558 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



seed and finding it good. Result, same as before, 

 no onions. Having planted Brussels .'Sprouts on 

 the t'eriili7A'r, at the rate of 500 pounds to the acre, 

 I transplanted some tine plants to the onion bed; 

 They are now, on an average, 15 inches high, 

 with no hcails, while those on the fertilizer at the 

 rate of 500 lbs. per acre, arc very tine and thrifty, — 

 some of ihem being three feet high, and full of 

 heads. 



I planted half an acre, four rods by twenty, to 

 potatoes, Davis' Seedling. Onone-half of the strip 

 1 spread 4-30 Inishcls of fine old barn manure, o(!cu- 

 pying man, horse and wagon < ne and a half days. 

 On the otiier half, I sowed broadcast 200 pounds 

 of the fertilizer, which occupied man, horse and 

 wagon halfanliour. Cost of fertilizer, $3. Both 

 mauurc and fertilizer were harrowed in. The po- 

 tatoes were planted in drills. Used ten bushels 

 of seed on the half acre. On the 9(h and 10th of 

 October I dug eight rows of the twenty-seven on 

 the stri]), — rows running lengthwise. On the 

 manured half of those eight rows I had 14.^, and 

 on the fertilized half of the rows 15^ basliets of 

 potatoes, weighing 63^ pounds to the basket. De- 

 ducting the small potatoes, one and a half baskets, 

 the rcAilt of my crop will be one hundred bushels 

 of as good Davis' Seedlings as one could wish from 

 the half acre, or 30 bush from the eight rows. 

 This ground failed to produce crops of either car- 

 rots, l)eets or parsnips which I planted and sowed 

 upon it last year. 



On the last heavy snow which fell in the spring, 

 1 sowed broadcast 250 pounds per acre of the fer- 

 tilizer on twelve acres of grass, I have cut more 

 than double the hay this year that I did last, and 

 tne roots are spreading and covering the ground 

 very remarkably. These experiments have con- 

 vinced me that a reasonable ammnt of this fertili- 

 zer is preferable to a large quantity. I shall never 

 again use to exceed 500 pounds per acre in any 

 one year, that being in my opinion sufficient for 

 two to three successive crops. 



Edgar A. Robbins. 



Wrmthatn, Mass., Oct. 20, lb68. 



EXPERIMEXTS WITH HATWARD'S FERTILIZER. 



I planted an acre and three-fourths of corn with 

 2800 pounds of this fertilizer, spread broadcast, 

 and the land cultivated thoroughly. Furrowel 

 and pi inted with no other fertilizer. This land 

 was light and loamy, and produced last season one 

 ton of bay. There were about forty-five bushels of 

 corn to the acre. About a week ago, I called on 

 Prof. E. A. Robbins, of Wrentham, and found him 

 ploughing; out his potatoes raised on this fertilizer. 

 The potatoes looked very nice and fair. I exam- 

 ined very closely to see if I could discover any 

 disea-c in them, but could find none. 



Foxboro', Mass., Oct. 18, lb68. H. C. Perry. 



CIRES FOR A cow's COUGH AND WARTS. 



I cured my cow of a severe cough by giving her 

 three eggs a" day for three mornings in succession, 

 sh' lis and all, by putting thcni down her throat; 

 then gave her a large spoonful of pulverized salt- 

 petre every other morning till I had given her a 

 pound. She is entirely cured. 



I cured an innumerable quantity of warts on 

 the same cow with salt grease, made very salt, and 

 applied cvcrv other morning. Milkmaid. 



Machiasport, Me., Oct. 7, 1868. 



HARRISON POTATOES. 



During the present season Mr. Benj. Young, of 

 Danversport.has raised fromo«e6Ms/ie/of Harrison 

 potatoes forty three busheh, whicli are of tine quali- 

 ty ai.d appearance. They were raised on about 

 tifteen rods of land that had been very lightly 



manured, and while other kinds of potatoes, grow- 

 ing at the side of these, were found alFected with 

 rot, these were entirely free. J. s. 



Danvtrsport, Mass., Oct. 10, 1868. 



HAY PRESSES. 



Will you or soino of your many subscribers, 

 inform me which is the best kind of hay presses 

 now in use, and where it i-an be obtained. 



Alburgh, Vt., Sept. 21, 1868. B. h. b. 



PATEMTS ON VEGETABLES AND 

 FRUITS. 



In his Magazine of Horticulture for Octo- 

 ber, Mr. Hovey, the editor, and also the ori- 

 ginator of the valuable strawberr}^ bearing his 

 name, discusses at some length the quettion, 

 "How shall we encourage and stimulate the 

 production of new varieties of Fruits and 

 Plants, and in what manner secure a proper 

 reward to the producer ?'' 



After alluding to the great value of some of 

 the varieties that have been introduced within a 

 comparatively few years, and to the great 

 amount of time and labor . expended on their 

 production, Mr. Hovey reviews the arguments 

 of those who would extend the laws which 

 protect the inventor of a "clothes pin or a 

 goose yoke" so that the propagator of a new 

 plant or fruit should receive a patent for it ; 

 by which, as suggested by the Horticulturist, 

 he could "require payment, when he sells the 

 plant, for the right to manufacture and sell 

 other plants in a specified territory. If it be 

 valuable, the purchaser of the right to that 

 territory may dispose of rights to otheVs, and 

 thus refund himself for what he paid the pa- 

 tentee. Should the plant be offered for sale 

 beyond the limits of the territory sold, the pa- 

 tentee will become aware of it, and can prose- 

 cute for infringement precisely as in the case 

 of a machine or process." 



Mr. Hovey then gives his own views of the 

 subject as follows :— 



We must admit that this appears to be a very 

 good mode of iirotetting the originator of new 

 plants, and securing to them the i)rofits of their 

 sale, if it can l)e carried out. But there are many 

 objections to it which the writer has not stated, 

 and we fear that infringements would be so gen- 

 eral that little good would be effected after the 

 hrst sale to loci I agents. 



After all, it is a question whetJicr horticulture 

 would secure any permanent benefit to be hedged 

 about with patents, and subject to the injunetions 

 and litigations which would be sure to tblii>w ; it 

 would, we fear, lo>e much of its character as a 

 science and art, and lessen its hold upon th(»se who 

 view it not as a cuminercial speculation but as a 

 source of pure enjoyment and (lelightful recreation. 

 The benefits which might be secured to the invcn 

 lor of plants, would in the end hardly compensate 



