NEW JEJ^GL-AND FARMER, 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



PUBLISHED BY GEORGE C. liARKETT, NO. 5-2 iNOKTH MARKET SI'liEKT, (Agricultural Warkhousk.) — T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, J.VNUARY 27, 1836. 



NO. 29- 



(Ftomtlie Aincrkan Ahnanac.) 

 AGRlCrLTUBE AND RURAL, ECONOMY. 



By Thomas G. Fessenden, Editor of the N. E. Farmer. 



In the preceding voUime, under the above head, 

 the olijci'ts of tilliiire, and sonje recent improve- 

 ments in Afrricuhiire were adverted to and de- 

 scribed, and a continuation of notices relating to 

 modern husbandry was promised. We now pro- 

 ceed ta redeem our pledge, by stating some of 

 those inventions, discoveries, and practical ap[)li- 

 cntions of science to the most useful of the arts, 

 which give modern cultivators very great advan- 

 tages over those who preceded them. 



In our last we made some observations on in- 

 creasing the products of agriculture by the selec- 

 tion of the best seeds from which to obtain our 

 crops. This branch of improved tillage is of more 

 importance than is generally imagined. We will 

 now state the principal causes of defective seeds, 

 and the methods by which the best may be pro- 

 cured. 



The principal causes of poor seeds are to be 

 found in their not being properly situated in 

 growing, and not being well ripened. Different 

 varieties of the saine species impart to each other 

 their respective qualities. If the genuine ruta- 

 baga is set to grow for seed near the common tur- 

 nip, or turnip cabbage, the seeds of the former 

 will have in part the peculiarities of the latter, 

 and vice versa. " To generate the best kinds of 

 seeds the most healthy plants should be chosen, 

 and those which are most early in the season. 

 These should be so placed as to have no weak 

 plants of the same species or even genus in their 

 ■vicinity, lest the fecundating dust of weaker plants 

 should be blown by winds upon the stigmata of 

 the stronger, and thus produce a less vigorous pro- 

 geny."* 



It is best to let all seeds, intended to propagate 

 from, remain on the jjarent stock till fully ripe. 

 For instance, wheat intended for seed should stand 

 in the field till entirely ripe, and the kernel per- 

 fectly hard and dry ; but that which is meant for 

 other uses should be cut before it is dead ripe, as 

 some phrase it, and while the joints of the straw 

 have still a greenish appearance. So in seed 

 corn, that which ripens earliest should be pre- 

 ferred ; but Dr Deane advised to mark such ears, 

 and then let them stand on their stalks till they 

 had become sapless. Seeds will grow, if gathered 

 green, and afterwards dried in the sun, but they 

 will not produce so good plants as if they had 

 been fairly ripened. 



2. To guard as far as possible against defective 

 seeds, it is recommended to select the heaviest aiid 

 largest for sowing and planting. The way to try 

 seeds is this : Put a small quantity of them in 

 Snke-warm water, and let the water be four or five 

 inches deep. A mug or basin will do, but a large 



"Darwin's " Phytologia.' 



glass timihler is best; for then you can seethe 

 bottom as well as the top. Some seeds, such as 

 those of cabbage, radish, and turnip, will, if good, 

 go to the bottom at once. Cucumber, Ictaicc, 

 endive, and many others require a few minutes. 

 Parsnip and carrot, and all the winged seeds re- 

 quire to be well roetted before you put them into 

 the glass; and the carrot should be rubbed, so as 

 to get off part of the hairs, which would otherwise 

 act as the feathers do on a duck. The seeds of 

 l)eets and mangel wurtzel are in a ca.se or shell. 

 The rough things that we sow are not the seeds, 

 but the cases in which the seeds are contained, 

 each case containing from one to five seeds. — 

 Therefore, the trial by water is not, as regards 

 these two kinds of seeds, conclusive, though if 

 the seed be very good it will sink in water after 

 being in the glass an hour. And, as it is a matter 

 of great importance that every seed should grow 

 in a case where the plants stand so far apart, since 

 ga])s in rows of beets and niangel-wurtzel are so 

 very injurious, the best way is to reject all seeds 

 that will not sink, case and all, after being put in 

 warm water, and remaining there an hour. 



But seeds of all sorts are sometimes, if not al- 

 ways, part sound and part unsound, and as the 

 former is not to be rejected on account of th; lat- 

 ter, the proportion of each should be ascertained, 

 if the separation be not made. Count then on 

 hundred seeds, taken promiscuously, and put them 

 into water as before directed. If fifty sink and 

 fifty swim, half of your seeds are bad, and half 

 good ; and so in proportion to other numbers of 

 sinkers and swimmers. There may be plants, the 

 sound seeds of which will not sink, but I know 

 of none. If to be found in any instance, they 

 would, I think, be found in those of the tulip tree, 

 the ash, the birch, and the parsnip, all of which 

 are furnished with so large a portion of wing. — 

 Yet all of these, if sound, will sink, if put into 

 warm water with the wet worked a little into the 

 wings first. I incline to the opinion that we 

 should try seeds as our ancestors tried witches ; 

 not by fire, but by water ; and that by following 

 up their practice we should reprobate and destroy 

 all that do not readily sink.* 



Seeds should be preserved in a dry and tempe- 

 rate place, and the air should not be excluded. 

 Miller says, "the seeds of cucimibers, melons, and 

 gourds, which have thick, horny coverings, and 

 the oil of their seed being of a cold nature, con- 

 tinue good eight or ten years ; and radish, turnip, 

 rape, &c., with other oily seeds, (whose coats are 

 not so hard and close as the others,) yet abounding 

 with oil which is of a warmer nature, the seeds 

 will keep good three or four years; whereas the 

 seeds of parsley, carrots, parsnip, and most um- 

 belliferous plants, whose seeds are for the most 

 part of a warm nature, and have little oil in them, 

 lose their growing faculty, often in one year, but 

 seldom remain good longer than two years. The 

 seeds of cucumbers, melons, and pumpkins ini- 



•Cobbett's " American Gardener." 



prove by being kept till they arc three or four 

 years ohi. When kept that lime on hand, they 

 produce more and earlier fruit, and less vine. If 

 seeds of that age, however, caimot he obtained, 

 they should be well washed to cleanse them from 

 mucilage, and thoroughly dried before planting." 

 Wheat, we are told, is improved for seed, by 

 being kept on hand a year, and will then producB 

 a crop without smut, and will not be injureil by 

 the fly. .lodge Biiel, a celebrated agricidturisl, 

 residing near Albany, rthserves, " I am almost a 

 proselyte to the opinio^' that the nit is deposited 

 in the down of the kernel before the grain is har- 

 vested, Hnd that the same 'Warmth which causes 

 the seed to vegetate in the earth batches the in- 

 sect there also. I am inclined to favor the hypo- 

 thesis, and not without evidence, that the seed of 

 both the smut and the fly lose their I'eproductivfl 

 power during the lapse of a twelve-month, i will 

 not venture to say that liming seed isas eflicacious 

 against the fly, as it is against smut? but thus 

 much I can say,, thaf I always lime my seed 

 wheat, and never have it injured by smut or fly, 

 while many fields in my neighborhood are annu- 

 ally devastated by the one, or materiajlly injured 

 by the other." 



The Use of Lime as a Manure for JVheitt. — 

 The application of lime to wheat culture is one of 

 the most important improvements in modern hus- 

 bandry. It is well known that our lands, where 

 the soil is fit for any kind of arable products, will 

 yield good crops of wheat,, when first cleared of 

 their native growth of wood ; but,, after having 

 been tilled some years, they generally produce 

 wheat with difficulty, and it is often found impos- 

 sible to obtain it by any of the common modes of 

 culture. In most parts of Massachusetts, and 'in 

 some jiart.s of New Hampshire and Vermont, tho 

 farmers for a loag period scarcely ever attempted 

 to raisi! wheat, and still more rarely succeeded 

 when ihey did attempt it. Yet wheat was a com- 

 mon and profitable crop in those places in the 

 earliest ])eriods of their settlement. In process of 

 time, however, the land became incapable of pro- 

 ducing that precious product, and our farmers 

 were compelled to forego its culture, till quite 

 recently it has been successfully cultivated by 

 means of manuring with lime. 



Similar variations and appearances have like- 

 wise been observed in Europe. Wheat countries 

 by continued tiltege have become almost incapable 

 of yielding wheat. The cause and remedy of this 

 partial barrenness, this incajiacity in the soil To 

 produce plants, which it had once brought forth 

 in abundance, were alike involved in obscurity, 

 till modern discoveries in chemistry threw light 

 on the subject. It has been found that the Uji- 

 ture of every soil is deficient, unless it contains a 

 mixture of three kinds of earth, viz. clay, sand, 

 and lime ; and that lime in some of its combina- 

 tions exists in wheat both in the straw and in tbo 

 kernel. In some soils, fertile in other respects, 

 lime may either have no existence, or be found ia 



