174 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



June 4, 183!. 



From the American Farmer- 



GRAPES— ASPARAGUS. 



J. S. Skinner: 4th mo. 1th, 1830. 



The individual who takes the liberty to 

 address thee at this time, is not a practical 

 farmer, or a finished horticulturist. In re- 

 gard to either, his pretensions are humble, 

 vet humble as they are, he ventures to say, 

 no individual takes more pleasure in viewing 

 the advancement of that great source of na- 

 tional wealth — agriculture ; and that most 

 nleasing of employments, gardening or hor- 

 ticulture. I have paid some attention to the 

 cultivation of the grape.and have found from 

 experience, that the coal dust, cinders, and 

 scales of iron, or black oxide of iron, from 

 •he blacksmith's forge, when properly mix- 

 ed with /at- garden mould, to be incompara- 

 bly the best manure for the grape that can 

 be nsed. It is a well known fact, that grapes 

 thrive best in volcanic districts; that led me 

 ta use the above as a dressing for the grape, 

 and found it to exceed my most sanguine 

 expectation. I am not aware that the ma- 

 terial in question has been used by any ex- 

 cept myself and a few of my friends in this 

 county. I mentioned it to a most indefati- 

 gable and correct botanist and horticulturist, 

 David Thomas, of Cayuga county, last win- 

 ter — he spoke of it in high terms of com- 

 mendation, although he had not used it. It 

 had not occurred to him. Before this will 

 reach him, he probably will have made use 

 of it. For asparagus, I have also made use 

 of finely pulverized oyster shells-, well in- 

 corporated with the earth, ia which it is 

 planted, or well dug in about the roots of 

 ild beds. Its effects are astonishing, espe- 

 cially in old beds — it in fact regenerates 

 them. The asparagus is, as is well known,! 

 i mariue plant. Fresh oyster shells par- 

 take largely of marine qualities. What 

 ould be more simple, or more natural, or 

 •letter suited to the growth of marine plants ? 

 ft is also well known, that disintegrated 

 .arbonate of lime, when mixed with a suita- 

 ble proportion of vegetable mould, forms a 

 soil, almost perpetually fertile, and that few 

 or no plants, or vegetables with which we 

 are acquainted, but are benefitted by its ad- 

 mixture with the soil in which they are pla- 

 ced. As there are many persons turning 

 their attention to the cultivation of the grape, 

 ■especially in the neighborhood of Baltimore, 

 and as I wish them all success, and abund- 

 ant crops, I take the liberty to address an in- 

 dividual with whom I have not the personal 

 jood fortune to claim an acquaintance. — 

 May blesings attend thee, my friend, in thy 

 laudable exertions to render agriculture both 

 honorable and profitable. 



Thy friend. J. W. Smith, M. D. 

 Lockport, Niagara co. N. Y. 



From the New-F.ngland Farmer. 



BEES. 



Mr. Fessinden — If the inexhaustible sub- 

 iect of Bees is not worn out in your columns, 

 yoa may state as follows. 



In January last, with two friends, I called i 

 it a gentleman's house, in Worcester, Otse- 

 go county, N. Y. to see his bee-hives. — He 

 showed us a house four by six feet, and six 

 feet to the eaves, boarded, clapboarded. 



hole or two on the east side under the hive, 

 which was elevated aboot three feet from the 

 floor, for the bees to pass out and in. The 

 bees bad been put in, a young swarm, eight- 

 een months before. The original hive was 

 not only filled, bat large masses of comb 

 were attached to the exterior, and along the 

 contiguous scaffolding. The quantity of 

 honey was probably from 100 to 1 50 pounds 

 On my return, I called to see another bee- 

 housc belonging to the same gentleman, on 

 another farm, built the preceding summer. 

 This was six feet square, better finished, and 

 painted. The bees had filled the ordinary 

 hive, and constructed eight or ten pieces of 

 comb on the exterior, and these last were 

 mostly filled with honey, and of the finest 

 appearance, I think, that I ever saw. The 

 gentleman told mo he could help himself to 

 honey whenever he pleased, without disturb- 

 ing the bees. I asked him if the bee-moth 

 did not plague him ; he answered no. lit 

 adopted the simple precaution of sprinkling 

 spirits of turpentine occasionally, say every 

 two weeks, about his ordinary hives, and a- 

 roimd the holes of entrance into his large ones, 

 ivhich wholly repelled the motk. I was so 

 much pleased with this plan of managing 

 bees, that immediately on my return I had 

 a house constructed for them, and design to 

 put into it the first swarm which I can save. 

 Respectfully, J. Buel. 



HAMS. 



A writer in the American Farmer says, 

 he has frequently tried every way which 

 has been recommended by its correspond- 

 ents, to preserve hams, fee. free from bugs, 

 worms, and rancidity. With him, not one 

 of them succeeded well. The greatest diffi- 

 culty in a warm climate, is to preserve them 

 free from rancidity. After being so unsuc- 

 cessful in experiments, which might, per- 

 haps, succeed well in colder climates, he 

 resolved to pack his hams in charcoal, know- 

 ing its antiseptic qualities. This has suc- 

 ceeded to his perfect satisfaction, and be 

 shall not hereafter try any further experi- 

 ments in this matter. 



It is of great importance to have the haras, 

 &.c. dried as early as possible, that they may 

 I be packed away before the season arrives 

 j for the bug or fly to attack them. If this is 

 i effected in due time, and they are well pack- 

 led in dry charcoal, made moderately fine, 

 he feels assured that the lover of good hams 

 will have no reason to regret having made 

 the experiment. The difficulty of getting 

 the charcoal off, may be made an objection 

 by the neat housewife, but this is not much 

 greater than to get ashes off when bacon is 

 packed in ashes, as is the practice with ma- 

 ny. As the season will soon arrive, when 

 every prudent housekeeper may wish to save 

 his bacon, he has thought proper to state 

 his experience upon the subject, wishing it 

 to pass for no more than its real value. 



From tbe New-York Farmer. 

 WEEVIL AND SMUT, IN WHEAT. 



Mr. Fleet— Among the directions which I 



have found in looking over the volumes of 



the New-York Farmer, for destroying Wee- 



shinglcd, and well floored, with a ciose door ;[ vil in Wheat, is the laying wet cloths in the 



an unlocking and opening which, we beheld 

 in ordinary bee-hive attached to the east 



bins. From the experiments I have made, 

 I find dry bags in which has been flour, an- 



val! and well braced, with slight scaffold- 1 swer the purpose much better. Do these 

 ngs extending upon the east, south, and j destructive insects seek the flour left in the 

 ->nr'h*ides. Tbe only aperture was a small!! bags? If so, could any means be, or have 



any been devised from this circumstance, t< 

 destroy them more effectually ? 



Two persons bought seed wheat of me, in 

 which there had been some smut. In the 

 crop of one, there was a great deal of smut. 

 — that of the other was free from it. Was 

 the difference owing to the soil? An an 

 swer to these inquiries would be acceptable 



Newark, N. J. April, 1831. N. W. T. 



IlEAbTII PRESERVING PRECAUTIONS. 



Decayed and rotting vegetables, partial 

 Iarly cabbages, beef brine, poik brii-.e, sui 

 fered to stand too long, and other similar 

 substances in cellars, ike. are often the un 

 suspected causes of diseases. Every house- 

 keeper,particularly at this season of the yea.-, 

 should carefully inspect his premises, and 

 see that nothing noisome or offensive is left 

 to pollute the atmosphere in and near his 

 residence. The carcases of dead lambs, 

 cats, Sec. instead of being suffered to poisor. 

 the atmosphere, and introduce disease anil 

 death into the family of the farmer, shoulit 

 be covered with five or six times their bulk 

 of soil, and suffered to remain for a few- 

 months. In this way their decomposition 

 'will impregnate the soil with matter, which, 

 though nauseous and pestilential to animals. 

 is food for vegetables. 



MAKE THE MOST OF TOUR MANURE. 



It will be well to mix the soil with which 

 such carcases are covered with abont one 

 part of lime to five or six of earth; and at 

 the time of its removal also to mix a little 

 more quicklime with it to prevent the disa- 

 greeable effluvia which may arise without 

 such precaution. 



Not only the carcasses of animals, bjt 

 stable and barn-yard manure is rendered of 

 j] little value by long exposure to the air, sun, 

 and wet weather. Every moment of such 

 exposure robs it of some part of its fertiliz- 

 ing principles, as well as contaminates the 

 atmosphere. " He who is within tbe seem 

 of' a dunghill," says the celebrnted Arthnt 

 Young, "smells that which his crop would 

 have eaten if he would have permitted of it. 

 Instead of manuring the land he manures 

 the atmosphere; and before his dunghill is 

 finished he has manured another parish, per- 

 haps another country." Fresh manure 

 should be kept as carefully from sun and 

 rain as grass which is cut for hay. When 

 cattle have been yarded over night, it will 

 be well to throw their manure into heaps, 

 ,and cover them with soil previously prepar 

 ed for that purpose. 



The author of " Letters of Agricola" says, 

 Earth is a powerful absorber of all the gas- 

 jes which arise from putrifaction. Put : 

 [layer of common soil along the top of a fcr- 

 [menting dunghill, from twelve to eighteen 

 inches thick, and allow it to remain there 

 while the process is carrying on with aclivi 

 ty, aud afterwards separate it carefully from 

 the heap, and it will have been impregnated 

 with the most fertilizing virtues. The com- 

 posts, which of late have attracted so uni- 

 versal attention, and occupied so large a 

 space in all agricultural publications, origi- 

 nated in the discovery of this absorbing pow- 

 er of the earth, and in the application o( it 

 to the most beneficial purposes. A skilfui 

 agriculturist would no more think of allow- 

 ing n violent fermentation to be going on in 

 his dunghill, unmixed with earth or other 

 matter, to fix and secure the gaseous au- 

 gments, thai; the distiller would suffer his ap- 

 paratus to be fet tit work'withou! surmount 



