526 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



ashes, snuif, tobacco, all are alike ineflScacious. 

 If spared, I will, by and by, send you a drawing 

 of the worm, and such description as I can give. 



I find that we can preserve wheat, after thresh- 

 ino", from the ivcevil in a good degree. In No- 

 vember last I procured the threshing of some 340 

 bushels of wheat. This had been stacked two 

 months or more ; consequently, some of the out- 

 ward bundles, having been wet with the fall rains, 

 contained a few weevils. I threw a cart load of 

 this grain on to the floor of a room, say 24 feet 

 by 18 ; I then scattered over this two or three 

 shovels of air-slacked lime, and mixed it well, 

 then turned in another load and repeated the lime. 

 It kept admirably, and I think the lime a pre- 

 servative. 



Glad to see that you get on so well in New 

 England in the matter of agriculture. Dear old 

 New England, land of my birth, of my childhood 

 and youth ! Greatly do I desire thy prosperity. 

 Well may thy sons be thankful that they were 

 born and cradled among thy hills, instead of first 

 breathing the balmy air of a Southern climate 

 If I have any hardness, any thing like endurance 

 I owe it, under God, to having felt the bracing 

 atmosphere of the north, and to having become 

 inured to the tug of labor on the hill sides and in 

 the valleys of Vermont. The Lord greatly bless 

 all who still dwell in that goodly land. May He 

 make you all intelligent, industrious, humble and 

 holy men and women. And while you all rejoice 

 in the boon of holy freedom, may you pity, pray 

 and labor for all who groan in bondage, or who 

 are the alaves of superstition and sin. While 

 you labor to make the fields of New England 

 "laugh with abundance," toil also as you are 

 able to hasten the time when this earth shall 

 exult to see its thirsty cause repealed, till 



"The various seasons, woven into one, 

 And that one season an eternal Spring, 

 The garden feai's no blight and needs no fence, 

 For there Is none to covet — all are full." 



Yours truly, J. S. Green. 



Remarks. — It seems that early sowing prevented 

 the ravages of the weevil. If so, why not pursue 

 that practice ? Have you tried salt ? AVe will 

 improve the earliest opportunity to send you ag' 

 ricultural books, but cannot send seeds. 



For the New England Farmer. 



BACHELORS BADLY BERATED. 



Friend Brown : — Another interesting and read' 

 able article from "A. G. C," up there where 

 great men are raised. I have more than once been 

 amused and instructed by the wise and witty 

 writings of the above clever correspondent, but in 

 his last article he gave poor old bachelors such a 

 powerful pestling, that, thinking possibly none 

 had survived the chastisement, I thought I would 

 volunteer a word in defence of the defunct order 

 of superannuated simpletons. 



Who was ever so wild in his imaginations as to 

 suppose that flowers ever did or could bloom in 

 an old bachelor's garden 1 Notwithstanding 

 Whittier, freedom's l)achelor bard, scatters around 

 the hearthstmies of American farmers and free- 

 men the rich wreaths of poesy, the beauty of 

 which will never flide, and the sweet spirit of 

 which will never die. Who was ever so simple as 



to look for fair fruit in the bachelor's bower, 

 when the bachelor blacksmith Burritt is devoting 

 the energies of an earnest life in sowing the heav- 

 enly seeds of peace and human brotherhood 

 throughout the nations of the world, which will 

 yet fructify and yield the sweetest and most joy- 

 ful fruits that the human heart can contain. 

 Whenever superstitiously supposed that a bewil- 

 dered bachelor was competent to take proper care 

 of cattle, horses, hogs and hens, Avhile Sumner, 

 New England's orator and brow-beaten bachelor, 

 is watching with vigilant eye the sacred interests 

 of men with immortal destinies veiled in the fear- 

 ful future ; and his eloquent tongue pleads pow- 

 erfully in behalf of the downtrodden, the destitute 

 and forsaken fathers, the mourning mothers, and 

 crying children, the victims of man's inhumanity 

 to his brother man ? In short, what Yankee ever 

 gravely guessed that a man could fulfil the true 

 destiny of life and his being, unless he had a wife 

 to boil his broth and sew on his shirt buttons ! 



BUCKWHEAT. 



A few days since we paid 02^ cents for a bag of 

 Buckwheat flour which contained but 10 lbs. , 

 and we can seldom obtain a really good article at 

 a much lower price. The reason for this high price 

 is that there is a short supply, as there has been 

 for some years past. Since the recent, introduc- 

 tion of improved mills for hulling and grinding 

 this grain, its use has greatly extended, and will 

 continue to extend, and we think that we may 

 put buckwheat down as one of the most remuner- 

 ating crops that can be raised by the farmer. It 

 is easily cultivated, and it is not yet too late to 

 sow it with a prospect of a good yield. It may 

 even be sown as late as July 4th, in this latitude, 

 though earlier is preferable. The following is 

 from the Maine Farmer, published several de- 

 grees north of New York : 



"It has been said that buckwheat held the 

 same position among grains, that the donkey 

 does among animals — useful, but not popular. 

 There are two varieties of buckwheat cultivated 

 in Maine. The smooth common buckwheat, and 

 the rough tartarean buckwheat. This last-namtd 

 is much cultivated in Aroostook County, and in 

 the adjoining province of New Brunswick. It is 

 much used there for feeding swine and poultry ; 

 and all their mills have apparatus for separating 

 the hull from the flour, when they grind it. It 

 is also used for making buckwheat cakes for the 

 table, which when eaten warm, and well coated 

 with maple molasses, are very excellent. 



This rough buckwheat was introduced into 

 Kennebec County some fifteen years ago, under 

 the name of Indian wheat, and cultivated more 

 or less by some of our farmers, but it was not 

 very highly ajipi-eciated by them, and it was 

 gradually laid aside, and we do not know of any 

 of it being raised here now. We have seen some 

 exceedingly fat pork, which was fed upon noth- 

 ing but the meal made from this species of buck- 

 wheat. 



Either of the varieties are profitable, and should 

 be more cultivated among us than they are. 

 They need not be put in very early — indeed it has 

 been found that if sown too early, it does not 

 yield so great a crop as if sown later. 



From the middle of June to the fourth of 



