my own satisfaction. 

 I look throe hosrsheads of coarse rock salt, wash- 

 ed it, quick as possible to prevent loss, which 

 was triliing in the weight, in fact I considered 

 it nothing, as 1 sprinkled the water on my land. 

 After drying it, 1 ground it in a grist mill in cne 

 hour, fine, as common flour. Each stricken bu- 

 shel making about five stricken pecks, nearly 

 equal to that of the best ground lye. Now, sir, 

 what expense this may save to the dairy woman 

 and to the ears of the tired farmer, where pestle 

 and mortar must ring till bed time lo pound one 

 quart not so fine, but that it will grit like pi- 

 o;eon shot in your teeth. 



After the buttermilk is properly expressed, 

 put a given weight of salt to a given weight of 

 iutter, till you make it palatable. Thf . , ' 

 ways salt by weight instead of quantity your 

 cream under similar circumstances, you cannot 

 err. Is not the strength of salt proportionate 

 to its weight? 



Author of Touches on .igricidlurc. 

 July 2. We have remarkably fine showers 

 of late ; nature seems to be re-animated ; rye 

 ppmises well; corn though late starts finely. 

 Grass, that seemed in despair, (if I may use the 

 expression,) fourteen days since, looks in raanj 

 places well, tiiough the season of haying will 

 be late. Apple trees yet hold a goodly propor- 

 tion, though the frosts were so severe. Are 

 they not almost universally cut olT by frost when 

 the blossom is fairly open, and do frosts injure 

 before ? — ibid. } 



Wire Worm. — Mr. Emery Jones, of Hebron, 

 informs me, that the chit worm has appeare.l 

 in that quarter this year, and where he soaked 

 his corn in spirits of turpentine* it looks well. 

 He says, where he planted it unsoaked, not only 

 the worm, but a white maggot about the fourth 

 of an inch in length has taken the kernel in the 

 hill. Quere. When does this worm go thro' 

 its state of transformation ? At what lime and 

 in what shape does it reappear? In some 

 sections of Maine the worm is found one yeai, 

 in others the next. It is a destructive foe, that, 

 1 believe has been but little regarded in agricul- 



tural prints. — I feel satisfied with my experi- 

 ments, which you will find in my Agricultural 

 Touches, page 10.='' Corn, replanted the 4th of 

 June, 1824, soaked thirty hours in spirits of tur- 

 pentine, promises to show its silk before that, 

 planted five weeks before. — From Turner 1 have 

 the same -news of the maggot. — ibid. 



The strawberry, which is very abundant on 

 the An<lroscoggin, is now ripe. I'robably the sea- 

 sons here are about ten days later, than in the 

 neighborhood of Hoston ; this may be no news. 

 —Where fires have made such devastation, I 

 have advised to set cabbage and sow English tur- 

 nips. — ibid. 



* See likewise New England Tanner, voL i. p. 378. 



NOTES ON THE SEASON.— NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

 To tht Editor of the JVcjc England Farmer, 



Sir, — Since writing under date of the 20th, I 

 have received your paper of the 17th, and fiiiil 

 two or three have complied with Mr. Preston's 

 request, I will follow their example and give you 

 a sketch of the season in this vicinity. Oats, 

 wheal, rye, and flax, never looked better. Hay 

 more than an average crop ; had it not been 

 " winter killed" we should not have had where 

 to have stowed it. Indian corn, rather low, but 

 good colour and stocky. Potatoes promising — 

 apples in abundance — feed in our pastures ex- 

 cellent. No complaint this year about cater- 

 pillars, yellow bug, Hessian fly, grasshopper, 

 grub' or wire worm. I have heard several 

 times of vegetation sufTeiing from drought^Jr. 

 Boston and vicinity — but here if man had had 

 the controul of Heaven's great watering pot, he 

 could not have supplied himself better, nor more 

 seasonably than the Author of all good has for 

 hira thus far. The prospects of our farmers 

 are such, as would seem to extort praise and 

 gratitude, from the heart of an Atheist, to na- 

 ture's bounteous King. L. 



Warner, A'. H. Jidy 22, 1824. 



has 

 but 

 feet 

 wit 

 pray 



From the American Farmer. 



* The spirits of turpentine, however, must be dilut 

 ed with water, or it will destroy the principle of vegeta- 

 tion in the corn. Perhaps tar water would answer the 

 same purpose ; but of this we are not positive. It will, 

 at least, prevent birds from pulling up the young plants. 

 Editor JV. E. Fanner, 



CULPABLE NEGLECT OF FRUIT TREES. 



[It is matter of regret and surprise, yet it is 

 obviously true, judging from their actions, that 

 almost every farmer thinks, with respect to his 

 fruit trees, that he has discharged his duty, and 

 done all that is necessary, when he has paid the 

 Nursery Man's bill ; and put the irees at cer- 

 tain distances in the ground, firmly enough to 

 keep a strong northwester from blowing them 

 down — having done that great feat, and even 

 that is not done by one half of our farmers, he 

 leaves them to their fate, to work out their 

 own salvation, without ever applying plough, 

 hoe, or jiruning knife. 



Now there is no animated thing in existence, 

 whether vegetable or animal, that is not liable 

 to disease, decay, and death ; and a young tree 

 can no more thrive, and flourish, in defiance of 

 want of nourishment, and the assaults ot dis- 

 ease, without care, assistance, and protection, 

 than a young child can. Would you have them 

 aroTj!, you must Cttiuvafe and manure the ground, 



keep the earth loose about the roots, and take 

 ofT no exhausting crops from the land. If you 

 wish thorn to live, 30U must destroy and keep 

 off the insects that assail them, in every part ; 

 you musi i)rune oiT redundant wood, and heal, 

 by proper applications, the woimds inflicted by 

 accident or the knife — and how should it be 

 otlierwis(^ ? If you leave your corn lo its fate, 

 will not the grass overrim and the birds devour 

 it ii If you leave your calf or your colt to shift 

 fonitself, will it not perish ? So it is ■with trees, 

 Thfy rof|i!iro to be looked after. — Providence 

 kindly given us the seeds and the grains, 

 it was never heard of, that they should per- 

 and prepare llieniselves for the tise of man. 

 lout any exertion of his own : and whence, 

 have we derived the notion, that pears 

 arti apples, and peaches, and all the luscious 

 triits of the climate and the season, should 

 cipwn our tables an<l delight our palates, with- 

 oit the necessity of watching, cultivating and 

 cherishing the tree, from the scion in the nur- 

 sejy bed, to the maturity of the full growth ? — 

 Tiiat they should drop into our very mouth, 

 wi.hout the trouble even of plucking them? It 

 WIS (lever intcndt'd ; and none but the sluggard, 

 igiorant of the inseparable connexion between 

 hajipiness and employment, would ever expi t 

 it. \ '• And the Lord took the man, and put him 

 in Ihe Garden of Eden, lo dress it, and to keep 

 it.'* Saying, " In the S'veat of thy face, shaft 

 thou eat bread, till thou return unto the 



g!Ot>Dd." 



Tir> Gooseberry, for instance, which in its 

 native state is small and without variety of fla- 

 vor and color, has, like a thousand other fruits 

 and flowers, been infinitely diversified and im- 

 proved by art and industry — so much so that 

 more than fifty varieties have been imported by 

 the brother of the writer of the following com- 

 munication ; and an English nursery man has 

 been known to oblige his visitors " with a sight 

 of 300 varieties, the largest of which in weight 

 was equal to three guineas and a half;" we 

 have just seen some of superb quality from the 

 country residence of Maj. M'Kim, our faithful 

 Representative to Congress, full as large as a 

 pigeon's egg. Some will tell you, and find it a 

 pretext for their indolence, that fine fruit costs 

 more than it comes to, and that money will al- 

 ways fetch it from the market; but all Ihe Gold 

 of Ophir will not bring it there, without the re- 

 quisite skill, patience and industry, lo rear and 

 perfect it. Besides even those most able to 

 purchase the luxury of fine fruit, are often de- 

 nied it by their distance from the market, as 

 well as from their ignoble want of diligence to 

 provide it for themselves. Among the Chinese, 

 whom we affect to dispise, so great is their at- 

 tention to horticultural pursuits, that a peasant 

 whose garden or field are cultivated with the 

 most care is rewarded by being made a Manda- 

 rin of his class. A moment given to just reflec- 

 tions of this nature, would reconcile every one 

 who desires to enjoy our best fruits in perfec- 

 tioc, to take the pains that friend Thomas has 

 done, to preserve the lives of valuable trees. If 

 an old horse gels the cholic, or a cow the hol- 

 low horn, great ansiefy is excited — ail the 



