60 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



about it. He did not know how he could get that 

 amount of information diffased throughout the 

 country which is necessary to make a man a suc- 

 cessful farmer. He believed that every farmer 

 must be his own scientific experimenter. Hardly 

 any two agree in their systems, showing that 

 what one man finds to hia advantage may prove 

 unprofitable to another. Every man must study 

 the science of agriculture himself. No general 

 principle can be laid down. What we want to 

 know is how to make farming profitable. If a man 

 has a farm which he can carry on with his own 

 hands alone, he will make little money; but let 

 him take a farm which requires extra help, and 

 his profits will increase, for he will make a profit 

 on his hired labor. We need enterprise'more than 

 we do manure. 



Mr. Howe, of Southboro', inquired, if in getting 

 a profit on the labor of those he employs, he did 

 not prevent them from ever getting farms for them- 

 selves ? He did not like that kind of enterprise 

 which keeps oth«r people down. 



The gentleman then went on to say that he had 

 employed ashes on a side hill of moist soil, and 

 saw a great improvement in consequence; and 

 then he applied it to another lot of similar soil and 

 received no benefit whatever. Again, he had a 

 lot of twelve acres, on six of which he had applied 

 plaster to great advantage. He then applied it to 

 the other six and received no benefit whatever. 

 ' Mr. Walker, of Worcester, said in reply to 

 Mr. Howe's question in regard to profit on hired 

 labor, that there were a great number of laborers 

 coming into this country who were without the 

 means and incompetent to carry on fiirming, and 

 were glad to obtain any kind of employment. He 

 saw no harm in making use of this labor in the 

 way he had intimated. 



Mr. Amasa Walker believed that this failure of 

 experiment might be easily explained. Ptshaps 

 the manures applied were of poor quality, or the 

 season unfavorable to its use. He had once ap- 

 plied plaster to a piece of land, but the first year 

 he could perceive no benefit from it, and came to 

 the conclusion that it needed to be applied the sec- 

 ond year. He didso, yet he could hardly perceive 

 its effects. He could only discover a small, white 

 clover springing up. He continued the application, 

 and was satisfied that it paid well. This, he 

 thought an illustration of the need of more accu 

 rate scientific information. 



Mr. Rowley, of Egremont, said, he also felt the 

 need of more specific, practical knowledge in re 

 gard to the production of crops, and the proper 

 management of the land. He did not know but 

 that the farmers of the State needed enterpi-ise, 

 but he did not believe that it was the number of 

 acres that he cultivated, that made a man rich 

 The oldsayingis, "a little farm well tilled." He 

 thought there was a lack of system. Our farmers 



do not, like the merchants, keep an account of the 

 expense of raising their various crops, and thus 

 be enabled to ascertain which were the most pro- 

 fitable. He thought farmers should take more 

 pains to interchange views with one another, in re- 

 gard to their interests. Perhaps one obstacle in 

 the way of improvement is a prejudice against 

 book farming. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CELERY. 



BY W. CLIFT. 



Mr. Editor : — A correspondent in your Decem- 

 ber num1>er inquires for the best method of secur- 

 ing celery for the winter. As I have cultivated 

 this plant for the .last six years, with very good 

 success , I can give you the results of my experience . 

 It requires more attention than most other vegeta- 

 bles, and the growing of good celery is a much 

 more difficult matter than its preservation. This 

 is the- chief difficulty about it, to attend to its 

 wants often, and seasonably. 



If you wish early celery you must sow your seed 

 in March in a hot-bed, and put your plants in the 

 trench in June or early in July. If you only care 

 for it late, sow in May in the open ground. Select 

 a moist rich spot for your seed bed, thoroughly pre- 

 pared. The finer the tilth of the mould the better 

 your seed will germinate. An old mat thrown 

 over the bed, or any light covering of grass or 

 weeds, will aid the sprouting. This covering should 

 be removed, as soon as the plants are well up. As 

 soon as the plants are an inch high, they should 

 be pricked out in a bed of rich mould thoroughly 

 prepared. A compost of muck and night soil, or 

 muck and hen dung, is a very good manure for the . 

 bed. The plants should be set in drills, six inches 

 apart, and four inches in the drill. _ You cannot 

 have good strong plants without pricking out. They 

 should be kept free from weeds, and the soil should 

 be stirred once a week until August. 



The selection of a suitable spot for the trenches 

 is a matter of considerable importance. As celery 

 needs a good deal of water, select a spot as near 

 the watering place as possible. Your soil Jthould 

 be two feet deep, and if there is not that depth of 

 black loam you must prepare it in the trenches, 

 for the occasion ; you may prepare _ your trenches 

 for growing two or four rows, as suits your conve- 

 nience. If for two rows, the trenches should be 

 18 inches wide, and 18 deep. I have tried various 

 kinds of manure, feathers, hair, night soil, &c. I 

 have obtained the best results from night sojl well 

 mixed with loam of charcoal dust — but I attributed 

 this to the fact that it was used in larger quanti- 

 ties, than to any superiority in the manure. The 

 hogs' hair, though used in small quantities, gave 

 ve^ satisfactory results. But almost any manure 

 will do, if it be thoroughly incorporated with the 

 soil, in the bottom of the trenches. If you use 

 stable dung the trenches should be half filledwith 

 it, and thoroughly worked into the soil with a 

 fork. 



Junius Smith, in the Patent Office Report, for 

 1845, gives the following directions for setting out 

 the plants in the trench. "The plants should be 

 trimmed about the crown, just at the top of the 

 root ; all the young suckers taken off, leaving the 

 plant trim and neat, with all its main stalks. With 



