Vo... II. 



JNEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



"p'JBMshkiFby avilliam MfilioLs. ro(;kks' hiimungs, conghkss strket, (kourth dooii krom state strff/i.-) 



BOSTON, SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1824, 



No. :5;}. 



REMARKS ON VEGETATION, fcc. 



rous variety of very large and extremely luxuri-l mals, and tlie temlons of their feet, hecomc! a 

 ant white ones, which were not only much larg:- soft mucus or jelly by boiling, and some of the li- 

 ■' ■ ■ 'V, which are found in the cell? or cavities of 



TO PRODVCK SEEDS EARLY IN THE SEASON'. — Those | gp .,p(j jjiore productive than the original 

 ants, which are required to yield a forward „,j,|(g ^^pj^ but the number of seeds in each 

 0]>. as the peas and beans of our ganlons, may ! p^j jy^^ increased from seven or eight, to eight 

 own before the commencement ol winter, or nine, and not unfrequently to ten. The new- 

 thor in natural ground, as in the cultivation o! I y jjjgjg gpgy ]j}„^5 I jound were easily made 

 heat, or in situations sheltered from the cold ^yj^ilg ^g.,ir," by impregnating their blossoms 

 > of winter. Or they may he sona very L^itf, (he farina of another white kind.* In 

 rly in the spring, and very thick in hot- 1 {[,ig experiment the seeds, which grew toward 

 uses, or under hot bed frames, or under warm i ([,e point of the pod, and were by position first 

 ills, and be transplanted, when they are one , g^p^ggd („ (f,e action of the male, would some- 

 two inches high, into the natural ground, at I (j[j,es produce seeds like it in color, whilst 

 le distances, when the weather is milder, and j those at the other end would follow the female 



e plants are become hardiei 

 When young plants of any kind are trans- 

 anted, the ground should be fresh dug, as their 

 peditious growth depends so much on the at- 

 Dspheric air being buried in the pores or in- 

 rstices of the earth, by the production of car- 

 nic and nitrous acids and ammonia, and heat. 

 Dr. Darwin says that " the wheat produced 

 ter land has been much limed, is believed to 

 thinner skinned, and to produce more good 

 al than any other wheat, and to make better 

 sad. On this account 1 suppose that one use 

 lime is to forward the ripening of seeds by 

 iverting their mucilage sooner into starch 

 oil; as according to the experiments of M. 

 irmentier, the goodness of bread depends 

 h on the quantity of starch contained in it ; 

 to found that if the starch taken from eight 

 mnds of raw potatoes, by grating Ibem into 

 Bid water, was mixed with eight p'luo"-' nf 

 filed potatoes, a good bread might be produc- 

 I as from wheat flour." 



• The same writer says, "it is well known to 

 rdeners that transplanting garden-beans for- 

 rds them in respect to time, but shortens the 

 ight of the stem. Hence transplanted veg- 

 ibles grow less in height, as transplanted 

 ms ; and less branchy, as transplanted mel 

 i; which is a great advantage. 

 ' To generate the best kinds of seeds the 

 gst healthy plants must be chosen, and those 

 ■ich are most early in the season ; these 

 ould be so insulated as to have no weak plant? 

 the same species, or even genus in their vi- 

 lity, lest the fecundating dust of weaker 

 mis should be blown by winds upon the stig- 

 ita of the stronger and thus produce a less 

 rorous progeny. 



' When new varieties are required, the male 

 st of one good variety, as of the nonpareil 

 pie, should be shed upon the stigmas of an- 

 ner good variety, as of the golden pippin ; 

 d it is probable that some new and excellent 

 rieties might be thus obtained. 

 Mr. Knight has given a curious experiment of 

 3 impregnating the stigmas of the pea-blos- 

 ms of one variety with the tarina of another, 

 says. Treatise nf Apple and Pear, p. 42, 

 lossoms of a small white garden pea, m which 

 males had previously been destroyed, were 

 pregnnted with the farina of a lar2;e clav 

 \ored kind with purple blossoms. The pro- 

 ce of the seeds thus obtained were of a dark 

 ey color, but these having no lixed hahti. 



In other instances the whole produce of the 

 pod would take the color of one or other of the 

 parents; and I had once an instance in which 

 two peas at one end of the pod, produced white 

 seeds like the male, two at the other end grey 

 ones like the female, and the central seeds took 

 the intermediate shade, a clay color. From 

 some very imperfect experiments I have made, 

 1 am led to suspect that considerable advantages 

 would be found to arise from the use of new or 

 regenerated varieties of wheat, and these are 

 easily obtained, as this plant readily sports in 

 varieties, whenever kinds are sown together. 



" The white and blue peas sown in fields as 

 well as in gardens sometimes possess the pro- 

 perty of becoming soft by boiling, at other times 

 not. This circumstance is said to depend on 

 the nature of the soil, but has not yet sufficient- 

 ly been investigated ; perhaps the greater or 

 less maturity of the peas at the time of gather- 

 ing them may have more or less contributed ti 

 till their fibrous cells or divisions with mucil-ige 

 or starch. The greater or less mealiness pro- 

 duced by boiling potatoes seems to be an nnal 

 agous circumstance, and is thought by some to 

 arise from the nature of the soil rather than 

 from the species or variety ofthe planted root. 



"The mealiness of some boiled potatoes, and 

 the softness of some boiled peas, may be occa- 

 sionally affected by the acidity ofthe spring wa- 

 ter in which they are boiled , but is generally, 

 1 suppose, owing to the mucilage of some of 

 them being more or less coagulable by heat 

 than that of others. Something similar to 

 which obtains in animal mucus, as the chrysta- 

 line humor of the eyes of fish, becomes hard 

 and opaque by boiling; while the skins of ani- 



* The Domestic Encyclopedia says that " the man 

 ner of obtaining the farina of plants for microscopical 

 observation is this — gather the flowers iu the midst of 

 a dry sun shiny day, when the dew is perfectly off, 

 then gently shake off the farina, or lightly brush it off 

 with a soft fairpencil, upon a piece of white paper ; — 

 then take a single talc of isinglass between the nip- 

 pers, and breathing on it apply it instantly to the fari- 

 na, and the moisture of the breath will make 

 that light powder stick to it. If too great a qnantity is 

 found adhering to the talc blow a little of it off, and if 

 there is too little breathe upon it again and take up 

 more. When this is done put the talc into the hole 

 of a slider, and applying it to the microscope, see 

 whether the little grains are laid as you desire, and if 

 they are, cover them up with another talc, and fix 

 'he rinir, but care must he taken tliat the talcs do not 



upon the fariua in such a manner as to alter the 



te soon changed by cultivation into a nume-|fo""-" 



quid 



the body in dropsies, are observed to coaguhito 

 by beat, and others to hecomemore fluid. The 

 causes of this diflcrence merit further enquiry. 

 To collect good seeds consists not in procuring 

 eeds from distant places, as is generally siijipos- 

 ed, but in selecting the best seeds and roots of 

 your own. Mr. Cooper, of New Jersey, was 

 led to this practice, which he began more than 

 sixty years ago. by observing that vegetables of 

 all kinds were very subject to change with re- • 

 spect to the time of coming to maturity, and 

 other properties, but that the best seeds never 

 failed to produce the best plants. Among a 

 great number of experiments, he particularly 

 mentions the following: 



•' About the year 1746, his father procured 

 seeds of the long watery squash, and though 

 they have been used on the farm ever since 

 that time without any change, they are at this 

 lime better than they were at the first. 



" His early peas were procured from Lon- 

 don in the year 1756, and though they have 

 been planted on the same place every season, 

 they have been so far from degenerating, that 

 they are preferable to what (liey were then. — 

 The seeds of his asparagus he had from New 

 York in 1752, and though they have been 

 planted in the same manner, the plants are 

 greatly improved. 



" It is more particularly complained of, that 

 potatoes degenerate when they are j)tanted 

 iVoni the same roots in the same place. At this, 

 Mr. Cooper says, he does not wonder when itii 

 customary with farmers to sell or consume the 

 best, and to plant from the refuse ; where- 

 as, having observed that some of his plants pro- 

 duced potatoes that were larger, better shaped, 

 and in greater abundance than others, he took 

 his roots from them only ; and the next season 

 he found that the produce was of a quality su- 

 perior to any that he ever had before. This 

 practice he still continues, and finds that he is 

 abundantly rewarded for his trouble. 



" Mr. Cooper is also careful to sow the plant 

 from which he raises his seed at a considerable 

 distance from any others. Thus, when his rad- 

 ishes are fit for use, he takes ten or twelve that 

 he most approves, and plants them at least one 

 hundred yards from others that blossom at the 

 same time. In the same manner he treats all 

 his other plants, varying the circumstances ac- 

 cording to their nature. 



" About the year 1772, a friend of his sent 

 him a few grains of a small kind of Indian 

 corn not larger than goose shot, which produc- 

 ed from eight to ten ears on a stalk. They 

 were also small, and found that lew of them ri- 

 pened before the frost. Some of the largest 

 and earliest he saved, and planted them be- 

 tween rows of a larger and earlier kind, and 

 the produce was much improved. He then 

 planted from those that had produced the great- 

 est number of the largest ears, and that were 

 the first ripe, and the next season the produce 

 with respect to quality and quantity was prefer- 

 able to any that he had ever planted before. 



i 



