Vol. 5 No. 51. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



405 



WATi;RING VEGETABLKS. 



I the Use and Muse ofwalerin:!: I'cgetablcs in 



hy Seasons,.and on the .Idvitnlagrs of Shade to 



jt.i Culiiiarji Crops in Times of great Drought. — 



By Mr Gonrgo Pulton, Gardener to Lord Nortli- 



vick, Rt Nortlnvick Park, Gloucostershiie. 



>ir, — As a reader ofyoiir very iiscfii! Magnzinc. 



y I beg 10 be allowed to ofler a few remarits 



tlie watering of vegetables, as applying rabre 



rticularly to last year and the present dry 



on ? Sncli seasons, I believe, have prevented 



lumber of gardeners from raising any th 



ir the variety of vegetables usually in do 



the cook of a considerable fiimily. The scor 



suns of the longest days of the year, wrinl 



pendent of its own use, it is also an (jxccllont pro- 

 tection for vegetables in dry weather. 

 r am, Sir, &c. 



GKORcr. rLT!,TO>-. 



.Vorlhaick Park, near Morclon in the Marsh. 



N K W ENGL]\JVD FiUiMER^ 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, JULY J,?, 189r. 



Although the curculio delights most in the 

 smooth-skinned stoned fruits, such as nectarines, 

 plums, apricots, &c. it nevertheless attacks the 

 rough skinned poach, the apple, pear, and quince. 

 The stone fruits ;irc more sure to perish by the 

 wounds inflicted by these insects, .'■o as to fall in 

 due time to the ground, and alTord opportunity for 



the young curculio to hide itself in the earth 



Although multitudes of seed fruits fall, yet many 

 recover from their wounds, which heal up with 

 deeply indented .'3cars. This probably disconcerts 



IS cause succeed 



n,and almost no dew m the night, are, no , P'e recipe, which from actual observation, (in nu- curculiones contained in it. The ordinary fbwk 



bt, the principal causes . of the failures t lat 1 '"eroiis instances,) I behevc to be i7<faUil>le. of a farm vard are great devourers of beetles ^ 



e generally taken place m the vegetable ki: s'- ^ \"'^° "'f |'°o', °^ '■'_'«' common yellow, or wild The smooth stone fruits from thii 



i: but there arc other causes, under parti 



circumstances, which I think ought to be lo- /»'" suces ; put it m a cup, or olhei small vessel, run without restraint, than in gardens and^'oTher 

 ed. One is the carrying to an injudicious :x- and add vinegar sufficient to cover it. Let it stand inclosures vvhoro the fowls arc eicluded 

 ,t, the watering of vegetables in very Iry a day or two, then apply the moisture to the Ring " Even horned cattle and all sorts of slock may 

 ather. Mow often do we see water thrown ip- \vorm, oy rubbing it with a piece of the root, two be made to contribute to the preservation of our 



plants in the open air as it were at rand n;, "' ''""" "■^■"- •• -'"■• <" '■-— • ' .... 



J frequently the earth washed away from tt;ir 

 it roots ? IIpw compressed the earth becor cj 

 or repeated watering is well known, partim- 

 ly in stifTor clayey soils. It seems against lie 

 inoniy of nature to water plauts at all in a cl( ir 

 iiosphero and dry state of the air. Vegetabl .■=. 

 toad of being reireshed, in the night beco le 



lied, and actually scalded a,s it were in I le 

 ,'. The sickly appearance of plants under su h 

 atnient is soon visible, and the death of many is 

 • consequence. I 



.Vater is used too freely in diy .seasons upii 

 •stem of the plant, both by young gardenels 

 1 cottagers in their gardens : the former poufe 

 on tiioiii without any other thought than ivhat 

 necessary for the performance of the operation ; 

 ile the latter thinks that in watering so much 



is doing great tilings, although his ccbbages 

 ; in the last stages of consumption before his 

 33. All this is wrong, a variation in tliis as in 

 ny other points of gardening, is better than 

 iformity of treatment. I have found that in the 

 ;nings sprinkling low-growing vegetables over 

 .'ir leaves, and alternately watering their roots, 

 1 good method, if the surrounding air be in a 

 ist state : but if the drougiit increases with 



or three imes a day, for a lew successive days, valuable fruits. 3y running among the trees they 



r ; 'in I'oo- """ ^""'' ""''''• ^- ^- ' "°' °"=>' '^^"'P'^ t° death multitudes of these in- 



"■^ ' ^ ( sects ; but by hardening the ground, as in lanes, 



PROCESS FOR puKiKTiKG iioNEr. '' bccomos Very unfit to receive or admit such 



It \^ „f„.Ij ;„ .1 ivT 1 ■ 5 nT -■ . , lender maggots as crawl from the fallen fruits 



It IS stated in tlie Mechanic s Mao-aziue that the d • i • i ,• • . ""/-""""•=• 



T«,v<, „f i\T„ij ..; „i ttT r "°'''""^".^,^"'= Besides, ihe curculio is very I mid, and when 



.lews or Molnavia. and Ukraine, oreoare without c • i » i t ,, , ,,• , —■" 



,, "'■ w picpdre, vrunoni frightened Lv the cattb rubbin-j- affanst the tree 



any expense or trouble, and with common honey, o,- otherwk^ tl.oN m,nn». ; = a a„,^ ine iree, 



„ „ , ,. II' T- , , , J' 01 otnerwisa, tueii manner is to lold themselves 



a sort ot sugar whirli is solid and white as snow. „„ ;„ ^ UmV i„h „„;! f ii .^ .i 1"^ - , ^"^^ 



This they send to Dantzic, where the distillers 7 t , , , , grouud, where 



,.. iti„i„i.,n„H,„;,. ,;„.,1 n"_ _..-A ^^'' "'"'J- '^'^y. be trampled and devoured by the 



use it in making their liquor. The process con- 

 sists in exposing the honey to frost, for three 

 week.s, in some place where neither sun nor snow 

 cajj reach it, in a vessel which is not a conductor 

 of caloric. The honey is not congealed, but be- 

 comes clear and hurd like sugar. 



\ . VALUABLE DISCOVEnV. 



A writer in the London Mechanic's Mao-azine 



stock, poultry, (Toe. Col. T. Forrest, of German- 

 town iiaviog a fine plum-tree near his pump, tied 

 a rope froM the tree to his pump-handle, so that 

 the tree wtis gently agitated every lime tliere was 

 occasion to pump water. The consequence was 

 that the fi-uit on this tree was preserved in the 

 greatest perfection." 

 3'" I'i't'On then states that turpentine, and all 

 says that by mixing layers of straw, in ricks or ferebmthinate substances are oiiensive to insects 

 stacks, the strpngth of the clover is absorbed by '" general, and mentions that little bits of board, 

 thjc ^tt;iw, which, thus impregnated, both horses "^°"'- *''" size of a case knife, dipped in tar and 

 and cattle eat greedily, and the clover is dried and ''""o smong the branches of fruit trees had pre- 

 pi evented from heating. This practice is particu- 5^'"*'^'' their fruit from this insect. That it was 

 la ly calculated for second crops of clover and rye ''''°"g'''t that common turpentine would be still 

 gijss. better, being equally jiungent and more durable in 



WORMS IN FRUITS, PEACH TRF.F» &c '^' effccts-that digging round the tree, and mak- 



„. ■ . ' 1"!,' bare their roots in winter — protectinT then", 



ch sunshine, it is better to withhold water for 1 ' "-fe exists a genus of insects c-.;I!cd Cnrculio, by pavements, smoking, brushinir, waterino-, &c 

 ime ; then again to vary the system, by wat°r-i°^ ""Sins: to the Coleoptera cr Beetle order, mav be successfully employed for the pres'erva- 

 ' between the rows of vegetables, alleys, &c., ' ^^ "•'' includes numerous species. The last Phi- tion of fruit on a few favourite trees ; "but it is 

 ich tends, in some degree, to produce a moist ,''» ^'P'"^^ Edition of Willich's Encyclopedia, art. manifest from the precedincr history, that a rio-ht 

 and dew. This, howexer, should only be done " ^'•'"'."contains .some observalionn on the sub- , disposition of stock, especially hoi^s amonf the 

 calm evenings, in order that atmospheric dc.vs, je t of the insect ccmmunicated to Dr Mease, by , fruit trees, can only be relied upon "by a fanner 

 ,1 all exhalations from the earth, water, rnd " J^n-es Tilton, of Wilmington, Delaware, which | with orchards of considerable extent. And that 

 jetation maybe promoted. Watering when ))" ""^ ■'''P^'''l's'icd in the New England Parmer, vol. the stock, poultry, &c. may perform the task as- 

 nds intervene is attended with good etfects, ii-pageG9- We will here give a condensed view signed them, it is evident that a proper dispositioa 

 d aho when it actually rains ; vegetation is, in "^ "I'lt article, with such further information vela- of fruit trees is essentially necessary. 



latter case, accelerated' in a great degree. '"-to this insect as we have in possession and " As the smooth stone fruits are the ground nur- 



Jifierent kinds of shade have been used by thhk mo.st likely to prove useful, 

 rdeners.in hot summers 'to protect vegetables, 'i'''''y i" the spring, about the time when the 

 1 I believe not without success. The practice fruit-trees are in blossom, the Curculiones, [in the 

 growing vegetables between beds of aspara- l^h^pe of bugs or beetles] ascend from t.ie earth. 

 3, is, I think, a good one. I have, last year and crs^l up the trees, and deposit their eggs, nits, 

 : present, had cabbages, cauliflowers, dwarf ' °r embrios, in the young fruit. The maggot thus 

 IS of the Spanish sort, spiaage, French beans, lenclosed preys on the pulp of the fruil, «-hioli in 

 i le-tuces, between asparagus beds, for a great I ™°^t instances, parishes and falls to the ground ; 

 t of both seasons, when they were scanty crops j ^"^ the insect escapes into the earth. It remains 



ry where else m the garden. Therefore I j ■" the earth, like other beetles, in the form of a [stock of the farm, and not bcvond. the ran^e of the 

 sider that the above useful vegetable is notj? "^ "r worm, during the winter, and is metamor- ordinary domestic fowls. Orchards of apple trees. 

 livated to the e.xtent it ought to be, as, inde- iPhosed Into a bug or beetle in the spring. I pear trees, peach trees, «Sic. should all be in one 



series of the curculio, special care should be taken 

 to have these efi'ectually protected. Unless this 

 can be done, a farmer should not suffer them'to 

 grow on his plantation. He will derive no benefit 

 from them; and they will furnish a destructive 

 vermin that will ruin his other fruits. Cherry 

 trees, nectarines, plums, apricots, tc. should 

 therefore be planted in Innei and hard beaten i/ards 

 or paved yards, the common high ways of all the 



