1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



479 



For the New Ens/and Farmer. 

 THE CROPS IN WASHINGTON COUN- 

 TY, R. I. 



Mr. Editor :— Sir : I take tho liberty to send 

 you an account of the crops harvested, and the 

 prospect of the crops unharvested, in our county. 

 And at the same time I shall occasionally indulge 

 my Yankee propensity by asking you a question. 



Grass.— This crop has come in very good gen- 

 erally throughout tho county, and that which vras 

 secured previous to July 20th was of the first qual- 

 ity. But that which has been cut since that time 

 has (a large portion of it) been wet, and conse- 

 quently is not so good. The kinds of grass usually 

 cultivated here is clover, timothy, red top and 

 burden. ^ 



And now I will inquire (my land being a light- 

 ish loam,) what kind of grass seed shall I sow, and 

 how much to the acre, and when 1 



Indian Corn looks remarkably well. If we do 

 not have any early frosts, or any thing else to 

 destroy it, we shall get a great crop. Which is 

 the most economical way of harvesting this crop 

 when it is not very heavy ? Cut the stalks, or cut 

 it up by the ground? 



Potatoes have nearly all rotted except the Do- 

 vers ; they stand it with us the best of any kind. 



Oats suiFered some from the drought in June, 

 but upon the whole have come in pretty well. 



Wheat, rye and barley, \s not cultivated very ex- 

 tensively here. I believe the former not at all ; 

 neither is buckwheat. 



Millet is cultivated some in the northern part of 

 the county, but not generally in the southern. 

 What I have seen of this crop looks well. What 

 kind of land and manure is best adapted to this 

 crop? 



Coio Corn is cultivated very extensively for feed- 

 ing green, and looks very thrifty. Which is the 

 most profitable to seed for fodder, this crop or 

 millet? Yours truly, j. d. 



Wakefield^R. L, Aug. 23, 1853. 



P. S. Fruit, of nearly all kinds, will prove a 

 failure with us. 



Swallows left here about the 18th instant. 



Carrots and Onions have blasted very much. 

 Can you tell me the cause ? Yours, j. d. 



Remark. — We will answer the above questions 

 next week. 



SCHOOLS IN CHINA. 



One of the favorite maxims of the Chinese is, 

 "By learning, the sons of the poor become giieat; 

 without learning the sons of the great are min- 

 gled with the common people." The beneficial in- 

 fluence of this maxim is observable in the village 

 schools, which are generally well attended, since 

 it is natural for every ftither to hope that one of 

 his children at least may distinguish himself by a 

 superior capacity, and thus make his own fortune, 

 as well as that of his family; for as parents are 

 frequently degraded in consequence of the mis- 

 conduct of g, son, so they are often honored and 

 rewarded on account of his virtues. 



It is somewhat remarkable, that in a country 

 where the system of instruction is entirely regu- 

 lated by the laws, and forms so material a part of 

 the constitution, there should be no free schools 



supported by the government, nor any establish- 

 ment for education founded by the munificence of 

 those who, in every age, have acquired fame and 

 riches by their literary attainments. The master 

 of a district school is paid at the rate of ten shil- 

 lings a year for each boy; yet even this small sum 

 cannot very easily be spared by a laboring man, 

 whose wages are not more than fourpence a day ; 

 so that many families of the poorer classes send 

 only one son to school, selecting, of course, him 

 who shows the most promising genius. 



The boys are incited to industry and good be- 

 havior by the hope of prizes, which are distributed 

 at stated periods, and consist of pencils, Indian 

 ink, paper, and little palettes for grinding the ink, 

 which are all much prized by the Chinese, who 

 call them " the four precious materials," and 

 teach the children to keep them in very neat or- 

 der. 



In most of the country villages and in all large 

 cities, there are evening schools for boys who are 

 obliged to work in the day time ; for the children 

 of the poor are inured to labor from a very tender 

 age, so that little fellows of five or six years of 

 age may be seen trudging along the roads, with a 

 stick across their shoulders, carrying loads, and 

 they are set to work in the fields almost as soon 

 as they can walk. It is the usual practice, now, 

 for persons of rank and wealth to engage private 

 tutors for their children ; but whether the latter 

 are educated at home or at a public school, they 

 must undergo the regular examinations before 

 they are eligible to office, nor are they taught in 

 any way differently from the boys at the- village 

 seminaries. — China, Pictorial, Descriptive and His- 

 torical. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE CURCULIO. 



Mr. Editor : — Sir, — I see by your last paper, 

 from extracts from the Greenfield Republican, that 

 a writer in that journal has found a remedy for 

 the bite of the curculio. His remedy may be a 

 go@d one for a mafi of leisure, but the days and 

 nights are not of sufficient length to warrant its 

 general adoption. I will tell you briefly what I 

 have done for my plum trees. My remedy for the 

 curculio is this : as soon as the insect had made 

 his appearance, and the plum had fairly com- 

 menced growing, I sprinkled the leaves and plums 

 on the trees all over with air slacked lime, select- 

 ing a wet morning for the operation, and after 

 that the insects all left. On some trees that had 

 no lime, scarcely a plum was left ; on one tree 

 that I put lime on one side, the curculio did not 

 trouble ; while on the side that had no lime, the 

 plums were completely destroyed. When the 

 drought came on, I found that my plums failed for 

 the want of moisture; I took a barrel, and made 

 a small hole in the bottom, and placed it on the 

 root of the trees, and then filled it with water, 

 and as often as the water was exhausted I filled 

 it up ; and now I shall have a rich crop of plums, 

 and free from the rot that prevails in this county ; 

 the limb I sent you a few days ago was from one 

 of those, and is a fair specimen. J. Lake. 



Topsfield, Stpl. 5, 1853. 



E^"An earthquake had occurred on the lake shore, 

 near New Orleans,rocking houses and causing great 

 alarm. 



