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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



THE FARMER. 



liOSTO.Y .—S.iTi'RD./li\ APRIL 5. 11323. 



Tlte t'armer^s and Gardenern Remembrancer. 

 APRIL. 



Fenxe."!. — As soon as possible put your fences 

 in thorough rejnilr. Some farmers bav-c a knack ! 

 nt teaching their cattle to jump over or shove ! 

 down fences. They begin witli a «( ak fence, 

 three rails high perhaps, or thereabouts. As 

 soon as their cattle have learnt to leap over or 

 throw down such a fence they add another rail, 

 and now and then a prop or a stake, which the 

 atiimals soon learn to " make nothing of."' The 

 farmer then does what he ought to have done • 

 in the first instance, makes a good/ic-rufi fence. | 

 But his cattle, having by this time found out j 

 their own strength and agility, are not to be stop- 

 ped by such trifles, and if they do not become 

 quite so nimble as the " cow that leaped over the 

 moon," and as hard to confine as Baron Trenck, 

 they take all occa^ns to show how badly they 

 nere brought up, and their owner looses prop- 

 erty as well as credit by his neglect of early 

 discipline. 



E.4RLV PoTATOF.s. — The best time to plant po- 

 tatoes for winter's use, feeding stock, &.c. is said 

 to be about the latter end of May, or the first of 

 .'une ; but it would be good economy, generally 

 speaking, to plant an early sort on early ground 

 to feed your hogs, before your Indian corn is 

 ripe. You may thus, perhaps, get tiie start of 

 your neighbors, and bring your pigs to a better 

 because an earlier market. Plant the earliest 

 sort for this purpose ; some say the English 

 Whites (as they are called) are best, and will 

 do to dig in July. Every farmer, no doubt, 

 diinks he knows how to plant potatoes without 

 our advice. However, it can do him no harm 

 to attend to what we have to say upon the sub- 

 ject, and if he pleases he may take his own way 

 afterwards in spite of us. 



As good and as expeditious a way as any for 

 putting the seed into the ground is as follows : 

 *' After the ground is prepared, by ploughing 

 and harrowing, cut furrows with the horse 

 plough, forty inches apart ; drop the sets in the 

 I'urrows ; then pass the plough along the back 

 of each furrow, which will throw the earth of 

 both furrows upon the sets ; and afterwards lev- 

 el the ground with the back of a harrow, or 

 with a harrow that has short tines if you will; 

 but it is of no great consequence whether it be 

 levelled at all. Another method of planting if, 

 to plough the ground plain, keeping the fur- 

 rows straight and regular, and drop sets in eve- 

 ry third or fourth furrow.'"* 



A writer in the American Farmer, vol. i, p. 

 151, recommends a similar process in plnnting, 

 but prefers havmg the rows but three feet, and 

 the seeds containmg one eye, or two at the 

 most, eight inches apart, in the rows, and each 

 cutting or seed should weigh about the third of 

 an ounce avoirdupois. At this rate an acre will 

 require about 15 bushels of seed. If the ground 

 be rich enough without manure, the furrow for 

 the row need not be more than four inches deep, 

 otherwise it ought te be six. In dry sandy lan(l 

 put the si'cd under the manure; if otherwise, 

 put it on the top. 



With regard to the choice of seed potatoes, 

 their size, i.c. the following remarks appear to 



* Dcine'a N. E. Farojer, p. 347 ; Wells & Lilly's «d. 



US correct. "• Some economists begin by paring 

 the potatoe, and planting only the skins; others 

 less saving, cut the potatoes into slices, leaving 

 a single eye to each slice ; and a third class, al- 

 most as provident as the other two, are careful 

 to pick out the dwarl's, and reasonable enough 

 to ex])ect a progeny of giants. These practices 

 cannot be too much censured, or too soon aban- 

 doned, because directly opposed both by reason 

 and experience. In other cases, we take great 

 pains, and sometimes incur great expense, to 

 obtain the best seed. In the cultivation of wheat 

 we reject all small, premature, worm eaten, or 

 otherwise imperfect grains ; in preparing for a 

 crop of Indian corn, we select the best ears, and 

 even strip from these the small or ill-shaped 

 grains at the end of the cob; so also in planting 

 beets, carrots, parsnips and turnips, the largest 

 and finest are selected for seed. The reason 

 of all this is obvious. Plants, like animals, are 

 rendered most perfect, by selectmg the finest 

 individuals of the species from which to breed 

 Away, then, with such miserable economy, and 

 instead of planting skin'^, or slices, or dwarfs, 

 take for seed the best and largest potatoes ; 

 those having in themselves the most aliment for 

 the young plants ; place them in your furrows 

 ten or twelve inches apart, and cover them 

 carefully with earth."* 



The opinions of the writer above, quoted co 

 incide with facts as developed by many experi 

 ments which we have heard or read of, parti- 

 cularly with those made by a gentleman of 

 Ryegnte, V't. and detailed in the New England 

 P'armer, No. 7, p. 53. By these it appeared 

 that " large potatoes are much better for seed 

 than small ones, and that it is better to cut them 

 than to plant them whole," and that the middle 

 parts of potatoes used for seed will produce bet- 

 ter crops, other things being equal, than the 

 ends. 



P^rom an experiment made by a farmer in the 

 employ of the Hon. Josiah Q.uincy, the particu- 

 lars of which are given in the Mass. Agricul- 

 tural Repository, vol. v, p. 64, it appears that 

 the product of certain rows, planted with ichole 

 potatoes, exceeded an equal extent of adjoining 

 rows, planted with cut potatoes more than one 

 third. This is very different from the result of 

 the experiments of the gentleman who sent us 

 the communication from Ryegate, above refer- 

 red to. We are not able to conjecture what 

 could be the cause of this difference; but we 

 should apprehend that seme disadvantage might 

 accrue from cutting potatoes in consequence of 

 the juice of the potatoe being wasted through 

 the wounds. Mr. M'Mahon advises to cut the 

 potatoes " a week before planting, in order that 

 the wounds should have time to form a dry crust, 

 for if planted at this season immediately after 

 being cut, they would imbibe too much mois- 

 ture, many of them rot, and the rest be greatly 

 weakened thereby." The Farmer's Assistant 

 says that wetting seed potatoes, and then rolling 

 them in Plaister of Paris, immediately before 

 planting, greatly assists the crop. 



It should seem by some experiments detailed 

 in the Pennsylvania Farmer, and quoted in the 

 FarnierV Manual, page 55, that large potatoes 

 cut into sets or pieces, with two eyes each, pro- 

 duce more when set at nine inches distance iu 



the rows (being planted according to the dril' 

 method) than at six or twelve inches distance. 



Coarse manure answers best for potatoes.— 

 Fallen leaves taken from the woods are reconi 

 mended by a correspondent ot the Bath Societ 

 in England. This kind of manure, says th 

 writer, causes potatoes to be much more meal 

 and of a finer flavor than when they are pre 

 duced by the application of ashes or dung.- 

 There are many farms where rotten leaves, an 

 the soil which is made by their decay, may be ol 

 tained in great quantities, and at a very triflii; 

 expense. Dry straw, damaged hay, &,c. .iij 

 said to be fully equal for potatoes to the betji 

 rotted dung. Indeed, on some accounts, stra»l' 

 hay, kc. are to be preferred as they give pota ■ 

 toes of the best quality, and equal in quantit 

 to rotten manure from the dunghill. Dry straw 

 cut with a machine, would probably be equa 

 to any manure for potatoe.s. 



A Liritish writer gives the following rules rel " 

 ative to the management of seed potatoes, &c ^, 

 which we think worthy of being submitted ti '„ 

 our practical farmers. 1. "The jwtatoes fO' 

 seed should be kept in a separate pit, whicll.j 

 should never be opened, until the time whei 

 the potatoes are to be cut into sets : for if veg 

 etaiion commences any time before the pota 

 toes are to be planted, it is apt to occasion Ih 

 curl. 2. The sets should be placed .ibout a foo 

 separate from each other. 3. Many crops ari 

 spoiled from being planted too deep in th' 

 ground. This ought carefully to be avoided." 



We do not insist upon the farmer's plantin; 

 his potatoes in the drill method, especially i 

 his land be rough, stony, or hard to cultivate 

 In such case the old mode of planting in bill 

 IS probably preferable. But in a rich, mellov 

 soil, the drill method is undoubtedly best. Di ^ 

 De.me observed as follows — " One of my neigh 

 'tors planted in his garden, drills and rows c 

 hills alternately of equal length, and equalf 

 manured ; when he dug them he found th< [,1 

 drill rows produced twice as much as the othei 

 It is not more labor to lay the dung in drills 

 than in hills ; and the labor of hoeing is not m 

 creased. t 



51 



* System? of Husbandry in Scotland, vol. i, p. 428'. 

 t Deane's N. E. Farmer, p. 226 ; Wells & Lilly's ed 



t Treatise on Agriculture, first published iu the Al- 

 bauy Argus. 



MR. OSBORN'S POEMS. 



We have this day published the proposals of Mr 

 Selleck Osborn, for printing, by subscription, a Collec- 

 tion of Poems. We have seen some specimens of thai 

 gentleman's poetry which induce us to entertain a fa- 

 vorable opinion ofhis powers as a poet. What we have 

 perused have appeared from time to time in newspa- 

 pers, and W'j were pleased with them. We considered 

 them as correct, moral, aud sentimental effusions, ex- 

 hibiting the inspiration of the genuine Bard, divested 

 of that wilJucss and eccentricity which characterize 

 the productions of many modern British lyrists, who 

 too frequently in search of sublimity bid adieu to com- 

 mon sense, aud resemble more 



" A wild goose lost in hazy weather," 

 than a genuine bird of Jove, soaring to meet the sum 

 iu the midst of the Empyrean. 



It is true we have heretolbrc been pitted against Mr. 

 Osborn in political contests, but we have long since 

 laid down the weapons of our warfare; and besides, 

 we hojpe we resemble — so far as candor is concerned— 

 the critic mentioned by Pope, 



" Who to a friend his faults can freely show, 

 And gladly praise the merits of a foe." 



We wish Mr. Osborn success, and hope the American 

 public will t.ike this opportunity to -wipe away a staud- 

 in? theme of reproach from foreigaers, thait nobody 

 reads or buys aa American book. 



