188 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



June 18, 1831. 



ty-four pounds of sugar, (according as you 

 would have it more or less strong.) Bruise 

 the currants, add the water, then press or 

 squeeze out all the liquid ; then add the su- 

 gar, dissolve it, and put it into your cask in 

 the cellar to ferment; keep some of the liquor 

 to fill up the cask as it wastes by fermenta- 

 tion, and in about ten days bung it up tight, 

 and bore a giniblet hole near the bung, and 

 put a peg in it lightly, and in about a 

 month drive it in tight ; examine it in No- 

 vember or the beginning of December, and 

 it will generally be found fine and blight, 

 when it ought to be racked into a clean cask 

 well fumigated with sulphur, and if it is not 

 perfectly fine and bright, flne it ; after which 

 it may be bottled, or again racked into an- 

 other cask, as above directed ; when it will 

 keep for years in the wood, and be impro- 

 ving. 



By taking nine pecks of currants and 

 eighty-four pounds of sugar, a whiskey bar- 

 rel full may be made, holding from thirty- 

 two to thirty-four gallons — if the cask is 

 not quite full, fill it with water. 



This mode of making currant wine, will 

 make it more like a foreign wine, than any 

 other I am acquainted with ; and as almost 

 every person who has a garden, has a num- 

 ber of currant trees, I give this receipt to 

 enable them to convert such as are not wan- 

 ted for jelly, into a very fine wine. 



Note — Thirteen and a half pounds of su 

 »ar produce one gallon of liquid. The cur- 

 rants ought to be picked on a dry day, and 

 (he wine made the same day, otherwise it 

 will take more sugar, and will not be so 

 neat a wine as if the whole operations were 

 completed in a day. 



FOR THE GENESEE FARMER. 



The comparative view* of the climates of 

 Albany and Rochester, as exemplified by 

 plants of the same kind exposed to the ri- 

 gors of winter, I have read with much in- 

 terest ; and am willing to add a few re- 

 marks. 



My garden may be estimated at 300 feet 

 •above, and one and a half miles east of the 

 Oayuga lake. I have no record of the great- 

 est degree of cold at this place. 



With us, the peach tree, I believe is never 

 injured in winter. The blossoms were in 

 plenty, but the young fruit is rather thinly 

 scattered on the branches, — perhaps not one- 

 fifth of what often occurs, — still there is e- 

 noMgh, as the fruit will be of better size and 

 finer flavor. Among a great number of ex- 

 otics, I have observed nothing damaged by 

 late vernal frosts, except the leaves of the 

 peach tree, many of which are sadly crum- 

 pled. 



Apricots have set in great plenty, — pears 

 not in such plenty as last season, — and plums 

 will be scarce. This must be ascribed to 

 the overloading crops of last year, as the 

 trees are always hardy. 



Ailawfusf glandulom, Catalpa cordifolia, 

 and Haltsia tetraplera are hardy. Bignonia 

 radkans and grandiflora, but slightly inju- 

 red, — far less so than in the two preceding 

 winters. Rasagrevilli.was covered — Champ- 

 ney rose on the east side of a building was 

 killed nearly to the ground. Doubtless if 

 the stems were laid down through two or 

 three winters, they would better "resist the 

 frost. 



* Gen Farmer No. 21. 

 tTbis orthography is preferred in Loudon's 

 Encyclopedia of Plants. 



Paonia moutan in a corvered border, — and 

 P. whitleii, hiimei, fragrans with many oth- 

 er kinds, under sods or a dressing of com- 

 post, — have kept well. I think that all the 

 herbaceous sorts however, would live without 

 any protection from the frost. 



The white mulberry and Madeira nut are 

 perfectly hardy. The iveeping ivillow scarce- 

 ly damaged, except some buds, as the mid- 

 dle parts of some pendant branches remain 

 without foliage. 



There is great difference in the hardiness 

 of Altheas. With us, single and semi-dou- 

 ble kinds proved hardy — very double kinds 

 a little damaged. 



All my vines were covered, except the Al- 

 exander, Isabella, Black Madeira, Mulvoisie, 

 and white American, and all are in good 

 condition. 



Many shrubs survive the winter, but ivith 

 the loss of most of their flower-buds. Of 

 this kind are Jasminum humile, Coronilla e 

 merits, Kerria japonica, k.c. On the ap- 

 proach of last winter these shrubs were pros- 

 trated and covered, and this spring they have 

 bloomed more profusely and beautifully 

 than I ever witnessed before. 



To Judge Btjel for his politeness, I offer 

 my thanks. He appears to have misunder 

 stood me however, and I give a trans- 

 cript of the passage in the Genesee Farmer 

 No. 15, to which he refers : " I know of no 

 nurseryman who can furnish the double scar- 

 let hawthorn." I cultivate the double whit* 

 hawthorn, " which some days after expan- 

 sion, changes to purple,"* but the scarlet 

 flowering is considered a different plant, and 

 Prince in his Short Treatise, even consid- 

 ers it a different species (cratagus monogy- 

 na). In Loudon's Encyclopedia of Plants 

 however, it is stated that cratagus oxycan- 

 tlia " furnishes some highly ornamental va- 

 rieties, especially the double blossomed, and 

 scarlet blossomed." 



It is remarkable that neither of those au- 

 thors mention a double scarlet thorn. 



D. T. 



"Prince. 



SEIiECTiOXJJ. 



ROLLING LANDS. 



The following is taken from the Rev. A 

 dam Dickson's Treatise of Agriculture, the 

 third edition of which was published in Scot- 

 land in 1766. Although the practice of 

 rolling has been pursued for ages past, and 

 is still, by the greater part of the most en- 

 lightened farmers of the present day ; yet it 

 is altogether neglected by many whose lands 

 for the want of it are suffering. — ISew York 

 Farmer. 



Rolling is practised with success both on 

 land lying in grass and on land in tillage. — 

 It is of advantage to land in grass, by press- 

 ing down mole-hills and mole-runs. Some 

 say, that it also destroys fog. [Moss and 

 coarse grass produced by a soft and spongy 

 surface.] 



When land is laid down in grass for hay, 

 rolling is of use in smoothing the surface ; 

 and, when laid down in grass for pasture, it 

 makes the grass stool, (tiller,) and grow 

 thicker. 



There is a kind of land, which, when clo- 

 ver is sown upon it, throws out the young 

 plants after frost. Rolling, in the beginning 

 of winter, and immediately after the frost is 

 gone, it is said, will, in some measure, pre- 

 vent thi«. The first rolling prevents the 



frost from penetrating so deep as it other- 

 wise would do; and from the second makes 

 the land firm, after having been loosed by 

 the change from frost to open weather. 



Rolling may also be used with advantage 

 upon land in tillage. When the land is na- 

 turally stiff, and may be reduced by the har- 

 row, rolling is very improper ; for it makes 

 this kind of land still firmer than the harrow 

 does. But if the land rise in clods, which 

 the harrow does not reduce, rolling is very 

 proper ; for it smooths the surface, and 

 breaks lhe clods, more effectually than har- 

 rowing. 



When the land is light and spongy, the 

 roller should always be applied after seed is 

 sown ; for it is scarcely possible to make this 

 land too firm. 



It was observed, that, to destroy root- 

 i weeds, land should be made rough, and rai- 

 sed in as large pieces as possible; and that 

 it should be allowed to lie for some time in 

 that situation. Rolling after this is of great 

 use ; for, without it, if the weather contin- 

 ues dry, it will not be possible to make the 

 land fit for receiving another plowing. 



If the land be soft below, and some hard 

 clods upon the surface, which the harrow 

 does not break, rolling may be used with 

 some advantage ; for, besides smoothing the 

 surface, it will bruise some of the clods ; and 

 such of them' as are pressed down, will be 

 dissolved by the natural fermentation of the 

 soil, if in good heart. 



Sometimes in stiff land, plowed drv, af- 

 ter a former wet plowing, or when, by anv 

 accident, it has been much trod upon, the 

 whole rises in large clods.which the harrows 

 j cannot break, so as to cover the seed. In 

 j this case, rolling is of great use. It bruises 

 some of the clods ; and when followed by 

 the break-harrow, these clods are raised up 

 and broken. Though rolling should do no 

 service but smooth the surface, yet, on thai 

 account, it should be practised. For when 

 the surface is smooth, the corn may be cut 

 down more expeditiously than when it is 

 rough ami ■neven. When grass-seeds 

 are sown for hay, it is absolutely necessary 

 to smooth the surface : the roller is most 

 proper for this. Some use it before, and 

 some after sowing. When it is used before 

 sowing, the seed is more equally scattered. 

 Grass-seeds must be sown in such a man 

 ner, as to lie near the surface ; otherwise 

 they will not vegetate. The making the 

 land firm by rolling is therefore an advan- 

 tage, as, by it, the sap is better preserved ; 

 and this does not so much damage to grass 

 as to corn, for several kinds of it are com 

 monly better forragers. 



Fioia Iho New-England Farmer. 



WORK FOR JUNE. 



Melons and cucumbers, which have hith- 

 erto been protected by glass, or by papei 

 frames, may now be exposed to the open air. 



If the season be at all dry, your vegeta- 

 bles will stand in need of water. Loudon 

 remarks that many kitchen crops are lost, 

 or produce a very inferior quality for wan! 

 of watering ; lettuces and cabbages are of- 

 ten hard and stringy ; turnips and radishes 

 do not swell ; onions decay, &,c. copious 

 waterings in the evenings, during the dry 

 seasons, would produce that fullness and 

 succulency which we find in the vegetables 

 produced in the Low Countries, and in the 

 Marsh Gardens at Paris, and in England, at 

 the beginning and the latter end of the sea 



