No. 244.] 349 



Dioncea Muscipula, after twenty minutes, began to close up its young 

 leaves gradually and then lost all its sensibility. 



TO KEEP GARDEN ALLEYS AND PAVED PLACES CUEAR OF WEEDS. 



Boil sixty quarts of water in an iron kettle, stir in fifteen pounds 

 of lime, and from two to three pounds of sulphur; stir the mixture 

 while it boils. Sprinkle the alleys and pavements with water hav- 

 ing half of this mixture added to it. The ground will be purged 

 for many years of all vegetation. 



Mr. Meigs. — Varlo in his hew system of husbandry,^published in 

 Philadelphia, in 1785, says — "Turnips require as much, if not more 

 attention than any other crop. Their general use for feeding cattle 

 in England, though more so than cabbage and carrots, is not of very 

 old standing in Engbind. But in fact, every vegetable of the sort 

 has made a quick advance within the space of a lew years. It is 

 only two centuries ago since we imported green shoots from the 

 Netherlands. The people in those days imagined that the climate 

 of England would not produce garden stuff. The county of Norfolk 

 is more forward in turnip husbandry, than any other part of England. 



In 1748 I raised in Ireland, upon strong clay land, thirty acres, 

 a crop of turnips which weighed thirty-nine tons per acre. Some 

 of the best of the field produced at the rate of fifty-three tons per 

 acre. The Norfolk farmers raise their turnips after fallow, and they 

 plough three, four and sometimes five ploughings. The best farmer 

 begins to hoe them when Ihey are an inch high. Being thus thinned 

 early they apple more kindly. After turnips they sow barley, and 

 clover and rye grass among it, so that between the grasses being 

 ploughed up and sown again there is only about thirty-one months; 

 so there ipi)y be a crop of wheat, a cror- of turnips and a fallow for 

 each. This hoeing destroys weeds and improves both the land and 

 the turnips. They who neglect this are great slaves and deserve 

 to be pointed out and laughed at by every one. There is no land 

 but what will throw up weeds except trenched land. The improve- 

 ment which land receives by stirring and opening the mould, to let 

 in the salts of the air, would more than doubly pay the expense. 

 I have tried trenching and it is far preferable to any other tillage, 

 which I suppose is owing to the staple of the ground being deep. 

 The tap roots ot turnips strike down, for though the body of the turnip 

 lies above ground, yet it is chiefly fed by the tap root which runs 

 down perpendicularly to a considerable depth. Best turnips have 



