NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



49 



In ploughing up grass-land for planting in the 

 Spring, the work should be nicely done; for on thai 

 the anioiuU of the crop will considerably depend. 

 Baulks, crooked or imperfeclly turned furrows, 

 should therefore find no favor. Some ploughmen are 

 very much afraid of turning up a little of the yellow 

 dirt below; and they therefore use the plough, yeai 

 after year, in an invariably shallow furrow, thus of- 

 ten forming a hard crust, within four or five inches 

 of the surface of the ground, through which the roots 

 of plants cannot penetrate. Not being able to range 

 much below the surface, these roots, in a dry time, 

 fail to supply the growing plant with mositure, and 

 the harvest is in consequence light. I have derived 

 much benefit from a gradual deepening of the sur- 

 face soil. At each breaking up of the sward I bring 

 up an inch or two of the poor substratum, expose 

 it to the meliorating action of the atmosphere, mix 

 my compost manure with it, and thus so far im- 

 prove it that it makes a valuable addition to the 

 depth of the surface soil. I can now take a furrow 

 of eight on nine inches deep, of uniform and good 

 quality; and in a dry season I particularly see the 

 benefit in the superior greenness and luxuriance of 

 the crops. Shallow furrows, therefore, form no 

 part of my farming. 



In the iiurry of spring work, there is too great a 

 disposition to harrow the ground slightly. This is] 

 not true economy. If the harrowing be that of 

 green-sward furrows for planting, the planting and 

 first hoeing certainly will be more expeditiously 

 and bett(!r done, if the surface has been brought to 

 a fine tilth by the harrow; and the young plants, of 

 whatever kind, will be more forward for it too. So 

 also in regard to grain and grass; if the pulveriza- 

 tion had been fine at seeding time, the plants stand 

 thicker, are more vigorous, and the crop is better 

 than would have been the case if the preparation of 

 the soil had been slighted. If land in corn stub- 

 ble is to be ploughed and stocked down in the 

 Spring, it is well to harrow down the hills with a 

 heavy hinge-harrow, for the ploughing will after- 

 wards be much more easily and perfectly done. 



In laying 'down to grass, the seed should be 

 sown bountifully. Fill the land well with grass- 

 seeds, and the hay will be fine, foul stuff will be 

 shut out, the sward will be thick, the grass-roots 

 numerous, and when the land is broken up for the 

 next rotation, the extra accumulation of vegetable 

 matter in the sward, in consequence of the liberal 

 seeding, will, by its decay, improve the soil very 

 much. Twelve pounds of clover seed, together 

 with ten or twelve quarts of herds-grass and a half 

 bushel of red-top seeds, is none too much seed for 

 an acre of ground. The clover will not make so 

 good hay as the other grasses; but where one's ob- 

 ject is in part to improve his soil, clover cannot well 

 be dispensed with in the rotation. It draws a good 

 portion of its nourishment from below the reach of 

 the roots of the small grains and the other grasses; 

 it forms a large mass of vegetable matter near the 

 surface, partly at the expense of those fertilizing 

 matters that are now low down in the soil; and 

 generallydecaying at the end of the second year, 

 the surface soil is thereby enriched. So far as my 

 experience goes, I find barley to be the best grain 

 to sow with grass seed. Oats shade and choke the 

 young grass too much; and if they lodge, they lay 

 flat upon the ground, thus smothering the young 

 grass; while barley seldom falls so flat as to kill 



the grass. Three bushels of barley is abou' the 

 right quantity of seed for an acre. 



The proper planting of seed in the Spring is 

 nice operation. This work is quite too apt to 

 be hurried over, without duly considering how 

 much influence it is to have upon the succeed- 

 ing crop. A desire to plant a large breadth of 

 land in a day, should not so much possess one as a 

 desire to plant well, and give the crop every possi- 

 ble advantage in the outset. So far as I know, 

 planted crops of every name and nature, whether 

 in the field or garden, grow better, and yield bet- 

 ter, when planted with better care, than they do 

 when this work is superficially done. Corn will 

 be considerably more Ibrward for being well got in, 

 and will yield more. Potatoes thoroughly planted 

 need little or no hilling afterwards. Indeed, on my 

 land, they do the best where the land is kept about 

 level. 



Finally, we farmers labor and toil with the ex- 

 pectation of realizing a profit from our labors; and 

 as a general rule, the largest profits follow the most 

 careful and the highest kind of cultivation. Mother 

 earth is fainous for her full and bounteous harvests 

 in return for a liberal and careful husbandry, while 

 she leaves the careless, grudging and parsimonious 

 farmer to shirk for himself as best he can. "Do 

 well whatsoever is to be done," is therefore the 

 true motto in farming. F. Holbrook. 



Brattkboro\ Vt., April 20, 1851. 



TOBACCO DUST, 



AS A PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. 



We last year procured from a snuff mill a barrel 

 of dry, but damaged snuff flour, and prepared diudg- 

 ing boxes, covered with a fine bolting cloth, with 

 which we sifted it over the surfaces of any plants 

 attacked by insects, and with most signal success. 

 The snuff should be applied, if practicable, while 

 the plant is wet with dew, and repeated after every 

 shower. If the boxes are properly made, (like a 

 common flour drudge,) and the snuff is perfectly 

 fine and dry, but little time is necessary to go over 

 an acre of plants. Even the rose bug, cabbage 

 louse, thrips on grape vines, &c., all yield to the 

 influence of snuff, and the most delicate plant of the 

 hot-house is not injured by its application. For 

 field vegetables, caustic lime, made into a fine pow- 

 der, while dry, and applied before slaking by contact 

 with the air, will produce similar results. 



Prof. Mapes. 



Nothing Wasted. — The skins used by gold- 

 beaters are produced from the ofl'al of animals. The 

 hoofs of horses and cattle, and other horny refuse, 

 are employed in the production of the prussiate of 

 potash, that beautiful yellow crystallized salt which 

 is exhibited in the shops of chemists. The worn- 

 out saucepans and tin-ware of our kitchens, when 

 beyond the tinker's art, are not utterly worthless. 

 The less corroded parts are cut into strips, punched 

 with small holes, and varnished with a coarse black 

 varnish, for the use of the trunk-maker, who pro- 

 tects the edges and angles of his boxes with them; 

 the remainder are conveyed to the manufacturing 

 chemists, who employ them in making a black dye 

 for calico printers. 



5^" To Adam, Paradise was home; to the good 

 among his descendants, home is Paradise. 



