:i'M 



xNEAV ENGLAND FARMER. 



hatch about the 25th of May, and Ihiish about 

 the 10th of June. These uits produce white 

 unimalcola?, resembling a louse, 90 small thcv 

 arc hardly perceptible by the naked eye, which 

 jramodiatcly after they arc hatched, open the 

 passage at the aid of the blister, and crawl out 

 on the bark of the tree; and there remain with 

 but little motion, about ten days; when they 

 stick themselves fast to the bark of the tree 

 and die. From this little carcass arise a small 

 speck of blue mould, which is most plain to be 

 seen between the lOlh and 2t)th of .lune, and 

 continues about t!t"teen days, and then "radually 

 ■wears of, until the old carcass appears, which, 

 by this time is formed into a new blister, and 

 contains the spawns or nits before mentioned. 



'• These blisters prevent the circtdation of 

 sap, and prove as fatal to the tree as the canker 

 worm. 



" In order to remedy the difficulty, I have 

 made many experiments within a low years ; 

 but long to no good effect, not knowing then 

 the particular season when these nnimalculae 

 could be most easily destroyed. This, howev- 

 er, I have lately lound to be between the time 

 they hatch, and that when the moiiM leaves 

 them.* The application that I have found most 

 effectual is, washing the trees with lye or brine. 

 Lime, also, mixed with lye, to the consistence 

 of white wash, may be useful. And although 

 the small branches cannot be cleansed in this 

 manner without much difficulty, still, if the 

 body of the tree, and the branches near the 

 body are kept clean until there comes a rough 

 bark, 1 think the lice will not kill the tree, 



" Some people have recommended the ap- 

 plication o{ train oil to the tree, which, indeed, 

 is a powerful antidote against lice, but being of 

 a glutinous quality, is very detrimental to the 

 tree. Inoculation has been proposed ; which, I 

 think, will have no etfect at all on the lice ; 

 lor 1 perceive they hatch in May, on branches 

 that were piuned otT the tree in March, and the 

 sap entirely extinguished. 



" These lice are natural in the uncultivated 

 forest, on what is called moose-wood, and other 

 bushes. 



" Much care should be taken on their first 

 appearing in an orchard or nursery ; as the 

 cutting down and destroying a few young trees 

 is of no importance, compared with the dith- 

 culty of having an orchard overrun with thcni. 



'• P. S. The brine or pickle with which the 

 tree is to be washed, should not be such as has 

 Lad meat salted in it ; but let one quart of com- 

 mon salt be dissolved in two gallons of clean 

 water." 



LvDUN Corn. — It is time to begin to think 

 about planting this valuable grain. It is not 

 best, however, to commit your seed to the 

 g-round till it has been pretty well warmed and 

 dried by the advance of spring, which, this 

 year, is unusually backward. The old Indian 

 rule with regard to the time of planting, is to 

 plant when the leaves of the white oak tree 

 are about the size of a mouse's ear. This, we 

 believe, generally lakes ])lace, in New Eng- 

 land, between the 20th of Jlay and the lirst of 

 .'une. 



" If twenty loads of good manure can be af- 

 lorded to an acre, it should be spread on the 



* " It appears from this account, by Mr. Perley, that 

 these appearances can, in general, only occur bctwetn 

 May -ii, ana July 5." 



land and ploughed in ; if no more than half that 

 quantity, it will be best to put in holes. In the 

 former case the corn usually comes up better, 

 suffers less by drought and worms, and the land 

 is left in better order at"lcr the crop. In the 

 latter case the plants are more assisted in their 

 growth in proportion to the quantity of manure. 

 If the manure be new dung, burying it under 

 the furrows is by far the bettef method. None 

 but old dung should be put in the holes."* — 

 Probably the best way is to spread a quantity 

 of green or fresh manure over the ground as 

 evenly as possible, and put your well rotted or 

 compost manure into the hills. In this way the 

 rotted manure will supply nourishment to the 

 plants the first part of the season, and the fresh 

 manure, which was spread over the whole sur- 

 face, will assist the plants most materially about 

 the lime the ears are tilling. Col. Valentine, 

 in raising his premium crop (see page 178,) 

 spread his green barn yard manure over the 

 whole land, and likewise put another quantity 

 " of barn, hog, and slaughter yard manure"' in 

 the rows. In this way he raised 116 bushels 

 and 28 quarts of sound corn to the acre. 



If your land is rough or stony, and your ob- 

 ject is to make the most of your labor, your better 

 way will be to plant your corn in hills ; but if 

 the soil be rich and easy to till, and you wish 

 to make the most of your land, you will of course 

 choose the drill method ; or, perhaps, if your 

 object is to surpass every body, and get a pre- 

 mium into the bargain, you may as well take a 

 hint from the following paragraph, extracted 

 from an essay of Mr. lilack, published in the 

 American Farmer, vol. ii, p. 27. 



" I risque it as an opinion, confessedly with- 

 out any actual experiment to support it, that as 

 a matter of curiosity it might be possible to make 

 some fraction of an acre of ground so deep and 

 perfect in its soil as to produce, and maintain 

 to maturity, one stock of Indian corn upon eve- 

 ry twenty-four inches of square surface. If so, 

 and ive allow one good ear to each stalk, and 

 half a pint of grain to each ear, the product 

 would be about at the rate of one hundred and 

 sixty-eight bushels to the acre." 



It ap|)ears that this conjecture has been more 

 than realized. Messrs. J. & M. Pratt, of Easton, 

 Madison county, N. Y. raised the last season, on 

 one acre, one hundred and sevcniy-txao bushels and 

 one fourth ; and on three acres, lour hundred 

 and ninety-four bushels and one fourth.! We 

 have seen no statement of the particular mode 

 of cultivation adopted by the Messrs. Pratt's ; 

 but can have no doubt that in order to obtain 

 the greatest possible crop of Indian corn, (as 

 well as any other vegetable) it will be neces- 

 sary that every plant should stand by itself — 

 that ail the plants should be equi-distant from 

 each other, and perhaps two feet each way 

 would, in that mode of planting, be the distance 

 required for the purpose stated. In that man- 

 ner of planting, however, the cultivator must 

 forego the advantage of using the plough to 

 lessen the labor of hoeing, and probably for 

 tieid cultivation the common modes of planting 

 in drills, or in hills, will be most expedient. 



* Ueane's New England l^irmcr. 

 i See page 1)7 of this paper. 



Coal diseorered. — A bed of coal of superior quality 

 lias been discovered on the farm of Mr. Teal, situated 

 at Kinderhook, on the Uudsou river. 



ON MIXING LIME WITH MANURE. 



Our paper No. 39, page 306, contains a communica- 

 tion from a correspondent, dated Livermore, Maine, in 

 which is the following query : " Would it not confer a 

 favor on your patrons, if some one who is acquainted 

 wilh the use and operation of lime, would communicate 

 through the medium of your paper, the manner and 

 the quantity [of lime] which should be mixed with a 

 load of green manure, and also how long after the 

 mixture before the straw and stubble will be decom- 

 posed and fit for use ?" 



As none of our correspondents have obliged us with 

 an answer to this question we will state what wr learn 

 from books relating to this subject, premising that we 

 have no knowledge of it derived from personal expe- 

 rience. 



In a paper first published in the Memoirs of the Phi- 

 hdtifihia Agricultural Society, entitled " Notices for a 

 Young Farmer," which is ascribed to the Hon. Judge 

 Peters, of Pennsylvania, (than whom no one stands 

 highrr on the roll of American agriculttirists) we have 

 the following directions and assertions : 



" Mix earlh with your fermenting litter or muck 

 rather than lime, until the fermentation be sufficiently 

 advanced." " Plaster, in compost in which vegetable 

 matter is mixed, is more beneficial than lime." Again 

 he says, " Mix no hot lime with your muck, dung, or 

 compost heap before fermentation has ceased, or suffi- 

 ciently advanced, as it injures moderate fermentation, 

 and often consumes the muck. Instances of even con- 

 flagration of strawy muck, by hot lime, to a great ex- 

 tent, can be given. If lime be used, that which is 

 slacked is safest and best, when mixed with eithet 

 dun» or compost." 



The same opinions are expressed by other authors. 

 The writer of the article "Compost," in Rees' Cycio- 

 pedin, directs, in making composts, to interpose a layci 

 of earth between every layer of dung and of lime. We 

 should think that in all cases where the manure i: 

 combuslil)le, qvick lime would injure if not destroy it. 

 and we do not see why a cultivator may not as well 

 burn a straw or muck heap with hoi coals as with hot 

 lime. 



We will here subjoin one other quotation from the 

 work of Judge Peters, above quoted, which, though it 

 does not directly apply to the question stated by out 

 coiTesponuent, may be of use. 



*' Nochiuf require! more attention to the nature and 

 qualities of your soil than the use of time. If it be toe 

 lavishly applied, or too frequently repeated without 

 intervals of grass to furnish vegetable matter ; or ma- 

 nures, either animal or vegetable, ploughed in for th€ 

 lime (according to the country phraseology) to feed 

 on, it renders your ground lime sick, and reduces it tc 

 sterility. Our caustic lime must be applied in quanti- 

 ties very far less than the mdd lime of Europe, if wi 

 would avoid turning a highly beneficial auxiliary intc 

 a destructive scourge. No certain rules, as to quan- 

 tity per acre, can be fi.ted, without a perfect knowl 

 edge of the soil to which it is to be applied. In all 

 cases, moderate quantities, at first, are the safest. Ou» 

 common lime is here meant ; as much depends on th« 

 kind of lime applied. It must therefore be the studj 

 of those who apply lime, to discover its composition, 

 what is called its strength, before they can form a cor 

 rect opinion of its salutary or injurious uses. It would 

 seem, that the mild lime had some fertilizing qualitiej 

 in itself, otherwise the lavish use of it, whereof wi 

 read, cannot be accounted for. The lime of burnt 

 oyster shells, is mild ; and laud of any tolerable stapli 

 will bear great quantities beyond the proper illowance^ 

 to the acre of caustic lime. Many other instances mighjl 

 be Rdduced. BoOi large and small quantities operaH 



