NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



229 



rst settlement of the town, it had the appcnr- 

 ince of making very good ploughins; land, but 

 n consequence of the steepness of the hiH on 

 ;very side, which rendered transportation so 

 i; litficult, and supposing it bad husbandry to try 

 a o raise Indian corn without plenty of manure, 

 )nn generation after another has passed off and 

 uflered the hill to remain dormant. The pres- 

 ;nt occiipaiit being of the fourth generation of 

 he same family in possession of the farm, hit up- 

 jn an experiment of raising Indian corn with 

 ;he aid of Plaster of Paris alone. 1 went on to 

 ie hill with my team in the month of .Septera- 

 Der 1820, and ploughed as I supposed about two 

 icres, and found it an excellent soil, a deep and 

 jood colored loam, free from stone, left it in 

 that situation until the follnwinff =pring, at 

 which time I first gave it a harrowing', then cross 

 ploughed and harroived it agam which left it 

 in a fine state for planting. My ne.ghtwrs be- 

 gan enquiring what I was about to do on the 

 hill; 1 told them my plan ; they said it was im- 

 possible, such a thing could not be done te ad- 

 vantage, that I should lose ali my labor, but I 

 was resolved to persevere in the experiment. 

 I accordingly furrowed it in my usual way about 

 a common pace asunder, dropped the seed, 

 threw a common table spoonful of plaster into 

 the hill, then covered it with earth which was 

 all the manuring it had, except a slight quanti- 

 ty of ashes at the first time of hoeing. It push- 

 ed forward with greater rapidity through the 

 season than my other corn where I manured 

 very high, and at harvest time it appeared su- 

 perior to any corn I had. Several of my neigh- 

 bors kmdly offered to assist me in harvesting 

 and measuring the corn to know the result, we 

 dbund by exact measurement there were ainety 

 and a half bushels of shelled corn of an excel- 

 lent quality, and by actual survey, we found 

 there was one acre three quarters and twenty- 

 seven rods of land, making almost forty-eight 

 bushels to the acre ; it was supposed to be the 

 greatest quantity to the acre raised in the town, 

 the last season, (it will be recollected the sea- 

 son lor corn was not so good as the present.) 

 The quantity of plaster it took, was about four 

 hundred weight. The whole labor bestowed 

 en the field exclusive of the harvesting was 

 performed by one man and two small boys in 

 fourteen days and one half. I presented this 

 statement to the Worcester Agricultural Socie- 

 Ij, at their December meeting, and they award- 

 ed me a handsome premium and highly compli- 

 mented me for my novel experiment. It was 

 generally supposed that the strength of the land 

 was exhausted, that it would not produce any 

 thing faither unless it be very highly manured, 

 •which caused me to extend the experiment. 1 

 accordingly planted the same piece the pres- 

 ent season, in the same manner, except adding 

 a little more plaster, say a quarter more to the 

 hill. 



The same gentlemen who assisted me the 

 last season in measuring the corn assisted me 

 again, and we found by a careful and exact mea- 

 surement there were one hundred and two bush- 

 els lacking two quarts, making over fifty-three 

 bushels per acre. There are perhaps eight or 

 tea acres on thejop of the hill adjoinmg Ibat I 

 ploughed, which is so level, that it is very con- 

 venient workmg on it, which induces me the 

 next season lo sow this piece with oals and 

 grass seed, with a good coat of plaster, and 



plough up another piece and manage it in the 

 same way. 



1 now present the doings of both seasons lo 

 the Massachusetts Agricultural Society for their 

 consideration. AS.\ RICE, Jr. 



HENRY HOWE. 



Shrewsbury, Nov. 12, 1822. 



^'oTE. Wf. have taken the needfiil liberty of cur- 

 tailing Mr. Rice's letter. We hope without offence, 

 and we are sure we have not lessened its perspicuity 

 or usefulness. Editor. 



FOR THE NEW ESGLAAU FARMER. 



From a general view of the evidence and 

 arguments presented to the public by the Ho-i. 

 Mr. Pickering, on the host time for '■'■ fcUiug 

 trees for timber,'''' he appear* to have establish- 

 ed the important fact, beyond a reasonable 

 douht, that white oak limber, felled, or stripper' 

 in barking time, will be stronger, more com- 

 pact, and nearly twice as durable as timber fell- 

 ed in the winter season. The experiments ot 

 Mr. Poor, also, go far in confirming what i\Ir. 

 Pickering had proved. 



Can there be a doubt but the same means 

 which produced this extraordinary strength, 

 compactness, and consequent durability in oak, 

 would be productive of similar effects in pine, 

 and everv other sort of timber ? We can hard- 

 ly imagine a discovery of more importance to 

 every section of our country, than the certainty 

 that by merely felling their timber at a partic- 

 ular season of the year, their bridges, fences 

 and buildings of every kind, would last nearly 

 double the usual time. 



On a moderate calculation, it would cost the 

 inhabitants of Massachusetts more than six mil- 

 lions of dollars to renew all the shingles on the 

 roofs of their buildings. The shingles in use 

 arc cliicHy made of white pine, telled ia tho 

 winter, and are estimated on an average, to last 

 about twenty-five years. Hence the expense of 

 the annual wear and waste is no less than 

 ^250,000. If shingles made from white pine 

 stripped of its bark in .lune, would become so 

 compact, and unpassable to the wet, as to last 

 many years longer, the saving to the inhabi- 

 tants of Massachusetts alone, must be no less 

 than ^250,000 for every year beyond the time 

 they usually last. 



If any gentlemen conveniently situated, will 

 take on themselves the trouble of making a fair 

 experiment of the durability of pine shingles 

 made from trees stripped of their bark in June, 

 compared with common shingles made from 

 trees felled in the winter, and publish the re- 

 sult, they will certainly merit the gratitude of 

 their country. 



The highly respectable Mr. Cooper, late of 

 New Jersey, is said to have " pronounced with 

 great confidence, that oak and hickory trees 

 felled when their sap was vigorously flowing, 

 would not be attacked by worms, producing 

 what is called powder post." The cause of 

 this exemption from the depredation of worms, 

 is probably the same as that of its extra-durabil- 



Sir Humphrey Davy tells us in his " Ele- 

 ments of .'Vgncultural Chemistry," that " Mr. 

 Knight examined the alburnum in different 

 pole*; of oak in the same forest : of which some 

 bad been felled in winter, and others in sum- 

 mer ; and be always Ibund most soluble matter 

 in the wood, felled in the winter, and its specific 



gravity was likewise greaier.^^'* This being the 

 case with the albuninm, or sappy part of the 

 wood, there can be no doubt of a somewhat sim- 

 ilar difference in the heart part of the wood. — 

 The foregoing premises being admitted, we 

 may conclude that timber felled in uinter while 

 replete with inspissated sap, after being thor- 

 oughly seasoned, will, of consequence be found 

 easier to work, because more porous, or spongy 

 than that felled in summer, while the sap is both 

 scanty and limpid ; but the wood of the latter 

 soon becomes more hard, strong, and compact, 

 and consequently more durable : and will never 

 be bored by worms, because it contains no nour- 

 ishment for them. In timber felled in the win- 

 ter, a.f'ter being thoroughly seasoned, the essence 

 or saccharine matter of the sap, still remains in 

 it, a nutritious and palatable food for various 

 kinds of worms, both on laud and under water ; 

 and these worms evidently gain their living as 

 they progress, from the wood they reduce to 

 powder. The vessels of the winter-felled tim- 

 ber, so replete with sap when felled, are be- 

 lieved to continue open, and, like a sponge re- 

 main susceptible of imbibing water whenever 

 exposed, which inevitably produces fermenta- 

 tion and gradual decay. 



Speaking of timber stripped of its bark ia 

 June, SirH. Davy says :— "The reason of the 

 superiority of this timber is, that the concrete 

 sap is expended in the spring in the sprouting 

 of the leaf j and the circulation being destroy- 

 ed, it is not formed anew ; and the wood having 

 its pores free from saccharine matter, is less 

 liable to undergo fermentation from the action 

 of the moisture and air." From a view of the 

 testimony and argument adduced, in connection 

 with the mass of evidence before the public, 

 we may fairly conclude that the true cause of 

 the extraordinary durability of timber stripped, 

 or telled in barking time is this, tUat when sea- 

 soned it becomes so compact as to be imper- 

 vious to the wet : and also, that it remains se- 

 cure from the depredation of worms, because it 

 contains no saccharine matter for them to sub- 

 sist upon. J. KENRICIC 



* The subscriber is takin|; effectual meatsures for as- 

 certaining: the exact diiTerence between the ^ecific 

 gravity of various kinds of green timber, in the month 

 of February, and the latter end of June. The result 

 will probably be published. 



— w*v».*%*— 



Ants.— The Rev. Wm. Williamson, of West- 

 mere, near Canterbury, in England, communi- 

 cated an expeditious method of destroying Ants, 

 which may be easily adopted where those in- 

 sects become troublesome, or are injurious to 

 plants. He stops the holes at the bottom of 

 small pots, and places them inverted on the 

 spot frequented by these insects, which soon 

 take possession of the interior of the pots, and 

 may then be easily destroyed therein, by hot 

 water. The ground whereon the pots are pla- 

 ced, should be kept rather moist. There arc 

 two sorts of ants which are found in forcing 

 frames, the red and the black ; the former are 

 easily got rid of by introducing the large black 

 ant of the woods, which will leave the frames 

 when the red ants are destroyed, but they are 

 not able to overcome the latter: for the re- 

 moval of these, the above remedy has beec 

 efficacious. — 



To turn Wine into Vinegar in one hour. — Make 

 a thin round cake of the best rye flour and the 



