AND HORTICULTURAL U E G I S T i: K . 



PUBLISHED BT JOSEPH BRBCK * CO., NO. S3 NORTH MARKET STRKET, (AonicutTunAi Wa»ihoo««.)-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOIl. 



L.XK.] 



BOSTON, WRDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY K), 1842. 



[RO. .14. 



N. E. FARMER. 



For lh« N. E. Farmer. 



JBLIC SrillIT— SUHSCRIBING FOR A 



PAPER. 



Vc uften hear farmers and others expntiating 

 ally upon llie beauties of public apiril, but ro- 

 up to testify their re.-pect for this virtue, when 

 ly anA practically exhibited to their view, 

 or my own part I never hear a person culogii- 

 thu virtue, without wishing to inquire whether 

 tiiJic.i the pnprrs." Thousands who ore elo- 

 it 111 extolling public spirit in otlitrs, are woii- 



roinidd in practising it themselves, 

 s a general lliin:;, fanners, I think, are more 

 to neglect this virtue than others. There is 

 Ims of men by whom instruction is more nced- 

 laii by the farmers ; and none by whom the 

 nse requisite to secure it, is more generally 

 penurioiisly benriidjcd. A man who will talk 

 i4/ic spiril, onJ refuse his family the advanta- 

 3f a newspaper, which will cost perhaps oao or 

 dollars per year, should be regarded as one 

 cares Ices for practice than Ihtory, and who 

 d, were it not for the laws, permit his family 

 ffer for ordinary conveniences, in order to 

 omizc his cash. 



hero are thousands of farmers in New England 

 •re not subscribers to any paper, and whose 

 e are so thoroughly overcome by prejudice, 

 they would nut receive a paper were it offered 

 of all expense. Such a spirit cannot bo oth- 

 lethan fatally detrimental to the best interests 

 3 country, and should be repudiated as an enc- 

 I society al large. H. D. \V. 



indham. Me., Feb. 12, 1842. 



^We are sorry that our correspondent's asser- 

 in relation to the reluctance of farmers to 

 papers, are too true, /f'e should not have 

 ired upon such remarks ourself, because they 

 d appear, when coming from us, to be but an 

 osted and m^rcerary call for subscribers. It 

 le that we should be glad of more subscribers, 

 ivould be thankful to any friends who would 

 our list ; — but, bo it weakness, or be it snme- 



ectitled to another name, we cannot urcre men 

 kc our own writings. We gladly insert the 

 icited remarks of our responsible correipon- 

 and hope that tney will bo regarded as his, 

 icted upon as the advice of one whose on/y 

 /e is to benefit fanners. 



e will take this occasion to give publicity to 

 ught that comes up every week and almost 

 ■ day, as we look over the exchange papers. 

 V — f.ir too many of them are unfit for general 

 lation. The moral tone of them is nothealliiy : 

 are unfit to be thrown before a family of chil- 

 Tho spirit of contention, recklessness, slan- 

 vituperatiun and a host of other evil things, is 

 fleii seon in the periodical prcs». And when 

 ubscribc to the opinions of our correspondent, 

 o It with the proviso that farmers and all oth- 



ben selecting papers, should take only such 



as furnish food nourishing and wholesome — only 

 such as are chaste and moral. It is better never 

 to see n p.ipnr than to ho soiled by the reading of 

 K.iine that are in circulation. The press is a pow- 

 erful engine for good or for evil, and no well wi»h- 

 or to his country or to man, can look upon its pre- 

 sent inllupncos without having fears crowd thick 

 upon his hopes. — Ep. 



For the N. E. Fnrnier. 



THE SQUASH-VINE DESTROYER. 



.•\f,LKN PuT.NAM, Esq. — Sir — I have rend in the 

 N. E. Farmer of Feb. 2, a communication signed 

 Allen ColBn, ii^vhich the writer asks for a preven- 

 tive to the BttOTis of grubs upon the roots of cab- 

 bages. 



I suppose I have suffered from the same cause. 

 I say suppose — but will endeavor to bo more pre- 

 cise. All the cabbage tribe are liable to be attack- 

 ed at the roots, by whatlcall maggots — resembling 

 the maggots in cheese — which are properly, I be- 

 lipve, the larva- of some lly. These are what I 

 suppose Mr Coffin means by grubs. Cabbages are 

 also attacked by grubs, resembling, if not the same, 

 the grubs found in corn and potato hills. These 

 last change, I believe, into brown and yellow 

 beetles. This grub is very destructive to cabbage 

 plants, but in a ditlerent way from the maggot at 

 the root. 



The grub attacks the plant in the night, at or 

 near the surface of the ground, and cuts it entirely 

 off. It may generally be found without much 

 trouble and destroyed. 



The maggot works entirely under ground ; at- 

 tacks first the small fibrous roots, and then pene- 

 trates ttie main root, where it will generally be 

 found. At least, such is my experience — the first 

 notice you have of this hidden enomy, is in the 

 wilting of the outer leaves of the plant, and (t soon 

 after perishes and comes from the ground like a 

 dry stick: — I mean it has no hold by its fibres. 



The preventive I have used — and I think with 

 good success — is essentially tho same, Mr Editor, 

 with tho one recommended by yourself, viz: salt — 

 but in the form of gea-water. I got the idea from 

 the story of some one, who in a fit of desperation, 

 watered his cabbages with saltwater — thinking, 

 and perhaps hoping, that it would kill them — but 

 which, to his astonishment, resulted in imparting 

 great vigor to his phints. My plants, which were 

 cauliflowers, were fast failing from the attacks of 

 the maggots, and I thought the salt water could not 

 hurt them more than the maggots — so I applied it 

 to them very freely — say one quart to a plant, and 

 that repeated several days — and it re.sulted, as I 

 thought, very favorably. I have also used salt 

 water for the destruction of aphides or plant lice 

 on ruta bagas, as well as the cabiiage tribe, both 

 of which are sometimes much infested with that 

 insect. 



I have no doubt that salt, in some form, acts very 

 favorably upon vegetation ; but the difficulty here, 

 as in many other cases, would be in the applica- 



tion. Will not some of your correspondents en- 

 lighten tho cianiiiiinily ts to the best mode of using 

 it. Whether dry, as an ingredient of the compost 

 heap, or whothcr in solution, as sea water, and ho 

 spread it over our fields. 



Will it be safo for me to give light praRs land 

 a good thorough drenching of fea-wiitcr next 

 epr'"g ? S. X. 



ICT'Salt has been much used in compost in Eng- 

 land during the Inst ten years. Its effects, ns de- 

 scribed by Cnthbert W. Johnson, in hi." work on 

 manures, have been |liighly beneliciul, and pirlicu- 

 larly so on lif;lil liinils. We have met with no ac- 

 count of tho use of salt water ; but we should have 

 no fears from apjilyingit freely early in the season, 

 or at any time when the land is quite moist. By 

 freely, we mean ten or twelve gallons to the square 

 rod, or 15 to 20 hundred gallons per acre. We 

 sowed two or three pecks of salt last summer upon 

 the grass, but have no minutes of the rate per acre 

 or of'tho effects, but were satisfied that the result 

 was good. Ten bushels of salt per acre, when the 

 ground is moist, will do no harm Our correspon- 

 dent, whose communication indicates that he lives 

 near the sen, will, we trust, make experiments with 



ocean water, and give the results to the public 



Eu. 



UNDER DRAINING. 



The following paper from tho Journal of the 

 Royat Agriciiltura! Society of England, dc.-icribes 

 an article for draining-, which can be very readily 

 obtained from many nf (he peat or turf meadows, 

 and also from the salt marshes of this vicinity. 

 Wherever the subsoil at the depth of from one and 

 an half to two and an iiaiffeet, is of sufficient firm- 

 ness to retain its place and furnish smootli sides 

 for tho ditch, much of the tough fibrous peat or 

 turf that is used for fuel in Essex county, wnuld 

 apparently an-^wer the purpose of covering perfect- 

 ly well. — Ed. 



" To Ph. Puse;/, Esq. — Sta — -The conversation 

 which look place between our Secretary, Mr Hud- 

 son, and myself, relative to the cultivation of heavy 

 land, was in consequence of my observation of the 

 successful practice of Mr R. W. King, a considera- 

 ble landed proprietor of this parish, in growing tur- 

 nips upon cold soil, ill calculated naturally for the 

 purpose. The part of his farm to which I alluded, 

 is situated upon the hi;ihest point of Cambridge- 

 shire, twelve miles distant from Cambridge, and 

 bordering upon the county of Suffolk. The surface 

 of the soil is tenacious loam, shallow, upon a sub- 

 soil of cold clay. 



Mr King's method is, in the first place, to drain 

 his land, whirh is done with dried turf procured 

 for the purpose from the fens, similar in appearance 

 to what used to be consumed instead of coal in the 

 cottages: the length varies from 12 to Ifi inches, 

 according to the goodness of il^ quality, some be- 

 ing more brittle ond more easily broken in carriage 

 than others. The width and depth of the best 

 turves IS about 3 inches : the retail piicc is now 



