llf) 



NEW ENGLAND FARiMER, 



Not. 27, 183S 



tiling of cigur>. Tin; desiri; is not u iiuturul one. 

 Tliu taste ol'tobnccu always uauscule^at tirst, and 

 I am fully persuaded tliat boysi ninl young men 

 would seldom lake to smoking if lliey did not 

 soe it done by lliuse who arc murii older. Tliev 

 are thus brought to think that thcri- is something 

 smart and manly in it. I am glud ii> believe that 

 tliii disgusting praetice is in a manner banished 

 from gome of the walks of society, and those 

 among the most resjiectahje, ami still more pleased 

 to think that il has never been romitenaiiced, hut 

 rather frowned upon, by the other se.\. It is a 

 subject that deserves the eensure of the moralist, 

 almost as nmch as an improper use of ardent spi- 

 rits. They aie but too oft<>n found to go together. 

 Whatever may be our boast of having in many 

 things improved upon our aiieeslor.-, in this one 

 thing of general smoking, we are most deplorably 

 at fault. AN OLD FARMER. 



CHEESE MAK1N(;. 



The business of cheese making is conducted in 

 this county on as extensive and liberal a scale as 

 in any part of the United States, and the celebrity 

 which the Berkshire Cheese has acijuircd in the 

 New York tnarket, where most of it is sold, gives 

 it the precedence over most other kinds, and sup- 

 plies for it a ready demand. The soil in this coun- 

 ty is well adapted to grazing, and cheese and but- 

 ter are important articles of traffic and exportation. 



Cheshire supplied JelTerson with his mamtnoth 

 Cheese, weighing upwards of a thousand weight, 

 and more recently Adams has given to Jackson, 

 the choice product of an extensive dairy. This 

 town is largely engaged in manufacturing, yet 

 there are many superior firms, and some of the 

 bi!st dairies New England can boast. We are told 

 that the number of cows exceeds licelve hundred, 

 one individual keeping fifty-five, and a great num- 

 ber from thirty to thirty-five each, of the best 

 breed and most ])rodiictive kind. We have seen 

 some of them when collected in the farmer's yards, 

 present the appearance of a cattle show, rather 

 than the common collection of milch cows at- 

 tached to one farmer's premises, not only on ac- 

 count of their numbers, but from their fine propor- 

 tions and fatness. The quantity of cheese annu- 

 ally made, we are informed, is about /our hundred 

 thousand pounds, which yields not far from $24, 

 000. (Jreat (|uantities of butter arc also made, 

 and mostly disposed of in the manufacturing vil- 

 lages, and pork and beef cottle are not small items 

 in the exportations of the county. — Berkshire 

 .Imerican. 



From (he GardrM)er°s Magazine. 



ON TIIR NATURAL SUCCESSION OF FO- 

 REST TREES IN NORTH AMERICA. 



Stu — In vol. iii. p. 3'>\, an extract is given from 

 ICvelyn's letter to Sir John Aubrey, stating that 

 beech trees grew in jdacc of oaks which had been 

 cut down by his grandfather, and that birch suc- 

 ci'cded beech which his brother had extirpated. 

 In the United Slates the sjionlaiifous succession of 

 timber, of a dilf-jrent kind liom that cut down, is 

 well ktiown. In the Memoirs of the Philadelphia 

 Society for promolinc; JIgricultare, vol. i., there aie 

 fevoral papers on ibis subject, by the President, 

 the late RichanI Pflers ; by Dr Mcase ; by Mr 

 Joliti Adium, who had lung been a surveyor in the 

 new settlements in I'etiiisylvania; by Dr Cahlwcll, 

 in reference to the fact in North ('arolina, in Ma.s- 

 tiuebiiscitii, and in New Jersrv ; and o confirma- 



tion of it in the last mcntioneil slate, by Mr Tho- 

 mas F. Learning. In the third volume, Mr Isaac 

 Wayne, son of the American general, the late A. 

 \\iiyne, also gives some interesting detail? respect- 

 ing the appearance of tiiidier trees, of a kind dif- 

 ferent from those which formerly covered the 

 ground in his vicinity, and which had been cut 

 down by an American army, when eiica(n|>ed 

 there in the autumn and winter of the year 1777, 

 and spring of the following year. One of the 

 above writers refers to the relation of Mr Ileanie 

 (Journey to the .Vorlhem Ocean, ]). ■i5'2,) for the 

 fact of strawberries growing up w ilil near Churchill 

 river, and in the interior parts of the country, par- 

 ticularly in such places as have been formerly sei 

 on fire ; and for that of hips and raspberry bushes 

 shooting up in great numbers, in burnt places, 

 where nothing of the kind had ever been seen be- 

 fore. Cartwright is also quoted in proof of the 

 point. He observes that, " if through carelessness 

 the old spruce woods arc burnt, or by lightning, 

 Indian teo first comes up, currants follow, and 

 after them birch." (Journal of Trans, at Labra- 

 dor, vol. iii. p. 22.5.J Nine years after the publi- 

 cation of this last work, M'Kenzie stated that, 

 land covered wit hs|)rucc pine, and white birch, when 

 laid waste by fire, [)roduccd nothing but pop- 

 lars:"* and yet the Edinburgh reviewer of his 

 work very indelicately declared his disbelief in the 

 relation. Recently we have additional testimony 

 on this subject. In the manual on the culture of 

 silk, prepared in consequence of a resolution of 

 the House of Representatives of the American 

 Congress, and published in the session of 1828, it 

 is stated, (p. 38,) that " in Tennessee, when a native 

 forest is cut down, if tlie land be eiirlosed, a 

 growth of red mulberry trees soon takes place." — 

 All these statements do not admit a doubt to be 

 entertained of the natural succession of forest tim- 

 ber ; the fact is moreover familiar to every man 

 who has lived in the country, and to almost every 

 intelligent person in North America. I regret 

 that the enterprising voyager did not live to shame 

 the northern critic fbr his rudeness, and to enjoy 

 the satisfaction of seeing his own testimony of a 

 curious and interesting fact in natural history con- 

 firmed by others. J. M. 

 Philadelphia, May 1, 1829. 



Extracts from an article " On the jVecessity and 

 Mvantage of intjuiring scientifically into the 

 Practices and Results of Horlicidture. By Jo- 

 sKi>H IIayward, Esq.," published in Loudon's 

 Gardener^s Magazine, for August, 1829. 



" It is known, that when animal and vegetable 

 substances are deprived of life, and left to nature, 

 a spontaneous dec(miposition takes place, by what 

 is called fermentation ; and it appears, that, dur- 

 ing the process of the juitrcfactive fermentation, 

 carbon is liberated in the greatest quantity, and 

 reduced to a stulo that is best appro|)rialcd as food 

 for plants ; and that at the same time, a inirt of 

 the carbon, which is liberated by this process, 

 unites to oxygen, and forms carbonic acid gas; 

 anil a i)art also unites with hydrogen, ond forms 

 carburctteil hydrogen gas; and when in this slate 

 the carbon is dissipated and lost to the plants. — 

 To prevent this loss, and, ok they say, at liie same 

 lime to facilitate putrefaction, the chemists recom- 

 nienil the addition of quirk lime to the fermenting 

 mass ; but in this, I conceive, they are under a 



" ViiVBgc Irom Moulrral to Uic Fruten nnJ racilic Ucvaoi. 



mistake; for, the formation of carburetted h 

 gen gas being un inevitable consequence of pi 

 taction, any fubstance that will prevent such 

 niation nmsl he considered as obstructing ilie' 

 irifartive fermentation. Quicklime, added 

 fermenting suhsiance, will iio doubt hasten its 

 Solution, and at lihe same lime prevent the 

 uiaiion of carbonic ocid gas, but such a decoo 

 siiion cannot be syiionimous will) putrefactioi "' 

 .\nd further, although (piickhme will hasten 

 ilecomposilion of animal and vegetable malleri 

 retain the carbon, it will, at the same lime (§f ^ 

 other compounds, which are noi soluble in wgi 

 and, therefore, although it |ireveots one loss, ii \ 

 occasion another, and a greater. Uut, if l:r 

 slaked before it be added lo liie fermeniiiiL' 

 ler, it will equally facilitate in decompositic: 

 firm other conq)Osilions that will beperfecll', 

 ble. Yet, however powerful, as an agent in 

 tation, lime may be ; and there can be no 

 that when properly applied, and under ceitii 

 cumstanccs, it is ca])ahle of producing the i. 

 beneficial efl[ecl8 ; I believe it will be found || 

 it is not the most efficient that is produced byf ^ 

 nor that which acts with the greatest fac.! ; 

 imparting to inert carbonaceous matter the 

 principles of fertility. 



" With a view to discover this, and then 

 means of preparing a substance that may I . 

 solved in water, and ibus be capable of su; , 

 jlants with the re(|uisite nourishment v 

 awaiting the result of the usual |)roccss of ii„: ; 

 (iecomposilion by the putrefactive fermentatioi 

 of being under the necessity of stirring up 

 earth, or, when in pots, of changing the soil, 

 dius disturbing the roots. I made a great nug 

 of experiments ; and the substance which I ft 

 to be the most efficient in every respect, in in.; 

 ing those principles to the soil, which are rn; 

 to sustain plants in health and vigor, wa- 

 serum, or watery part of blood, which sepi, 

 from the clotted part, or crassamenlum, after 

 been a few days taken from an animal. Tli 

 stance, diluted with five or six times its qi 

 of water, and applied, by pouring a gi 

 quantity on the surface of the soil, to satu 

 earth to the depth of the roots, enabled pi 

 every description that we are in the habit 

 tivating, when planted in a soil perfectly di 

 of carbonaceous matter, lo attain the ut 

 to which I had ever seen them grow in tl 

 luxuriant soil ; and such plants were thus 

 to fructify at a much earlier period, 

 greater vigor, than by any other means or 

 of food. The solid, or clotleil part of tli 

 could not he made available, until reduced 

 composition ; ond as the imtrefaclive fernn 

 was unavoidably attended with obnoxious 

 I at first reduced il by lime, but although t 

 dered soluble, ond productive of fertility, 

 not so much so as the serum. 



" The writer then gives the results of cl 

 analysis of the scrum and crassamenlum 

 and states that " The dirterence, then, ii 

 substances appeai-s to be that cra.s.soinentui 

 tains no alkaline sails, and the serum no 

 and concludes that the "absence or p 

 carbon determines the degree of fertility! 

 soil ; but we olso discover the most efficii 

 ciple or ogent for rendering available to! 

 anil such as appears prepared for the pi 

 nature which is alkali. The alkaline 

 no doiibi, been occasionally noticed as 



