100 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 20, ISStl. 



Abridged notices, from the Bulletin des Selences, , Tlie only part usRcl for fine braiJ is that which ex- 



for the Hampshire Gametic. ' tends from the head to near the first joint; the 



— , part between the first and third joints is reserved 



CUBE FOR HOVF.N ANIMALS. I for common braids. M. Fournier presented sam- 



When animals have eaten too great a qnantity pics of the straw, unprepared, to Mr. Salisbury of 



of fresh plants, they become swelled, and often die England. 



in a few hours for want of proper treatment of the 1 cochineal. 



disease. In some countries they make a puncture This insect, from which a well known, valuable, 

 into the abdomen and intestines, and thus let off scarlet dye is obtained, and the nopiil or prickly 

 the gas wliich distends the stomach and bowels ; ' pear, on which the insect is reared, have been in- 

 but this operation is attended with inconvenience troduced into Malaga in Spain. The cochineal 

 and danger. As the distention is caused by the i has increased there wonderfully and Spain has now 

 carbonic acid gas which is produced by the fer- j one production which is possessed by no other Eu- 

 inentation of herbage in the stomach, nothing is j ropean nation. 



more efficacious than to make the animals swallow ' [Cochineal is commonly 4 or 5 dollars per pound, 

 a substance with wliich the gas will combine. A I and sometimes much hijher,but this cultivation re- 

 spoonful of ammoniac mixed with a glass of water i quires so much care and labour, that it would not 

 and given to the animal will absorb the gas in the ' be profitable in any country where the time and 

 stomach, and effect a speedy cure. M. Thenard labour oi' men might be turned to account. The 

 has made use of ammoniac for 14 hoven cows, and 'greatest part of tiie cochineal employed in com- 

 this method has perfectly succeeded with 13 of inerce is produced in the province of Oaxaco in 

 them ; the otiier two perished because tlie ammo- , Mexico, where it lias been cultivated by tiie \ivM- 

 niac was employed too late. Another person has , aiis for centuries. The nopal is not allowed to 

 used ammoniac with two cows, and both were ini- ■ grow higher than four feet, that it may be the more 

 mediately cured. ' easily cleared of insects that devour the cochineal. 



[Perliaps otlier alkalies will be as effectual as am- , The Indian women take a squirrel's tail for that 

 moniac. The New England Farmer (No. 2.5, Vol. 1 ) ■ purpose, and squat down for hours together beside 

 recommend.s a dose of lye, made with potash, pearl- one plant. In some places there are three cochi 

 ash, or house ashes.] ; neal harvests in a year. A pound of cochineals 



THF. OLIVE TREE. IJust hatched, placed on the nopals in October, 



rjM ■ ^ ■ , , c. ui .., ■ sometimes yield a harvest of 12' pounds in Janua- 



1 his tree is much less profitable to the propne- i , n .i ii . . .i 



. ,, , , , nil r> 11 c- ^, 1 ry- In some villages they seldom get at one gath- 



tor than wo had supposed. The Bulletin snys that . ,, '\ •^ „ .. " ,, .... 



., „ . „ , . ., ^ ■ ,, , ,. ering more than three or four times the quantity 



the irost often deprives the farmers in the south of .. , . , , 



T-, „., /• 1 !• 1 of cochineal sown, 



r ranee of tlie crop of olives for several years in; 



succession ; and that the man who plants an olive- ; J-rom the JVovascotian. 



orchard cannot expect to get his capital again and I 



5 per cent, interest during his whole life. In the 

 department of Var, a frost on the 20lh of May, 



1822, injured the olive-tree so much that Vliere was ; ,y},ici, the attention of our Farmers is directed, I 



no crop until 182.';. The olive proprietors com- „„, ^uch surprised that no one has thought it of 



plain that they are too heavily taxed. | sufficient importance to inform the Province upon 



I'ARS.Nirs. I the cultivation of Fruit Trees. This climate is well 



The British island of Guernsey, near the coast '''^=^P''='* *""''''"= '"•""""- of apples, pears, plums, 

 ofFrance, is famous for the culture of parsnips.— ^"''"'^"y "'her fine varieties of fruit; but from 

 The product per acre is 44,000 pounds, or near 20 ^''^ ''"'"^ attention which is paid to the trees ; to 

 tons. Some of the roots are IG inches in diameter, pruning and cuttinsr off the rotten wood; to graft- 

 Thc farmers of Guernsey prefer this plant to the i"? and budding ; and to modes by which the 



ON GATHERING FRUIT. 



Mh Editor, — Among the improvements, to 



carrot, turnip, and potato. They fatten hogs and 

 cattle with parsnips, and give thern to their milch- 

 cows and horses. This root fermented furnishes 

 also a kind of wine. 



LEGHORN STRAAV. 



fruit of England, as well as of America, has boon 

 so much improved in character, I am inclined to 

 believe tliat in many Counties, the stock of trees 

 is rather deteriorating than improving. If any 

 1 gentleman of competent knowledge would turn 

 his attention to this subject, and communicate a 

 M. Fournier, of Geneva, visited Florence in few practical letters to the public papers, it w^ould 

 1823, and made inquiries respecting the bearded be of incalculable service. 



wheat of Tuscany. He says this wheat is culriva- ; In some few places there are orchards which 

 led both for bread, and for the manufacture of; would be creditable to any country. In Annapolis, i 

 straw braid; in some parts of the valley of the Arno, ' I am told, that they raise fruit, which at Halifax, | 

 between Pisa and Florence it is cultivated for the ; is said to be as well flavoured, as fine to the eye 

 straw only. The seed is sown very thick in poor, ! as juicy, and which keeps equally as well through I 

 stoiiy^ land ; when the grain has grown to the | the winter, as any that comes from the United 

 height of a few inches, it is mown, that the stalks | States. In this district too I have seen as fine ap- 

 may be more delicate ; if they are still too large ' pics as man could desire ; and in fact the crop in 

 they are mown again, and if necessary, two or j general is far from being despicable; but from the 

 three times more ; when the stems are sufficiently ! want of a little care, they are generally ruined in 

 fine, they are suffered to grow, and as soon as the the gathering, and will scarcely keep a month bo- 

 plants are in blossom, the grain being yet in the i fore they begin to rot and be totally unfit for use. 

 Hiilk, they are pulled up ; they are then exposed I The iisuarpractice of gathering the orchards in 

 to the sun upon the sand near the river, and water- the country is to shake the trees and pick the fruit 

 cd from time to time. After the straw has ac- from the ground. Those kept for family use are 

 quired a proper color, it is carefully assorted ac- gathered into bags, and these afterwards piled 

 cording to the fineness and lennth of the stalk.— [away into some dark garret or cellar ; while those 



which are intended for sale are first squee/.ed into 

 a bag, which to make it hold well is duiichtd on 

 the ground as if they were packing a flour sack ; 

 the bag in this state the first time the gude-man 

 wants to come to market, is then put across a 

 horse's back ; and the owner cocked John a Gil- 

 pi'.i-wise on the top of it, makes it serve as a seat, 

 and w hat with swinging on the horse's sides, and 

 the friction of the rider's seat, the poor, harm- 

 less apples get a sore pummelling. No won- , 

 der their pretty red cheeks are varied with blue ;' 

 and tlicir white skins covered with bruises. Flesh 

 and bone could'nt stand such jolting without fes- 

 tering or mortifying ; and it could'nt be expected 

 that apples would survive it. 



Setting joking asiile, I really cannot conceive 

 any practice more egregiously wrong than that- 

 whicli I have just now mentioned. It is contrary 

 to all the analogies of Nature, and the experience 

 of good farmers. In the part of the liOthians where 

 I came from, the best farmers are so careful of 

 those turnips which they wish to keep over the 

 winter by preserving in heaps, tliat in pulling them, 

 they will not suffer them, for the sake ofexpeili- 

 ting the work by gathering in piles, to be thrown 

 about in the field ; for it is found invariably, tliat 

 if a turnip be bruised in the pulling, it will not 

 only rot itself in the heap, hut infect its neigh- 

 bours. And in p'.itting potatoes into their cellars 

 or into clay heaps, it is a general rule, that no 

 potato which has been cut or bruised, by the fork 

 or hoe in digging will be put into the cart, as they 

 are found to rot almost immediately, and to spoil 

 ten times over their value. Now if such care is 

 necessary to keep potatoes and turnips uninjured, 

 and is found by judicious farmers to be profitable, 

 surely apples, which are of a more tender nature, 

 demand even more care. 



The only way to get superior fruit is to let the 

 apples or pears ripen and mellow upon the tree. — 

 Now by this plan of gathering which is usually 

 adopted in our province, it is quite impossible to 

 do this, for fine fruit, perfectly ripe and full of 

 juices, if shook from the branch to the ground, 

 would be converted into a lump of slush ; and 

 hence fruit in this province is usually secured be- 

 fore it has come to maturity. This is another rea- 

 son for its general inferiority. 



To remedy these evils, a slight reference to the 

 practice of other countries and a little more care 

 among ourselves is all that is required. In Colu- 

 mella, Varro and all the old Roman agricultural 

 writers, I have been told, there are accurate di- 

 rections to be found for the management of the 

 orchard and in particular for the gathering of the 

 fruit. In England and in the States I know they 

 are just as particular in this as they are in the 

 choice of their grafts, or in cleaning and pruning j 

 their trees in the spring. A farmer, with whom I "; 

 am acquainted, once told me that while in the 

 States he received the following practical direc- 

 tions from an old friend of his : — 



"The mode in which I gather my fruit is as fol- 

 lows. After the apples on the tree have become 

 perfectly ripe and mellow, on a clear, sunshine 

 day, I turn out all my children and servants. Eve- 

 ry one of them is provided with a small basket and 

 ladder, and being each appointed to a tree, some- 

 times two or three to one, they begin to fill their 

 basket by hand picking ; and if any apple should 

 chance to slip through their fingers and fall to the 

 ground, this is put into a different place for imme- 

 diate use, as I have always found that a bruised 



