194 



The Ruta-baga Turnip. — Ancient Custom. — Cabbage. Vol.' 



"The field was an oat stubble — it was 

 ploughed deep and sown with rye in the au- 

 tumn, when the weeds sprang up with the 

 crop, so as to cover the land like a carpet; 

 but this being fed oft' by sheep in the spring, 

 they had no time to come to maturity. So 

 soon as the land was cleared by the sheep, it 

 was ploughed, harrowed and rolled, and the 

 weeds were gathered and burnt on the sur- 

 face ; it was then suffered to lie, when the 

 seed weeds sprang up by tens of thousands, 

 but these were smothered at a blow, by being 

 turned down by the plough ; when the land 

 was again harrowed and rolled, and cleared 

 from root weeds. In a few days another 

 crop of weeds had made their appearance ; 

 but they were again turned down, and the 

 land worked as before ; the next crop of 

 weeds was lessened exceedingly by these 

 operations. The field was then spread with 

 a mixture of soaper's ashes and stable manure, 

 which dressing being turned down by a shal- 

 low furrow, turnips were sown on the land 

 on the 29th day of June, on one of the finest 

 seed-beds ever witnessed. Thus this field 

 had received five ploughings; the root weeds 

 had been gathered and burnt three times, 

 and four plentiful crops of seed weeds had 

 been turned in and smothered. The land 

 was as clean as a garden ; and although an- 

 other crop of weeds sprang up with the tur- 

 nips, they were destroyed by the hand-hoe, 

 and the crop of turnips was the best in that 

 part of the country ; the largest roots were 

 drawn and reserved for winter use, the re- 

 mainder being fed off by sheep and young 

 cattle. By these means the land was so en- 

 riched, that the crop of barley which fol- 

 lowed, was the admiration of the neighbour- 

 hood ; the yield was prodigious, and sold for 

 an extra price as seed. Clover was sown 

 with the barley in the spring, which, after 

 the crop had been harvested, afforded a con- 

 siderable quantity of aftermath; and during 

 winter, preparations were made for an early- 

 spring dressing of compost, lime forming 

 one of the component parts; and which, laid 

 on at the time of the first shooting of the 

 clover, caused a rapidity of growth, which 

 brought the hay to the scythe a week or ten 

 days earlier than the generality of the crops 

 in the neighbourhood ; proving a great ad- 

 vantage to the growth of the second crop of 

 hay. Both cuttings were very fine and the 

 yield great. After the crops of hay were 

 carried, the land was skim-ploughed and the 

 surface well harrowed; it was then turned 

 down by a deep furrow, and wheat was 

 sown on it on the l'ith day of October ; the 

 crop from which averaged, over the field, 

 40 bushels per acre, and was all disposed of 

 for seed, to those very men, who had de- 



clared that such management 

 do in these parts." 



would 



In an experiment of sowing corn broad 

 on the first of June, at the rate of one 

 a half bushels per acre, on rich land, G 

 ral Harmon, of Wheatland, Monroe co., IS 

 obtained 18 tons of green stalks per i 

 The stalks were small, and almost ent: 

 without ears, and so full of saccharine 

 ter, that the cattle ate them perfectly c 

 when dry, though they were not cut up 

 The yield was estimated at six tons dry 

 der per acre, and was raised on a clovei 

 turned over and sown the last of May, 

 the corn cut Sept. 15. The saccharine : 

 ter, which goes to supply the corn in the 

 is retained in the stalk when not suffere 

 ear, and materially adds to its nutritive 

 perties. — American Agriculturist. 



Ancient Custom. — The road which 

 torn had marked out was beaten and smc 

 and the farmer continued to travel upoi 

 it was a circle too, and brought him alv 

 to the place whence he had started, am 

 never lost himself. But travelling on 

 path and at one pace, we wear out the i 

 and incapacitate ourselves from travellin 

 any other pace, — so, a long course of inj 

 cious management and cropping, not ( 

 exhausts the land, but the practice of a 

 ence, the cultivation of which requires 

 exertion of mind, deadens the spirit of 

 quiry, and leaves the farmer an easy, ur 

 quiring being, knowing nothing from h 

 self, but governed by an hereditary fee] 

 of obedience to ancient usage. Hannas 



A New Principle in Horticulture! 



Cabbage.— Mr. H. M. Bidwell, of 

 city, has just sent us an elegant Cabba 

 head from his garden, illustrative of a r 

 principle in that important vegetable, a 

 dentally discovered. About the middk 

 June, having some last year stumps, wh 

 had been set out for salad sprouts, he br 

 oft' three, about 3 or 4 inches long, and sti 

 them into the ground. They took root re 

 ily, and grew as thrifty as any other pk 

 Two of the threoe have produced fine s< 

 heads. The one before us measures two f 

 six inches in circumference, the open, c 

 side leaves being all stripped off. It is 

 the drum-head shape. The other head 

 more conical, and apparently a different s 

 cies. Plants may thus be obtained eai 

 without the labor and attention requires 

 raising them in hot-beds. — The principle 

 worthy of notice. — Farmers' Gazette. 



