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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



acre or two each, alternately of wheat and beets, 

 oats and potatoes or clover, a mode of cultivation 

 never adopted by an extensive proprietor. And 

 so, we kept upon the rail, all day, about one hun- 

 dred and fifty miles, until at evening we at last 

 reached the river of poetry and romance, called 

 by the Germans, the "Father of the Waters," the 

 famous Rhine, at the old city of Cologne. And 

 here, for the present, we must part, as the boat 

 which takes us still farther up the stream towards 

 Worms and Heidelberg, and the Alps beyond, is 

 already breasting the swift current which opposes 

 its progress past "fair Bingen on the Rhine." — 

 When time can be found, my hasty sketch may be 

 resumed, to be offered when convenient to our 

 readers, as first impressions merely of this strange- 

 ly beautiful old world. 

 And now, farewell. H. F. French. 



For the New England Farmer. 



THE CURCULIO. 



Let me assure Mr. Underwood, whose article on 

 the destruction of the curculio by allowing hens to 

 run among fruit trees, you published in the last 

 week's Farmer, that like all remedies for the pota- 

 to rot that have hitherto been suggested, this will 

 prove an entire failure. I have tried it, and there- 

 fore know. Eight years ago, I set apart a portion of 

 my garden adjoining the hen house, as a plum or- 

 chard. I stocked it with the choicest varieties of 

 the plum, some twenty-five trees in all, and every 

 morning let from fifty to a hundred Shanghais, Dor- 

 kings and Bantams into the lot to protect my trees 

 against ail mischievous intruders. These fowls were 

 confined to theprecints of the yard the year round, 

 as it was surrounded with a high picket fence. The 

 fowls were active, the trees grew and are now of 

 stately and comely proportions, but "nary a plum !" 

 I can see no diff"erence between those trees that are 

 watched by the hens, and those that are not. The 

 young fruit on these trees has more crecents on it 

 than would please the fancy of any amateur fruit- 

 raiser in the land. The simple truth is, this cur- 

 culio is not a "creeping thing," but a winged insect, 

 and nimble at that. They are so sly, intangible and 

 numerous, that 1 despair of either controlling or de- 

 stroying them. The most practicable method, it 

 seems to me, is to destroy the windfalls and fruit 

 containing their eggs. j. R. G. 



Pelham, JV. H., Sept. 21. 



Effects of Gunpowder. — Some of the efxects 

 of ignited gunpowder are wonderful. When gun- 

 powder is heaped up in the open air, and inflamed, 

 there is no report, and but Httle efi'ect produced. 

 A small quantity open, and ignited in a room, 

 forces the air outward, so as to blow out the win- 

 dows ; but the same quantity confined within a 

 bomb, within the same room, and ignited, tears in 

 pieces and sets on fire the whole house. Count 

 Rumford loaded a mortar with l-20th of an ounce 

 of powder, and placed upon it a 24 pound cannon ; 

 he then closed up every opening as completely as 

 uossible, and fired the charge, which burst the 

 mortar with a tremendous explosion, and lifted up 



its enormous weight. In another experiment. 

 Count Rumford confined 28 grains of powder in a 

 cylindrical space, which it just filled, and upon be- 

 ing fired, it tore asunder a piece of iron which would 

 have resisted a strain of 400,000 pounds. 



For the New England Farmer. 



ORICULAR BREAD. 



Mr. Editor: — A late number of your paper 

 makes me say oricular bread, for oriental bread. 

 Some of your readers may have puzzled their brains, 

 ere now, to try to comprehend my meaning. The 

 error was the fault of my hasty pen, as I suppose, 

 rather than that of the printer. I must try to write 

 more legibly, hereafter. Since, however, I "have 

 the floor," for the moment, and since the staff of 

 life is a staff of some importance, you will allow me 

 to state more definitely than I have before, what 

 my views are on the subject of bread ; and thus 

 preclude the possibility of any farther serious mis- 

 understanding or misapprehension. 



There is, so far as I know, but one kind of legit- 

 imate or true bread in the world. This consists of 

 farinaceous substances, more or less pulverized, and 

 compacted into masses of various size and shape, 

 and quickly and firmly consolidated by heat. We 

 may, indeed, give the name of bread to grain, when 

 boiled or otherwise softened, and when parched or 

 tonefied, and even raw or uncooked ; but this "cog- 

 nomen" is not customary. Whether our meal be 

 from wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, buckwheat, mil- 

 let, peas, rice or any thing else, and whether it is 

 coarse or fine, all we have to do, in order to have 

 heaven's own bread, is to compact it by means 

 of water and heat, and give it a little age. We 

 want no yeast or leaven, no artificial mixtures, no 

 fermentation, no eflfervescence, no salt, saleratus, 

 milk, lard, butter, eggs, chopped meat, berries or 

 apples. 



But although I know of but one kind of bread 

 that is ligitimate, there are among the illegitimate 

 kinds which come to our table, ("where God sends 

 meats,but the devil sends cooks,") several that are 

 not very objectionable. It may, indeed, be asked, 

 whether second best can be as good as Jirst best. 

 Without stopping to answer such a question as this, 

 (to which but one answer can be given,) I will say 

 a word uuout some of these second best breads ; 

 taking up first the most worthy. 



Bread raised by yeast or leaven, that is, ferment- 

 ed bread, without any additions, such as milk, salt, 

 &c., if not suffered to rise too much before it is 

 placed in the oven, is not very objectionable. It 

 should, however, be in thin loaves, so as to have as 

 much crust as possible. There is, in this way, a little 

 waste of the saccharine matter or life of the bread, 

 which, though not much in a single loaf, is yet a good 

 deal in the aggregate. But a stronger objection is, 

 that fermentation is the preliminary stage of putre- 

 faction ; and can decaying substances be as good as 

 undecaying ones ? Nobody will believe it. 



Bread made of fine flour — that which has been 

 bolted or sifted — though" not so good as that which 

 is made of whole meal, is, when well made, quite 

 tolerable. It is best, however, when from twelve 

 to forty-eight or sixty hours old. Even when salt, 

 or salt and a little milk, are added to the above, to 

 make it more palatable, though less healthy is the 

 same proportion, — it can be borne by most stom- 



