1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



551 



poles, when, being loaded with vines, they should 

 encounter strong winds. This expedient I found 

 successful. The beans getting started as early as 

 the season admitted, progressed, climbed, shot out 

 side branches continually, and demanded conduct- 

 ing lines, perpendicular, transverse and parallel 

 from pole to pole, and, with twine, I gave them 

 all the range I could ; but they reached ambi- 

 tiously after higher and wider supporters, until, 

 constrained to fall back upon the top uniting Hne, 

 they formed a green festoon from end to end of the 

 row. The yield of beans has been very satisfixc- 

 tory, and, from the middle of August till the set- 

 ting in of frost, which was not till near the close 

 of September, there has been a succession of new 

 supplies. Evidently, they would grow and yield 

 far longer with a prolonged summer. The bean 

 stalks, cut off near the ground since I removed 

 the poles and vines, discharged sap sufficient to 

 wet the ground around them. I am satisfied that 

 a higher, wider and freer expansion of the vines 

 than I was able to afford, would have given me 

 much larger quantities. Many pods fell off un- 

 filled, because they were overshadowed and choked 

 by the entangled thick vines and leaves. The 

 poles or standards ought to have projecting 

 branches of several feet length near the top, to 

 give space for the setting, sunning and maturing 

 of the constantly multiplying clusters of pods. 

 Yours truly, J. Lee. 

 Salisbury, Ct., Oct., 1853. 



Remarks. — (a.) We practice heading in peach 

 trees with the happiest results. No finer trees or 

 fruit can be found, than our orchard annually pre- 

 sents. 



BONES AND SULPHURIC AOID. 



The use of bones in agriculture appears now to 

 be rapidly increasing. The prejudice formerly ex- 

 isting against them has given way, and many 

 who were among the most skeptical, now express 

 themselves as perfectly satisfied as regards their 

 value when used as a stimulant for most crops. 



In fact the recent investigations and experi- 

 ments of scientific and practical men in various 

 sections of Europe and in the United States, when, 

 after a Rip Van Winkle sleep. Agriculture ap- 

 pears at last to be waking up, have conspired to 

 arouse popular curiosity on the subject, and the 

 demand for "bone dust," and "crushed bones," 

 is uncommonly active. It seems, from a work re- 

 cently published, that a Mr. P. Davis, of Milton 

 House, near Pembridge, Hertford-shire, England, 

 has stated before the "Agricultural Monthly Coun- 

 cil," that with reference to the suggestion of Mr. 

 PuSEY, relative to the propriety of applying bone 

 dust, previously dissolved in sulphuric acid, in 

 union with compost instead oi water, on the turnip 

 crop, that he can continue his idea, Mr.D. having 

 manured two acres with only thirteen bushels of 

 bone dust, dissolved in 27 pounds of acid, and 150 

 gallons of water. It was permitted to stand 24 

 hours — the liquid being subsequently mixed with 

 three cart-loads of coal ashes and then applied to 



the soil after the lapse of a week, during which 

 period it was two or three times stirred. The re- 

 sult of this application was a faircrop from apiece 

 of rather "poor land," and without any other 

 manure. At a meeting of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society, at the Society's House, Hanover Square, 

 Mr. PusEY in the chair, Mr. P. informed the coun- 

 cil that the prize essay of Jlr. Hammon, on the 

 application of bones as a stimulant for the turnip 

 crop, contained, in his opinion, not only a detailed 

 account of the best experiment ever made in agri- 

 culture, but some points were of so much impor- 

 tance, that no time should be lost in communica- 

 ting the facts to the members for their information 

 and guidance. 



H. D. White says, in an editorial article in the 

 Boston Olive Branch, that, 



"This extraordinary manure has a peculiar ef- 

 fect upon poor lay land pasture ; for, on the ap- 

 plication of boiled bones, a sudden change takes 

 place in the appearance of the fields, and instead 

 of the carnation-leaved or pink grass which so 

 abounds on this kind of land, a luxuriant herbage 

 presents itself, consisting of white and red clover, 

 trefoil, and other grasses of which cattle are so 

 fond that they will eat up almost every thing be- 

 fore them ; even thistle and rushes are very much 

 eaten off by the stock after the pastures have been 

 dusted." 



It is to be hoped that those of our farming 

 friends who have the means, will not fail of giving 

 this fertilizer an impartial trial, next season, and 

 favor the public with the results. Arrangements of 

 this kind should be made before the spring work 

 comes on. 



DEATH OF JOHN DELAPIELD. 



We find in the last number of the Rural New- 

 Yorker an announcement of the death of this ex- 

 cellent and distinguished man. Though entirely 

 unknown to us, except by his good works in the 

 improvement of agriculture, and consequently, of 

 the human race, yet we feel with those who loved 

 him the mo3t, that we have lost a man whose like 

 we may not soon look upon again. His survey 

 of Seneca County, N. Y., alone, gives him an en- 

 viable fame. The Rural New-Yorker says : 



Another ardent, zealous and most untiring and 

 influential laborer in the cause of Agricultural im- 

 provement is no more! Hon. John Delafield, 

 President of the N. Y. State Agricultural College, 

 departed this life, at his late residence — Rose Hill, 

 Seneca county — on Saturday morning last. This 

 melancholy event was as startling and unexpected 

 to the family of the deceased, as it will be to dis- 

 tant friends — for he expired very suddenly, after 

 only a few minutes illness, of disease of the heart. 

 Mr. D. was about sixty years of age. Few par- 

 ticulars have reached us, as the painful intelli- 

 gence was received by telegraph. A private let- 

 ter which we received from Mr. Delafield onlv 

 two days before his death , indicated vigorous health 



