60 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



13.— Where tliiee beds of beets are 

 growed together, the centic bed, and the inmost 

 eseids of the outside beds are not so good as the 

 rvJSt. It is so in many gardens, as I liavo obsei-v- 

 ed. How would it do to sow beets and carrots in 

 beds ahernaiely? 



May (J, J807— 4 o'clock, P. M.— Earthquake. 

 There were two shocks which continued about 

 two seconds, one sudden, the other in less than a 

 second: the second was the strongest. I was in 

 my apothecary's shop ; it made tlic bottles rattle 

 well, but upset none. The lid of a gin case which 

 stood open nearly perpendicular, shut at the sec- 

 ond shock ; the "noise was like a heavy ragged 

 log or cask, rolling down two stairs ; the first one 

 foot the otlier two, and three or four feet space 

 between them. 



Note. About a week since, there was an un- 

 usually heavy thunder storm, wliich held all day, 

 raining and hailing copiou>ly ami incessantly. 



1807. — This year I put iii_\ .'^cid [icas into an 

 old tin lautliern, and liuiii,' tin in in the smoke 

 liouse to prevent bugs. 



JVovemberi7. — Sowed two beds of peas for early 

 use, little deeper than spring sowings. I suppose 

 it to be so late that they will' not swell till next 

 spring. [They came to nothing.] 



April 23, 1808. — ^My peas have been up more 

 than a week. 



Note. — To prevent bugs I put my peas in a lan- 

 thern last fidi, and kept them in the smoke house ; 

 it answers well. 



Sowed onions three days ago. 



Peppergrass, lettuce and radishes in the hot 

 bed in promising condition. [Note. Came to 

 nothing.] 



P. S. Enjbargo still continued. Cotton si.\- 

 teen cents per lb. A ])hysician need not starve 

 if he can live on bare practice. 



Maij 30. — Planting corn in low land. How it 

 will do to plant so late, I can better tell next fall. 



Ma;/ 14, 1809. — Graded twenty trees in the 

 nursery ; used no clay, but bandage dipt in melt- 

 ed tallow and bees wax ; cut the stock of same 

 bigness of scion. Russitins all in upper square. 

 This business probably should have been done in 

 April. However, this year the trees are remark- 

 ably late. Query; will they live ? [Answer, July 

 ]. Three of five in the lower square lived, four 

 or five of sixteen in tho upper.] 



This year sowed celery with parsnips altern- 

 ately ; for last, by accident, there was a celery 

 plant among the parsni|)S, which grev.- rapidly 

 and was the best iu the garden. 



Sprinkled sen sand on'cabb'age, radish, cucum- 

 bers. Sec. [July, no good.] 



Put clams roimd cucmnhersto keep off yellow- 

 bugs ; the experiment answers ; yet some people 

 this season have sprinkled on their cucumber.s, 

 squashes, &c. pulverised jilaster ol Paris, which 

 also keeps off the yellow bugs. Querv ; will it 

 not keep off the small Iim;;s .' 



Jiity 1, 1809.— Overhauled two flat roofs ; found 

 the shingles and boards rotten as dung, while 

 roofs of tolerable descent are perfectly soiuid, 

 though older. But flat roofs are all in the fash- 

 ion — perhaps flat noses will one day be fashion- 

 able, and who dare snub it .' 



Apiit 2G, 1810. — Onions not sown, peas not up. 

 Last winter, little snow, ground froze very deep. 

 Hard times. Last year the Lord was pleased to 

 punish us with a plenty of hay, and a scarcity of 

 every thing else. Set out last week thirty or forty 

 apple trees ; the fruit for the next generation. — 

 Well ! 



April 12, 1611. — Sowed one bushel wheati dry, 

 harrowed it in. [Dry season, eight bushels.] 



Ma;/ 8. — Cut ajiparagu.s, at least ten days earlier 

 than usual. 



Mtty 28.— Sat out cabbage plants fiom the hot- 

 bed. 



Note. Brown worms very ])lenty : they eat 

 any thing and every tiling. They have saved me 

 several days' works by eating down the weeds! 



Ltw ease. — Last week I had a case decided 

 against me. The Referees decided that a bond 

 for the pre-emption ol land is void in law, be- 

 cause it is similar to a bond in restraint pf trade! 

 One of my neighbors has got an ugly, crooked, 

 scurvy stick, the oddest you ever saw; he uses it 

 for a cane, and says he would not take a guinea 

 for it, because it is su .--.iiigular. I also greatly 

 prize tho decision above ; amen. 



Sat out cucuiriber plants in blos'oms, and bell- 

 j-rpper plants: both did well. '\]\ cnbliaijc which 



were raised in the hot-bed and sat out early did 

 exceedingly \vell. It has been a dry summer. 

 Grasshoppers plenty. 



September. — A comet near Charles' wain, that 

 is, in plain Engl'sh, near the posteriors of the 

 Great Bear. 



September, 1811. — Raised an ear of Indian corn 

 of twenty-eight rows, a pumpkin of the common 

 kind, four feet in circumference, weighing thirty- 

 one and a half lbs., a crook-neck winter squash, 

 12 lbs. 13 oz. twels'e inches in circumfercucc, 

 the least part of the neck. One cabbage head 

 with all the loose leaves stript off" and the stump 

 cut short . Many others nearly as large. 



Note. This season has been dry and unfavor- 

 able to vegetation, otherwise the articles might 

 have been twice as large. 



Note. The pumpkin was so yellow, and of so 

 excellent a flavor, that a Connecticut gentleman 

 on tasting a pye madeof it, observed that he nev- 

 er ate any custard before, made all of volk. 



May 5, 1812.- Snow storm. [18th, little snow !] 



May 9. — Apple tree-buds just begin to swell : 

 cut off twelve branches and sprouts from one to 

 two feet long, dipped their cut end in melted 

 rosin, warm, stick them eight inches into moist 

 rich ground and left them to their fate. 



June 1. — Planted my corn ; white oak leaves 

 not larger than an infant mouse's ear. 



April 19, 1813.— Colt one year old, (37 years af- 

 ter Lexington battle.) 



April 29 and 30.— Grafted more than one hun- 

 dred apple trees : first discovered that apple tree 

 lice are legging animals; they come from the 

 ground by thousands. 1 believe they will not 

 surmount the swingle-tovv used in grafting. Be- 

 daubed the bodies of the trees with equal parts 

 clay and cow dung to prevent the lice from fix- 

 ing there. Put lime round some trees and ashes 

 round others ; at the root a little rim close to the 

 body of the tree to jirevent theii- rising. They 

 are a sad pest ! 



June 2, 1813.— Sowed oats, and a part wheat. 



July 20.— Sowed turnips. 



Juiy 24. — Caught a |)ickercl twenty-six inches 

 long, weighing four lb. 10 ozs., heavier by a 

 pound than three other middling ones caught at 

 same time. Moreover, I caught an elegant wood- 

 chuck. 



Mivember 28, 1814— Quarter past 7 o'clock, P. 

 M. on a beautiful moonshiny evening, snow two 

 inches deep. As we were lecturing in Free 

 Mason's Hall, there came an Earthquake. At 

 first I thought it the rattling of a wagon over froz- 

 en ground. It continued at least one minute. 

 The people below us swoic it was the Free 

 Masons, and that they had heard them many 

 times make a worse noise than that. 



December 5. — Carried two ewes to Capt. Mor- 

 rall's merino buck. 



.1/(11/29, 1815. — Marked sheep, piece off the 

 end of each ear, to get rid of old marks; half-pen- 

 ny out of the fore part of each right ear, short 

 tails, painted yellow cross on the rump and fbre- 

 heail. 



June, 1817. — After shearing, washed them, 

 lambs and all, in a half-hogshead tub, about two 

 thirds full of soap-suds, in which put the decoc- 

 tion of four lbs. tobacco stems to kill the ticks 

 and clean the sheep of scarff. Eight old sheep, 

 seven lambs at home ; three old sheep out at the 

 halves, that is, half the fleeces and half the in- 

 crease. Had four lanil)s (three dead,) to Benja. 

 Goodwin, Lyman. [1818. Omitted paint, having 

 none. Sometimes I find I have taken the half- 

 pennv out of the wrong ear.] 



Saturday, Sept. 23, 1815.— Hurricane from S. E. 

 from 9 to 12 o'clock, A. M., with heavy rain, then 

 from south by west without rain, for several 

 hours, and subsided pcti. a peu. 



1816.— This fall sowed two bushels of acorns 

 iu my wood-lot, and left them as nature does. 

 [All rotted. 1818, not quite all ; Ihey shew them- 

 selves with this year. 1820. Now there are 

 thousands, from one to three feet high !] 



May 24, 1818. — Warm weather began all at 

 once. Thermometer above 90. The trees pop 

 out as a hen lays an egg. The sjjring has been 

 very wet and cold, but the last week in May is 

 beaiuiful. Dame Nature has on her calico robe 

 with green ground. 



June 20.— The wheat is almost all destroyed by 

 the Hessian fly. There is a wliite maggot within 

 the shoot, a little above tlie chit. Sometimes I 

 find spvernl : he soon turn? of the color of a flax- 



seed. I have pulled up some spires of wheat 

 with them in their station, and put them into a 

 broad smooth glass, covered with a thin cloth, to 

 see what they may come too. 



ay June 20.— Sowed one-half bushel buck 

 wheat. 



An effectual method to prevent worms from 

 eating corn : — Take away the dirt down to the 

 fibrous roots, and leave it so till the worms cease 

 to eat. It will not injure the corn. 



July 14, 1818. — Some of my corn has silked. 



To spot a scythe snead, suspend it by the 

 right hand neb, lower it and dip the lower side of 

 the heel in water, spot when it is wet. 



August 14, 1819.— This morning, one-halfhour 

 after sunrise, my martins, 50 or GO, left me. I 

 saw them in the air advancing south west ; one 

 or two hours after I saw nine reconuoitering their 

 house and vicinity, but did not light. They 

 might be strangers on their passage. 



September 10, 1819. — Raised a mushmelon thir- 

 teen inches long, twenty-two inches in circum- 

 ference, weighed nine and a half lbs. 



Killed this year 30 doz. pigeons in two after- 

 noons, on poles. Last year I killed twenty dozen 

 in one afternoon. Once I killed twenty-two doz. 

 in a like time. I had anotlier person who attend- 

 ed the decoy pigeons, while I attended to the 



Note. Twenty doz. is four bushels, or nearly. 



Juhi 12, 1820.— Corn in silk. 



1821. — Last year, by accident, five radish seeds 

 fell with my lettuce among the asparagus, about 

 the time the frost came out of the ground ; they 

 were good. From that hint I sowed radish this 

 year and had plenty by the middle of May, that 

 is, before the fly came. Tliey were perfectly 

 clear of worms. 



October 5.— Sowed orchard with clover. 



October, 1822.— He who is unthankful to the 

 God of nature this year, must be an ungrateful 

 scoundrel. Had sixty bushels corn, 220 bushels 

 potatoes, apples in abunTlance lor fall and winter, 

 cabbage and other garden ■ vegetables in abun- 

 dance, fodder for horse, cow, and a pair of steers 

 coming three, money enough for present pur- 

 poses, toleiable health in bocly and mind ; thirty- 

 eight lbs. wool. A girl wove seventy odd yards 

 of cloth in eleven days, viz : Olive Downing, the 

 best girl I ever had. Killed a lean hog this, lOlh, 

 weighed 225 lbs. Had a bottle of biandy given 

 me twenty v'cars of age ; it will he free before the 

 year is out, if I live and do well. Sixty years the 

 10th ultimo. Shall I, as age advances, and weak- 

 ness of body come on, also become enfeebled iu 

 mind and become a mere sqiteamoiise9 God for- 

 bid that I should not die as I have lived, a phi- 

 losophei-. A dying, whining old man is the most 

 contem])tible puppet that ever nature exhibited. 



AprU27, 1824.- ColL 



May 15. — A few days agone there were three 

 very cold days and nights, some snow, the apple 

 trees Avere set very thick fin- blossoms, merely in 

 bud ; some people think the fruit is ruined for 

 this year. Mais nous verrorui. (But we shall see.) 



May 26. — Hard frost: trees just beginning to 

 shew few blooms. 



June 1. — Planted eight quarts early white 

 beans. 



September. — A lot of hake, small cod, with some 

 middling cod, and four haddock, (light salted.) 

 when dried averaged a pound a piece. 



Dr. Fisher died in the early part of the winter 

 just past. The memoranda a|)pears to have clos- 

 ed in 1324. The wood-lot which he speaks of as 

 having sown on it two bushels of oak acorns is 

 now covered w ith wood, much of it large and 

 valuable oak timber, standing near the villagf. 

 The previous growth was mostly saplin pines and 

 swamp maples. He was a practical farmei-, 

 brought up a large family of daughters, all of 

 whom are married and their connexions the 

 most respectable in the county. 



The Religion of the ancient Persians requir- 

 ed its followers to plant useful trees, to destroy 

 noxious animals, to convey water to dry lands, 

 and to work out their salvation by pursuing all 

 the labors of Agriculture. They thought that he 

 who sowed the ground with dilligence and care, 

 acquired more religious merit, than he could gain 

 by the repetition of ten thousand prayers. — Gib- 



