138 



NEW ENGLAND FAUMER, 



Not. 20, 1829. 



weeds down, and that ought to be llic rule as lo 

 tlie number of hoc'iHgs. 



I beg you to excuse this simple and lia.sly ac- 

 count, Mr IMilor. It coniCB iVoin a |>i:.iii, prucli- 

 cal man, who wishes to be useCul, bin who pre- 

 tends to i!o skill in writing. I will noi irLspass on 

 your time any further than just to add, lliat I mean 

 lio disrejiect to theorislsin fMBiing. — Kipcrimcnls, 

 ill every kind of useful proifaet, 1 highly lui/.c. — 

 Slill less would 1 decry the knowUdj^e derivid from 

 books, and from the erperienct of oilier cuunlrics. — 

 On the contrary, I think the common fiirniers are 

 greatly indebted to such gentlemen as put ii in our 

 ponrer from books and otherwise, lo improve in 

 our crops, and fruits, and animals. Old "Mas- 

 sachusetts Uay," by these means may, if she will, 

 become a garden ; and I, for one, feel under great 

 obligation to them foi- the aid they give us in ma- 

 king the calling of the farmer so respectable, and 

 in placing themselves, as it were, among us. I 

 hope in mercy it will have the eflect to induce 

 more of our fine counin/ hoys to remain fanni'is, in- 

 stead of running into the city, and getting behind 

 the counter. Bless you, Sir ! I hope you do not 

 consider it degrading to be a farmer. I know you 

 do not, or you would not make the figure you do, 

 as ditor, of the most valuable paper in the 

 country. One advantage the farmer has over some 

 other professions — he need never be idle. Tlie 

 farmer's work is never done ; and "oecnpation is 

 happiness" — so says Dr I'alev. 

 Yours, most truly. 



A MIDDLESEX FARMER. 



following manner — lirst, a wheel made to fit in iiig them out by hand. Many of ibem are Icli 

 the place of the common wheelbarrnw wheel, with ] lli'' fielil, the straw being cut off" above, or in 



run THE m:w enclanu farhek. 



pegs in its circum'ference, about 1^ incites long, 

 was run upon the ridges, making boles about four 

 incites apart ; and one capsule or berry, was drop- 

 ped in each, and the earth pressed upon them ; 

 but from some circumslnncu one tltinl of the 

 ground vas left vacant, which was set with French 

 turni|is and cabbages. At the second hoeing, the 

 plants were thinned, and left about eight incites 

 apart in the rows, and were hoed but once after- 

 wards. The (|uaritity of land after dcdiicling thai 

 part set with turnips and cabbages, diil not exceed 

 twenty-seven srpiare rods, from which I had 

 16,34-5 pounds after the tops were cut off. I have 

 no doubt that the roots would have been as large 

 if the rows had been but two feet apart, as there 

 was a space between, more than one foot in width, 

 that the leaves never covered. The leaves are 

 excellent for swine and cattle ; apart of mine were 

 stripped four or fi'e times, and the root was not 

 injured thereby. The leaves will dry up and fall 

 off early in autumn if they are not strijtped off, ex- 

 cept a few at the crown, which 1 found most con- 

 venient to cut off before pulling the roots, for thej 

 stand 8 or 10 inches above the ground. Cattle 

 and swine devour the roots greedily, and I think 

 them e.xcellent for fattening, and milch cows. — 

 Mine cost not more than one dollar per ton, aside 

 from the use of the land and manure, which I 

 think must be considered cheap fodder. 



1 have tried two or lltice experiments on pota- 

 toes, lint will not state them at this time, as I have 

 extended this article beyond what I intended. I 

 will state, however, that I do not think it will 

 answer to cnt off the tops of potatoes, as recom- 

 mended in some recent publication. 



Dons the sugar beet differ materially in quality, 

 quantity, or its manner of culture from the Mangel 

 Wiirt/.el .' Yours, &c. 



SotUhbridge, jVov. 2, 1829. E. D. A. 



L-l of them, and the,-e have the appearance ; 

 this time of being safely housed for winter. Tli 

 part of the straw occupied by them, being, by tb 

 cliunge from its natural state, pre.scrve<l from rapij 

 dicay which lite other parts undergo. .Most < 

 those carried to the barn find tliuir way back agajl 

 into the field, cither with the manure, or seed 

 They probably become flies in May or June ; aa\- 

 as the chief business of an insect's mature life i-i 

 propagate its species and to die, they imin 

 atuly seek for and deposit their eggs in the sii' ' 

 lent stalks of barley, at that time growing in tl 

 fields. I have not discovered them in any of tl 

 other grasses, or species of grain. 



If my conjectures be correct, barley growii 

 near where it grew the year previous, will be lik 

 ly lo suffer most from their ravages. As far as o 

 observation extends, this was the case the pi ^ 

 season. 



Is there any way to destroy them ? This is . 

 important question, worthy the attentive consider 

 tion of farmers generally. 



Perhaps many of them might be destroyed 

 burning the stubble, where weeds, killed by t 

 frost, afford sufficient fuel at this season. 



Care should also be taken that those which ( 

 carried to the barn in the stiaw, be not return 

 to the field. Perhaps it may be found by obsen 

 tion that these insects would never l>e able to i 

 vi\ye from the dry straw ; if so, keeping the stfl' 

 o\cr one year would uftbnl an easy remedy. 



ANDREW NICHOLS: 



Danvers, .Yov. 9, 1829. 



MANGEL WL'RTZEL. 



Mk Russei.1, — I consider it a duly to make 

 public such experiments as are likely to be of ge- 

 neral benefit lo the community. If you think the 

 following statements worthy of a place in your 

 paper, you are at liberty to insert them. 



ThQ.cultur3 of the Mangel Wurtzel is surely an 

 oxperment, as there is none raised to my know- 

 ledge in this part of the State. 1 was induced to 

 make the cx|)criment from reading an account of 

 its culture, in Fessknde.n's New American Gar- 

 dener, and accordingly planted one fourth of an 

 acre with one |K)Und of seed which I obtained at 

 your estiiblishment, not expecting, however, logct 

 so large a crop as those stated byCol. PowEr. and 

 othera ; but I have succeeded beyond my expecta- 

 tion. The soil is a sandy loam, upon a rocky, re- 

 tentive subsoil, not naturally deep or strong. Last 

 year it was planleil with Iniliaii Corn, and ma- | appear to be in the chrysalis, or second stage of uii 



[The Sugar Beet seldom attains the very large 

 si/.e of the Mangel Wiirtzel, but is n more solid 

 root, whiter, and sweeter. — Ed.1 



INSECT IN BARLEY. 



Mr Fessenue.n — The crops of barley in litis vi- ; and engrafted with orange shoots of the pre* 

 cinity have been, for several J ears, greaily injured, summer. Some of these shoots containing t" 

 and ill some instances almost destroyed, by small and others three leaves; some of them were sr. 

 worms, or maggots in the culm (stem, or stalk) of e<l in the way recommended by !Mr K.mo 

 the plant. These worms arc about one tenth of i (Hon. Trans, v. 1 & 7,) and bound round with sn 



: TUK NEW ENGLAVD KARUER. 



GRAFTING OR.\NGE TREES, .^c. 



Being of the same opinion with Mr Barti.e' 

 [New England Farnier, Oct. 30, 1829,] that th. 

 is little or nothing in the particular directions git 

 in our books, on the art of grafting, inarching, bi 

 ding, &:c., in May last I ])lanted in lite 0| 

 ground, in a bed of rich mould, ten orange see 

 which by the middle of .Vugust had produi 

 plants three inches high ; they were then taken 



1 in length, yellow, or straw eidor. Ex- 

 amined at this time with a magnifying gla.ss, lliey 



nured with about 2.5 loads of fermented manure 

 to the acre ; and [iroduceil about an average crop, 

 huy .5(1 bushels tothe acre. Last spring theground 

 was ploughed ihrei: times, once ratlter deeper than 

 usual, harrov.ed and rolled, then furrowed three 

 feet apart; but it ought to have lii.cn but two ; and 

 about ten loads of compost mniiure put in the fur- 

 row, which was eomposed of about ecpial pans of 

 argillaceous cleanings of ditches, barn yard, and 

 barn window thing, heaped ami ferinuntcd to- 

 gether. Tito manure was then covchmI by plough- 

 ing back furrows upon lln: same, lea\iiig the liiitil 

 in high ridges. I then passetl a licavy ox roller 

 over (he. ridges crosswise, which laid litem in gen 



insect's existence, semilraiispiirent, and composed 

 of a series of rings tapering oft" towards each ex- 

 treiiiily. They are generally, if not always, fouml 

 between the second and tliirti joint of the first or 

 principal stalk, which is by their operations reit- 

 ilercd hard, brillle, heavy, and nearly soliil. In 

 some Ileitis of barley, in litis town the past season, 

 nearly all lite first stalks wi're by litem rendered 

 barren ; Init suckers roiise(|ueiiily became itiiiito- 



roiis, and proiluceil about half the usual crop 



Tlie.te worms are iloiibilfss ihe larva-, or young of 

 soiiie wingeil ins<'cl, probably a llv. They live 

 ihrtiiigh the wiiiler in lite slraw. They were fti>t 



threads of Indian rubber, pre>iously soaked 

 water. These operations were |icrformcd with 

 tliu nicely of which I was capable ; the oth 

 were grafted in ilirt"ercnt modes, and some di 

 purposely in a rough manner. All were then f 

 tcil ; some entirely in the finest white snnd, whi 

 when the plants began to push, was of course 

 changed for moiilil : others in a hlllc inoulil in 

 bollom of the jiot, and then filled up %vith sand 

 as to cover the wonnileil |>art ; oiul the rest a 

 gether in iiiouUl. They were jilaccd under a hi 

 glass, and sltitdeil from a powerful sun. In sii 

 eight weeks they began to ]>ush, and arc all, lo 

 pearance, doing eipially vyell, with the except 

 of one of those done .so carefully after the dii 

 lions oi'Mr K'»h.iit, which ilamjicd off. Scvi 



hIiowii me lasi spring, by l"ol. Nathami-.i. Fki.ton, of the shoots are at this time llircc inches It 



tic swells, aud compressed the soil and iimnuru an iiiielligenl fiirtiirr of this town, in small |iieces|and 1 hope to have them in bloom in the court 



