AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



109 



From the Maine Farmer. 



PLOWING. 

 Mr Holmes: — I liave heretofore, and from time 

 I time given my ideas upon the important subject 

 r plowing. One object to be nccojiiplished by 

 lowing, is to pulverize or loosen the soil. How- 

 er skillful tlie farmer may be in other respects, 

 d however liberal in the application of manure, 

 the soil be not properly pulverized, we cannot 

 xpect a good crop. One good plowing is better 

 five plowings poorly done. Let us be cau- 

 cus that the plow be suffered to run to a proper 

 epth. Let all obstructions to the plow be clear- 

 d away if possible, so that a continued unbroken 

 rrow may be turned from one end of the field to 

 le other. And again, we must teach our skillful 

 echanics that they may lack for patronage if they 



not give to the plow its proper shape, construe- 

 on, length, and turn. 



The plowing in of crops to enrich the soil, is a 

 ubject that should claim the attention of our farm- 

 I will just give you Mr Editor, an account 

 f my practice thus far in plowing in crops for 

 lanure. Last year I turned over an acre of 

 ward and sowed grass seed (chaff,) I invariably 

 refer chaff, because if it does not vegetate the 

 rst year it will the second. This was the case 

 nih the acre of sward land above mentioned, the 

 eed did not vegetate the first year but enough 

 rass sprang up the present year, so that I obtain- 

 d a tolerable crop. At this time the young clover 

 to be seen thick endugh, which grew from seed 

 own last year. On the second day of the pres- 

 nt month, I turned over one half acre of sward 

 ind sowed hay seed (chaff,) liberally, and harrow- 

 jd with a light harrow lengthwise. While plow- 

 ng the said field I was under the necessity of em- 

 ploying an unusual amount of patience. By the 

 way I will just inform you that I do not own a 

 ireaking up plow myself, and have thought I should 

 I lelay purchasing till I can find one of the right 

 ' ;onstruclion. I hired a plow of a neighbor, who 



1 understand had purchased one of rather a super- 

 ! lor quality, but ah 1 I was disappointed. The field 



was entirely clear of obstructions to the plow and 

 nearly level, but I could not, although I employed 

 ray best skill to, turn the furrows perfectly well, 

 but was under the necessity of employing a hand 

 a few hours with a hoc, to right the furrows which 

 were badly turned. 



I shall probably resume this subject again here- 

 after, and I will endeavor to give you the result of 

 my e.xperiments. J. E. ROLFE, 



' Rumford, Sept. 1842. 



says to A., now your dog will feast no more on my 

 sheep, and you may help yourself, and went home. 



Bid B. do as he would bo done by ? or, in other 

 words, did he do right? — Maine Faimcr. 



Note — Neither of them did right. If A. wished 

 to keep his dog he ought to pay B. the full value 

 of his sheep which he killed, and then keep him 

 secure in future. If A. would not do this, the 

 civil law, which is, or ought to be founded on jus- 

 tice and moral right, points out to B. the proper 

 course to pursue. — Ed. Me. Far. 



HARVESTING POTATOES. 



The potato crop, as far as we have had an op- 

 portunity to examine, is very good this year, both 

 as it regards quantity and quality. Care should 

 be exercised in the harvesting, in order to preserve 

 the good qualities that they now have. There is 

 danger of erring or either hand, by digging too 

 early before they are fully matured, or by postpon- 

 ing it until the fall, rains have saturated the earth, 

 and the potatoes have become loaUr logged and 

 spoiled. 



One great fault, however, is the exposing the 

 potatoes too long to the warm sun. If it be pos- 

 sible, they should not be exposed to the light at all, 

 but as this cannot be avoided, they should be al- 

 lowed to remain exposed as little as they can be 

 while securing them. Digging and putting them 

 in a hole in the commen way, where they can be 

 preserved at a uniform cool temperature until 

 spring, preserves their good qualities remarkably 

 well. In like manner if the cellar be warm, we 

 have found it advisable to place sods over them 

 while in the bin so as to prevent the action of heat 

 as much as possible, and prevent the change which 

 invariably takes place when not kept sufficiently 

 cool. — Maine Former. 



PROBLEM IN MORALS. 



Mr Editor: — I wish the following problem to 

 be answered. " Do unto others as you would wish 

 to be done by" is the command. A.'s dog killed 

 B.'s sheep, which is known to both. B. walked 

 over to his neighbor A.'s with his gun in his hand, 

 where he found him in the door yard, the dog lay 

 near him on the chips, well gorged with sheep 

 meat. B. says to A., Sir will you be so obliging 

 as to kill your dog ? A. says he is a young dog, 

 and I hope he may be broken of killing sheep. 

 B. says, I cannot willingly purchase sheep for your 

 dog's food, and moreover I will not ; Sir, will you 

 kill that dog ? A. says, no, I think he may be 

 broken of so bad a practice, upon which, B. turns 

 round and shoots the dog dead on the spot, and 



leaves out and fasten them with a smiill skewer. 

 When prepared in this way, your poultry will be 

 much nicer and entitled to a belter price than if 

 dressed in the old way. — Ibid. 



BUTTER. 



The great point in making good butter, and that 

 which will keep, is the freeing it from all butter- 

 milk ; and if every thing else is well done, if this 

 point is overlooked, good butter is impossible for 

 any length of time. The mixture of milk in any 

 degree with the butter, is sure to produce an un- 

 pleasant taste to the butter; and the entire free- 

 dom from this constitutes the grand secret of mak- 

 ing good butler. There are many who think wash- 

 ing butter with water incompatible with retaining 

 the rich flavor ; but if the water is cold and pure, 

 it is scarcely possible that anything should be 

 washed way, the buttermilk which^ destroys the 

 flavour of all butter excepted. Besides, the best 

 butler in the world, and that which in all markets 

 commands the best price, viz: Dutch butter, is in- 

 variably made in this way ; and where the exam- 

 ple has been followed by others, it has rarely fail- 

 ed of success. If any, however, doubt the pro- 

 priety of washing butter, they may use any meth- 

 od they choose, provided the milk is separated per- 

 fectly. Perfectly free from the substance that 

 causes it to assume the putrid taste of bad butter, 

 it may be kept with almost as much ease as tallow. 

 Solidity in packing, clean, sweet vessels, and a 

 low temperature, will insure its keeping for any 

 reasonable time. Let no one expect good butter, 

 however, so long as coarse impure salt is used, or 

 a panicle of the bultermilk is allowed to remain 

 in it. — Domcitic Annals of Butter. 



HOW TO BUTCHER A HEN. 



A friend of ours, who has been for some years 

 engaged in supplying poultry to the market dea 

 ers of that article, in Boston, wishes us to give the 

 farmers, up East here, a lecture on the mode of 

 butchering and preparing poultry for the market. 

 And first — the way it shouldn't be done. You 

 shouldn't chase your poultry all over the neighbor- 

 hood, with boys and dogs, and finally club or stone 

 the fowl to death. Then you shouldn't cut its head 

 off and let it dance all over the door yard until it 

 is dead. Then you shouldn't scald it to prepare 

 it for picking easily. When picked you shouldn't 

 cut the wings off. Then you shouldn't cut a great 

 hole in the breast, in order to get the crop out, and 

 another in the rear in order to get out its intestines 

 and gizzard. 



But if you want to prepare your poultry in the 

 nicest manner for the Boston market, so that it 

 shall bring the best price — First, fat them well, 

 then let them go without eating for 24 hours pre- 

 vious to being killed. Then, when you kill them, 

 instead of chopping their heads off, run a small 

 penknife into the jugular vein by the side of the 

 neck", Ji(s( under the jowls. Then hold them while 

 bleeding, and pick them immediately, — picking 

 off all the wing feathers as well as the others, 

 while warm. Then let the head remain on, — let 

 the crop alone, but cut a small hole in the rear just 

 large enough to take out the intestines. Do not 

 remove the gizzard from its place, but if the fowl 

 be very fat, you make a larger opening — turn the 



Starling Children in the World. — The following 

 extract from the works of a living writer, is re- 

 plete with sound philosophy and common sense. 

 It is well worth the attention of parents. 



" Many an unwise parent labors hard and lives 

 sparingly all his life for the purpose of leaving 

 enough to give his children a start in the world, as 

 it is called. Setting a young man afloat with 

 money left him by his relatives, is like tying blad- 

 ders under the arms of one who cannot swim; ten 

 chances to one he will loose his bladders and go 

 to the bottom. Teach him to swim, and he will 

 never need the bladders. Give your child a sound 

 education, and you have done enough for him. 

 See to it, that his morals are pure, his mind culti- 

 vated, and his whole nature made subservient to 

 the laws which govern man, and you have given 

 what will be of more value than the wealth of the 

 Indies. You have given him a start which no mis- 

 fortune can deprive him of. The earlier you teach 

 him to depend upon his own resources, the better." 



Tar for greasing wagons, we think an absurd 

 article. In the hottest weather it soon gums up 

 and becomes adhesive, and in cold weather is al- 

 ways so. Wherever iron axletrees are used black 

 lead mixed with greese is best ; or flour mixed 

 with lard. — Selected. 



An American Aloe, said to flower but once in 

 one hundred years, is now in full bloom at Har- 

 den Grange, Yorkshire, the seat of W. B. Ferrand, 

 Esq., M. P. 



