1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



.303 



though the same varieties pass under diflFerent 

 names. Some of them are yellow, others white. 

 They keep well tlirough the winter and spring and 

 are very valuable in that dry period which precedes 

 the early garden vegetables. 



Their culture is similar to the rata baga, sugar 

 beet and carrot. The ground should be made rich, 

 well and deeply plowed, and made fine. 



Much difference of opinion exists as to the time 

 of sowing not only the turnip, but the beet and 

 the carrot. From the first to the tenth of June 

 we should prefer. If sowed early the vegetation 

 of the seed is a little less certain, and always slow- 

 er. The ground becomes hard, the weeds get the 

 start of the plants, and the labor of tending is 

 much increased. But if the ground is replowed or 

 thoroughly pulverized with a good cultivator in the 

 first part of June, one crop of weeds is destroyed, 

 the seed comes quick and the plants are strong, 

 insects are less troublesome and less destructive, 

 and the labor of weeding very much less. 



If you ask farmers why they raise so few roots, 

 one-half at least will tell you it is too much work 

 to weed them. This is a true answer if the meth- 

 od often pursued is adopted. But if the ground 

 is plowed early and manured with some compost 

 or other article in which the seeds of weeds are 

 wanting, and the ground stirred so as to kill all 

 the weeds that may start before June, then sowed 

 in rows eighteen inches or two feet apart, and the 

 plants thinned so that a hoe will pass between them 

 in the rows, the labor will be reduced to less than 

 one-fourth what it will be if the ground is man- 

 ured with commou stable manure and the sowing 

 made before the middle of May, and in such man- 

 ner that the fingers are the chief instrument of cul- 

 ture. Raised for extensive use, they must be 

 raised as other field crops are. The plow and hoe 

 must do the work which in garden culture is per- 

 formed by the spade and the fingers. In this way, 

 and in this only, can the farmer afford to cultivate 

 roots for stock. — Culturist and Gazette. 



edy published. I have tried it the past year, and 

 the result was, not a single diseased potato. 

 Georgetown, Mass., l^bZ. i- n. M. 



Remarks. — The above was mislaid ; but some of 

 its advice may be adopted now if any one desires 

 so to do. Very few potatoes rotted last year 

 where no precautions were taken. When a "sov- 

 ereign balm" is found to cure the sycamores, we 

 shall have hope that a remedy for the potato rot 

 is discovered. We predict a fair crop of sound 

 potatoes from the present planting. Planting al- 

 ternate rows of corn with the potato has been of- 

 ten tried without valuable results. 



Remarks. — Good crops of turnips may be had 

 by sowing any time before the 10th of July, or 

 even later. But if convenient, we should prefer 

 sowing in June. % 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE POTATO CROP. 



Mr. Editor : — Sir, as the subject of the rot has 

 been brought up this spring through the column;- 

 of your paper, I should like to have the flxrmers 

 try my method to prevent the disease, which is, in 

 the first place you are not to plant potatoes where 

 corn .will not do well, and then spread your ma- 

 nure and plow it in ; let your furrows run north 

 and south three feet apart, your hills two and a 

 half; plant first a row of corn, next a row of pota- 

 toes, and so on through the field, the last row 

 corn. Put on a table spoonful of salt to each hill. 

 When your potatoes are up, put on a pint of un- 

 leached ashes, or slaked lime round the vines ; let 

 the tops of stalks stand till digging time, not put 

 your potatoes in the cellar till the first of October ; 

 have your cellar well ventilated, and put one bush- 

 el of pulverized charcoal to every fifty bushels po- 

 tatoes. 



Those that have taken the New England Farm- 

 er for two years past will recollect seeing this rem- 



From the New Eni^rand Farmer. 

 TO PRESERVE MANURES. 



It is very easy to preserve the most valuable of 

 all fertilizers, that brown, fetid liquor, that is so 

 often allowed to run away, or the gases that are 

 allowed to escape from the manure heap, by a lit- 

 tle judicious care, at a very trifling expense. To 

 accomplish this, take a quantity of the sulphate of 

 iron, (green copperas,) which is easily dissolved 

 in water, at a temperature of 100 degrees. When 

 completely dissolved, mis it v?ith water of the 

 dung heap, adding a fresh quantity of the sul- 

 phate of iron each time ; when the water from 

 the dung heap is alkalized, after having run 

 through it, repeated throwing over the dung heap, 

 it is easily ascertained by dipping a piece of Utmus 

 paper into it, when the color turns brown or red, 

 and the water thus charged with the sulphate of 

 iron in a state of solution penetrates into every 

 pore of the heap, and converts the carbonate of 

 ammonia, which is very volatile, into the sulphate 

 of ammonia. By adopting this system or process, 

 the richness and duration of the dung are consid- 

 erably increased, at a very trifling expense. The 

 manure thus saturated with the sulphate of iron 

 can be exposed to the sun and air without losing 

 its most essential properties, because the sulphate 

 of ammonia does not volatilize itself, like the car- 

 bonate of ammonia. M. A. Perry. 



Watertown, June, 1853. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 FRONT FENCES— SETTING POSTS. 



Mr. Editor: — I wish to make a few inquiries 

 of you or your correspondents. I wish to build a 

 door yard 'fence. It should be plain, not expen- 

 sive, but one that will look well when completed. 

 Posts set in the common way would be sadly 

 thrown with the frost. In view of this, in what 

 manner or style should the fence be built? How 

 can posts be set so as to prevent them from beipg 

 heaved with the frost 1 Permit me also to in- 

 quire the best way to exterminate alder bushes, 

 that grow so luxuriantly on the margin of brooks. 

 By answering these inquiries in the Farmer, if 

 proper, you will greatly oblige myself, and I doubt 

 not many others of your readers. 



Yours, &c., s. G. B. 



Remarks.— Many of our readers have the knowl- 

 edge which "S. G. B." wants; will some one 

 oblige us and him by communicating it soon? 



