354 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



MAT 10,1843. 



4. The expense of such a tent must be email. 

 At the sail-lol'ts in our seaports, sails too much 

 worn to be used on vessels, can be got cheap. A 

 cradle ae described, would take about 60 feet com- 

 mon lumber, board measure, and a carpenter can 

 make one, rough planed, in a day, or day and a 

 half. A tent 50 by 15 feet would accommodate 

 BIX cradles 12 feet in length. Each cradle will 

 feed, I think, 1.5,000 worms— say 75 to 85,000 for 

 the tent. 



5. I take it to be essential to this system that 

 the eg'gs be liatched, and the worms be fed from 

 ihejirst in a perfectly natural stale of the atmos- 

 phere ; that is, hatch and feed in an open room un- 

 til your worms are removed to the tent as directed ; 

 and that it be ilone in the early part of the season. 



G. On this sysletn of feeding, the silk culture 

 may be extended indefinitely and as rapidly as 

 trees can be multiplied. The silk grower may have 

 tents located in different fields — wherever the soil 

 is most favorable for the growth ol the tree. 



7. 1 have already published (see New Genesee 

 Farmer for April,) my purpose to feed at least a 

 few thousands under a canvass awning. I have 

 now only to add, that the first rainy day will find 

 me and my boys making cradles. 



I. R. B. 



THE QUINCE. „ 



As the time for planting fruit trees has come 

 round, I wish to call attention to, and invite a more 

 extensive cultivation of, the quince tree. The 

 fruit of this tree, either green or dried, always 

 commands a very generous price, and the market 

 is never overstocked with it. The quince produ- 

 ces the finest fruit when planted in a moist soil, 

 and in a sheltered situation : it may be propagated 

 by layers or cuttings, or by grafting. The younger 

 trees produce the finest fruit, and they should be 

 renewed every ten or twelve years, as by that 

 time they become aged, though they will survive 

 for a much longer period, but not generally to 

 produce fine and fair fruit. 



The trees being small, they occupy but little 

 room, and are not very liable to be injured by cat- 

 tle, if [)laced near a fence. A field of ten acres is 

 Gt)0 feet on each side, and at a distance of ten feet 

 apart, will well accommodate 2G4 trees around the 

 fence, without interfering with the agricultural ope- 

 rations within the enclosure. In a few years this 

 number of trees would produce, on a very mode- 

 rale calculation, (50 bushels of quinces annually, j joining. Passing through for the purpose of de 



From the Maine Farmer. 



VEGETABLE RUST. 

 It may be recollected by some, that several years 

 ago, I made some remarks on the subject of Rust 



Vegetable Rust — the substance of which was, 



that a piece of beans planted on plains land, when 

 in the first blossom, began to rust so badly as to 

 appear spoiled. I put a handful of slackei' lime 

 upon each hill, which eflTectually stopped the pro- 

 gress of the rust. The second blooming came out 

 fresh, and I had ((uite a crop. In addition to this, 

 I now wish to state some further observations on 

 the subject. 



I last spring ^vished to give my vines every fa- 

 cility for growth, and for that purpose, dng trenches 

 and filled them with the bottom of a stercorary or 

 hog-yard, which had been piled up the fall preced- | 



ing very rich, as I thought — covered the whole 



with earth, and put in the seed of winter and sum- 

 mer squashes, cucumbers, water and musk melons, 

 each of which sliot up with uncommon vigor, and 

 grew till the vines had acquired a length of from 

 one to three yards, with dark green leaves, promis- 

 ing a crop exceeding my most sanguine expecta- 

 tions. The weather was rather wet and quite 

 warm, and to my surpise, I discovered in the midst 

 of the water melon hills or drills, something which 

 appeared as though some person had purposely 

 mangled them, just as far out as I found the ma- 

 nure extended — the rest of the vines looking thrifty, 

 but declined gradually till they were entirely de- 

 stroyed. The inusk-melona were soon attacked 

 with the same disease, and I put on a large quan- 

 tity of lime under the vines on the ground: the 

 consequence seemed to be to stay the plague. 

 The melons, then as large as the fist, grew to a 

 moderate size, but were not very good. The cu- 

 cumbers came next, but were tough enough to 

 fight it out without the aid of lime. Squashes 

 seemed checked, but gave a tolerable yield. 



My next observation was on the vines of pole 

 beans, manured with common long manure, witli 

 an addition, plentifully applied, of the aforemen- 

 tioned manure, on land rather hungry and poor, 

 beside some fancy corn ; and to my surprise, in- 

 stead of a luxuriant growth, it was rusty, tardy, 

 and stinted, till the lime application ; then went on 

 better, but yielded a light crop where I anticipa- 

 ted abundance — corn small, beans quite small, and 

 speckled with rust, with the exception of those on 

 the top which grew afterwards. 



My next advance was in a field of potatoes ad- 



to gain none. To make sure, however, I put o 

 another slight dressing, and had a good crop 

 wheat, equal to twentytwo bushels to the acre. 



I am not chemist enough to say what the cam' 

 of rust is, or what will be a sure remedy ; but wi, 

 to throw out these hints, that experiments may t 

 tried by those more competent to act more to ti 

 point by the aid of science and sufficient time. 



The importance of our crops which are liaK 

 to rust, is sufficient to encourage all to examii 

 into facts — potatoes and wheat in particular. TI 

 average crop of potatoes is lessened by rust, prob 

 bly, one hundred bushels to each farmer, at lea 

 worth from $15 to 820, and the wheat nearly 

 much more. This rust may arise from a gaseo' 

 matter generated by the decomposition of manur 

 and which lime may from some kind of affinit 

 serve to absorb. If not that, what is it ? 

 [ The use of lime sowed on to potato fields, mig 

 be further beneficial to the crop, especially if I wi 

 right in supposing that the germ of the fly or son 

 insect is secreted in the unhealthy vine. This 

 proved by exposing green vines to a certain degri 

 of heal, and millions appear in a larva state. Lin 

 will serve at least to trouble them, and will sure 

 do no hurt. 



The use of lime on potatoes has often been r 

 commended to put in the hill. If any good resul 

 from that, il may bo the same alluded to abov 

 The insect or larva has the appearance of the we 

 vil, and that it is so, is supported by the fact th 

 corn and potato ground, side by side, all alike, a 

 difi^erently affected by the weavil when sowed wi 

 wheal — the potato part being much the most i 

 jured, especially when the tops are left on t 

 ground. E. W. 



which at the lowest price they were ever known to 

 sell, would net a sum clear of all expenses, far 

 greater than can be produced by any other crop 

 occupying the same space. — Farmers'' Cab. 



To Make Ytast. — Take two middling sized boiled 

 potatoes, mash, and add a pint of boiling water and 

 two table spoonfuls of brown sugar. One pint of 

 hot water should be applied to every half pint of 

 the compound. Hut water is better in warm weath- 

 er. This yeast being made without flour, will 

 keep longer, and is said to be much better than 

 any other. — Selected. 



Scours in Calves. — Wo have never, says the 

 Southern Planter, found any remedy for the scours 

 preferable to boiled skimmed milk. This should 

 be given warm. 



stroying the scattering weeds, to prevent them 

 from seeding, just at the time the first appearance 

 of rust on the tops was discoverable, I found spots 

 on the ground, generally in the hill where a fume 

 seemed to have come up, which had the appearance 

 of the smoke of powder in the pan of a musket, 

 and wherever this occurred, the rust had com- 

 menced its work of destruction. 



I recollect a few years ago I had a piece of 

 wheat which looked finely, but was attacked, as I 

 thought, with the fly. I thought to punish them 

 at least, if it did no good, and I sowed on about a 

 bushel and a half or two bushels of air-slacked 

 lime to the acre, and to my satisfaction, I found 

 the little insects disperse within the short space of 

 twelve hours, almost entirely, and a fume going up 

 from the ground, visible some rods off. On this 

 wheat, some appearances of rust had been previ- 

 ously manifest, but from the time of liming, seemed 



Important to Farmers. — Hart Massey, Esq., 

 this village, took a small portion of the seed en 

 with which he planted a field, and soaked il in 

 solution of saltpetre, and planted five rows wi 

 the seed thus prepared. Now for the result : t 

 five rows planted with corn prepared with saltpet 

 yielded more than twentyfive rows planted withe 

 any preparation ; the five rows were untouched 

 the worm, while the remainder of the field suffer 

 severely from their depredation. 



We should judge that not one kernel saturat 

 with saltpetre was touched by the worm ; wh 

 almost every hill in the adjoining piece suffei 

 severely. No one who examined the field, coi 

 doubt the efficacy of the preparation — so slriki 

 was the difference between the five rows and I 

 remainder of the field. 



This experiment should be extensively test 

 as the results are deemed certain, while the « 

 pense is comparatively nothing. — Wash. Stands. 



Sects. — We knew one Leonard Jones who got 

 a sect of " Live Forevers," and actually had folio 

 ers who believed they would never die. They li 

 an establishment in the lower part of Kentucky, a 

 were getting along quite well until an cpiden 

 thinned off" the believers. Jones afterwards tried 

 form a sect of " Non-Eaters," and got some folio 

 ers. 'I'hey were to eat less and less every day, uc 

 they lived upon nothing. Ho made a bold oflbrt 

 conform to his own creed, until he happened to 

 at a hotel in Louisville, where a roast turkey 

 moved his bowels that he fell from grace, and si 

 sequently turned Mormon, and is now probablj 

 Millerite.— A". O. Bee. 



