No. la 



Plethory. — Remedy for the Black Weevil. 



311 



to his house, but by placing around it some 

 cheap trellis-work, made of laths, he con- 

 structed an arbour and furnished it with seats, 

 which, when covered with shrubs and flow- 

 ers, gave an appearance of elegance and 

 comfort which would induce a man to stay 

 at home in preference to going abroad — a 

 choice recipe in the management of house- 

 hold affairs. The walls of the house were 

 ill-built with rough stones, but these were 

 soon covered with a coat of plaster and white- 

 washed, and no one would know what it had 

 once been by seeing it in its state of improve- 

 ment. And all this was done at a mere trifle 

 of cost, for he was his own bricklayer, ma- 

 son, carpenter, plasterer, and painter ! Now, 

 there are many such small tenements around 

 us, which only require the hand of an indus- 

 trious man to turn them into Edens too. Your 

 constant reader and well-wisher, 



Joshua Sharrold. 



Schuylkill County, March 29, 1841. 



Plethory. 



I HAVE become quite enamoured with your 

 system of improving pasture lands and poor 

 meadows, and as my neighbours are nearly 

 all going into it, I have concluded to follow. 

 1 have fifty acres of bushy pasture land, and 

 twenty acres of poor meadow. Now, if I 

 improve all my pasture lands, so that I can 

 keep a cow to an acre, and I believe I can, 

 I shall have to keep forty-two cows, and four 

 pairs of oxen. And if I make all my mea- 

 dows produce three tons of English hay per 

 acre, and from what I have seen, I believe it 

 can be done, I shall have winter keeping 

 enough for such a stock. But what puzzles 

 me, is to find out how I can take care of such 

 a dairy, and make my hay in any tolerable 

 season. I have mowed bushes till my con- 

 stitution is broken down. I have but one son, 

 and he is good for nothing, but to smoke ci- 

 gars and shoot boblincolns. My wife is good 

 on a milking-stool, as any of our ancestors 

 were ; but what can she do with two and forty 

 cows 1 As for my girls, they have sour sto- 

 machs in the morning, and cannot rise soon 

 enough to milk the cows by more than two 

 hours; in the afternoon, they must play the 

 piano, receive company, and make visits ; and 

 at evening, they are riding horseback, so that 

 we derive no assistance from them, nor is it 

 likely that any other person ever will. What 

 can I do with such a dairy ] Butter was 

 down last summer to fifteen cents a pound, 

 and if every one is determined to improve his 

 pastures on your plan, butter will not bring 

 more than four-pence two farthings in a very 

 short time. Where in nature will be the 

 profit on my dairy 1 

 Again, if I must cut fifty Ions more of; clear 



English hay than I now do, and all other 

 larmcrs go the same figure, we cannot more 

 than get done haying, before it will be time 

 to begin again. Our boys cannot work in 

 the field with a Spanish cigar in the mouth, 

 a silver-headed cane in the hand, and gloves 

 on! They will dirty their clean dickeys! 

 Must we hire Irishmen to do the work on our 

 farms] Shall we hire yankees? I hired 

 three of them last year; one of them kept a 

 private bottle, and became so turbulent that 

 I dismissed him. Another stole a gun, &c., 

 and went to jail ; and the third stole, and ran 

 away ; and I finally had to do my work my- 

 self. But I cannot do all my work when I 

 have made such improvements on my farm, 

 that I can keep forty-two cows and four yoke 

 of oxen. Where can we get man-servants 

 and maid-servants ? 



Again, my barn is now even full of English 

 hay ; and when my meadows are improved 

 by ploughing, I shall cut from fifty to sixty 

 tons i^ore, and must build another very great 

 barn. , And when I can winter fifty head of 

 growl cattle, I shall have manure of the very 

 best (uality, sufficient to cover my farm all 

 over ii about three years from this time ; and 

 then igain, my English hay will be increased 

 two c: three fold, and then I shall have to 

 build wo more great barns. Had I not bet- 

 ter hvr a considerable piece of land to build 

 my bs-ns on ? In short, difiiculties multiply 

 on eviry side. 



I wmt your advice, Mr. Editor. I am not 

 in the habit of taking advice from a lawyer, 

 but itjthis case I want your advice. — Boston 

 Culti ator. 



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temedy for the Black Weevil. 



H//ING never seen any remedy for the 

 blackl weevil, which has proved so destruc- 

 the wheat crops after they have been 

 or garnered in this part of the coun- 

 4id I suppose generally through the 

 of the wheat growing countries, I 

 state, for the benefit of those whom it 

 oncern, that I have discovered a sure 

 y, so far as my experience has gone — 

 the last five or six years — which is 

 this: — One sack of Liverpool blown 

 horoughly mixed with one thousand 

 3 of wheat, or half a bushel of salt to 

 ndred bushels. Since I adopted this 

 have not seen a black weevil in my 

 or houses where it is stowed away, 

 gh kept until it was very old : but be- 

 I, my wheat was very often so cut and 

 as to be rendered totally unfit for 

 r market. The quantity of salt here 

 recoi^iended, is not sufficient to injure the 

 in flavour or taste; and the remedy 

 found as efficacious when applied to 

 J. P. Webb. 



IIS, 



