NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



jcLve, isia. 



Ann HORTICULTURAL RKGI9TF.R. 



BosTOK, Weukesday, Joly (J, 1842. 



SCRAPS. 



The b(ij-s in llie printing office must liave n cold wa- 

 ter spree on MoBilay, llie 4lh, and lliercfure the editor 

 itiuet give tliem llio copy of his ediloriiil Sntiirday nmrn- 

 iiig. And here we arc, 9 o'cloci? Friday evening, with 

 the mercury at hi^h sweating point — our limbs sliiTened 

 by plowing and hoeing liriskly through Wednesday and 

 Thursday, and made more uncomfortable by the heat 

 and the toils of a busy day in the city — and yet before 

 we can sleep, we must write six or eight letter-shee! pa- 

 ges of editorial, and that too without a bit of n subject 

 yet thought of. We wrote Scraps at the top of the page 

 merely as a convenient rover to any thing that may hap- 

 pen to come up in our brain, while we move the pen. 



First, then, we happen to think it is very hot. Bear 

 the heat patiently, say common sense, philanthropy, and 

 piety — all thiee. Fretting will do no good, common 

 sense very well knows, and experience proves it — there- 

 fore they say to us, " keej> cool," and so we will try to 

 do — remembering that this hot weather is good for the 

 corn, good to sweeten the grass, good for nearly all the 

 crops upon the farm. Man and his herds will prcbably 

 have more and better food the coming autumn and win- 

 ter, in consequence of the heat that opfiresses. The 

 All-wise Regulator of the seasons is doing well for us 



let us strive to be thankful, and requite his unstinted 



fayors by the acceptable homage of gratef(jl hearts. 



FOURTH OF JULY. 



A scrap upon this. Freedom's birth-day : — a d.iy on 

 which an oppressed people undertook to throw off the 

 burthen of a king and nobility, and resolved to be their 

 own rulers: — A day on which th« delegaies to the Con- 

 grees of '*G boldy and firmly took the high ground ol 

 civil independence of British rule, and commenced the 

 inarch which has led our nation to its freedom, prosperi- 

 ty and greatness. It is a day to be lemembered as long 

 as Freedom shall have a lover and a friend, — to be grate- 

 fully retarded as long as the God of nations is thanked 

 for blessings enjoyed on American soil — and it should be 

 the aspiration ol every true American heart, thm the sa- 

 cred principles of libf.rtv and iqualitt which secure 

 us those ble.ssings, may be ditTused over the whole wide 

 earth, and hasten the time when the sun in all his course 

 ■hall not riseupon a tyrant nor set upon a slave. — Enough 

 of this. 



HAYING. 



As soon as Independence is over, if the weather be 

 good, and his grass is fit to rut, the farmer must go reso- 

 lutely to his haying. Should there be good weather, the 

 frass which has had so much wet upon it for the last 

 three weeks, will ripen very fast, and large fields of it 

 will ripen at the same time. Therefore be securing it as 

 fast as possible. 



But while haying goes on, weeds will be working up 

 among the corn, the potatoes, and the roots. Tiie sur- 

 face of the ground among these will need stirring. Do 

 not be so over anxious to gel in the hiirj as to lose more 

 by ni'glecting the fields in tillage than you gain by 

 slicking to the scythe, the pitchfork and the rake. 



Making Hay. Where the grass is quite green when 

 r.ut, it will take, usually, three common hay days to cure 

 it. If cut in the morning, we usually turn it out of swath 

 at 9 o'clock, and between 12 and 1 o'clock, turn it up. 

 At from 4 to 6, P. M., put it in small cocks. After the 

 dew is otf the next morning, spread out thin — turn two 



or three times in tlie course of the day — towards eve- 

 ning, put into cock. Spread again the ne.it day — turn 

 as much as is necessary and then put into the barn. 

 Should the weather be uncoiniiiunly drying, two days 

 will answer for curing most hay at the commencement 

 of the season. After grass which is thin, has become 

 nearly ripe, it will require comparatively little curing 

 One day, or a little more than one is often sufficient 

 But you, farmers, all know how to cure hay, and know 

 also generally when it is dry. Theie is but one point 

 here on which we deem it possible to give information. 

 The point is this: hay which has been in cock one or 

 two nights and sweat a little in that stale, will do to 

 slow away in the barn without/ce/in^ quite so crisp and 

 drv as that should be which has not sweat in cock. In 

 other words, the sweat in cock tends to prevent sweat 

 in the mow. Should a lot of hay get hadly damaged, it 

 becomes less offensive, or more agreeable to the cattle, 

 by leaving it one night spread out upon the ground. Un- 

 der the action of dew and its evaporation, some of the 

 mustiness passes off. 



Drinks. Water — pure cold v*ater, sngar and water, 

 molasses and water, (if it doss not mm acid in the sto- 

 mach,) milk, milk and water — these are wholesome 

 drinks, and may he taken with impunity, so far as re- 

 lates to violent ill effects, in any quantity that the thirst- 

 ing appetite of a temperate man craves, if he will but 

 take them often enough to keep himself from being oner 

 heated. Dr. Alcott may tell us, as he did last year, that 

 so much cold water will weaken the system. We shall 

 not dispiiti" that point with him — but we do maintain 

 that we have never yet heard of a temperate man dying 

 suddenly from drinking cold water in a very hot day, 

 unless he had been long, i. e. more than an hour with- 

 out drinking A tumbler of water every half hour in 

 the hottest part of the day, while the sweat runs in 

 streams and keeps all the clothe.i wet, is not taking too 

 much or too often. 



The Barn. — Keep it well ventilated while the hay is 

 new. Let all the gag or steam that rises from it be car- 

 ried ofT; for when confined it injures the hay. 



Sail. — Should you find it desirable to put in a load of 

 hay that is not quite as dry as you would choose to make 

 ii, a peck of salt to the ton will help to preserve it. 

 The stock reli'h a portion of the hay better for being 

 sailed. Put in some with, and some without salt. 



Time of Cutting. — Where the land is rich enough to 

 give two crops, there is no loss in culling the first while 

 the grass is very green. If not fully grown, the second 

 will make up the deficiency. Clover, redlop and timo- 

 thy are best if cut when fairly in the bloom. 



Curing liny. — Clover it is best not to expose more 

 than one good day fairly and fully to the sun. It sheds 

 it* leaves so much, and its stalks become so hard when 

 rapidly sun-dried, that it is better to do a considerable 

 part of tho curing in cock. Redlop and timothy waste 

 but little, and .ire found to be good when dried fully by 

 exposure to the brightest suns of two successive days. 

 Possibly they may be better if kept the second day in 

 cock and put into the barn on the third without having 

 been spread out thin. Some prefer this mode, but we 

 have not tried it. 



Last season, having some hay in cock during two 

 cloudy days, and thinking on the second that it might 

 heat, we took a small fiirk full from ihe top of the cock 

 atid placed it on the ground ; then another small fork 

 full was put on that, and so on until we had built the 

 cock anew, and changed the position, not of lop and 

 bottom merely, but of the locks tUroughout. This hay, 

 though out a long lime, was as much relished by the 

 cattle as any that we put into the barn. It however was 



cut while quile green, and was very fine. We think il 

 would have been much damaged but for that pitching 

 over. 



THK SEASON. 



Frequent rains and warm suns have been bringing 

 vegetation forward very fast for the last two weeks. 

 The hay crop now promises to be a fair one in quantity. 

 Some low lands have been recently inundaied, so that 

 miiny acres of wet meudow grass, and of potatoes, beets, 

 &c. in low situations, have been nearly ruined. Corn 

 is not large, but is doing well. 



MASS. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



KXHIBITIOK OF FRUITS. 



Saturday, July 2, 1642. 



Mr J. F. Allen, of Salem, presented some fine speci- 

 mens of the Zinfandnl and Chasselas Grapes, and the 

 Royal George Clingstone IVnch. 



Mr Otis Johnson, of Lynn — some fine specimens of 

 the Ciiolidge's Favorite Peach. 



Dr. John C. Howard, of Brookline — Black Hamburg, 

 Burgundy and While Chasselas Grapes. Also some 

 finetherrios, var. Gros or Napoleon Bigareau (.') 



Mr J. L. L. F. Warren, of Brighton — Poaches and 

 Cherries. 



Mr George Walsh, of Charlestown — Cherries; var. 

 Relle de Choisy. 



Mr John A. Kenrick, of iNewton — White Bigareau 

 and Black Tartarian Cherries. 



Mr A. H. llovey — Early Virginia Strawberries. 



Mr M. Skilton, Charlestown — Black Tartarian Cher- 

 ries. 



Mr Wm Hawkes — some fair specimens of Strawber- 

 ries, var- Methven Castle. 



Mr Joseph O Frost, of Boston — some fine specimens 

 of the Black Hamburg, Sweetwater and Muscat Grape, 

 and Nectarines. 



Mr Leonard Ware, of Boston — some very superior 

 specimens of the BUck Tartarian Cherry. 



From the garden of Mrs Bigelow, of Medford — some 

 fine Strawberries. 



Capt. Charles Rohbins, Master of the House of Cor- 

 rection, at South Boston, presented two boxes of extra 

 fine specimens of the .Melhven (^-astle Strawberry. 



From the garden ofSnmnel Walker, Roxbiiry — speci- 

 mens of sixty two varieties of Seedling Strawberries, rais- 

 ed from the common, or Wood variety. 

 For the Committee, 



S. WALKER. 



FARM FOR THE POOR. 



Mr Editor — By many well wishers to the necessities 

 of ihe poor, it is thought it would prove a very praise- 

 worthy and beneficial plan, if the agricultural associa- 

 tions would see fit to establish a large farm or tract of 

 land, for the purpose of employing the vast many of the 

 poor and indigent of our native population, who have no 

 means of iheir own of obtaining a regular employment 

 or the gelling a decent living. It is, from mature con- 

 sideration, supposed, that great public benefit as well as 

 gain might he realized from such an institution, placed 

 under prnpei regulations. Thousands would gladly em- 

 brace the opportunity of its encouragement, and the pro- 

 duction of such an establishment could be such as to 

 make it well worthy the patronage of all who are friends 

 lo agriculture. HUMANITAS. 



Qj= We found this communication in our box, and give 

 it space in our columns, though we know not from whom 

 it comes. Our first impressions arc, that the establish- 

 ment would cause a large pecuniary loss to its owners, 

 but that it may be a judicious way for the affluent to be- 

 stow alms upon the indigent. This is merely a first 

 thought. 



Cut off the warts from your plum trees. — Grindstone 



this will soon be wanted for daily use. Do n't depend 



upon yi'ur neighbor's— buy one for yourself 



