124 



THE farmers' cabinet 



VOL. I. 



A Clover Box. 



A 



'SO. A. Leather 



A gentleman who is much attached to ag- 

 riculture, on a recent visit to the Eastern 

 Shore of Maryland, saw there a box, which 

 is in general use for sowing clover seed ; by 

 which great economy is produced, and the 

 seed is placed on the ground with entire cer- 

 tainty and equality. 



Fifteen acres were sown with one bushel 

 of seed, and the clover was well set, and the 

 plants in sufficient numbers — not a part of the 

 field was passed over without its having been 

 well seeded. 



The Box is exceedingly simple in its con- 

 struction, and could be made at a very small 

 expense. A drawing of it is given above. 



It is ten feet, or eight feet in length, and 

 about four inches in breadth, divided into par- 

 titions of six inches long. In the bottom of 

 each partition is an opening of about three 



Strap. B. Clover Box. 



inches square in which is inserted a piece 

 of tin, or parchment, or stiff paper, perforated 

 with a number of holes of a sufficient size 

 for the clover seed to pass through. In each 

 partition the seed is placed. To the box is 

 lixed a strap, which is passed over the 

 shoulders of the sower, and carrying the box 

 before him, he walks over the field, agitating 

 the box by his hand if it requires more move- 

 ment than it receives from his walk. In this 

 manner the seed is equally scattered over all 

 the ground. 



If thought necessary, a piece of wood may- 

 be hooked on the bottom of the box, to pre- 

 vent the seed dropping out before the sowing 

 commences. The box may be made of light 

 cedar, and cut to weigh six or eight pounds 

 without the seed. 



October 24, 1836. 



Horticulture mxti Botang. 



f^ee various trees their various fruits produce, 

 f^oine lor dellgiitiul taste, and some for use ; 

 See, sproutin;; plants enrich the plain and wood, 

 For physic some, and some design'd fo! food ; 

 S(!e, fragrant flowers, with different colors dy'd 

 On smiling meads unfold their gaudy pride. 



Biackmore. 



On the €itltiva,tiou of Flower§. 



[The following remarks on this interesting 

 subject are both just and beautiful. We copy 

 from an Eastern print.] 



In former times if Flora was named as a 

 nymph of lovely mien, it was Ceres alone 

 •who received all the honors from the culti- 

 vation of the soil. A century ago when 

 .Lord Kaimes and others were writing upon 

 ornamental gardening, but little attention 

 had been paid to the subject in America. A 

 few royal governors and opulent merchants 

 began about tliat time to cultivate ornamental 

 gardening; but most of these men knew 

 nothing of plants or of flowers, but sustained 

 the expense of a garden as a mark of dis- 

 tinction. The greater part of these cultiva- 

 tors of flowers in their own gardens, could 

 have given you no more technical, botanical 

 information than they could of heraldry, if 



you enquired of them an explanation of their 

 armorial bearings, blazoned on the pannels 

 of their coaches. The Fess Point would 

 have been to them an enigma, and nothing 

 but the name of a flower was sought for. 

 Not that these were ignorant men ; far from 

 it; they were business men, politicians and 

 s';holar3 ; but it was not the taste of the 

 times to attend to such -things. In fact, 

 with the great mass of the people, perhaps, 

 it would have been a mark of effeminancy 

 to have shown a fondness i'ox flowers. But 

 in this the taste has changed, and the gravest 

 statesman and profoundest philosopher may 

 cultivate, admire and minutely describe a 

 flower without losing any particle of his 

 greatness with the people. — When the Vas- 

 sals, the Brattles, the Tracys, lavished wealth 

 in gardening, it was not so. The doings of 

 royal governors ; the rights of man ; the con- 

 jectures upon the course the legislature would 

 pursue the next session 7 who would be 

 Mandamus Councillors? whether the Wal- 

 poles would still hold their power? 'were 

 the subjects of discussion. The beauties of 

 nature were but little tliought of at that 

 time; now and then some one would be 

 sinoular, and take some pains to change, by 

 cullivdtion, a single pink to a double one, 



