NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



ery, tastefully laid out anil richly ailorncil. It 

 is agreeable to perceive gentlemen of such dis- 

 tinguished talents and literary attainments, toil- 

 ing-^ thus to promote the real interests of the 

 country, and affording practical proofs, that the 

 pursuits of agriculture are neither servile nor 

 derogatory. 



From the Hampshire Gazette. 



Sweet Com. — A writer in the Plymouth pa- 

 per asserts that sweet com was not known in 

 New England, until a gentleman of that place, 

 who was in Gen. Sullivan's expedition against 

 the Indians in 1779, brought a icw cars to Ply- 

 mouth, which he found among the Indians on 

 the borders ?£ the Susqueh.annah. This writer 

 says that if the ears are picked from the stalks 

 for seed, the produce will assimilate to our com- 

 mon corn, but if the seed ears be selected from 

 the suckers, the corn will not loose its peculiar 

 qualities. 



Cotton. — Several experiments arc now mak- 

 ing in New York and Connecticut, to ascertain 

 whether cotton can be raised in this northern 

 climate. Some plants in Albany are now in blos- 

 som. 



.4 Cosmetic for ladies complexions, said to be 

 superior to all other washes. — Put over the fire 

 a pint of water, and when it boils stir in fine In- 

 dian meal enough to make it a paste ; let the 

 ladies use this paste instead of soap every time 

 they wash themselves. If a spoonful of honey 

 and a little rose water are stirred into it when 

 cooling, it will be still better. 



Lightning. — Wet clothes are good conductors 

 of lightning, and if a flash in its way to the 

 ground, should strike a person's head, whose 

 clothes are wet, it will run in the wet clothes 

 over the surface of the bod}', whereas if the 

 clothes were dry, it would go through the body 

 and occasion death. 



It is stated in a London paper of 30th May, 

 that among the rewards presented the day be- 

 fore by the society for the encouragement of 

 manufactures, &c. was " the large silver medal 

 and twenty guineas,'' to Mrs. Wells, of Weath- 

 ersfield, Conn, for her imitation Leghorns. 



From the Boston Gazette. 

 ' Copperas water is a cheap and certain des- 

 truction to bugs, which cannot be too generally 

 known. 



It is said, that if horses be rubbed down with 

 chesnut-tree leaves, in the morning, they will 

 not be annoyed by flies during the day. 



United States^ Lead Mines. — A notice from the 

 War Department is published in the western 

 papers, offering to receive proposals, at the of- 

 lice of the Ordnance Department, for Ifasing 

 any of the lands of the U. States containing mines 

 of lead, upon an annual rent of one tenth of the 

 product of the mines, to be deposited, in pure 

 lead, in a store-house on the ground. The leas- 

 es hot to be for more than three years, and not 

 for a quantity of land to any individual or com- 

 pany, exceeding three hundred and twenty a- 

 cres, &,c. Leases may be renewed at the expi- 

 ration of three years, at the option of the gov- 

 ernment, reserving the right to raise the rent, 

 but not to a higher rent than one fifth of the 

 product. The advertisement is dated at the 

 Ordnance Department, Jime 15th, 



p'rom the American Fanritr. 



SKIPPERS IJ^ BJiCOJV, give much trouble to 

 houser:i.nves in the country. 



It has been discovered, by a female corres- 

 pondent in the coimtry, from whom we have 

 received several useful communications, that 

 skippers in bacon may be effectually and speed- 

 ily destroyed by the use of elder juice, but the 

 e.ract manner of preparing and applying it, are 

 not described. This ought always to be done 

 in giving receipts — the field is yet open for 

 numberless useful discoveries in all the dei>art- 

 ments of rural and domestic economy. 



Since writing the above, we have the follow- 

 ing more particular account from our esteemed 

 correspondent : 



" Last year we lost at least one third of our 

 ham meat, by the skippers, notwithstanding ev- 

 ery attention, but never destroyed the skippers 

 while the meat lasted. Our neighbours were, 

 in this respect, as unfortunate as ourselves. 



" This spring, knowing that our meat had 

 been well smoked, and the weather being dry, 

 we neglected airing it as customary, until our 

 old enemy the skipper returned, and had eaten 

 it smartly. Sister, who attends to it h.ad it ex- 

 amined, scraped and sunned ; (no one can bo 

 more particular.) In a week after, she had it 

 examined and foinid that there were nearly as 

 many skippers as at first : you ma^' suppose, af- 

 ter the loss we suffered last year, we wore very 

 anxious to destroy this troublesome insect. I 

 had known for many years, that elder juice 

 would destroy maggots. If a hog, sheep, or anj' 

 other animal gets wounded, and the flies get to 

 the wound, they will create maggots ; by ivash- 

 ing the wound with elder juice, they will roll 

 out b}' hundreds, if there be so many in it. I 

 proposed therefore to try it on our bacon. The 

 leaves were accordingly beat in a mortar, add- 

 ing a little water ; the flesh side of the meat 

 was rubbed with the leaves thus bruised, and in 

 three weeks after, the meat was re-examined, 

 and the skippers utterly destroyed. The applica- 

 tion here described, does not in the least degree 

 communicate any bad taste to the meat. I liave 

 little doubt, that this, with m.iny other simple 

 applications within the reach of every house- 

 keeper, might be applied to many other useful 

 purposes, if proper pains were taken to make 

 the trial. If such homely communications, on 

 such homely subjects, are admissible in the Am- 

 erican Farmer, you can publish what 1 have 

 written, as you know 3 ou can depend on its ac- 

 curacy, and 1 shall be amply paid for my trouble 

 by what I know I shall receive, the thanks of 

 many A HOUSEKEEPER. 



We believe that the virtues of elder are less known 

 and appreciated than they ouglit to be. Mr. Dcane's 

 Georgical Dictionary states that Christoplier Gullet, 

 Esq. liad made some experiments, which were commu- 

 nicated to the Royal Society, of which the following is 

 a brief account : 



" He wliipt calibagcs gently with green boughs of 

 elder, just at the time when the butterflies appeared, 

 after which, tliough they hovered over them, tliey were 

 never obseriied to touch tliem. He whipt the limbs of 

 a plumb tree as high as he could reach. That part 

 remained green and flourishing ; but all above shriv- 

 elled up, and was full of worms. He concluded that 

 if a tree were sprinkled with an infusion of elder, once 

 a week or fortnight, it would effectually preserve it 

 without injuring the tree or the fruit. He prevented 

 the yellows in wheat, which is caused by an insect, by 



brusliing the v.luat ivith elder ; and preserved a bed 

 of j-oung cauliflowers. He prefers the dwarf cider as 

 it emits the strongest effiuvium. 



" Perhaps, it may be found, as this writer sugrgfufs, 

 to preserve turnips Horn tiie fly, and these and other 

 plants from grasshoppers and ail other insects," 



A frienrl of (lie Editor, stated to us tiiat he had used 

 an infusion of eider leaves as a preservative against the 

 small yellowish bugs, which infest cucumber vines, 

 squash vines, &c. and he believes with complete suc- 

 ce?.i, as the bugs ceased to devour the plants from the 

 time the infusion was applied. It was rather late in 

 the season, however, before the application was made, 

 and it is possible that the bugs had fmiihed their year's 

 v/ork of niirchief before they v.-ere disturbed by the el- 

 der infusion. We hope that further trials ^ill be mado^ 



Carelessness. — Negligent nmsters and mistrcsr- 

 e? arc considered as lawful prey by their domes- 

 tics ; and those v>-ho arc proverbially easy in 

 the management of pecuniary and economical 

 concerns, are at once cheated and despised for a 

 disposition, v.hich, however it may engage t!io 

 affection and esteem of candid and enlightened 

 characters, seldom fails to excite the rapacity 

 of those who are possessed of 



That lov/ cunning, which in fools supplies, 

 And ami)ly too, the place of being vvise. 



good 



A man v.ho had been a zealous parfizan, in 

 politics, but had shifted his course so often that 

 he sometimes strayed so far from the lines of 

 demarcation which separated one party from 

 another that he could not always say which side 

 he belonged to, was asked, v, hat made him turn 

 his coat so often ? He rcplieil that " one 

 turn deserves another." 



Gunpowder and Brandy. — An office in the gov- 

 ernment of Sat:ni, being once upon a time va- 

 cant, '■'■ the prince of the pjoiiser of the oiV," con- 

 vened a counsel, when it ivas proposed, that on 

 the trial of the skill and abilities of the two de- 

 mons, he who Caused the most misery on earth 

 and brought the greatest number of mortals to 

 the regions of despair, should fill the vacant of- 

 fice and be first in authority. 



One went in the shape of Gunpowder, the. 

 other that of brandy, rum, gin, 4-c. the former 

 was an open enemy and roared with a terrible 

 noise. This made the folks to be afraid, and 

 put them on their guard. But the other passed 

 as a friend and a physician, pretended to make 

 them strong and healthy, was at all the merry 

 makirigs, frolicks and entertainments. By these 

 means he caused them to be off their guard ; 

 and at length to become his most willing ser- 

 vants, and that too, " for the wages of death."" 

 Under the "notion" of helping digestion, com- 

 forting the spirits, and cheering the heart, he 

 produced the direct contrary effects. — And, 

 havii/g insensibly thrown great numbers into a 

 fatal decay, he was found to people hell and the 

 grave so fast, as to merit the office, in prefer-- 

 ence to him who went among the people in the 

 shape of gunpowder, 



Lft week a young man with a slight obstruc- 

 tion n his speech, came into our office to pur-, 

 chase a book — the price happening to be a few. 

 pence bej'ond his means, we told him we wouldj 

 i'urn'sh him with a copy a little torn. Not find- . 

 ing one, however, as we expected, he very hon- . 

 estiv remarked, that '• wc might t-f-t tear anoth-- 

 er." The joke w;i3 certainly worth something, '. 

 and we instantly furnished him with a :c.'.c.'c co-, 

 py. — .Ydniunket Inipnrer. 



