156 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



NOV. as, 1835. 



Massaciuisetts can aiJiiruhend noiliing from the 

 peaceful rivalship of her sister States, however 

 grosperoiis tliey may bo. Nor will we desi.air, 

 Itoueh our wealth be wrested from us, though 

 the day come wlien jealous neiyhhors withhold 

 tkeir trade, and attempt to crush our niauufac- 

 tnres ; though the day come, when foreign assault 

 or domestic war shall overthrow, with utter ruin, 

 the citadel of union where our dearest national 

 privileges are treasured and defended. Without 

 boasting of virtue and of power which we have 

 not, in this we may he confident, the resources 

 and the character which have been reared among 

 difficulties, and nursed by labor, cannot so be de- 

 stroyed, fllassachusetts may survive the terrors 

 of that fearful day, and hold lier place among the 

 nations, in the strength of industry, moral energy, 

 and intelligence. 



first of May, much in the same way as our farm- Clover for manure.— The ]>lan 6f enriching 

 ers sow carrots. The weeds must be carefully j land, by turning under a sod or lay of clover,_ is, 

 destroyed, and in dry times watering will be ben 



[For the New England Farmer.] 



^rSRIGS RELATIVE TO THE CULTURE OP 



THE MULBERRY, &c. 



Mr Fesskndein: — 



I have on my farm in Worcester county, about 

 sixteen acres of what is commonly called brush 

 pasture, on which I design to plant mulberry trees, 

 as soon as it can be properly prepared. The soil 

 ia a sandy loam by no means poor ; and, w.th the 

 eiception of here and there a spot, free from stones 



.producing white birches, from the size of a 



riding stick to four or five inches in diameter ; 

 wid a few white oaks of about twenty years' 

 ^owth, some of which are full twelve inches 

 through. 



Having had little experience in this business, 

 and being in immediate want of information, I 

 mn induced to solicit it, through the medium of 

 your excellent journal; and I have no doubt that 

 you. Sir, or some of your more ex|)erienced cor- 

 lespondents, will aflfbrd me just the assistance I 

 need, by publishing the best method of destroying 

 the birch, and preparing the land for the reception 

 «rf the mulberry trees. . An iNquiRER. 



By the Editor. — A very good mode, as we 

 ^ould suppose, of clearing laud of bushes, was 

 ariginally published in the Baltimore Farmer, anil 

 republished in the New England Farmer, vol. xii. 

 p. 334. It is as follows: — 



" Grubbing The nianner in which I cleared 



a piece of ground grown up with bushes and 

 undergrowth of various sizes, from three to ten 

 i'eet high, was with a pair of oxen and a chain of 

 t«ii or twelve feet long, with one end attached to 

 the yoke, and forming a noose with the other 

 around as many of the sprouts as could be encom- 

 passed by it, which, when thus made fast, they 

 threw out by the roots with great case ; it was in 

 the Spring, while the ground was yet loose ; it is 

 firobable the operation would not be ho easy when 

 the ground is dry and hard. Two active boys of 

 :gfteen years of age, will clear more ground in this 

 w»y than ten men will grub out in the ordinary 

 method with mattocks." 



With regard to preparing the land and the cul< 

 tureofthe mulberry, Mr Cobb says: "The ground 

 sfaould be |>loughed the jireceding fall, and again 

 ploughed two or three times in the spring, and 

 made light and friable ; two or three dressings, 

 with manure well ploughed in, would be of essen- 

 e&l service ; the ground may be levelled with a 

 Jbboe or rake, and the seed sown in drills about the 



eficial." [See " Cobb's Silk Manual," pp. 12, 13.] 



Mr Kenrick says : — " The seeds of the mul- 

 berry are obtained by washing the bruised pulp 

 of tiioroughly ripe fruit ; they are carefully dried, 

 and sown early in May, in a rich, fresh, and well 

 prepared soil, in drills or rows two feet asunder, 

 and at an average distance of about an inch. 

 CoVer the seed but half an inch deep, and stamp 

 or roll the ground immediately..that the earth may 

 retain sufficient moisture at its surface, &c. [See 

 " Kenrick's American Silk Grower's Guide," p. 37, 

 &c. Also " Fessenden's Silk Manual," p. 86.] 



For transplanting mulberry trees for standards, 

 hedges, &;c. the same works may be consulted, 

 and as they are short it is not necessary to refer 

 to particular pages. 



Northampton farmers. — The farmers of 

 Northampton have, within a few years, made 

 considerable advance in the improvement of tjieir 

 land, and in successful experiments in the culti- 

 vation of their farms. Although there are too 

 many of those, who still think they can do no- 

 thing but what their fathers have done before 

 them, yet there are numbers, who, as the old folks 

 say, are " selling their wits at work " to find out 

 some better way. 



Among these shrewd thinking ones, we think 

 William Clark, Jr. stands at the head. Among 

 the various successful experiments which he has 

 made, none deserves more the thanks of the com- 

 munity than his new method of clover- sowing. 

 He sows his clover seed at the third hoeing of his 

 corn, and if any one will take the trouble to look 

 at his lot on the west side of Prospect hill, sowed 

 last year, or his land near the oil mill, sowed this 

 year, they will see satisfactory evidence of the 

 success of his method — Hampshire Republican. 



perhaps, one of the greatest discoveries that has 

 ever been made in the art of ameliorating soils. 

 Lorain states that he purchased an exhausted farm 

 in Pennsylvania, and by pursuing this mode of 

 renovating, he so improved it that in a very few 

 years he more than quadrupled liis crops. A 

 writer in the Hagerstown Torch states, that he so 

 enriched his land in this manner, that it was too 

 fertile for wheat, and he was under the necessity 

 of r ;ducing it by a crop of Indian corn. The 

 practice of many others confirm the fact that clo- 

 ver may be so managed as not only to yield a fair 

 profit as a fodder, but by ploughing the sod after 

 the second crop is taken off, it yields another pro- 

 fit in the shape of manure, and is an excellent 

 one, too, for many of our most valuable crops. 



It is best to plough after the second crop is ta- 

 ken off, for the following reasons : — 



Clover, though considered a perennial, partakes 

 nmch of the nat\ire of a biennial plant, and does 

 not flower much during the first year. The se- 

 cond year it arrives to maturity, flowers profusely, 

 and, if not cut, ripens its seeds. Its strength for 

 bearing another crop of seed is much exhausted; 

 the most of it, except some young, straggling roots 

 or offsets, dies. The time, therefore, to plough it 

 under, is as soon as it has been cropped for the 

 second year, for then the roots are as loose as they 

 probably ever will be, and will afford the greatest 

 quantity of nutritive matter. 



By adopting the rotation of crops in such a 

 manner as to bring clover into the succession, and 

 by so dividing your farm that those parts which 

 are mijst needy shall receive the necessary atten- 

 tion, it may in a few years become renovated, if 

 not exhausted ; or, if in good condition, may be 

 kept so very easily, and the same time, while un- 

 dergoing the process, be yielding a profit Gen. 



Farmer. 



Rare birds. — There are at this time to be seen 

 at Mr Henry Peckham's house in this villa::e, two 

 singularly colored robins, one black, the other so 

 dark that it W'Ould not be known by its color — 

 they are, in every other respect, like our ordinary 

 red-breasted robin ; the black one has a yellow 

 bill, the bill of the other is much lighter ; their 

 note precisely like that of the common robin : — 

 they do not appear to be a mixed breed with any 

 other species. They were taken last summer, 

 with three olhere, from a nest in this vicinity, and 

 tamed : the others are dead ; they were of similar 

 color, one black, the other two like the lightest 

 now living. 



I do not recollect to have seen such described 

 in Audubon's very jiopular work on our feathei-ed 

 tribes. — "A Lover of Birds," in the Fall River 

 Recorder. 



Useful, if true. — A correspondent assures us 

 that chloride of lime, sold by the apothecaries 

 under the name of bleaching sails in small tin 

 boxes, will certainly take out the most inveterate 

 grease spots from a silk dres.s or cotton garments. 

 Carpets, however badly bespattered by the upset- 

 ting of a lamp, can be as readily restored to their 

 former beauty as one can blow dust from a dry 

 surface. — Essex Reg. 



A mammoth hog died a few days since at Cin- 

 cinnati, Ohio. It was of Russian breed, but was 

 raised in Warren county, in that State, lie was 

 nine feet, two inches in length, three feet, eleven 

 inches in height, and measured round the body 

 eight feet, three inches, weighing fourteen hun- 

 dred pounds, and three years and four months 

 old. The carcass was purchased by Dr Stronel, 

 for ten dollars, who intends making a prepared 

 skeleton of the bones. 



The Northampton Republican says : — " We 

 understand that Mr William Clark, Jr., of this 

 town, has contracted to i)lough upwards of two 

 hundred acres for the Silk Company. Mr C. has 

 in use several of "Howard's Hingham Ploughs," 

 which do the work well, and require less team 

 than any in use. 



We understand (sr.ys the Pawtucket Chronicle) 

 that a gentleman of the South has purchased part 

 of Seckonk Plains, and intends to cultivate it for 

 the purpose of raising mulberry trees. He will 

 set out sixty thousand trees in the Sj.ring. 



A number of wasps (says the Sussex, Eng. Ad- 

 vertiser) lately attacked the poultry belonging to 

 the Rev. G. Porcher, of Wooden d, Sussex, and 

 destroyed a number of turkeys and fowls ! 



The surplus revenue at this moment in the 

 Treasury of the United States is just about sixteen 

 millions. 



