No. 2. 



Cultivation of Madder. — Acid in Wood, ^'C. 



55 



till spring. It requires about thirty tliou- 

 sand plants for setting an acre of land. The 

 most suitable time for taking tlie sets, is 

 shown by the plants having attained the 

 height of ten or twelve inclies from the 

 ground, and the suckers having thrown out 

 fibrous roots from their bottoms. This may 

 be seen by drawing up a few of the plants, 

 and usually about the latter end of May or 

 beginning of June. Besides, it is necessary 

 that the sets shall have formed root-fibres at 

 the bottoms, before they are removed, as 

 where that is not the case, they never suc- 

 ceed well. 



The land being prepared as directed, and 

 the plants provided, a sufficient number of 

 labourers are to be employed, that the work 

 may be performed as expeditiously as possi- 

 ble. In taking off" the sets, much care is 

 necessary not to injure them. The number 

 of plants that can be set in a short time, 

 should be taken up at once. They should 

 be prepared, by having a third part of their 

 tops cut off". A sort of thin batter should 

 be made, by mixing good vegetable mould 

 and water well together, and as madder 

 roots contain a large portion of free potash, 

 I would recommend an addition of half a 

 pound of potash to the batter used for the 

 shoots, for every five pounds of fine mould ; 

 and this first dissolved in the water before 

 mixing with the mould. Into this batter 

 the roots and the sets should be well dipped, 

 before they are placed in the earth, as by 

 this means the necessity of watering the 

 plants afterward is prevented. This work 

 is executed by a person before the planting 

 commences. Two others are employed af- 

 terward in distributing the plants, so as to 

 be convenient for putting them into the 

 ground. 



These sets, after the land has been formed 

 into beds, five feet in breadth, with two feet 

 between each for intervals, are put in by 

 means of a line and a dibble, beginning at a 

 distance of six inches from the outside, and 

 setting a row of plants at a distance of five, 

 six, or more inches from each other ; then 

 removing the Ime two feet farther on them, 

 and putting in another row, and so on, till 

 the bed is finished. In this way each bed 

 contains three rows of plants, at two feet 

 distance each. 



After cultivation. — As some of the plants 

 are liable to die soon after the work has 

 been performed, it is necessary, in the course 

 of two or three weeks, to look over the 

 ground, and put fresh vigorous plants in the 

 places where the others have been de- 

 stroyed. 



It is of the greatest consequence to the 

 growth, that it be kept perfectly clean from 



weeds, and that the mould be occasionally 

 stirred about the shoots of the plants. 



Wm. Partridge. 



Acid in Wood— -lis effects on Salt and 

 Butter. 



It has been frequently remarked by those 

 who are in the habit of packing butter, that 

 it kept best put down in stone; the next 

 best, is oak or white-ash firkins; the wood 

 of which had been boiled for several hours 

 previous to working; and the butter packed 

 in firkins of unprepared wood, frequently 

 acquired a strong and disagreeable flavour, 

 which seriously injured it. The reason of 

 this has not been generally understood. Mr. 

 Moir, of Scotland, has been instituting a 

 series of experiments on the subject, which 

 appear to have thrown some light on the 

 matter. He found that most kinds of wood 

 contained considerable quantities of pyrol ig- 

 neous acid, which decomposes the salt with 

 which it comes in contact. The Linden or 

 Basswood, was the only wood he found en- 

 tirely free, but the other kinds he experi- 

 mented upon, were easily freed from the 

 acid by boiling three or four hours, well 

 pressed under water. It is evident that 

 firkins made of staves, prepared in this way, 

 would be decidedly improved, and as the 

 preservation of butter in a sweet and pure 

 state is an important matter to the dairy- 

 man, we think much would be gained by a 

 proper attention to the vessels in which it is 

 packed. — Saturday Courier. 



Rice for Pigs. — My friend and I, pur- 

 chased from the Government stores, several 

 tons of damaged rice, at a cheap rate, and 

 with this we fattened a lot of pigs; and such 

 pork I never saw before nor since. The fat, 

 j instead of being loose and porous, as it fre- 

 quently is, was as solid as the lean, and the 

 flavour of the meat was altogether superior. 

 The way in which the rice was prepared 

 was this. My copper held 40 gallons. In 

 the afternoon this was filled, or nearly so, 

 with water; as soon as the water boiled, the 

 fire was raked out, and two pails full of rice 

 shot in ; the whole was then closely covered 

 down, and left till the morning. On the fol- 

 j lowing day the copper was emptied of ita 

 'contents, which consisted of a thick jelly, 

 ! which could only be taken out with a shovel. 

 With this the pigs were fed, and the efi^ect 

 was what I have stated above. — London 

 Farmer'' s Magazine. 



It is not sufficient that we avoid what is 

 wrong — we should also practice what is 

 right. The former is a negative virtue, the 

 latter positive. 



