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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



i 



able accurately to determine the specific relative 

 quantities of manure, which the several vegetable 

 substances suppHed as aliment to domestic animals 

 are adequate to produce. The only experiments 

 which have been made as yet, in this department of 

 agricultural science, relate to the potato. 



From these experiments it appears that one 

 hundred pounds of potatoes will produce sixty 

 pounds of dung — liquid and solid excrement — and 

 that, consequently, an acre of potatoes producing 

 one hundred and sixty bushels ofpotatoes or sixteen 

 thousand pounds, exclusive of the seed, and which 

 may be considered as equivalent to about eight 

 thousand pounds of dry hay, will yield nine thous- 

 and six hundred pounds of manure. Such was the 

 result of an experiment instituted and critically 

 carried out by a distinguished agriculturist of Great 

 Britain, some years since, but whether the data 

 tliereby furnished deserve to be fully accredited 

 we are not fully prepared to assert. 



For the New England FafTiier. 



COWS AND HOGS. 



It is said by one who claims to have observed 

 much, that there is a reciprocal action between the 

 rearing of crops and the rearing of swine ; and that 

 every swine grown to maturity (say 300 lbs.) will, 

 if prgperly supplied with material to operate, make 

 his own value in manure. Supposing this to be 

 true, and that ten swnie can be annually grown on 

 each tract of one hundred acres in the Common- 

 wealth, here, then, will be a supply of $300 worth 

 of manure to each farm. Is it not better to pro- 

 vide this supply, than to trust to the islands of the 

 I'acific for the dressing of the sea-fowl there de- 

 posited ? In the one case, you know what you 

 have ; in the other, you do not know — it may be 

 of value, and it may not be ; but no one was ever 

 disappointed in the products of his pig-pen, when 

 he supplied it himself. 



What more desirable spectacle to the farmer 

 than the luxuriant field of Indian corn in the 

 month of July, that has been properly supplied with 

 a fair proportion of feriilizing material from the 

 hog-yard ? In my own neighborhood, I have known 

 eighty bushels of sound corn, (honest measure) 

 grown to the acre, upon land too poor to feed a 

 blue jay, (as the saying is,) simply by the means of 

 a liberal dropping of this kind of manure, thorough- 

 ly intermingled with the soil to the depth of nine 

 inches, or more. Others may hope for crops from 

 fiincy dressings of a few hundred pounds of fancy 

 fertilizers, but give me a good double plow, and 

 ten cords of manure to the acre, and strong arms 

 to use it — ^with discreet judgment in planting at 

 the proper time — and vigilant industry in clearing 

 away the weeds, and I want no better guarantee of 

 a reliable crop on a New England farm. 



JJpril 6, 1857. An Old School Farmer. 



Black Knot in Plum Trees— May be certainly 

 cured in the following way : — Remove all diseased 

 parts as soon as they appear, and wash the parts 

 with chloride of lime. Examinations should be 

 made once a week. — Exchange. 



PEEPETTJAL SASPBERRY. 



As there is much inquiry respecting the perpetual 

 raspberry, it will probably be interesting to many 

 of your readers to know the history and character 

 of this fruit. 



As far as I am acquainted, it is a new variety. 

 Four years ago, when I came in possession of the 

 farm on which it was found, there was a piece of 

 ground which had been set out with three or four 

 kinds of raspberries, but a])peared to have been 

 but little cultivated. During the month of Sep- 

 tember, I discovered under a row of old peach 

 trees, adjoining the raspberry patch, some raspber- 

 ry vines bearing beautiful fruit. The next Spring I 

 removed the vines bearing this fruit, and each stock 

 threw out three or four branches near the surface 

 of the ground, and commenced bearing fruit in 

 August, and continued bearing until killed by the 

 frost. 



The next Spring the same branches that bore 

 the previous Fall, bore a full crop of dilicious fruit, 

 and like other varieties, died after the fruit ripened, 

 but the old stocks threw out new branches in the 

 Spring, which commenced blooming about the time 

 the first began to ripen, and continued to send 

 out new branches and bear fruit until killed by the 

 frost. 



I have saved all the shoots sent out by the roots, 

 and set them in rows four feet apart, and two feet 

 apart in the row, to raise fruit for the New Haven 

 market, where they readily bring 25 cts. a quart. I 

 cultivate them with a horse, using sometimes a 

 plow, sometimes a cultivator, and sometimes a horse 

 hoe. Cultivated in this way they form a beautiful 

 bush with from four to six branches, three and a 

 half feet high, very smooth, and entirely free from 

 prickles, and support themselves as well as a cur- 

 rant bush. I cut in the vines in the Spring from six 

 to ten inches. The fruit ripens a few days earlier 

 than the Antwerp. 



It is a prevailing opinion here, that this variety is 

 a hybrid, sown by the birds resting on the peach 

 trees after feeding on the adjoining raspberries. I 

 have exterminated all other varieties from the farm, 

 finding this to be the most profitable. It costs no 

 more to cultivate an acre of this variety of raspber- 

 ry after the first planting, than it does to cultivate 

 an acre in potatoes or corn. — A. Bagley, in the 

 Homestead. 



THE WHITE CARROT. 



This vegetable is thought to be more valuable as 

 a feed for stock, than the common orange or long 

 red carrot. It is extensively cultivated in Belgium, 

 of which country it is probably a native. Its great 

 powers of prolification render it superior to the 

 common varieties, and as its culture is attended 

 with no more trouble — owing to its great hardi- 

 hood — it is preferred wherever known. In nutri- 

 mental properties, accurate chemical analyses, as 

 well as careful experiments in feeding, demonstrate 

 it to be very rich. 



The soil best adapted to the white carrot is a 

 deep rich and rather warm loam, reposing on a 

 substratum of gravel or sand. The oldest barn- 

 yard manure should be applied, and care taken to 

 ensure its thorough admixture with the soil. 



