402 



?<EW ENGLAND FARMER 



July 13, 1827. 



farmer should embrace the first leisure he has, to ' of fresh potatoes will give thirty so prepared and 

 store it with a variety of materials for making ' dried. In this state they may be kept for yearg, 



manure. For this purpose, he may cart uito it 

 swamp-mud, clay, brick dust, straw, th;itch, fern, 

 weeds, leaves of trees, turfs, marsh mud, eel 

 crass, tlats, or even sand and loam. If lie cannot 

 get all tliese kinds of rubbish, he may take such 

 of them as are the most easily obtained. Any of 

 these substances, being mixed with the dung and 

 stale of cattle, will become good manure. But 

 some regard may be had to the nature of the soil 

 on which the manure is to bo laid. If it be clay, 

 the less clay and the more brick dust and sand 

 will be proper : If a sandy soil, clay, pond mud, 

 and flats, will be better ingredients. 



All the materials above mentioned, and many 

 mora that might be named, will in one year be- 

 come good manure, by their being mixed with 

 the excrements of the cattle, and prevent the 

 waste of them. And this is thought, by the best 

 writers on husbandry, to be the cheanoit method 

 a farmer can take to manure his lands, consider- 

 ing the small cost of the materials made into ma- 

 nure. 



If water should stand long in any part of the 

 ard, the manure must bo raked out of the water 

 and heaped round the borders of the puddle that it 

 may be dry. For there will be no fermentation 

 where there is too much wetness : the materials 

 will not dissolve, but turn sour. As these heaps 

 grow dry, the v/ator should be scooped up, and 

 thrown upon them from time to time. This will 

 increase the fermontation in the heaps and they 

 will grow mellow the faster. It will be of service 

 to shovel the whole of the manure into heaps, a 

 few days before it is carted out, as it will bring 

 on a brisk fermentation, and make it fitter to bo 

 laid upon the land. Or if shovelliug be thouglit 

 '00 laborious, turiiing' it up with a plougli will be 

 advantageous. Or if there be not a deep layer, 

 ■.earing it with a harrow may be sufficient. 



Some modern agriculturists of eminence, with 

 Sir Humphrey Davy, are of opinion, that unfer- 

 mented manure is most profitable. If so manure 

 m a yard need not be stirred unless it be necessa- 

 ry to ;)reveji< fermentation, or what is called the 

 dry rot. The best part of the manure it is said 

 is dissipated, and goes off in gas, during fermen- 

 tation. [Deane's N. E. Farmer,] 



ITEMS, Faoii Loudon's garde.vef.'s magazine. 

 Repcopling JVasles and Waters. — A society in 

 Prance, who style themselves " Societe Anonymc 

 de Fructification generale," propose in fifteen 

 years to put in productive culture about 2U,000,- 

 000 of acres of waste land, and' to render produc- 

 tive, 120,000 leagues of water-courses, " which, 

 deprived of their antient shades, do not contain 

 above the twentieth part of the fish which they 

 contained only forty years ago." As a condition, 

 the society demands a ninety-nine years' lease of 

 all the uncultivated lands and waters of France ; 

 their fund is to bo 100,000,000, and they are to 

 pay 5 per cent, to the subscribers. 



Distillation from Plums. — An excellent spirit is 

 obtained from the bruised pulp and kernel, fer- 

 mented with honey and flour, distilled in the usu- 

 al manner. 



Preserving Potatoes in a dried stale. — Wash 

 them, cut them in pieces, steep tliem forty-eight 

 hours in lime water, then forty-eight hours in fresli 

 »vater ; dry them in an oven. One hundred parts 



or ground at once into flour. This flour mixed 

 til a third part of that of rye, is said to make an 

 excellent bread. The same author proposes to 

 moisten potatoes dried as above with olive oil, and 

 then to grind them, and use them as cofiee. 



How to make the most of Unripe Melons. — Boil 

 them, and season them with spices and salt, or 

 bake them like pumpkin pie. 



Coats of Thibet. — M. Ternaux has obtained 

 great praise throughout France for the Introduc- 

 tion of these animals, which seem to thrive in all 

 the climates of that country. "The heat of the 

 departments of the south, and the cold of the high- 

 est mountains, such as the Pyrenees, the Mount 

 d'Or, and the Vosges seem equally to agree with 

 them." 



Ringing Fruit Trees A pamphlet has been 



published on this subject by M. C. BaiUy, of Paris; 

 it is in two parts, the first treating of tiie effect of 

 ringing on fruit trees in general, and the second 

 of the eflect of ringing the vine. 



1st. Ringing increases the diameter of the 

 parts of trees, but not their length ; a fact ex- 

 plained by the theory of the ascending and de- 

 scending sap. The latter is arrested in its pro- 

 gress by the circular incision, as is proved by the 

 thick edge which takes place on the upper mar- 

 gin of the wound, and by the diameter of the 

 shoot, which, in the vine in particular, acquires 

 double the thickness above the wound that it does 

 below it. 



But in proportion as the shoots are benefited bj 

 ringing, the roots are injured by the want ofth« 

 regular circulation of the descending sap ; the 

 great art. therefore, is to adjust the dimension ol 

 the incision to the degree of sufferance, which 

 the system of roots can undergo, without material 

 injury. 



2d. The effect of ringing vines which havg lig- 

 neous stems, is similar to that produced on fruit 

 trees in general, and, therefore, M. Bailly con- 

 fines himself to the effects of ringing those vines 

 which are annually cut down to low stools, as is 

 the case in most of the vineyards of France. To 

 vines of this description he considers the practice 

 disadvantageous, as weakening the roots ; but he 

 excepts ce-rtain cases, in which as in provins, 

 the shoots are annually laid down and cover- 

 ed with earth ; and says, if it could be so contri- 

 ved as to nourish the young shoots from the fibres 

 produced at the incision, when it is buried in the 

 soil, and thus dispense with the large ramose roots 

 often unfurnished with fibres, and which only serve 

 to consume the sap prepared by the leaves, it 

 would be of great advantage. 



Transplantation of Trees. — An Italian Jouraal 

 has published a long paper on this subject, con- 

 taining the results of many experiments made by 

 M. Carradori ; these are, 1. to cut as little off the 

 roots as possible ; 2. that transplanted things re- 

 quire no other nourishment than water, and are 

 injured by manure ; and 3. that too much care 

 cannot be taken to shelter them from the sun. 



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Budding. — In the Agricultural Journal of the 

 Pays Bas, for October 1824, it is recommended to 

 reverse the usual mode of raising the bark for 

 inserting the buds, and to make the cross cut at 

 the bottom of the slit, instead of at the top, as is 

 general! ',' done in Britain. The bud is said rarely 



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to fail of success, because it receives abuudan) 

 of the decending sap, which it cannot recei 

 when it is under the cross cut. 



Hatching of Fish The Chinese have a met; 



od of hatching the spawn offish, and thus protec 

 ing it from those accidents which generally di 

 stroy a large portion of it. The fishermen co 

 loot with care from the margin and surface 

 water, all those gelatinous masses which contai 

 the spawn of fish, and after they have found tei* 

 sufficient quantity, they fill with it the shell of 

 fresh hen's egg which they have previously emf 

 tied, stop up the hole, and put it under a sittin 

 fowl. At the expiration of a certain number ( 

 days, they break the shell in water warmed by th 

 sun. The young fry are presently hatched, aa 

 are kept in pure fresh water till they are larg, 

 enough to bo thrown into the pond with the ol< 

 fish. The sale of spawn for this purpose, formi 

 ar important branch of trade in China. 



To render trees permanently fruitful It ba» 



been suggested, we believe by Sonnebier, that i 

 a ing of bark were taken from the trunk of i 

 raiid growing tree, and replaced by a ring of barl 

 frinut^- tree of an allied species, but of slowei 

 goiWth, it would have a tendency to operate like 

 tie process of ringing without any of its incoSl 

 vtuiences. Apply a ring of plum-tree bark to* 

 b anch of peach-tree. 



.Vew Plwn. — Two nurserymen have been a4* 

 v!rtizing a plum imported from New Jersey ; tha 

 oie calls it La Delicieuse, as being a name giveir 

 t» it by Charles X. of France ; and the othet/( 

 Cooper's Large Red American Plum as being the' 

 criginal name. It is said to be very peculiar ia 

 the habit of its wood and leaves ; the fruit of t 

 large size, oval, purplish colour, rich, and juicju 

 making an excellent preserve. It is ripe in tmi 

 country about the end of September, on treCM 

 trained to a wall ; on standards it ripens a weekf 

 or ten days later. 



On ike J f inter Management of Bees, hy a Cler- 

 gyman, in Morayshire. Communicated bf Mini 

 Ann Dingwall. 



In a severe winter, bees are for the most part 

 asleep, and do not eat much of their honey ; in a 

 mild winter they are in motion, and have not an 

 opportunity of renovating their stores from flowers. 

 Keeping these facts in view, and the winters in 

 Morayshire being remarkable for mildness, Mias 

 Dingwall's friend put his bees to rest in the month 

 of October, by burying them in a peat-stock ; and 

 did not restore them to motion till the willows 

 were in blossom, in the following April. The 

 success was most complete, and the practice wor- 

 thy of imitation in other districts, by placing the 

 hives in cold dark cellars, or ice-houses. 



Extraordinary Utility of the JVettle. — In the 

 weekly newspaper of the Bavarian Agricultural 

 Society, 1S23, No. C, the nettle is said to have 

 the following properties : 1. Eaten in sallad, it 

 cures consumption ; 2. It fattens horned cattle, 

 whether eaten green or dried ; 3. Experience has 

 shown that it not only fattens calves, but improve* 

 their breed ; 4. It is an antidote to most maladies; 

 5. Sheep which eat it, bring forth healthy, vigor- 

 ous lambs ; 0. It promotes the laying of eggs in 

 hens ; 7. It improves the fat of pigs ; 8. The seeds, 

 mixed with oats, are excellent for horses ; 9, It 

 grows all the year round, even in the coldest 

 weather ; 10. The fibres of the stem make aa 

 excellent hemp. 



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