17:2 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



DEC. 9, 183S 



For the New KnslamI Farmer. 

 ST. HEI.EIVA POTATOES. 



Mr Editor: — Sir, last Nnvember there appear- 

 ed an aiivertiscmeiit in the Ts'ew England Farmer, 

 setting forth the St Helena potatoes as verj,siipe- 

 rior in quality, and very productive, whicli induced 

 me to send to Ifoston last spring, and buy one 

 bushel at the store of Mr Brimmer.' And from an 

 article in your last week's laper, I infer that ihey 

 rre, or liave been, very productive with some. As 

 my crop came far short of my expectations, 1 will 

 ask the favor of you to insert the following stale- 

 ment of my mode and treatment of the potatoes, 

 that if I failed in any particular as to the mode of 

 planting, &c. some one will inform mc wherein. 

 The land on which I planted the potatoes is good, 

 and had been ploughed and planted two years be- 

 fore this; the first to corn and last to potatoes. I 

 phnted six rows about three and a half feet apart, 

 and placed the | otatocs about two feet apart in 

 toe rows ; I couiitccl the jiotatoes, and there were 

 two hundred. In four rows I planted the pota- 

 toes under the manure ; and in two rows I put 

 the i)otatoes on top of the manure, one shovelfull 

 ill a hill ; I did not perceive any difference in tiie 

 piuduct of the rows. 1 expected to have had at 

 least from fifteen to twenty bushels of potatoes, as 

 my common potatoes would have yielded from 

 twelve to fifteen bushels, planted and treated in 

 the same way as the above, but I had a little short 

 of six bushels of the St Helena, a very small crop 

 illfleed from one bushel of seed ; which caused 

 some of my good neighbors to laugh about my 

 newsjiaper experiments, and to tell me they would 

 not try any more. However, my motto is, never 

 to give up the ship so long as there is any pros- 

 pect of gaining any good ; and in ihis case I think 

 there is, for the potatoes are a very superior kind 

 far the table, the best I ever eat, except the south- 

 ern sweet potato ; and they are better than any 

 of that kind that I have bought this fall. 



The potatoes in question are the most profuse 

 in blossoms that I ever saw, yielding the most 

 balls, from which I gathered a quantity for the 

 (lurj)ose of ))roducing a new variety. 1 planted 

 the abovenamed jiotatoes about the first of JMay, 

 and took the best of care of them while growing; 

 and if they are g nerally a productive variety, I 

 cannot assign any good reason or cause for my 

 failing of gutting a good crop. J, therefore, hum- 

 bly solicit from some one who has raised this kind 

 of potato, and has met with better success than I 

 have, to give such directions relative to the ground 

 iind treatment of the potatoes as will enable me to 

 get a better crop another year. 



I am aware, Mr Editor, that the substance of 

 the above comnmnication might be told with more 

 brevity ; and you can compress it if jou think 

 proper. The only apology I make for sayiug so 

 much about these [lotatoes is, they are so extreme- 

 ly good, so much better than I ever raised before, 

 that I want to learn how, and in what way I can 

 meet with better success with them. 

 Very respectfidly, 



your humble servant, 



James Leon.vkd. 



Taunton, jYov. 27, 1S35. 



By the. Editor. — We hope that some of our 

 friends or correspondents, acquainted with the 

 culture of the St Helena potato, will comply 

 with the request of Mr Leonard. '',AVe should 

 think it not correct cidtivation to plant |)otatocs 



two years in succession on the same land, as this 

 crop requires change or rotation, and is said to 

 succeed best on land recently ploughed from the 

 sward, as the turf in that case furnishes it with 

 the best manure. Coarse manure from the tiarn 

 yard is also advised ; and it is recommended to 

 place the manure over instead of under the pota- 

 toes. If the potatoes lie on the manure, they are 

 apt to suffer from drought. 



From tlie Ohio Farmer. 



appi.es good for hogs. 



^. Medaky, Esq. : — The frequent communica- 

 tions contained in the Ohio Farmer, recotnmend- 

 iug apples for hogs, induced me to try the exper- 

 iment. Accordingly, about the first of September, 

 I turned my hogs (about fifty in number) into a 

 small orchard of perhaps about thirty trees, pretty 

 well loaded with afiples, and a considerable num- 

 ber on the ground ; intending as soon as they 

 would pick up those that were on the groimd, if 

 they did not seem to receive much benefit from 

 them to tin-n them out, and commence feeding 

 corn. After they had been in a few days, a man 

 that was working on the farm said to me, I think 

 you had belter turn your hogs out of the orchard, 

 for the apples are doing them no good. Ihey 

 will only. make their teeth sore so that they can 

 not eat corn. But I said to him never mind, let 

 us try them in a while longer. The apples fell 

 about as fast as the hogs could use them, and in 

 the course of two weeks I think I never saw hogs 

 fatten faster in my life. Some time in the last 

 week in September, I took them out of the or- 

 chard, and turned them in to corn, and they are 

 now fatter than any hogs in the neighborhood, 

 tliat had plenty of corn even before mine were 

 turticd in to apples. I would recommend to ev- 

 ery farmer that has apples to sell, to feed them to 

 his hogs rather than take twelve and a half cents 

 per bushel for them, (as some of the farmers in 

 this neighborhood liave been doing,) or even 

 twtntyfive cents. A Yod.vo Far.mer. 



Red Oak, Oct. 20, 1835. 



The foi'egoiug is further evidence of the im- 

 portance of an orchard to the farmer. How long 

 will farmers continue to Jive in ignorance, and 

 su^cr their property to waste on their hands for 

 the want of knowledge to know how to use it. — 

 At a lime like this, when every l-.ushel of grain is 

 of value, and the wants of the country demanding 

 it, how important it is that the farmer should 

 know the value of other articles upon his farm ; 

 which in seasons like the piesent, are generally 

 left go to waste. But there is an awakening sense 

 of the importance of knowledge starting up in the 

 country, which must spon produce a new order of 

 things. 



A "Young Farmer" was right in his course of 

 feeding. Had be fed corn first, and then apples, 

 the vary reverse ndght have bec;n the case. The 

 feeding of the apples would have been atteutled 

 with no good result, hut otherwise. When ani- 

 mals are to be fattened by a change of food, the 

 great secret dei)ends on the kinds to be fed first. 



A^ a further proof of the propriety and advan- 

 tage of feeding a|)ples, not to hogs only, but to 

 other animals of the faruj, we give the words, as 

 neSrIy as we can, of a Hamilton county farmer, a 

 short time since, in a conversation with us. He 

 wished it made public. 



'■ Having heard," said he, " that apples had been 

 fed with advantage to horses, I concluded to try 



the experiment, through the time of seeding in 

 Sefitember last, when my horses were every day 

 kept closely at work. I commenced giving them 

 apples regularly at feeding times, instead of grain, 



and at nights they were turned into pasture 



They had not a feed of grain during the whole 

 time, and I seeded largely. When 1 was through, 

 my horses looked better, and were in better spirits 

 than I ever saw them before at the close of seed- 

 ing time." He is a man of veracity, and could 

 have had no interest in exaggeration. 



RAISING COCOONS. 



The people in many parts of New England, in 

 fact of many of the other States, are turning their 

 attention to this lucrative business. The North- 

 ampton Courier is zealous in the cause, and re- 

 commends that the Silk business be prosecuted in 

 this country, by having it systematized as in France 

 and Italy. Raising the cocoons is one branch, 

 and not an expensive, but rather a simple process. 

 Midberry trees can be had at a trifling cost, and 

 when two or three years old, will furnish abun- 

 dant food for worms. They need occupy no 

 ground which could be appropriated to other uses. 

 They can be ))lanted by the sides of fences in rows 

 all about a farmer's homestead. Even planted so 

 close as to form an impervious and beautiful hedge 

 — a valuable substitute for wooden fences. 



When the worms are hatched from the eggs, a 

 portion of the barn or wood-house can be appro- 

 priated to feeding them. About si.x weeks only 

 are occupied in the process, and the leaves can be 

 plucked, and all needed attentions given the worms, 

 by young boys or girls, with very little exjierience. 

 After the feeding is over, and they begin to wind 

 their cocoons, they require no farther attention. 

 The work is infinitely more agreeable, as well as 

 lucrative, than the sedentary employment of cov- 

 ering buttons, or even working palm leaf hats or 

 straw braiding. 



When the cocoons are wound, they can find a 

 ready ca.sh market. The large establishments 

 which are coming into existence in this country, 

 both for raising worms and for winding and weav- 

 ing the silk, will consume more than can be had 

 for twenty years. In France aud Italy, the leaves 

 are furnished by one class of persons, auotlier buys 

 them and feeds the worms, while others purchase 

 the cocoons and wind them for a fourth class, 

 who manufacture the silk. 



Cocoons are sold as other commodities are, 

 carried into market by the peasantry every morn- 

 ing, where purchasers are ever ready to secure a 

 good article. We earnestly urge upon every far- 

 mer to plant mulberry trees and furnish a healthy 

 and lucrative employment to his little ones. — Ban- 

 gor Mechanic -and Farmer. 



New England. — A writer iii the Charleston, 

 S. C. Courier thus bears testimony to the striking 

 worth of the inhabitants of New England. 



"The very sterility of New England, by impo- 

 sing U|)on all classes the necessity of labor, gave 

 strength and energy to her sons, and stability to 

 her institutions. Her severe austerity arose much 

 more from her own toils and trials, than from her 

 puritan ancestry ; and aside from the bigotry of 

 some of lier sons, who can find no greatness or 

 worth beyond her own borders, she confessedly 

 stands among the highest of any people upon the 

 face of the earth, for the possession of those attri- 

 butes from whicli liberty can spring." 



