240 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



in the question how long vegetable life could last, 

 and he therefore took that tuberous root from the 

 mummy's hand, planted it in a sunny soil, al- 

 lowed the ruins and dews of heaven to descend 

 upon it, and in the course of a few weeks, to his 

 astonishment and joy, the root burst forth and 

 bloomed into a beauteous dahlia. 



NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



Langstrotu on Bees. We recommend to every 

 person who owns bees, or who intends to own 

 them this spring, to read Laufjstroth's book about 

 them. While it abounds with the most valuable 

 facts in nearly every thing concerning them, he 

 has also made it, by his purity of style and ele- 

 gance of diction, as attractive as many of the 

 best works of the imagination. 



Relations of Chemistry to Agriculture. By 

 Justus V. Liebig. Translated by Samuel W. 

 Johnson. Pamphlet, 87 pp. Luther Tucker, Al- 

 bany. Price 25 cents. 



Every Lady her own Flower Gardener. 

 Pamphlet, 110 pp. Price 25 cents. Saxton & 

 Co., New York. A pleasant and valuable book. 

 If it only teaches to rear a single flower, it will 

 well repay the cost. For sale by Redding & Co., 

 Boston. 



The American Kitchen Gardener. By the 

 same enterprising Publishers. It will prove a 

 wonderful help to most persons owning a garden. 

 For sale by Redding & Co., Boston. Price only 

 25 cents. 



The Cold Grapery, from direct American Prac- 

 tice : being a concise and detailed treatise on the 

 cultivation of the exotic grape-vine, under glass, 

 without* artificial heat. By William Chorltox, 

 Gardener. Saxton & Co., New York. Price 50 

 cents, neatly bound. This little work tells us 

 Hdw to plant the vine, cultivate, prune, and do 

 all things in relation to it, to secure a crop under 

 glass, but without stoves or fire. 



Northern Farmer. Woodstock, Vt. Brown 

 df Crosby, Publishers. $1,50 per year in ad- 

 vance. This is a new paper, filled with instruc- 

 tive articles, both original and selected, of a mis- 

 cellaneous and agricultural character. We hope 

 it will prove eminently useful in the wide field in 

 which it has embarked. 



Training a Balky Horse. — The Mirhi(jan Far 

 mer says, a horse became balky in Detroit a short 

 time since, and neither whipping nor coaxing 

 could make him stir. A ropo was then fastened 

 round his neck and he was dragged a short dis' 

 tance by another team, but this did not eifect a 

 cure. The rope was then taken fi-om his neck, 

 passed between his legs and fastened firmly to his 

 tail. In tliis manner he was drawn a short d' 

 tance, and when the rope was taken off, the hith- 

 erto unruly animal was perfectly obedient to the 

 will of his master. We have seen this method 

 tried with similar results. 



ASPARAGUS. 



A friend tells us that he ol)taincd a plenty of 

 Asparagus in one year, from the setting, by the 

 following modus operandi : 



In May, 1853, he bought 100 roots of B. K. 

 Bliss, of Springfield, for one dollar. He dug out 

 a spot in his garden 10 feet by ,5, one foot deep, 

 throwing the earth out on the sides. Next he 

 put in (3 or 8 large wheel-])arrow loads of well 

 rotted manure, and dug it into the sub-soil nearly 

 another foot in depth. He then filled up the 

 trench a little above the general level of the 

 ground, putting in about equal parts of manure 

 and soil before thrown out. Un all he sowed half 

 a busliel of salt ; and tlien set the plants. On the 

 same day of May, 1854, he cut a large quantity 

 of fine asparagus, and continued to do so through 

 that and the following month. 



Suggestions. — He did well to purchase the 

 roots of a skilful gardener, instead of taking 

 two or three years to grow them from the seed, 

 and then perhaps failing, for the want of that 

 definite practical knowledge on the subject, which 

 i\Ir. Bliss has acquired in the prosecution of his 

 business. 



He did well to dig and throw out the soil one 

 foot ; but would have done better, and in the 

 end would be better paid, if he had gone two 

 feet, and had put the second foot into liis barn- 

 yard or pig-pen. This yellow sub-soil — who 

 would think it? — is excellent for composting. 

 Harvey Dodge of Sutton, who last year obtained 

 the jjremium for the best managed farm, has 

 used nothing but sub-soil for composting these 

 years, and few if any farmers have raised better 

 crops, or sold them at a higlier profit on the ex- 

 penses of cultivation. 



If our friend, instead of putting well rotted 

 manure under his bed, had put sucli as would be 

 rotting for the next quarter of a century, he would 

 have done better. Greon manure would not 

 have done well. The fermentation would have 

 been too violent for the young plants, and too 

 .soon over. Manure is wanted under an asparagus 

 bed that operates twenty-five years. If he had 

 dug two feet or more, and then filled to one foot 

 of the surfixce with old l>oots and shoes, the par- 

 ings off of the shoe-shop, bones, horns, woollen 

 rags, the parings of cloth dressing establishments, 

 tag-locks from the sheep-shearing, &c., &c., all 

 mixed in and laid solid with fermented manure, 

 and then had tilled up to four or five inches above 

 the general level with equal parts of top soil and 

 well rotted manure, we think he would have laid 

 the foundation for an asj^aragus bed, Avhich, by 

 being covered with litter over winter, and dressed 

 each spring witii fermented manure and half a 

 Inishel of salt, would have yielded more Asparagus 

 than half a dozen fiimilies would consume, for at 

 least twenty years. The starting of a good and 

 permanent Asparagus bed, is no cheip affiiir ; 

 ))ut at half tlie jiritw whicii the article brings in 

 our markets, it will pay a large per cent, in the 

 outlay. We saw an asparagus bed of 20 acres, 

 near London, which theowner told us, never yields 

 less than £50 to the acre, and often as high as 

 £00. — The Farmer— by Prof. Nash. 



1^^ So f:xr, this Spring, the emigration from New 

 England to the West appears to be greater than was 

 ever before known. 



