VOL. XIV. K0.48 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 





(From llie Maine Farmer ) 



On RAisrNo Cucumbers. Mr Holmes: — As it 



vill soon be time to pay attention to planting and 



" earing Cucnmbers I send yon lliis short conirnu- 



lication on that suliject which is at your disposal. 



About twenty years since I had a fine yard of 



*' ;uciimbers first cohiing up ont of the ground ; I 



oon found that they were devoured by a very 



mall insect of which there was great niindiers. I 



lifted ashes on them and afterwards soot from the 



hininey, but to no purpose, and my cucumbers 



'* iverc soon eaten up except three plants on the 



' ' ofa))ileof carding machine flyings which 



been thrown from a windosv. I then sowed 



nore seed and the next crop of plants soon made 



heir appearance. I then took some flying, platted 



hem out, and laid them over each plant, and 



ilaced some under the leaves. It entirely pre- 



.ented all injury from the small black insect, and 



t was some preventative to the approach of the 



mellow bug which infests these plants. The fly- 



ngs being of a dark color and oily, hclji the growth 



)f the plant. I let the flying remain around the 



ools when I hoed them. Myself and my neigh- 



3ors have used the flyings since with success. 



J\rorth Yannouih, May 11, 1836. J. C. H. 



er exposes nnripened 

 Hence so far as rei'anl 



the 



e more injured. 



1 modes, all who 

 have made a comparison, seem to concur in the 

 opinion, that stri|)ping thft corn of its tops and 

 leaves is a bad practice. llbanij Cultivator. 



Blr John Piatt, of Marietta, Ohio, advertises in 

 a paper of that place that he has succeeded in cul- 

 tivating the genuine Tea Plant of China. He has, 

 he says, raised a j.lant for ten years past at Ma] i- 

 ctta, and after a series of expensive experiments 

 has been fully successful in <liscovoring the art of 

 dyeing ami manufacturing the leaves into tea of a 

 quality quite equal to imported Young Hyson. 

 He offlirs gratuitously to furnish seed of the last 

 year's growth to any gentleman desirous of i)in-su- 

 ingthe cultivation. — M Y. Cour.Sf Enq. 



Dropping Corn. — Provide a small cup, with a 

 'onvenient handle just large enough to take up 

 :he desired number of grains; this may be made 

 aftin plate, — or it may be made of wood, either 

 ay boring an auger hole in to the side of a small 

 licce of wood, and dressing it ofl' to a proper 

 shape, or by cutting off a sta!k of elder about an 

 inch in diameter, just below a limb which is to 

 form the handle, hollowing out about the requi- 

 site siae, and paring the upper edge thin. By 

 taking a basket in the left and this in the right 

 hand, a little boy tnay drop faster, and more accu- 

 rately as it regards number, than a man can by the 

 common mode with the hand. — Gen. Far. 



Simple cure for Rheumatism. — Boil a small pot 

 full of potatoes, and bathe the part aflectcd with 

 the water in which the potatoes are boiled, as hot 

 as can be applied, immediately before getting into 

 bed. The pain will be removed, or at least grad- 

 ually alleviated by next morning. The most ob- 

 stinate rheumatic pains are known to have been 

 cured by one a[>pIication of this novel and simple 

 remedy. — Scotsman. 



Thp Corn Crop. — All, or nearly all, the ai 

 counts we have published, of great products of 

 Indian corn, agree in two jiarticulars, viz : in not 

 using the plough in the after cidtnre, and in not 

 earthing, or but slightly, the hills. These results 

 go to demonstrate, that tlie entire roots are essen- 

 tial to the vigor of the crop ; and that roots to en- 

 able them to ])erform their functions as nature de- 

 signed, must be near the surface. If the roots 

 are severed with the plough, in dressing the crop, 

 the plant is partially exhaust d in throwing out a 

 new set near the surface, where alone they can 

 jjerform all their ofSces. There is another mate- 

 rial advantage in this mode of cultivating the corn 

 crop — it saves a vast deal of manual labor. 



There is another question of interest to farmers, 

 which relates to the mode of harvesting the crop, 

 that is, whether it is best to top the stalks, cut the 

 whole at the ground when the grain is glazed, or 

 cut the wh )le when the grain has fully ripened. 

 We have stated the experiments of Mr Clark, of 

 Northampton, one of the best (iractical farmers of 

 our country, and of other gentlemen, showing that 

 the grain suffers a diminution of six or eight bu.'ih- 

 els to the acre, by topping the stalks ; and there 

 seems to be no counterbalancing benefit to the 

 fodder, unless at the expense of carrying the stalks 

 to the holders of ilie field, that they may be se- 

 cured before the crop is gathered, and before ihey 

 become blanched and half ruined. And it is no 

 protection against early autumnal frosts, but rath- 



(Frnrn the Mora! Reformer.) 

 HEALTH OS' FARMERS. 



A curious set of facts is developed in one part 

 of Dr Woodward's late Report, in regard to the 

 Insane Hospital at Worcester. We allude to the 

 Table of Occupations of the Inmates. These, 

 among 250 male inmates, were as follows: 



Common laborers, 57 ; Farmers, 52 ; Manufac- 

 turers, 18 ; Shoemakers, 18 ; Seamen, 16 ; Tea- 

 cher.", 13 ; Carpenters, 10 , Merchants, 8 ; Ma- 

 chinists, 6 ; Blacksmiths, 5 ; Tailors, 4 ; Printers, 

 3; Paper makers, 2 ; Clothiers, 3 f Millers, 2 ; 

 Calico printers, 2 ; Cabinet makers, 2 ; Bakers, 

 2 ; Stevedores, 2 ; Stone-cutter, 1 ; Comb maker, 

 1 ; Cooper, 1 ; Harness maker, 1 ; Tanner 1 ; 

 Pedlar, 1 ; Currier, 1 ; Bricklayer, 1 ; Clergy- 

 man, 1 ; Lawyer, 1 ;. Physician, 1 ; Vagrants, 13, 

 Some of our readers, if they have not seen the 

 i-eport, will be startled at this statement. They 

 probably had no idea, that oidy one minister one 

 lawyer, and one physician, could be found among 

 two hundred and fifty cases of insanity, tlipre are, 

 in the same number, no less than one hundred 

 and nine laborer.s, i;ot including mechanics and 

 manufacturers ; fiftytwo of whom are regular far- 

 mers. "We thought it was admitted, on all 

 hands, they will say, tliat farmers and men who 

 labor in the open air are the most healthy ; and 

 that literary men are least so. And yet, so far as 

 the facts at Worcester go, they prove the reverse. 

 But you must first consider what it is that these 

 facts prove. Do they prove any thing more than 

 that the one class is more liable than the other to 

 this particular form of disease .' ]f the same sort 

 of observations and records were made in refe- 

 rence to consumption, rheumatism, fever, or other 

 diseases, how do we know but that the propor- 

 tions would be at once reversed, and literary men 

 be found as numerous on that list, as laborers now 

 are in the ranks of the insane. 



The truth is, however, otherwise. For though 

 laborers are not found to be more subject to all 

 the forms of disease, in the full proprtion of fifty 

 farmers and fifty other hdjorers for one minister 

 or one lawyer, or one physician, as in the case of 



mania, yet we believe it may be safely affirmed 

 that the furjuer sufier much njore than the latter. 

 Not that their employments are le-ss healthy in 

 themselves considered ; for they are incompara- 

 bly more so; but the abuses of themselves which 

 are practised among farmers and other laborers, 

 are greater than those which prevail among al- 

 most any other class of our citizens. 



Do you ask what these abuses are .' A full re- 

 ply to this question would require a volume. It 

 would be to give a minute account of all the hab- 

 its, manners and customs of this interesting (dass 

 of men — a class which, notwithstanding their 

 gross errors in these respects, are after all the 

 " bone and sinew" of the coimtry. Presuming, 

 as they are apt to do, on the stnMigth and vigor 

 and power of endurance of their physical frames, 

 they commit almost every excess,; and because 

 they do not suffer so immediately as their fellow 

 men of other and less healthy, because more con- 

 fined occupalioi's, they are apt to conclude that 

 nothing at all will ever hurt them. 



It is because, in this respect, sentence against 

 an evil work does not appear to be speedily e.xe- 

 cuted, that the farmers and other laborers of this 

 country pm-sue, so frequently, a course of con- 

 duct which brings upon them a thousand diseases ; 

 and among the rest mania ami other nervous af- 

 fections. They spoil their digestive organs, and 

 through that medium ruin the other organs, by 

 excess and irregularity, and improper kinds of 

 food ; and by beer, cider, cider brandy, tobacco, 

 snuff, opium, tea, coffee, &c. 



Above all, they injure themselves by cider. 

 There are few fanners of forty or fifty years of 

 age in New England — we speak from much ob- 

 servation and experience as a medical man, on 

 this subject — whose digestive powers and nervous 

 system are not more or less injured by excessive 

 use of cider ; and there is not a large proportion 

 of these who are free from disease of the liver. 

 There is no class of the community — the pale 

 (•ity faces not excepted — which is deteriorating 

 faster than our red-faced farmers. The use of 

 too much diseased animal food has indeed some- 

 thing to do in the production of this result; but 

 not so much as eider and tobacco, and cider 

 brandy. 



A writer in the National Intelligencer describes 

 the advantages of Todd's newly invented engine 

 for purifying and dressing feathers. He says: 



" We saw him (Mr T.) take a feather bed that 

 had become heavy and matted by use, empty 

 the feathers into his machine, and let the steam 

 into them a few minutes until the feathers became 

 moist and flat, and sufficiently so to cleanse and 

 purify them from the smell of perspiration, &c. 

 and to destroy the moths, &c. ; then turn the 

 steam out of the feathers, and pass it through 

 them in a large tin pipe, wliith soon dried them 

 entirely. The machine was all the time kept in 

 motion, which was so constructed as to leave 

 them light, buoyant and elastic ; and give them 

 the api)earai]ce of new feathers. By the above 

 process we are of opinion that feathers impreg. 

 nated with fevers, and even the Cholera, may be 

 comnletely restored." 



The luxury of a pure bed is one which no one 

 ought to forego, and which no man or woman of 

 good sense will omit to secure. Mr Todd's in- 

 vention, therefore, deserves universal patronage. 



