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DEVOTED TO AGRICULTUKE AND ITS KINDKED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. III. 



SATURDAY, APKIL 26, 1851. 



NO. 9. 



RAYNOLDS &; NOURSE, 



Proprietors. 



OFFICE, aUINCY HALL, BOSTON. 



S. W. COLE, Editor. 



WORK FOR THE SEASON. 



May comes with its genial warmth and refresh- 

 ing showers, waking all nature to life and beauty. 

 The earth is clothed with herbage; every plant and 

 tree assumes its beautiful adornments, and the flow- 

 ers start forth with their fine colors and delightful 

 fragrance. All nature becomes renovated. The 

 animal creation rejoices in tlie gladsome change; 

 and man, partaking the hue that is around him, re- 

 vives with nature and acts with new life and energy. 



The judicious remarks of our friend Holbrook on 

 spring work, supersede the necessity of our dwell- 

 ing so extensively on the work for this month, 

 though all we could both say, in filling the whole 

 paper, would not include every particular which 

 claims the busy cultivator in this peculiar month 

 for planting. 



Transplanting Trees. — Owing to the cold wet 

 weather, there is much of this business to do yet, 

 and it is better to delay than set when the ground 

 is very wet; but by all means take up the trees and 

 heel them in, to retard their growing. In set- 

 ting out trees, be very careful to place the roots 

 near the surface, covering them with a few inches 

 of soil. If set deep, they grow slowly; but avoid 

 the other extreme, and cover the roots well, or the 

 wind, when the earth is soft, will displace them. 

 As a remedy against the effects of a hot sun and 

 severe drought, from rather shallow planting, mulch 

 the trees the first year, and the roots will seek their 

 natural depth and support the trees. Dig large 

 deep holes, scattering the sub-soil around upon the 

 ground, and filling the hole nearly full with rich 

 loam. Use no manure in the hole, uidcss the soil 

 lacks good culture, and then the manure should be 

 thoroughly decomposed, and mixed with the loam. 

 Coarse dressing may be laid around the tree, and 

 it makes good mulching. A good time to trans- 

 jilant evergreens is the very last of May or early in 

 June, just as the new growth has started. 



Planting Indian Corn. — In the southern part of 

 New England, corn will generally ripen well, eX' 



cepting on low land, if planted the last of May, and 

 in some seasons as late as the tenth of June it ri- 

 pens well. But in the northern section, especially 

 on frosty land, it should be planted by the tenth or 

 fifteenth of this month, if the land be dry and warm. 

 But as it cannot always be planted in season, from 

 the condition of the soil, or the business of the sea- 

 son, it is important to have varieties suited to the 

 climate, as to time of ripening. 



Root Crops. — If we have nmch rain, moist land 

 will not get sufficiently dry to admit of fine pulver- 

 ization, till we have warm dry weatlitr, and this 

 condition of soil is essential to good crops and easy 

 culture. On such land it will answer to sow beets, 

 carrots and parsnips the last of this month or very 

 early in June, as drought will not affect the crop, 

 and the growth will continue late in the season; 

 but if the land is very dry, and sowing is delayed 

 till late, the hot sun often destroys the seed, and 

 drought may cut short the crop. On lightsoils sow 

 as early as from the 10th to the 20th of this month. 

 Subsoiling is a great advantage to root crops, es- 

 pecially to the tap-rooted kinds. We have found 

 in some cases a gain of 50 per cent, by this process, 

 and we have many statements of an increase of 20 

 or 30 per cent, by this cheap operation; that is 

 cheap compared with the advantages. But any per- 

 son of common sense, who draws up a long root 

 from a soil ploughed only 6 or 8 inches deep, and 

 sees how crooked and contracted that part is that 

 wormed its way down the substratum, among the 

 pebbles and gravel, and found not room to expand 

 itself, needs no experiment to show that there would 

 be a great advantage in stirring the subsoil, and al- 

 lowing the roots to descend freely, and draw mois- 

 ture and nutriment from as great a depth as they 

 will naturally descend in a well prepared soil. 



Stocic, when turned to pasture, should be lurnished 

 with a constant supply of salt, or it should be given 

 as often as twice; for when animals are supplied 

 with salt only once in a week or two they will eat 

 too much, if they can get it. 



