DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND TlL ITS 



COLLECTION OF SEEDS, SCIONS, &,c. 



The farmer is always busy. He has hardly time 

 to secure his crops, and prepare for winter, before 

 the old year is gone, and the new announces the 

 beginning of •.»■ ther campaign, and he must give 

 his attention to future operations. The winter is a 

 favorable time for collecting seeds, scions, potatoes, 

 and all new, rare, or excellent articles, with a view 

 to agricultural improvement. 



Many of these things may be collected conve- 

 niently during the winter, as a person is travelling 

 about the country, or m!?cting with those who can 

 supply improved productions. If all those things 

 are neglected until they are wanted in the spring, 

 the most of them will be postponed one year longer ; 

 for it is impossible to do many things at one time. 



The most economical and the most pleasant of 

 all modes of improvement, is the procuring of su- 

 perior productions. The best of seed costs but a 

 little more than the poorest ; and from a small 

 quantity, enough can soon be obtained to supply a 

 whole farm. 



A single potato, of superior quality, may be mul- 

 tiplied, in a few years, so as to furnish seed for the 

 whole farm, and produce a largo increase in the 

 crops, or add twenty or twenty-iive per cent, to their 

 value by extra quality. 



We once gave a friend a paper of superior parsnip 

 seed, and he remarked, after trying the quality of 

 the produce, that the seed was worth a dollar to him. 

 The cost of the seed Avas only a few cents. Another, 

 to whom we gave an ear of corn, observed that it 

 was worth several dollars to him, as by it he had im- 

 proved his whole f.Top. A single scion may be in- 

 creased, in a few years, so as to furnish means for the 

 improvement of a large orchard. From one scion 

 of a new and superior cherry, set rather late in 

 spring, we have fifteen or twenty trees in bud, and 

 they may be soon increased to thousands. 



PREPARATION OF FRUIT SEEDS. 



The seeds of all the principal species of fruits, if 

 not sowed in fall, should be prepared early in winter, 

 or by midwinter, by mixing them with moist sand 



or loam, and keeping them in that condition. They 

 may be kept out of doors, under a shelter, or in the 

 cellar. The operation of the frost on them is not 

 necessary, excepting on plum and cherry stones, 

 when kejDt dry till winter. 



When cherry and plum stones arc put into loam, 

 as soon as separated from the meat, the efl'ects of the 

 atmosphere and earth destroy the cement that holds 

 the stone together. We have thousands of these 

 trees from stones never exposed to frost. When 

 they become dry, and firmly cemented together, and 

 there are but a few months for them to lie in loam, and 

 the weather cold, so that there is less action on them, 

 it is best to expose them to frost. 



Peach stones, for spring planting, we bury in 

 earth, below the action of frost, or put in earth and 

 set in the cellar by the last of winter, or before ; 

 then they are ready to plant at any time till June ; 

 but if exposed to frost at the surface of the earth, or 

 in boxes, they open and sprout too early. 



NORFOLK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



We are pleased to learn that a movement is made 

 to form an Agricultural and Horticultural Society in 

 Norfolk county, and that the 2>rospect is very en- 

 couraging. There are many gentlemen that will 

 most cheerfully aid in this cause, and their intelli- 

 gence, energy, and zeal will be a sure guaranty of 

 success. They will devote time and talent to th« 

 enterprise, and some, of their abundance, will con- 

 tribute liberally to the funds of the association. 



One important consideration presents itself to the 

 citizens of every county in this state in wliich there 

 is no agricultural society. They contribute equally 

 to the general fund, from which liberal donations are 

 paid to societies in other counties. 



But a stronger and more noble motive for action in 

 this useful undertaking, is the great and happy 

 results from such associations, in diffusing useful 

 information, and encouraging improvements that 

 have the most salutary effects on the prosperity 

 of the country, and those engaged in the varioiia 

 branches of cultivation. 



In complying with the request of W., we take the 

 liberty to say that the gentleman is E. K. Whittaker, 



