]^EW EWGL.AN© FAKMiBR. 



PUHLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, AT NO. 5S NORTH MARKET S TREET, (at the Acbiculturai. Wareh op se.)— T. G< FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL. IX. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 8, 1831. 



NO. 47. 



^ CO sa sa ^ sfit vSiiaa^srso 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



THE SE.\SOi\. 



Mr. Fessenden — I have jiisl read tlio observa- 

 .ns upon the sea.soii by a Ro.vbiiry faimcr; and 

 though I feel the greatest respect fortlie opinio! 

 this accurate ami scientific observer, I cannot 

 t ihinli liim mistaken in attribulin^ the earlincss 

 ul promise of the present spring in Massacliusetis 

 the great depth of snow the last winter, ife 

 J continuance on the ground, and consequent 

 allowness of frost. I sliould once have concut- 

 d in this opinion ; but tlie experience of the last 

 arin Maine has satisfied ine, that it is dependen: 

 1 other causes. The past winter was in Jlaiiie, as 

 ill as ill Mass. ' very extraordinary.' The autnmi 

 id been uncommonly mild. Agricultural opern- 

 is ontlie Kenneliec, usually imiieded by frost !s 

 ■ly as the middle or 20th Nov., need not have been 

 spended the last year on account of frost, t.ll 

 20th Dec; and the river, ihe average of whose 

 al close for the last 40 years is the 10th Dec, 

 s not tinally shut up this year till the 11th Jiiii- 

 •y. There were several violent storms of rail, 

 very little snow during the whole winter, 

 ere was very little sledding, only a few days at a 

 e and in the whole not much more than a/ort- 

 ht. After the middle of January, the winter 

 jmed nearly its usual seventy, the mercury 

 asionally falling below zero ; and the earth be- 

 unprotected by snow allowed the frost to peu- 

 ite to very unusual depth. I found it this spring 

 layey soil, 3 feet 4 inchesbelow the surface, and 

 ;et 8 inches in gravel. Such a winter ough; 

 ordini' to conmion opinion, to have been fil- 

 ed by a backward and unfruitful season. Pir- 

 f ilarly as one rain was accompanied with cfid, 

 i that the trees were so loaded with ice diat 

 Jiy branches were broken off !iy its wei;ht. 

 ■ far however is this from being true, that the 

 nsr is early ; and I have uo recollection of a 

 :on, when every product of the earth jave 

 1 promise of fruiifulness. The river opened 

 lys before the average time, having been cbsed 

 three months and a half. The ice was not 

 ied out by a flood, but dissolved by the lieat 

 he weather. I subjoin a table of the coni)ar. 

 e forwardness of the spring for the last 6 yjars. 



1836 1337 18-23 1829 1830 1831. 



ebfc River I April 2 Mar. 03 Mar. IB Ap. 8 Ap. 1 Si.ir. 26 

 alGardmer i *^ 



nd Lilac ) ;^p ,5 ji^r.aO Mar. 23 Ap.21 Ap. 4 Uar. 31 

 lOne.Do. Ap. 23 Ap. 8 Ap. 6 Ap. 23 Ap. 4 Ap. 6 

 ed Lily, do. Ap. 3n Ap. 19 Ap. 19 May 4 Ap. 19 Ap. 2' 

 do. Mnyll May 9 May 8 May 12 Ap. 30 May ( 



rinter grain, which according to common the- 

 rt i, ought to have been destroyed by the winter 



the first time since I have cultivated them, lost 

 but little of the preceding year's growth of wood. 

 The peach tree, which is so freciuently killed, 

 as scarcely to be worth cultivating, has not only 

 survived the winter, but has been most beautifully 

 covered with blossoms. The hardier kinds of cher- 

 ry are generally productive ; but the more delicate 

 kinds seldom perfect their blossoms. This year 

 tiicy were covered with bloom, and two successive 

 frosis, while they were in blossom, have not ]>re- 

 vented the conversion of those blossoms into 

 fruit. Pears and apples promise to be abundant. 

 The plum is the only tree, which does not now 

 l)romise a great crop. Two years since, the plum 

 trees in this section were mostly destroyed by the 

 winter. I lost about seven eighths of mine, 

 and the remainder have not yet entirely recovered. 

 That winter so fVtal to the plum and injurious to 

 many other trees and plants was a winter of deep 

 snows, which continued late. I submit these facts 

 without attempting satisfactorily to account for 

 them, but I would ask whether we may not attri- 

 bute the present early and promising spring to the 

 circumstances; that the autumn was mild and moist, 

 so that the buds were well formed ; and not 

 injured by alternate severe fro.^ts and warm weath- 

 er, aiul ihat the spring, though upon the whole 

 forwarif, did not have very hot days or very cold 

 nights, before the month of May. 

 Gardiner, May 20, 1831. 



E WAT TO PROTECT CABBAGE PLANTS FRO.M 

 WORMS. 



Mr Fessenden — 111 the months of May and 

 June, 1830, t'le soil in this vicinity was infesteil I since the introduction of lime, they have been so 

 with an unusual quantity of worms of various fertilized, as to be successfully applied to the growth 

 made great havoc in gardens, corn 



CALCAKKOUS MANURES. 



This class of manures comprehends a number 

 of articles, as. Burnt or calcined limestone; — Poun- 

 ded limestone ; — Limestone gravel ; — Chalk ; — 

 Maries ; — Sea shells ; — Soapei's waste ; — and Gyp- 

 sum. 



1. Mmntagcs nf L/mc— Though there are 

 exceptions to the rule, yet in general, it may be 

 confidently assertcil, that unless where a soil has 

 by nature, enough (d'calcarous matter in its com- 

 |)osition, for the purposes of vegetation, it can nei- 

 ther be brought into its most fertile state, nor will 

 other manures be .so useful as they ought, if lime, 

 or some other calcareous earth, be not previously- 

 applied. By lime spread upon a moory soil, good 

 herbage is produced where nothing but heafh, and 

 unpalatable grasses grew before. Sy the same 

 means, grass-lands, in.stead of yielding nothing but 

 but bent, and other inferior grasses, have been 

 coveied with those of a niore valuable description. 

 Tiie utility of lime to turnips is so great, that though 

 in the same iiehl, where no lime had been applied 

 the crop died away, yet in the limed ])art, the 

 turnips flourished with unabated vigor. On the 

 Mendip lands in Somerset, by the application of 

 lime, the value of land was raised, from 4s. to 30, 

 per acre ; and dung, which previous to liming 

 had no sensible eflect, operated after its application, 

 as on other lands. Macclesfield forest in Chesh- 

 ire, and vast tracts in the northern and more eleva- 

 ted parts of Derbyshire, and adjacent districts, 

 have been astonishingly improved by the same 

 means. The rye lands of Herefordshire, in 1636 

 refused to i)rodm'e wheat, peas, or vetches; but 



\ 



kinds whi 



fields, &c. I set out on a small plat of ground nearly 

 200 cabbage plants which were destroyed in a few 

 days. The same ground was set a second and a 

 third time, but with no better success than before 

 and although hundreds if notthousanils of worms 

 were destroyed in my cabbage yard, their number 

 appeareil to increase ; having only a sufficient num- 

 ber of plants to set in my yard once more audit be- 

 ing late in the season I thought of the following ex- 

 pedient : — after I had taken the plants to my in- 

 tended cabbage yard, lent pieces of paper from 

 6 to 8 inches long and from 2 to 3 inches wide and 

 wound or wrapped them round the stalk of the 

 plant leaving the roots as far as the dirt was attached 

 to them below the paper, and shaped the top or 

 upper part of the paper that stood out of the ground 

 in the form of a tunnel, to give room for the top or 

 leaves of the plants ; and the better to keep the paper 

 in shape, wound some slack twisted yarn around 

 the papers ; but the jiaper will do well witliout the 

 yarn by placing the soil snugly round it: this had 

 r suftered less, or looked more promising in' the desired effect and entirely protected the whole ; 

 Neither did the grass suffer from its expos- my crop of cabbages was abundant, and found a 



ready market. This plan holds good to other 

 nlants when it is practicable, and even to small 

 fruit trees. — When the cabbage had grown consid- 

 erably ami needed hoeing, the papers were removed, 



U winter or suffered much less than usual, which is done with great ease directly after a rain, 



1 Antwerp Raspberry is alive to the extremity ar early in the morning, after a heavy dew. 



> very branch ; nearly the same may be said of| Respectfully yours, &c, Enoch Place. 



d roses; and the Magnolia and Catalpa have fori Strafford, JV. H. May 23, 1831. 



to the cold; but there is a prospect of an un 

 lly heavy crop. I might go on and speak of 

 y plant that suffers in our climate for the win- 

 and say that it either has not suffered from 



of every species of corn. In inaidci soils of a 

 tolerable quality, the richest manure \»ill not en- 

 able them to bring any crops, but thos« of oats 

 or rye, to maturity ; whereas if they recei\e a suffi- 

 cient quantity of lime, crops of peas, bailey, or 

 wheat, may be raised to advantage. The benefit 

 resulting from the use of lime, has been indispu- 

 tably proved in the same farm, for the richer pars 

 that were left uulimed, were uniformly inferior in 

 produce, to the poorer that had been limed, during 

 a period of not less than twentyone years, under 

 the same course of management. 



2. The principles on which lime operates as a 

 manure. — Quick-lime in powder, or dissolved in 

 water, is injm-ious to plants ; hence grass, watered 

 ttithlime water, is destroyed. But lime freshly 

 burnt, or slacked, forms a compost with vegetable 

 matter, which is soluble in water, and nutritive 

 to plants. Mild lime, (as chalk, or quick-lime 

 again impregnated with carbonic acid), chiefly oper- 

 ates, by improving the texture of the soil, and its 

 relation to absorption. 



3. The various sorts of limestone. — Sometimes 

 lime-stone is almost perfectly pure, as is the case 

 with marble, which frequently contains scarcely 

 any other substance but calcareous matter. Sever- 

 al sorts of limestone, however, have riiixtures of 

 clay and sand, in various proi)ortions, by which 

 the efficacy of the manure, in proportion to the 

 quantity of these substances, is considerably di- 

 minished. It is necessary, therefore to analyze- 

 hmestone, to ascertain the proportion of pure lime. 



