NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



363 



means of getting rid of them, being quick and profit- 

 able. J. R. K. 



Craavford Co., Pa., 18-19. 

 — 'Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper . 



Remarks by Editor N. E. Farmer. — We have 

 no doubt that the briers were dcsti'oyed more by 

 the sheep than by the clover ; for they will not 

 flourish where sheep run among them ; yet the clover 

 had an excellent; effect in inviting the sheep among 

 the brambles. It is very common in agricultural 

 experiments to ascribe effects to wrong causes ; and 

 it is the same in other sciences. During this season, 

 we have seen accounts of the valuable effects of sul- 

 phur for cholera, but we noticed that it was given 

 with charcoal ; and we have no doubt that the char- 

 coal was the principal remedial agent, as it is excel- 

 lent in diarrhoea, which usually attends the cholera, 

 and causes a sudden prostration of strength. Sheep 

 alone, if induced, by any grass, to go among briers, 

 will cause their complete destruction ; perhaps from 

 the oil in the wool. 



PARSNIPS. 



A correspondent has written to inquire " whether 

 we know, by our own experience, the quality of the 

 parsnip for feeding and fattening pigs." In answer, 

 we beg to state, that, at our farm at Catlands Bing- 

 mea, we have been in the habit of employing pars- 

 nips for that purpose for some time. Upon reference 

 to our books, we find that on the 11th of October, 

 1847, M'e put up two shotcs of eleven weeks old, and 

 fed them on skim milk and parsnips, for three months, 

 when they were killed, weighing two hundred and 

 thirty-one and two hundred and thirty- eight pounds. 

 They were well fattened, firm in flesh, and the meat 

 of excellent flavor. The quantity of parsnips con- 

 sumed by them was nine bushels each. — Sussex 

 \E)iglish\ Express. 



Remarks. — We have often wondered that no ac- 

 count is made of this valuable root. All the Avorld 

 is alive to the value of the carrot ; while this escu- 

 lent is entireljr overlooked. That the parsnip con- 

 tains more saccharine matter than the carrot, or even 

 any of the beets, we are satisfied. A very excellent 

 wine is made of it, which we venture to assert can- 

 not be made from any other of the whole root crop. 

 Its estimation as an edible for the table also tells in 

 its favor. And a herd of hogs turned into a field 

 containing bagas, beets, carrots, and parsnips, would 

 not be long in settling the question which they like 

 the best ; and as they cannot read the Genesee 

 Farmer, and are not influenced by any of our blun- 

 dering theories, and trust alone to experience, and 

 that unerring guide that nature has provided them 

 in the place of reason, we are disposed to give them 

 the credit of being very capable judges — very. — 

 Genesee Farmer. 



PLANTING TREES. 



The most remarkable, if not the most culpable, 

 neglect, — that which indicates an unamiable and 

 uncultivated, as well as improvident nature, — is the 

 omission, on the part of gentlemen in the country, 

 to plant trees about their homesteads, for shade and 

 ornament, if not for fruit and profit. Let any one 

 who would be convinced how easy it would be to 

 provide, in a few years, even in the most exposed 

 and barren situations, all the beauty and luxury of a 

 natural forest, only walk as far as the Lunatic Asy- 



lum, between Spruce and Pine Streets, Philadelphia, 

 and see how thriving is every one of the handsome 

 trees so thoughtfully planted out there last autumn, 

 at the instance of Mr. Cresson, in anticipation of the 

 failure, some years hence, of the old sycamores. The 

 work is only to be once well done, and the trees well 

 protected, and. then they may be left to endure for- 

 ever, as monuments of the good taste of the planter, 

 transmitting his memory with gratitude to posterity. 

 We remember now, at the moment of scribbling 

 this hasty but earnest exhortation to all our young 

 friends to plant trees — • maples, horse chestnuts, lo- 

 custs, linden-trees, (anj' thing but Lombardy pop- 

 lars,) — that there is in the garden, near the house 

 at Duoraghen Manor, Maryland, the classic residence 

 of the late venerable Charles Carroll of CarroUton, a 

 weeping willow, stately and graceful, like her who 

 planted it when a child, that will always be asso- 

 ciated with the name of Mrs. Caton. How much 

 more are such memorials to be coveted than monu- 

 ments stained with blood and cemented with the 

 tears of the widow and the orphan ! — The Plough, 

 Loom, and Anvil. 



AMOUNT OF MINERAL MATTER ASSIMI- 

 LATED BY VARIOUS CROPS. 



It is found, on analysis, that an acre of wheat, 

 being an average crop, carries off with it no less than 

 two hundred and ten pounds of inorganic elements, 

 viz. : thirty pounds in the grain, and one hundred 

 and eighty pounds in the straw — a striking i^roof of 

 the importance of consuming the straw upon the 

 land. Barley takes two hundred and thirteen pounds 

 — fifty-three in the grain, and one hundred and sixty 

 in the straw. Oats take three hundred and twenty- 

 six pounds — thirty-two in the grain, thirty in the 

 husks, fifty-four in the chaff, and two hundred in 

 the straw. A crop of turnips, of twenty tons per 

 acre, when removed off the land, carries off six hun- 

 dred and fifty pounds of mineral matter. Potatoes, 

 including the tops, take ofi' five hundred and eighty 

 pounds, the tops containing about four hundred 

 pounds. Cabbage carries off nearly one thousand 

 pounds. — Huxtable. 



IRON FOR APPLE-TREES. 



A correspondent of the Albany Cultivator, writing 

 from Fredericksburg, Va., says, " A friend who has 

 a large orchard of ' Rawle's Jannett apple,' has ten 

 trees upon one corner of the orchard which always 

 produce fruit a third larger, and flavor so much supe- 

 rior, that it was supposed by all who saw and ate 

 the apple, tliat they were a superior variety of the 

 Jannett. This spring I examined the soil, and found 

 that a vein of iron ore passed just under the ten 

 trees, so near the surface that it had been ploughed 

 and worked up with the top soil. A variety of the 

 large Blue plum growing upon the same ground, is 

 also very tine ; while grafts taken from the same 

 plum-trees, and worked upon stocks grown on differ- 

 ent soil, prove worthless." — Maine Farmer. 



IRON. 



A pound of iron in a crude state is, perhaps, worth 

 a cent. It is converted, we will suppose, into steel, 

 and then into watch springs. Now, according to a 

 calculation made in a work upon this subject, there 

 are 7000 grains in a pound weight, and every watch 

 spring weighs a tenth of a grain. 70,000 watch- 

 springs, worth, say $2 each, yield $140,000 for the 

 pound of iron, or rather for the labor expended 

 ui^on it. 



