NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



59 



We have next an article on the Dwarf hidian 

 Corn, taken from the Transactions of the Lon- 

 don Horticultural Society. Some heads of this 

 kind of corn were exhibited, which were pro- 

 duced from seed sent to the Society from Paris 

 by M. V'ilmorin, under the name of Mais a Pou- 

 let — •" Chicken Corn/'' The plants do not ex- 

 ceed eighteen inches in height, are very hardy, 

 not being injured by the spring frosts. The 

 grams are of a bright yellow color, round and 

 small, and the flour they contain appears to be 

 peculiarly white and line. 



Some Notices of the Larch Tree (Pinus Ln- 

 rix) known by the several names of Juniper. 

 Hackmatack and Larch — by John Lowell. Mr. 

 Lowell says that the 



" Hackmatack grows more rapidly, than the 

 1-eal Juniper, commonly called the rod Cedar, 

 and is more durable lor posts, than that plant. It 

 will grow on any soil, and rapidly m soils en- 

 tirely ditVercnt from those, in which it is usually 

 found. 1 have them growing, in pure sand, 

 without the smallest apparent admixture of 

 loam, and on a barren gravel — a gravel, which 

 will scarcely support grass. I have large trees 

 in such soils 18 to 21 inches in circumference 

 and thirty feet high, of thirteen years growth.'' 



There are a number of varieties, which are 

 described in the London Horticultural Transac- 

 tions, and extracted into the article now under 

 consideration. Among others are 



" The Common Larch (i. e. the Larch of 

 Great Britain) with red or pink flowers, hi the 

 duke of AthoTs plantations on mountainous tracts 

 at an elevation above the sea of 1500 to 1(500 feet, 

 this tree has, at eighty years of age arrived at 

 a size to produce six loads of timber, appearing 

 in durability and every other good quality, to be 

 likelv to answer every purpose, both by sea and 

 land." 



" Pinus Microcarpa, (a small fruited or coned 

 Larch) the red Larch of North .America. There 

 are some trees of this kind fifty years olil on the 

 Athol estates, but they do not contain one third 

 as many cubit feet of timber as Pinus Larix at a 

 -similar age. (That is, the Englis/i Lurch furn- 

 ishes three times the quantity of timber in fifty 

 years which our own common Larch does.) 

 The wood is so ponderous that it will not swim 

 in water. Its cones are much shorter than those 

 of the Pinus Larix, its branches weaker, and its 

 leaves narrower." 



Mr. Lowell thinks it would be well to import 

 the cones of the English Larch and some other 

 varieties from Scotland. 



Mr. Lowell next gives an account of the suc- 

 cess, which has attended his planting small 

 patches of forest trees. In 1807, 1808, and 

 1809, he planted with forest trees from two to 

 three acres of land, which was barren and un- 

 productive, its whole value per annum not ten 

 dollars. The trees were White Pine, Larch, 

 Fir Balsam, and in the better parts. Oak of va- 

 rious sorts, Maple, Beech, Ash, Elm, Locust, 

 Spruce, Spanish Chesnut, &c. 



" The land was about half of it ploughed and 

 kept open with potatoes for 2 years and then 

 abandoned to the course of nature. The jiiues 



were taken up out of the forest with great care, 

 not more than 5 feet high. Wherever I had 

 the cupidity and impatience to introduce a lar- 

 ger tree I either lost it or it became sickly. In 

 some places I planted acorns, and as to my hard 

 wood forest trees, transplanted from the woods, 

 finding they looked feeble and sickly wiien they 

 shot out, I instantly sawed them ofiat the ground 

 or near it. This required some resolution, but 

 1 have been abundantly paid for it. 



'• The result of this experiment is this, that in 

 a period from 13 to 15 years I have raised a 

 joung, beautiful and thrifty plantation compris- 

 ing almost every variety of tree which we have 

 in Mass:ichusetts, which are now from 25 to 35 

 feet higi), and some of which, the thriftiest 

 white pines actually measure from 9 to 12 inches 

 diameter. The loppings, and thinning out ol 

 these trees now furnish abundant supply of l.ght 

 fuel for summer use, and upon as accurate a 

 calculation as 1 am able to midie, I am convin- 

 ced, that the present growth, cut dov/n at the 

 _end of fourteen years from the planting would 

 amply pay for the land at the price it would 

 have brought. I do not mean to say, that this 

 would be the case in the interior, l>ut in the 

 vicinity of Boston and of Salem, I am sure this 

 experiment may be tried with perfect success. 

 In Chelsea, L\ nn, Cambridge, \Vest Cambridge, 

 some parts of Brooklyn, AVonham, Danvors. 

 and many other old towns, I see tracts of land 

 which can ])roduce but little, of an>' value, and 

 which would in fifteen years, at tlie expense of 

 ten days labour for the first four years on each 

 acre, produce trees that would be worth the pre- 

 sent price of the land. 1 am persuaded, that this 

 is no loose calculation." 



" I owe it to the cause of truth, to state, that 

 I committed a very grave and important mis- 

 take in planting. From the desire to cover my 

 land more rapidly, and to thicken my planta- 

 tions for ornament, I planted my trees too near 

 each other. 1 now sudor from this very natur- 

 al cupidity. I cannot thin them out without 

 hurting the beauty of the landscape, and the 

 trees show how niucli they suffer by the yearly 

 lo.ss of their lower branches, which will niuays 

 die if they have not air and moisture, and like 

 other misers, 1 And myself unwilling to part 

 with the treasure I have possessed. 



'• This however will not apply to the farmer 

 who raises from a desire of profit. His trees 

 should be placed at least twenty-five feet asun- 

 der in every direction ; he will not fear, as I 

 have done, the use of the axe to thm out his 

 trees. 1 could now cut out light fuel for the 

 supply of my family for two years, without in- 

 juring my plantation, but 1 have not courage to 

 do it." 



'' I am aware that two objections will be made 

 to this statement — First, that the scale of exper- 

 iment was a small one, not exceeding two p.^res 

 and an half It is true ; but the experiment was 

 sufficiently large to test the utility of the meas- 

 ure. Secondly, that 1 disregarded expense, and 

 put down the cost to the score of luxury. This 

 is not true ; i am sure that the whole labor did 

 not exceed twenty days work of one man on an 

 acre, and with respect to one acre of it not five 

 days labor (in the whole) of one man, has ever 

 been expended upon it. 



" 1 planted the trees in two or three days, 



and left them to their fate ; but 1 consider two 



I conditions, indispensable to success. First, that 



as to pines of all sorts, and other evergreen 

 trees, they should bo put out not more than fom 

 years old; not pruned, for they will not bear the 

 knife well. Secondly, that as to hard wood for- 

 est trees transplanted from the wood.s, they 

 should be instantly cut down to the ground or 

 near it. 



" It is only because we have no nurseries ot 

 forest trees in New England, that I s[)eak of the 

 barbarous practice of tran'^planting- and instantly 

 heading down. Young trees from a nursery 

 would in al! respects be preferable." 



(rO BE COKTINUED.) 



The Agricultural Society of Biicli'.i County, 

 Penn. have recommended to the citizens of that 

 county, " to strictly prohibit the practice of 

 gunning on their lands, inasmuch as it is believ- 

 ed that the present alarming increase of insects 

 is principally owing to the deslruction of birds." 

 A writer likewise in the Farmer's Journal, of 

 Windsor, Vt. remonstr.ifes against the wanton 

 destruction of the robin, whose young are fed 

 on the insects wliich infest our cornfields. 



In an article in the American AVaichman, re- 

 commending the gro\vth of millcl, the following 

 is given as the product of one acre sowed with 

 half a bushel of that seed. Three tons of hav 

 and 30 1-2 bushels of clean seed. The hay was 

 consumed by horses who seemed to relish it as 

 they would the best upland. The seed when 

 manufactured into flour makes a cake more 

 wholesome and ecpially palatable with that of 

 buck wheat. The writer says if one bushel 

 were sowed to the acre the crops would in all 

 probability be proportionably better. 



An experiment has been made in England to 

 ascertain \vhether the manufacture of spider 

 u-ehs should be encouraged. It would require 

 five thousand insects to make spider silk sullv 

 cicnt lo form a single pair of stockings. It has 

 been proved, by experiment, that the spider 

 silk is so exceedingly fine that five threads are 

 required to form one of fliC strength of the silk 

 worms. A gentleman in England presented to 

 a society, a pair of gloves and stockings, both 

 from the spider web, possessing all the gloss 

 and beauty of real silk. 



Baltimore Morning Chronicle. 



Tlie influence of the black color upon heat 

 was lately explained to the anatomical class of 

 Allahabad in the following manner : — 



Two tea pots, one black and the other XL'hitc, 

 were placed on a table, and filled, each with 

 boiling water, from the same kettle, which had 

 been ]daced on the fire in the presence of the 

 students. At the termination of the lecture, in 

 the course of an hour, the water in the black 

 tea pot had very considerably cooled, as was 

 perceptible both to the finger, and by the ther- 

 mometer, while the temperature in the xs.'hite 

 tea pot continued nearly at its original standard. 



Calcutta paper. 



The manufiicture of woollen cloth, at Steu- 

 benville, Ohio, has been brought to such per- 

 fection, that an English gentleman lately exam- 

 ining some of the cloths at the factory store- 

 house, could not be persuaded but that the pro- 

 prietors kept on hand an assortment of fine Brit- 

 ish cloths, and sold them for American. 



