NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 





349 



) the best sweet tnr'ats and cream that can li- 

 ad, and I doubt not some there are who wonW 

 link the same, were they eqaally to make the 

 iiil. 1 have been induced to write the prc- 

 edin"'. A MissnpRi farmf.r's wife. 



A GREAT CONVENIENCE tOR GOOD HOUSEWIVES. 



Daniel Richardson, an ingenious and respect- 

 ble mechanic, has brous^ht to great perfection 

 ae Refrigerator, or Portable Ice House. Go"k1 

 ousewives can only calculate the many useful 

 od economical purposes to which this contriv- 

 nce may be applied. The improvements made 

 y Mr. Richardson, have so far perfected the 

 tefrigerator, that it may now be fully relied 

 pon for keeping butter, milk, meat, eggs, fruit. 

 egetables, or nny article of household consump- 

 on, perfectly cool, tresh and pure. All tht 

 bove named articles may be preserved in these 

 lachines as long as desirable, perfectly sweet, 

 '■^lean and free from taint. The Refrigerator 

 lay be deposited in the cellar, in the garret. 

 1 any part of the house, or even in the opei. 

 an, without any perceptible injury to the con- 

 jnts ; it does not require to be replenisheJ 

 /ith ice, more than once in three days, during 

 r»e hottest season ; and it is attended with ano- 

 aer advantage — complete security against ev- 

 ry species of vermin, to whioh it is totally in- 

 ccessible, and in winter it will keep any article 

 •om freezing, that is deposited in if. Every 

 imily ought to have one — the price is from 

 15 to ^25, according to size — and the manu- 

 ictory is in East street, Baltimore. — ibid. 



I 'VEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



SATURDAY, MAY 31, 1823. 



The Farmers and Gardener's Remembrancer. 

 JUNE. 



Field cclture of Cabbages. — Mr. A. Young 

 IS observed that Cabbages " flourish to very 

 reat protit on all goed soils, and have the par- 

 cular property to enable the farmers of clays 

 id wet loams, to winter more cattle than those 

 r lighter lands can effect, by means of that ex- 

 •llent root, the turnip. The great evil of clay 

 irms used to be the want of green winter food, 

 hich confined their stocks to hay alone, .ind 

 JDsequently prevented their reaping those ex- 

 !nded articles of profit that arise from Humer- 

 us heads of cattle; and, besides the immediate 

 enefit from the cattle, they lost also the op- 

 ortunily of raising large quantities of dung, 



hich can never be effected so well as bykeep- 

 ig cattle. But all these evils are by the cab- 

 age culture remedied." There is another ad- 

 antage attending cabbages which make them 

 ighly eligible on all farms, which is their last- 

 ig lor sheep tbod longer in the spring. Ruta 

 aga, together with some sorts of cabbages, 

 re in perfection in April, and last even to the 

 liter part of May, the most pinching period of 

 le year. Turnips, it is said, will not last so 

 )ng. 



The author of " Practical Agriculture" ad- 

 ises, that " as the roots of the plants run deep 

 od stand in need of a large portion of nourish- 

 lent, the soil should be well loosened to a good 

 eplh. As near as possible to the time of plant- 

 ig, the ground should be well harrowed over, 

 u ad a suitable proportion of good stable manure 

 J, pplied, as from fifteen to twenty-three horse 

 jjiji art loads to the acre ; or where composts are 



made use of, from twenty to thirty." We have 

 lieen told by a gentleman, who says he speaks 

 I'rom eApcriencc, that ashes, lime, and plaster 

 of- paris, mixed with stable or other manure, 

 and spread on land designed for cabbages, will 

 prevent a disease in the plant called the fumble 

 loot, in which the roofs swell and become knob- 

 by, and the plant attains but a small and imper- 

 'ect growth. Cabbages are said to grow well 

 in drained swamps, without any manure. Hog 

 manure is recommended by Dr. Deane, but we 

 have been informed that it is apt to harbor in- 

 sects and cause the fumble foot, unless it is 

 mixed with lime or ashes. 



Some drop the seeds in the hills where the 

 cabbages are to grow, by which means they 

 escape the trouble of transplanting, a process 

 in which they are in some measure stinted. — 

 .Mr. Bordloy relates an experiment, in which he 

 "• compared cabbages transplanted with others 

 no; once moved. The unmoved grew, and were 

 better than the moved.'''' Dr. Deane, on the 

 contrary, declares, " I have tried both ways, 

 and on the whole I prefer transplanting." Mr. 

 Cobbett says, that " to have fne cabbages of 

 any sort, they must be tvjice transplanted. First 

 they should be taken from the seed bed, (where 

 they have been sown in beds near to each other) 

 and put out into fresh dug well broken ground, 

 at six inches apart every way. This is called 

 pricking out. By standing here about fifteen or 

 twenty days, they get straight, and stand strong, 

 erect, and have a strait and slouf stem. Out of 

 this plantation they come nW of a size ; the roots 

 of all are in the same state, and they strike 

 quicker into the ground where they stand tor a 

 crop." The expense and trouble of this opera- 

 tion (even if there are no other objections to it) 

 will probably prevent its general adoption in 

 the United States. Rees' Cyclopedia informs 

 that "another practice adopted by the late Mr. 

 Bakewell, and since employed by other culti- 

 vators, by which the inconvenience of waiting 

 for a suitable moist time for setting out the I 

 plants, and the danger of their not succeeding: 

 under other circumstances, are avoided, is that j 

 of drilling the seed in where the plants are to ■ 

 remain at the proper seasons, as April, May or^ 

 June, and the following month." We do not| 

 believe there would exist any necessity for' 

 transplanting cabbages, in order to make the 

 stems " straight and stout," according to Mr. { 

 Cobbett's directions, if the plants were not ori- 

 ginally sown too thick, or were properly thin- 

 ned at an early period of their growth. An 

 English writer says, "■ Much injury frequently 

 arises to young cabbage plants from the seed 

 being sown too thick ; care should therefore be 

 taken to have them properly thinned out when- 

 ever the}' come up in too thick a manner." — 

 Probably if the plants were sowed in the hills 

 where they are intended to grow for a crop, 

 and thinned out in due season, they would grow 

 as straight and as stout as if they had been sev- 

 eral times transplanted. 



Mr. Francis Winship, of Brighton, Mass. in 

 the year 1820, raised thirty-two tons and two 

 hundred weight of cabbages from one acre of 

 land. The following is his account of the mode 

 of its culture : — " The land on'which the cab- 

 bages grew, is the same on which the plough- 

 ing match took place in the year 1817, was 

 cultivated with corn and potatoes in the year 

 1C18, and with potatoes in the year 1&19. — 



This last spring it was ploughed once. In June 

 it was ploughed again, and struck into furrows 

 from 21 to 3 feet apart. I then dropi>od leach- 

 ed ashes into the furroavs, one shovel full mak- 

 ing 3 or 4 hills 15 or 20 inches apart; it was 

 then mixed with the loam and covered; a bov 

 followed with the seed, and penetrated the hiil 

 with his thumb and finger, and deposited three 

 or four seeds. This was performed the latter 

 part ef June. They were afterwards weeded 

 and thinned as convenience suited, probably 

 equal to three dressings."* This would have 

 been called a large crop in England, where 

 twenty-five tons to an acre is considered an av- 

 erage crop. 



Although it might be as well, perhaps, to sow 

 the seeds of cabbages where the plants are ex- 

 pected to obtain their growth, yet as transplant- 

 ing them is most customary, and in some cases 

 most expedient, it may not be amiss to give 

 some observations on this mode of cultivating 

 this vegetable. Mr. Cobbett has the following 

 directions for conducting this process : 



" Dig the plants up, that is, loosen the ground 

 under them with a spade, to prevent their being 

 stripped too much of their roots. The setting 

 stick should be the upper part of a spade or 

 shovel handle. The eye of the spade is the 

 handle of the stick. From the bottom of the 

 eye to the point of the stick should be about 

 nine inches in length. The stick should not be 



tape 



but nearly of equal thickness all the 



way down to within an inch and an half of the 

 point, where it must be tapered off to the point. 

 If the wood be cut away all round to the thick- 

 ness of a dollar, and imn put round in its stead, 

 it makes a very complete tool. The iron be- 

 comes bright, and the earth does not adhere t» 

 if, as it docs to wood. Having the plant in on^ 

 hand, and the stick in the otiier, make a hole 

 suitable to the root that it is to receive. Put 

 in the root in such way as that the earth, when 

 pressed in, will be on a level with the buff-endg 

 of the lower, or outward leaves of the plant. 

 Let the plant be rather higher than lower thao 

 this ; for care must be taken not to put the 

 plant so low as for the earth to fall, or be wash- 

 ed into the heart of the plant, nor even into the 

 inside of the bottom leaves. The stem of a 

 cabbage, and stems of all the cabbage kind, send 

 out roofs from all the parts of them that are put 

 beneath the surface of the ground. It is good, 

 therefore, to plant as deep as you can without 

 injury to the leaves. The next consideration 

 is the fastening of the plant in the ground. The 

 hole is made deeper than the length of the root, 

 but the root should not be bent at the point if 

 it can be avoided. Then, while one hand holds 

 the plant, with its roof in the hole, the other 

 hand applies the setting stick to the earth on 

 one side of the hole, the stick being held in 

 such a way as to form a sharp triangle with the 

 plant. Then pushing the stick down so that 

 its point go a little deeper than the point of the 

 root, and giving it a little t-ji'ist, it presses the 

 earth against the point or bottom of the root. 

 And thus all is safe, and the plant is sure to 

 grow. The general, and almost universal fault 

 is, that the planter, when he has put the root 

 into the hole, draws the earth up against the 

 upper part of the roof, and if be press pretty 

 well there, be thinks that the plant is well 

 done. But it is the point of the root agaioat 



* Mvs. Agricultural Repository, vol. vi, p. 25T.. 



