1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



165 



bly check and open, -when uncovered by paint, 

 and exposed to the weather. White-oak timber, — 

 indeed all timber, loses its strength and tenacity 

 after being again and again exposed to rain and 

 air. The hub then grows soft, the spokes settle 

 into it a very little, and the consequence is that 

 the tire is loose, and the blacksmith's aid is need- 

 ed. 



A wagon left out of doors will in a few years 

 become a spongy, heavy mass, unprofitable to use. 

 As proof of the correctness of these remarks, we 

 know of a farmer who has run down three sets 

 of wheels by exposure, and not by work, while 

 another has a pair of wheels perfectly sound, built 

 a year or two before his neighbor's first pair. In 

 the first case the wheels have never been housed, 

 winter nor summer ; but have been left by the 

 road-side, as if impregnable as the stone wall to 

 injury from the weather. In the other case the 

 cart has been uniformly housed, and always well 

 painted. It must be very intelligible to the read- 

 er which is the wiser course. 



PArXTING FARM VEHICLES. 



The reasons for painting farm vehicles as well as 

 housing them are many and obvious. Paint af- 

 fords a present shelter. You are sometimes neces- 

 sarily out in the rain. Your well-painted wheel 

 will be injured but a little. Paint closes up the 

 pores and keeps in that life of the wood, which is 

 its whole strength. Besides, a man will work 

 more cheerfully and accomplish more when things 

 are a "little decent" about him. The appearance 

 of good, convenient, respectable vehicles about a 

 farm is always agreeable to the stranger. Their 

 influence too, upon the laborer's spirit and temper, 

 is worthy of consideration. 



A word as to the colors most suitable to use in 

 painting. As your vehicles will have to be out in 

 the hot sun, while in service, the lighter the 

 color the less will the wood shrink. A wheel 

 painted black will become as hot in the sun as the 

 hand can bear ; while another painted a light lead 

 color, which is the cheapest, will be cold to the 

 touch. Of course in the former ease the wood 

 will shrink, loosening the tire, while in the latter 

 all will reman firm. av. d. b. 



Concord, 1853. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 WHAT rviANUREJ FOR SWAMP LAND? 



Mr. Editor : — I would like to inquire what is 

 the best manure for swamp land, where the vege- 

 table matter is two or more feet deep? I have 

 used common horse manure with good success, af- 

 ter draining, plowing, pulling out the roots, &c., 

 and seeding to grass in the fall. On such land I 

 get about two tons to the acre, of English grass. 



I have thought there might be a cheaper sub- 

 stance than manure to bring such lands into Eng- 

 lish grass, if I only knew what it was. I know 

 that it is recommended by some of your writers, to 

 spread over sand or gravel, and then manure, but 

 that is too expensive here, where hay generally is 

 about $8 a ton. £. Scott. 



Ludlow, Vt., 1853. 



Remarks. — If you get two tons per acre as a 

 general result, it ought to be a satisfactory crop, 

 unless an extraordinary amount of money and la- 

 bor is expended. There is nothing better, prob- 



ably, in the long run, than good barn manure, 

 composed of the droppings of horses, cattle, swine, 

 sheep and fowls. But on some of your new swamp 

 land you might do well to try lime on a small 

 piece, on another ashes, on another guano, watch- 

 ing carefully the results of each. New swamp 

 lands contain generally, most or all the elements 

 which the plant needs ; but they sometimes require 

 sand or lime, as they have an excess of acids, at 

 first unfavorable to the growth of the plant. Thor- 

 ough plowing, plenty of composted manure, and 

 such experiments as we have suggested, will bring 

 you satisfactory results, if you persevere. 



For the New England Farmer. 



STOWELL'S EVERGREEN SWEET 

 .CORN, 



He who expects to find this article as much su- 

 perior to the common sweet corn, as the ambrosia 

 of the gods is to the food of mortals, will lay down 

 his cob, and pick his teeth in disappointment. He 

 will rise from the table, and call it a humbug. 

 The fact is, he who has good sweet corn upon his 

 table, picked at the right time and well cooked, 

 has an epicurean dish, that he miglit ask any sen- 

 sible god in the mythology to partake of, without 

 fear of refusal. Should some German commenta- 

 tor upon classic lore undertake to prove, that this 

 was the veritable ambrosia, it would be difficult to 

 disprove his position. The man who does not ap- 

 preciate sweet corn, and consider it a standard of 

 excellence, lacking no element of gustatory satis- 

 faction, is not the man to appreciate anything. 

 But were the Stowell's decidedly superior tb all 

 other kinds, for the table, we should not expect to 

 have the multitude believe it, even after they had 

 tried it. We have heard a very sensible man as- 

 sert, that common field pumpkin made as good 

 pies, as the marrow squash of Boston notoriety. 

 From that date, our path was very much strength- 

 ened in the old adage, that there is no use in dis- 

 puting about tastes. If the new variety of corn is 

 as good as the old for the table, and has other ex- 

 cellencies that the old does not possess, it will 

 prove an acquisition. 



It has been introduced to the agricultural pub- 

 lic, mainly through the agency of Prof. ^lapes, 

 who has sent out thousands of samples of the seed 

 to the readers of the Working Farmer in various 

 parts of the country. He gives the following ac- 

 count of its origin in his paper for Dec, 1850. 

 "Stowell's sweet corn is a new sort, and is every 

 way superior to any other we have seen ; for after 

 being pulled from the ground the stalks may be 

 placed in a dry, cool place, free from moisture, 

 frost, or violent currents of air, (to prevent dry- 

 ing,) and the grains will remain full and milky, for 

 many months. Or the ears may be pulled in August, 

 and by tying a string loosely around the small end, 

 to prevent the bushes from drying away from the 

 ears, they may be laid on shelves, and kept moist 

 and suitable for boihng, for a year or more. This 

 corn is a hybrid between the menomony soft corn, 

 and the northern sugar corn, and was first grown 

 by Mr. Nathan Stowell, of Burlington, N. J. Near 

 the close of the fair of the American Institute, 1850, 

 I presented the managers with two ears gulled in 

 August, 1819, and twelve ears pulled in 1850. 



