:^EW EJ\GL.AJVD FARMER. 



PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, AT NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREETj 



VOL.. IX. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, D MX) EMBER34, 183 O. 



NO. 23. 



4i vS}- U2 It >J ^ l£i IS W^ lli ^ « 



FOR THE N£W ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mr Editor — I sometimes make extracts and 

 notes when I rend. I send you a sheet of these, 

 which you are at liberty to dis[iose of at the time, 

 «nd in tlie manner, you deem proper. 



Respectfully yours, 



Albany, Dec. 9, 1S30. J. BUEL. 



PLANTING. HEALING WOUNDS IX TREES. 



' I have adopted a system of planting,' says Mr 



Blaikie, an eminent landscape gardener, ' by which 



I can remove trees at all seasons. As soon as 



they are taken up, I dip their roots in a puddle of 



X)wdung and loam, which preserves their fibres 



roin the influence of the air. When this practice 



3 adoi)ted in the winter season, the plants may be 



ent to any distance, or kept out of the ground 



)r weeks (in the climate of France) without the 



lightest injury ; and I have frequently transplant- 



f ti trees in the heat of summer by this precaution, 



ad with perfect success.' The cowdung is oth- 



wise beneficial than by preventing the roots from 



le influence of the air. It is not only nutritive 



the plant, but the most healing salve for the' 



ounds of vegetables that I know of It excels 



orsyth's celebrated composition, with the ad- 



mtage that it costs nothing, and isalways at hand. 



Ihen applied to fresh wounds, and secured by a 



Bht bandage, it almost invariably effects a cure. 



ty of the .soil in which it was found growing. Care- 

 ful c.\i)erimcnts would probably show a like result 

 in regard to the other earths. 



WHEAT. 



I some years ago ventured an opinion, in the 

 New England Fanner, as to the cause of wheat 

 not producing well on the premature soils of New 

 England, viz. because these soils did not contain 

 anything which had been animal matter, or any 

 material which would afi'ord nitrogen, an essential 

 element of the gluten of wheat ; and I suggest- 

 ed that this deficiency might be supplied by ani- 

 mal matters, as bones, horns, hair, soap boilers' 

 waste, manure from a slaughter house, urine, &c. 

 If any gentleman has made a satisfactory experi- 

 ment, by which to test the correctness of this opin- 

 ion, or can give any information in relation to its 

 soundness, from his observation or experience, he 

 will confer a ])articular favor by communicating 

 the result through your paper. 



SALT, A3 A MANURE. I 



Whe testimony of eminent men in favor of ap- 

 ing salt as a manure is so strong as to shake 

 opinion of the most sceptical. Lord Bacon 

 * wmmends it for the beet, and the garden gene 

 |y ; G. Sinclair for the carrot ; the Rev. Mr 

 ttwright for potatoes ; Sir T. Auckland for man- 

 (Wurtzel ; several for flax and asparagus ; Iloyg, 

 florist, for bulbs, particularly the hyacinti ; 

 ii cb latter he declares will never grow well at 

 • stance from the sea without it. The Dut:h 

 .sts, who flower the hyacinth in great perfcc- 

 , and who supply half the world with its bubs, 

 mode of culture which strengthens Mr 

 [g's opinion of the efficacy of salt. They raise 

 where the water (which I presume is saliie) 

 s within two feet of the surface, the ujipcr 

 :a of the beds being entirely of sand. This 

 does not bloom well in the interior, and I 

 making an experiment to ascertain how far it 

 be improved by salt. 



ths are found in vegetables; but whether 

 1 constitute a part of their proper food, is yet 

 Itter of dispute. Sanssure's experiments go 

 pr to prove the negative. He analyzed the 



of two pinus iibics, (spruce) one growing oi 

 Inite, and the other on a calcareous soil. Ii 

 liarts of the first, he found 13 of silex, 15 o' 

 Ina, and 46 of carbonate of lime. In 10( 



of the latter, no silex, 16 of alumina, am, 



carbonate of lime, Hanes it would seem, 

 lilex was not necessary to the growth of this 



STIRRING LAND IN WARM WEATHER. 



Withers says, in his Memoirs on Planting, and 

 he says truly, that ' stirring land in dry weather, 

 is tlie only e ffeclual method of keeping it in a 

 moist state.' Thus many err in not stirring the 

 grounci among their crops, because the weather is 

 too dry ; others delay the operation of hoeing, to 

 the prejudice of their crop, lest by destroying the 

 words they expose the soil to the more severe in- 

 flu;nce of the sun and ilrought. The reverse 

 happen.s. Weeds exhaust the moisture of the 

 soil. The evaporation caused by them is in the 

 ratio of the entire superficial surface of their leaves 

 and stems. The best precaution against drought 

 is to keep lands rich, clear and light. 



Although I concur with Mr Withers, as to the 

 efl^ect of stirring land in dry weather, I do not 

 wholly agree with him as to the governing cause 

 of that eflfect. He imputes it wholly to the loose 

 mould detached by the hoe operating as a shade 

 to the soil beneath — I ascribe it to the com!)ined 

 influence of heat, light, air and moisture, to which 

 stirring renders the soil more permiable. Heat 

 rarefies the moisture in the subsoil, and induces it 

 to ascend to the upper stratum. In the dark no 

 oxygen is given off by plants, nor carbonic acid 

 gas absorbed, processes indispensable to healthy 

 vegetation ; and roots are the main organs of ab- 

 sorption. The atmosphere contains prepared food 

 for vegetables, as well as moisture, at all times ; 

 it penetrates a loose soil freely, and the roots seize 

 and approjjriate that which is congenial to their 

 wants. Dews falling upon a hard surface, remain, 

 and are evaporated by the morning sun. They 

 fall upon a stirred soil as upon a sponge ; are im- 

 mediately disseminated through the surrounding 

 mass, and itnpart vigor to the plant ere they are 

 dissipated by the morning. Books afford nume- 

 rous instances of working the ground among 

 crops in dry weather. Curwen grew cabbages to 

 the weight of 50 «nd 60 pounds each, and he as- 

 cribed their uncommon size to the beneficial ef- 



half a dozen cabbages or hills of corn, by stirring 

 the ground frequently about one part, and leavipg 

 the other unloosed, in dry weather. 



TKEF.S. 



It i^ a custom in Turkey, says Dr Walsh, to 

 plant a platarnus oricn(a/Js (button wood tree) on 

 the birth of a son, and a cypress on the death 

 of one. Were this custom adopte<l in the United 

 States, it would give us, at the end of forty years, 

 about twenty millions of trees more than we shall 

 then probably have ; a consideration of no mean 

 inq)ortance to posterity. And were the trees to 

 be planted by the road side, most of our iiublic 

 highways would at the end of the period be con- 

 verted into delightful avenues. Let it be remem- 

 bered that the road from Strasburgh to Munich, a 

 distance of 250 miles, is already an avenue of 

 fruit trees. 



It is an axiom of Mr Knight, that all vegetables 

 which require to be left in a state of inactivity dur- 

 ing winter, vegetate sooner in spring, if that state 

 of inactivity is brought on sooner in autumn. 

 • Salisbury cites a case which strongly verifies this 

 rule, in regard to the grape. A vine of the Mu- 

 nier, in Yorkshire, bore 1000 to 2000 bunches of 

 fruit annually, not twenty of which were ripened 

 in a season, under ordinary management. The 

 vine was pruned and stripped of its leaves, on the 

 20th of Sept., seven years in succession ; after 

 which it ripened half a crop in ordinary, and a 

 whole crop in warm weather. 



EFFECTS OF POISON ON VEGETABLE LIFE. 



Marcet of Geneva, instituted a set of experi- 

 ments to ascertain the effect of poisons upon ve- 

 getables. By causing plants to grow in poisonous 

 mixtures, or by introducing poisons into their sys- 

 tem, it was found that the effect upon vegetation 

 was nearly the same as upon the functions of ani- 

 mals. 



The excrescences upon the plum and Morello 

 cherry are no doubt caused by the poison of in- 

 sects. The blight of the pear, and I may add of 

 the apple and quince, will ultimately be traced to 

 a like cause. How far acids and alkalies, by a 

 topical application, might serve as a preventive or 

 antidote, remains to be tried. 



fects of keeping a boy and plough almost constant- 

 ; andthat its presence in the first experiment ly at work among them. Experience is the best 

 Itierely adventitiom, reaultiwg from the quali-1 teacher. Le» the farmer test the axiom upon 



DISEASE IN FRUIT TREES. 



My observations upon the pear, the past sea- 

 son, have been many and close ; and yet I can 

 adopt neither the conclusions of Dr Fiske or Pro- 

 fessor Peck, although their opinions are entitled to 

 great weight. The seat of the disease seems to 

 be in the elaborated sap, or inner bark ; and to 

 progress towards the root ; and although I have 

 found insects in my examinations, and traces of 

 them in the diseased bark, yet I never could fix 

 upon any species as the authors of the mischiefj. 

 nor decide whether they were the cause or con- 

 sequence of disease. 



In grass grounds my apple trees have almost 

 wholly escaped injury ; while in an orchard that 

 has been several years under the plough, almost 

 every apple and pear tree has been more or less 



