1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



359 



STUMP-FOOTED CABBAGES — COAL ASHES. 



In the short, pithy articles under the head of 

 "Extracts and Replies," in your paper of the 30th 

 ult., in answer to "A Subscriber's Son," I would say 

 that the cause of stump-rooted cabbages and tur- 

 nips is manuring with hog manure. The remedy 

 is, mcntn-e your ground where you wish to raise 

 them with manure from the barn-yard, and you 

 will not be troubled with stump roots. Try it. 



I would like to inquire whether coal ashes are 

 good for anything as a fertilizer, or in what per 

 cent, will they compare with wood ashes, for com- 

 post, or a top dressing ? Ariel. 



Marlboro', Mass., June 1, 1857. 



Remarks. — Coal ashes are worth preserving, 

 though they possess but four or five per cent, of 

 potash. 



DO potatoes mix ? 



I have been much interested in the discussion of 

 the question "Do potatoes mix ?" Some say they 

 do ; others are equally positive that they do not. 

 Now I am with the former. One of your non- 

 mixing correspondents says they can mix only in 

 the blow, and therefore the roots do not mix. I 

 agree with him — they do mix in the blow — and 

 there only, I think. He says, corn mixes in the 

 blow and this changes the seed — as much as to say 

 that the seed grows where the blow is. Pray, sir, 

 does the corn grow on the tassel ? No, it grows 

 below it, sometimes several feet ; and if corn will 

 mix — which no one will pretend to deny — why do 

 not jiotatoes m.ix ? What possible reason is there 

 to suppose that potatoes do not mix ? 



Unknown. 



HAY AND meal. 



As my father is a subscriber to your paper, I 

 would like to inquire through it, if you consider it 

 worth the room, which is the best mode of feeding 

 corn meal to horn cattle — to cut hay and put with 

 the meal, or to feed clear and dry meal, with the 

 hay separate ? G. L. T. 



Chaplin, 1857. 



Remarks. — Cut the hay and mix the meal with 

 it, by all means. 



A HEW MACHmE. 



We had the pleasure, a few days since, of wit- 

 nessing the opei'ation of Mr. Sanford Adams' new 

 michine for sifting and sorting beans, &c. The 

 machine is very simj/le, so much so that one won- 

 ders why no one has thought of it before. It con- 

 sists of a series of sieves, like those in a common 

 fanning mill, the coarsest at the lop, and growing 

 finer towards the bottom, until the last one is so 

 fine as to adm.it only the passage of dirt. Each 

 sieve is connected with an inclined plane, down 

 which the several sizes of beans, or whatever arti- 

 cle is put into the machine, are discharged, into 

 separate receptacles. We saw a barrel of beans 

 sorted into three different sizes in about ten m.in- 

 utes, and cleansed from dirt at the same time, and 

 were informed that they were worth from twenty- 



five to fifty cents more a bushel when thus assorted, 

 than when mixed. Large quantities of beans are 

 brought to this market in a mixed state, and are 

 generally sold by our produce dealers in the same 

 condition, the labor of picking them over by hand 

 being tedious and unprofitable. By increasing the 

 value of the commodity in so great a proportion, 

 one of these machines will pay for itself in a very 

 short time, and amply remunerate the purchaser. 

 Several of the produce dealers in our immediate 

 neighborhood have them in operation, and they 

 give general satisfaction. 



We are informed that by using sieves sufficient- 

 ly coarse, potatoes, coal, and other articles of simi- 

 lar bulk may be assorted with the same facility. 



The machine may be seen at4SKneeland Street, 

 in this city. 



For the New England Farmer. 



THE SMUT OR BLACK RUST UPOKT 

 THE ONIOH. 



My attention was called this afternoon, (June 

 6th,) to a new variety of disease, fatally destructive 

 of the onion, more apparent the present season than 

 ever before, but not entirely unknown for the last 

 half dozen years. I saw it on the ground of Messrs. 

 D. & E. Buxton, and learned from them, it has ap- 

 peared more or less in most of the cultivated fields 

 within their observation. In some places it has 

 spread over entire fields of half an acre, in others, 

 it is limited to a few square rods, but wherever it 

 appears it is death to the onion. Mr. B. likens it 

 to the smut upon corn, and pulled up several of the 

 plants, where the dark substance had accumulated 

 in the crotch, where the first leaf branches out, so 

 that it could be rubbed off by the fingers. What 

 it is, or what causes it, no one knows ; but, said Mr. 

 B., if it continues to increase as it has done for a 

 few years, it will use up our hopes of the onion. 

 He thought it might have accrued from the super- 

 abundance of moisture of the season, but this theo- 

 ry is rendered doubtful by the fact, that in the 

 same field, on the same land, parts will be entirely 

 blighted, while other parts are free of blight. It is 

 altogether unlike any other disease heretofore ob- 

 served by these careful cultivators, and if any one 

 can tell more about it, or how it can be remedied, 

 they would esteem it a favor. I have called it smut 

 or rust, terms most expressive of my idea of the 

 affection of the plant. I do not speak scientifically, 

 because I have no science for such a malad)', any 

 more than for the rot upon the potato. By-the- 

 bye, in the same field where I saw the onions, I 

 saw the Davis Seedling potato, growing with great 

 luxuriance, its proprietors considering it far better 

 than any other variety they cultivate; not except- 

 ing other kinds, much trumpeted of late. P. 



South Danvers, JuncG, 1857. 



^F" About two thousand acres of wild land were 

 sold in Northwestern Virginia, a few days since, at 

 the rate of $2 per acre for half, and $1 50 for the 

 remainder. The land is about forty miles from 

 I'arkersburg, within four miles of a railroad, and 

 adnpted to grazing. 



