1825.] 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



301 



From tht Middlelown Stntinet. 



FLAX. 



To raise flax, it is necessary that yoti sow 

 good land ; ;ind if you mnan to make it profita- 

 ble, have yoiir land well ["repiired. A loamy 

 soil is the ticst, hut clay will do very well, pro- 

 vided land is rich or has lieen well manured 

 the year precedino:, as it will not do so well 

 to put on manure the same spring that you sow 

 the flax ; for the weeds in this case are apt to 

 be troublesome. Flax iray be weeded when 

 youn?, but I had rather have no weeds, if pos- 

 sible. If you had potatoes on the land the year 

 preceding, and did not let the weeds go to seed, 

 it will do well ; or if the land is ploughed early, 

 and let the weeds start up, and then plough them 

 in, it will he found very usefuL 1 do not likjS 

 to sow flax as early as we do barley, summer 

 wheat, rye, or oats, because weeds will grow 

 much taster than flax in cold weather, so that 

 the flax would be checked in its growth. About 

 the middle of April is the proper time to sow, 

 provided ihe land is pulverized line, and is 

 dry enough : if not, you may wait even till 

 the first of May : but if sown much after this 

 lime it will not have so good a coat. Dry sandy 

 land is not so good,.but the fiax may be helped 

 by putting Gypsum or Plaster of Paris on it 

 when young, as it helps to keep it moist, and 

 makes it grow taller and produces more seed 

 and better flax. Do not regard the moon, for 

 its being either new or old makes no more differ- 

 ence than a white faced ox would standing on 

 a mountain in view. Neither regard the wind, 

 unless it be to sow it in a still lime because you 

 can sow it more even. Some flax was sown on 

 0iy farm when the wind was southerly, on«q£.i- 

 my hired men said' that it would be good for 

 nothing; but it yielded three pounds to a rod, 

 and the crop, including the seed, was worth 

 more than fifty dollars per acre, which was far 

 better than to raise only 100 lbs. of poor short 

 flax, that will require nearly as much expense. 

 My flax was sown on land that had corn on the 

 year before, but the stalks were pulled up and 

 put in the hog's pen and the land well pulver-- 

 ized. The quantity of seed per acre depends 

 much on the richness of the soil — you may sow 

 from ODt to twobushels, for it is better to have 

 but one seed to a harl, if Ihe land is rich enough 

 to have it sown thick. If you sow poor land 

 thick, the flax will not be worth pulling. 



A FARMER. 



some ofour readers. Only a few specimens of| 

 eliislic or Jlcxlblc marble have, as yet, bron found j 

 in I'urope. It has, however, been quarried for j 

 yrars in several towns in Berkshire County, in 

 this State. It is associated with the common i 

 varieties of marble in West Stockbridge, Lanes- j 

 borough, and New Ashford, whence our spoci-j 

 men was obtained, which is six feet and a half 

 long, several inches wide and two inches thick. 

 It is generally, not always, coarsely granular, 

 and of an open texture. When sawed into slabs, 

 five to seven feet in length, and two or three 

 inches in thickness, it is found to be flexible, 

 when placed either side upwards, even if it be 1 

 dry. When it is made quite wet with water its! 

 flexibility is greatly increased. Hence its elas-{ 

 ticity is very striking when it is lirstsawed, I 

 though it is often not noticed when it has be- 1 

 come dry. It is a fact, however, that the tables 

 and head stones for monuments for the dead, 

 may often be seen to be slightly flexible. A 

 portion of a large block of marble is often 

 elastic, while the other part does not exhibit 

 this property. Elasticity is supposed to depend 

 upon the motion of the particles upon the body 

 of each other, while the cohesion is sufficiently 

 strong to prevent the breakmg of the body. 

 The particles of marble may as easily be con- 

 ceived to move upon each other as (hose of 

 iron or any other elastic substance. — Masonic 

 Mirror. 



FLAX SEED. 



By the new larifl", a specific duty of 25 cents 

 per gallon was laid on foreign oil made from 

 linseed, hempseed, or rapeseed. A correspon- 

 dent informs ns that the operation of this duty 

 has been to raise the price of linseed oil about 

 20 cents per grvon ; and as the price of flax 

 seed is regulated by that of oil, he thinks the 

 farmers may calculate that their flax seed will 

 'bring more hereafter than it has done for some 

 years past. — Hamp. Gaz. 



ELASTIC MARBLE. 

 As we have made arrangements for obtaining 

 a slab of this singular mineral, and expect soon 

 to be able to exhibit it for the gratification of 

 the scientific and curious, an account of this 

 rare variety of Marble may be interesting to 



TO PRESERVE HAMS. 



Having tried several methods of preserving 

 hams from the ravages of bugs and flies, and 

 all having failed, I concluded to try the elTect 

 of pepper. 1 ground some black pepper fine 

 ami put it in a box, and as soon as the hams 

 were well smoked, 1 took them dovvn and dust- 

 ed the pepper over Ihe raw part and over the 

 back, and hung them up in the smoke house 

 again. This I have tried two seasons, and nei- 

 ther flies nor bugs touch them. I am well sat- 

 isfied in my own mind, that it is a sure remedy, 

 and deserves to be generally known. 



Pilsgrove, Salem co.N.J. J. WOOD. 



spindles in operation, as each spindle produces 

 Ihe .same quantity of yarn in a day as the com- 

 mon process ; and the simplicity of ils mechanism, 

 which renders the machine cheap, not liable to 

 get out of order, and its operation so easy and 

 natural that those acquainted with spinning can 

 use immediately ; Ihe inexperienced may learn 

 in half a day. — IViscasset paper. 



rCONOMV ly HANDLES. 



If you ars without a rush light, and would 

 burn a candle all night, unless you use the fol- 

 lowing |)recaution, it is ten to one an ordinary 

 candle will gutter away in an hour or two, some 

 times to Ihe endangering Ihe safety of Ihe house ; 

 this may be avoided by placing as much common 

 salt, finely powdered, as will reach from the tal- 

 low to the bottom of the black part of the wick 

 of a partly burnt candle ; when, if Ihe same be 

 lighted, it will burn very slowly, yielding a suf- 

 ficient light for a bed chamber ; the salt will 

 gradually sink as the tallow is consumed, the 

 melted tallow being drawn through the salt and 

 consumed in the wick. 



PATENT SAW SETTER. 



This simple instrument consists of two pieces 

 of iron held together by a collar and a screw ; 

 between these parts a small thin slip of steel 

 is inserted, regulated to the size of the saw, 

 and leaving just space enough to admit of a 

 single tooth, as if held by the thumb and finger 

 to bend it one side : then to slop it at the prop- 

 er point, a screw passes through the upper piece 

 of iron, which projects beyond the lower piece, 

 and slants upward from the point of contact — 

 this screw touches the saw blade, and thus 

 makes every tooth precisely equal in the set. 

 Only suppose the thumb to be placed against 

 Ihe middle joint of the fore finger, and then 

 bent back, and immediately you will conceive 

 the ingenious instrument recently invented. 



PRESERVATION OF GREEN HOUSE PLANTS. 



It has been ascertained in England, that plants 

 may be completely protected from the depre- 

 dations of insects, by washing them with a so- 

 lution of bilter aloes, and the use of this wash 

 does not appear to affect the health of the plants 

 in the slightest degree. And wherever the so- 

 lution has been used, insects have not been ob- 

 served to attack the plants again. As there is 

 much difiiculty in preserving a small collection 

 by the usual method, this notice of a simple 

 remedy may be very useful. 



SPINKI.VG MACHINE. 



We yesterday witnessed th« operation of a Spin- 

 ning Machine, (for domestick use ) invented in 

 the slate of N. York, and exhibited in this tovvn 

 by Jlr. Fenn. The Machine simply consists of 

 a common spinning wheel acting on 2 to 12 spin- 

 dles, connected to a whirl by a single hand. 

 The rolls are placed on grooved slidies, which 

 run horizontally in a frame 6 to 10 feet in length. 

 The superiority of this machine over all others, 

 consists in its ability to make the yarn perfectly 

 even and of any size. The quantity of yarn which 

 may be spun in a day, depends on the number of 



GOOSEBERRY BUSHES. 



Gooseberry bushes have during several years 

 past, been trained by Mr S. Jeeves, in the man- 

 ner of a berceau or arbour walk, about 5 1-2 

 feet wide, and 7 feet high, whereby the fruit is 

 very much increased in quantity, is pleasantly 

 exposed to the view of company walking under 

 the arched trellis grating, on which the branch- 

 es are trained, and an agreeable facility is of- 

 fered for selecting and gathering this fruit. — 

 Monthly Magazine., July 1824, p. 77. 



A fat Ox intended for the New York Market lately 

 passed through Troy, N. Y, He weighed on the foot 

 '2,27'2 lbs. Good judges say he will weigh 2,200 lbs 

 when slaughtered. This Ox was fatted at Shaftsbury 

 Vt. is 7 years old, of unadulterated American breed. 



The editor of the Nantucket Inquirer has published 

 a list of about a hundred recently discovered islands, 

 clusters of islands and reefs, in the North and South 

 Pacific Oceans, whicB he says are not found in the 

 charts in general use, and which he has obtained from 

 manuscripts of whaling ships, noting their respective 

 latitudes and longitudes. 



Ohio Loan. — The whole of tlie Ohio Canal Loan, 

 400,000 dollars, has been taken by John Rathbone, Jr. 

 and Eleazer Lorde, Esq. of New-York, at the rate of 

 $79.50 for $100 of Stock, bearing an interest of five 

 per cent, stock transferrable and iatercst payable jc 

 the city of New-York. 



