vol.. XXI, >0. 10. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



77 



writing to tiie President of the Society, as accurate 

 a description of the process in preparing the soil, 

 including the quantity and quality of manure ap- 

 plied, and in raising the crop, or in feeding the 

 animal, as may be, and also of the expense and 

 product of the crop, or of increase in value of the 

 animal, with the view of showing accurately the 

 profit of cultivating the crop, or feeding or fatten- 

 ing th3 animal." 



Competitors are respectfully requested to furnish 

 such description to the Clerk, at the time of entry. 

 JAMES TALLMADGE, 

 President of the .Imerican Institute. 



THE WONDERS OF CULTIVATION. 



The following are e.xtracts from a speech by 

 Col. Knapp, in delivering the premiums awarded 

 by the American Institute, at the last annual Fair: 



"Every thing in this country (said he) has been 

 brought forward by protection. In this bleak clime, 

 but few of the sustaining fruits of the earth were 

 here indigenous, or in a perfect state. Even the 

 Indian corn, so often considered a native here, was 

 with difficulty acclimated. It was brought from 

 the south, and by degrees was coaxed to ripen in a 

 northern latitude. The aborigines who cultivated 

 it, taught the pilgrims how to raise it ^ they pluck- 

 ed the earliest ears with the husk and braided seve- 

 ral of them together, for the next year's crop. 



The pumpkin, brought from Spain, was first 

 planted in Rowley, Mass., and it was several years 

 before it came to a hard knotty shell, which marks 

 the true Yankee pumpkin, such as are selected for 

 the golden pies of their glorious thanksgiving fes- 

 tival. 



Our wheat was with difficulty acclimated. That 



brought from the mother country had grown from 



spring to fall, but the season was not long enough 



here to ensure a crop : it was then sown in the fall, 



I grew under snows in winter, and catching tho 



I warmest growth of spring, yielded its increase by 



I mid-summer. 



j Asparagus, which is now the delight of all, as 

 an eirly vegetable, and for which many millions of 

 dollars are paid our gardeners yearly, is of late 

 culture in this country. At the time of the revolu- 

 tion, asparagus was only cultivated on the seaboard 

 — this lu.Kiiry had not then reached the farmer of 

 the interior. 



The history of the potato is a singular one. 

 Rees' Encyclopedia states that the potato was 

 brought from Virginia, by Sir Walter Raleigh, to 

 Ireland. The writer should have said from South 

 America, in the latter part of the sixteenth century. 

 Sir Walter had no idea of its ever being used as 

 an esculent at that time. It was pointed out to 

 him as a bea\itiful flower, and its hard bulby root 

 was said, by the natives to possess medicinal quali- 

 ties. He took It to Ireland, where he had estates 

 presented to him by Queen Elizabeth, and planted 

 it in his garden. The flower did not improve by 

 cultivation, but the root grew larger and softer. 

 The potato in its native bed, was a coarse ground 

 nut The thought struck the philosopher to try 

 the potato as an edible, and boiling and roasting it, 

 found it, by either process, excellent. He then 

 gave some of the plants to the peasantry, and they 

 soon become in a measure, a substitute for bread 

 ■when the harvest was scanty. 



The potato was successfully cultivated in Ire- 

 land before it was thought so little of in England. 

 It grew into favor by slow degrees, and it was so 



little known wlu-n our pilgrim fiithcrs cama to this 

 country, that it was not thought of for a crop in the 

 new world. It was not until 1710 that the Irish 

 potato reached the country. A colony of Presby. 

 terian Irish, who settled in Londonderry, in New- 

 Hampshire, brought till? root with them. This 

 people found their favorite vegetable flourished 

 well in new grounds. By degrees their neighbors 

 came into the habit of raising potatoes ; but many 

 years elapsed before the cultivation of thorn was 

 generally known among the yeomanry of this coun- 

 try. Long after they were cultivated in New Eng- 

 land, they were held in contempt, and the master 

 mechanic often had to stipulate with his apprentice 

 that he should not be obliged to eat potatoes. An 

 aged mechanic once informed me that he had rais- 

 ed nine bushels, havinir at that time (1740) a do- 

 zen apprentices ; but did not venture to ofi'er them 

 a boiled potato with the meat, but left them in the 

 cellar for the apprentices to get and roast as tliey 

 pleased : he soon found that he should not have 

 enough for seed, and locked up what was left. 

 The next year he raised the enormous quantity of 

 thirtysix bushels; — the neighbors started — but his 

 boys devoured them during the following winter. 



About this time, some of the gentry brought thi.s 

 vegetable on their tables, and the prejudice against 

 them vanished. Thus by degrees a taste for this 

 food was formed, never to be extinguished. The 

 cultivation of the potato is now well understood — a 

 crop ameliorates instead of impoverishing the soil, 

 and the culture can be increased to any extent. 

 Thus by the curiosity of one lover of nature, and 

 his experiments, has an humble weed been brought 

 from the mountains of South America, and spread 

 over Europe and North America, until it is emphat- 

 ically called the "bread of nations." Still the 

 country from which it was taken has been too igno- 

 rant or superstitious to attempt its cultivation, until 

 within a few years. Now tho lights of science are 

 chasing away the long deep shadows of the Andes. 

 Rice was brought from India in 1792, and was 

 cultivated by way of experiment in South Carolina. 

 It succeeded well, and was for many years the sta- 

 ple article of that State. 



The cotton plant was at first cultivated as a flow- 

 er in our gardens, and a beautiful flower it i.s. This 

 plant alone has made a revolution in the finances 

 of the world. Look at the growth and consump- 

 tion of it in the United States, and the immense 

 maimfaclure of it in England, where it cannot be 

 grown, and you will find my assertion true in its 

 most extended sense." 



oil, the gra.ss is exposed to the parching sun of dog 

 days, and unless the weather is wet, ten chances 

 to one if it is not entirely killed, which, as we be- 

 fore said, has been the case for two or three of the 

 last seasons. 



Our method is this : — after the grain is taken 

 ofi" in the fall, plow in the stubblo, harrow the 

 ground, sow your grass seed, harrow again, and 

 ])ass the roller over the field to leave it smooth and 

 even, and you will be pretty sure of a good crop 

 of hay the next season — allowing the land is rich. 



Anothur method to increase the grass crop, 

 which we have tried, is to plow such mowings as 

 are too wet to plant and hoe, in the fall, as soon as 

 can conveniently he done after the hay is off, and 

 give them a top-dressing of manure and sand ; sow 

 the grass seed, harrow and level the field smooth, 

 and a good crop will be the result. We tried a 

 piece of ground in this way last fall and have cut 

 a decent crop of hay — say a ton and a half to the 

 acre, with the prospect of a second crop. 



Another error amongs'cmost farmers in seeding 

 the land is, they do not put on so muih seed by at 

 least one third, if not one half, as is profitable, in 

 our humble opinon. -Seed is expensive, we well 

 know, but if you wish, a full return, do not neglect 

 to apply a sufficient quantity of seed. — Ktene ('JV. 

 H.) Sentinel. 



Health of Children -~-'rhe hot suns of noonday 

 and the d.imps and chills of evening, at this sea- 

 son, are trying to most constitutions. Children 

 and adults both suflTer from the almost daily chan- 

 ges of temperature from warm to cool. The abun- 

 tknce of fruits which now comes in the children's 

 way, increases the dangers.of disease. Ripe fruits 

 are as wholesome as any food, if taken regularly; 

 and our observation teaches that children who eat 

 fruit quite abundantly, if they only get it daily, 

 pass through the early autumn, with less sickness 

 than those that are debarred the pleasure of feast- 

 ing regularly upon apples, pears, &c. We choose, 

 whcre"fruit is abundant, to let the healthy children 

 eat when and as much as they like. Some consti- 

 tutions perhaps will not bear this — but most will. 

 Where fruit is attainable by tho children only oc- 

 casionally, and as a luxury, much care and modera- 

 tion are needed to preserve them from sufiering. 



Another cause of sickness at this season, is the 

 chilis to which we are exposed at evening. Keep 

 the children warm when the sun goes down. — Eu. 

 N. B.F. 



SEEDING GRASS LAND. 

 The hay crop, in this vicinity, beirig the most 

 profitable one, it certainly should be the aim of the 

 farmer to adopt that method ia seeding his land, 

 which will be the most likely to ensure him the 

 earliest and the largest quantity of hay. We have 

 bestowed some considerable attention to this sub- 

 ject, the last two or three years, and have come to 

 tho conclusion that the old method of seeding down 

 to grass in the spring or fall with the grain crop, is 

 not the best. For the last two or three seasons 

 this method, owing perhaps in a measure to the 

 extreme dry weather in the fall, has entirely failed 

 in many instances — the consequence of which is, 

 our hay crop this season is very much diminished. 

 In seeding down with the grain, either in the 

 spring or fall, the grain starting first, the grass 

 must necessarily grow in the shade, and of course 

 slender and feeble ; then as tho grain crop is taken 



Cholera Morbus and Cholera Infantum.— At this 

 season of the year, when cholera morbus and chol- 

 era infantum daily carry oflT scores of children, we 

 apprehend we shall be doing the public an accept- 

 able service in promulgating the following efficient 

 remedy for those prevalent and fatal diseases. The 

 antidote is a sure one, and will not hurt the most 

 delicate infant, if judgment is used in prescribing 

 the quantity :— Take a handful! of peach leaves, 

 put them in cold water, and steep them about ten 

 or fifteen minutes, without boiling ; then sweeten 

 the liquid with loaf sugar, and give it in small 

 draughts, as the patient can bear it — a table spoon- 

 ful at a time, once in two hours, to an infant of six 

 or eight months old, or oftoner, if the extremity of 

 the case requires. — Selected. 



The mahogany tree does not attain its full 

 growth till it 18 200 years old. 



