NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



155 



try this mode of culture, they will give it a prefer- 

 ence as a preventive over " clipping," or any other 

 method yet recommended. J, A. S. 



GiiATTAN, Kent Co., Mich., 1819. 

 — Dollar NeiDspaper. 



Remarks by the Editor New England Farmer. 



Tlie article above contains valuable hints on the 

 cultivation of the potato ; yet we think that the 

 cause assigned for the rot in potatoes is a predispos- 

 ing cause only, not the principal cause. Previous 

 to the late malady, some farmers had given to cer- 

 tain varieties high culture for thirty years, and so 

 from failing in any way, they improved under judi- 

 cious management and high culture. 



By high culture, good potatoes were raised on a 

 certain piece of land for twenty years in succession. 

 We noticed the twentieth crop, and it was fine. This 

 could be done onlj' by high culture; for without 

 very liberal manuring, the potato soon fails in suc- 

 cession. Yet on that land there was no rot, until 

 the disease became general. 



There are thousands of farms on which the same 

 varieties of the potato have been cultivated for many 

 years, and seldom with high culture ; yet it rots on 

 such farms, and occasionally on the best soil, and 

 under the most favorable cu-cumstances for guard- 

 ing against it. 



RAISING ONIONS. 



Friend Holmes : I have noticed considerable in 

 your paper relative to raising onions — remedies for 

 the onion worm, or maggot, &c.. Sec. I will give 

 you my experience, for the benefit of the public. 



I have discovered that the egg of the maggot is 

 deposited in the skin of the seed, and consequently 

 sown with the seed, as the weevil in wheat. By 

 soaking onion seed in warm Avater, a little warmer 

 than blood warm, half an hour will hatch out lots of 

 live maggots. Then you may soak the seed in 

 copperas water, or saltpetre, to kill what maggots do 

 not hatch out in the warm water. Dust them with 

 dry, slaked lime, and sow in good onion ground. 



We should like to have this experiment tried, and 

 see the results published in the Farmer next fall. 



Raymond, March 26, 1849. J. M. T. 



— Maine Farmer, 



WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD FARMING. 



In his work on " Laneash Farming," a rare and 

 valuable contribution to agricultural literature, Mr. 

 Rawstono, the author, remarks : — 



"It may be laid down as a standing rule, and as a 

 guide to direct us, that all good farming, the whole 

 of that process by which bad land is to be converted 

 into good and productive, and continued in that 

 state, is composed in the three following operations 

 of husbandry, viz. : — 



•' 1. To carry off all superfluous and stagnant water, 

 by means of judicious draining. 



" 2. To return, through the medium, of manure, 

 the strength and fertility which has been exhausted 

 by cropping. 



" 3. To extract all noxious Aveeds, that the 

 strength of the manure may be thrown into the 

 crops, and not into the weeds." 



Every cultivator, who exercises discretion in the 

 management of his lands, will recognize at once the 

 importance of observing these rules. Every weed 



produced on a farm abstracts somewhat from its 

 productive value, and, when permitted to mature its 

 seed, is a nuisance, the deteriorating and stultifying 

 effects of which will make themselves felt for many 

 years. To manure a field which has been carelessly 

 hoed for one or two seasons, and where more spuri- 

 ous vegetation has been allowed to reach maturity, 

 than has been destroyed, or even crippled, by the hoe, 

 is a labor that can involve little else except disap- 

 pointment and dissatisfaction in the end. Hoeing 

 and weeding ai-e processes which should be performed 

 with skill and circumspection. Every weed should 

 be eradicated and destroyed. When one hoeing, or 

 one weeding, fails to effect this, let it be repeated ; and 

 so on till the soil is thoroughly cleansed, and every 

 vestige of spurious vegetation utterly and completely 

 destroyed. Most weeds are gross feeders, and ab- 

 stract a greater amount of nutritive matter from the 

 soil, than is required to perfect three times the num- 

 ber of cultivated plants, of equal or even superior 

 size and weight. 



A MONTGOMERY COUNTY FARMER. 

 March 16, 1849. 

 — Germantown Tehgraph. 



-♦ 



FATTENING FOOD. 



The experience of farmers has always been in favor 

 of the doctrine that oily provender is required to 

 produce fat ; beech-nuts, linsced-oil cakes, and corn 

 enjoy the highest reputation, and are most charged 

 with oil. Liebig has, however, advanced the doc- 

 trine that farinaceous vegetables, as the potato, 

 carrot, &c., are fattening from the starch they con- 

 tain ; but although this may be true physiologically, 

 j'ct, in ordinary farm management, it is found cheaper 

 and more expeditious to use fodders already contain- 

 ing the fat, rather than to wait for the slower trans- 

 formation out of starch. 



Fattening food should be well prepared by grind- 

 ing and steaming for hogs. A mush that had become 

 slightly sour was found to fatten more expeditiously, 

 by Arthur Young, than the fresh food. 



The following table gives the comparative values 

 of provenders for fattening, by showing the amount 

 of oil they contain : — 



Indian corn, 9 to 10 per cent, of oil. 



Oats, 4 » 5 " '< '* " 



Wheat, 2i '< 2^ " « 



Bran 4 " 5 '« " " " 



Oilcake, 9 " 10 " " ** " 



Clover hay, 4 " " " " " 



Meadow hav 3^ " 4 " ♦< " " 



Peas and beans, . . . 2i " 3 " '« " •' 



Beech mast, 15 " 17 " " " " 



Sunflower seed, — lo << « <« «« 



Linseed, 11 " 22 " " " " 



Hempseed, 18 " 25 " " ♦' '< 



Straw, 1 '« Ih " " " " 



These numbers are not constant, for the amount 

 of oil depends upon the season, increasing with the 

 brilliancy and dryness of the weather. Potatoes, 

 beets, carrots, turnips, mangel wurzel, contain less 

 than one quarter per cent., and are therefore not 

 adapted for fattening alone. 



The same values are true for butter and milk, 

 except that oil cake imparts a bad flavor. Poultry 

 and pigs are now sometimes fattened in part on 

 animal fat, as cracklings, goaves, &c. One of the 

 most successful bodies in the list is ground linseed 

 meal ; but, considering its other qualities, corn is 

 the most esteemed. If the cake or oily seeds are 

 used, it will be necessary to mi.x meal, oats, or peas 

 with them, to preserve the health of the animal ; 

 five pounds of cake ai-e a sufiicient supply for the 

 day. 



