NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



405 



t is not perhaps generally considered, that 

 ses are subject to colds and fevers as really 

 nen. They should therefore be used with 

 at tenderness and delicacy, and often ivashed 

 ;old water. The pulse generally indicates 

 health of a horse. It may be felt about an 

 h back of the eye, and in health beats about 

 strokes in a minute. 



The great secret in making horses look well 

 I do well is attention to them. Men who 

 ! above looking to their horses, will seldom 

 e good ones. 



In using horses it is better to drive briskly 

 i stop often than to drive even slowly by long 

 ges. 



JEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



SATURDAY, JULY 19, 1823. 



Fanner's and Gardener''s Remembrancer. 



JULY. 



Hakvest. — Much has been said and written 

 the proper time to harvest wheat. It is 

 iw generally agreed that it is better to cut 

 heat rather betore it is ripe, and not wait till 

 e whole becomes uniformly yellow. A writer 

 . the Memoirs of the Board of Agriculture of 

 lie State of New York, observes that " a great 

 jal of waste attends wheat, when it is permit- 

 id to become ripe before it is cut ; in cutting, 

 inding, pitching, loading, and carrying home, 

 )me will shell out ; and it is a very common 

 ling a fortnight after harvest, to see a field as 

 lickly covered with young plants as if it had 

 een sown over again; in this manner a couple 

 f bushels to the acre are lost, without taking 

 ito the account that which has not sprouted. 

 iy cradling it a little before it is ripe, if the 

 rain is not quite, as plump, which generally it 

 fould be, at least it is compensated by savin''- 

 hat part of it which would have been wasied ; 

 t IS got in in mm h cleaner condition, a;;! ti .: 

 traw IS in a better situation eilher for foJdcr 

 )r other purposr-s. It shouJd be left as it is 

 :radle^ twenty-four or forty-eight liours, ac- 

 ording to the weather, as being more exposed 

 to the sun and air, it will cure more perfectly 

 than if imraediately put into sheaves. This is 

 very essentird to be observed, for when put by 

 in a damp situation, mouldiness is sure to take 

 place, and it is diminished in value both for 

 sale and for use." 



Some recommend to make the bands for wheat 

 in the moruing early, while the dew renders 

 the straw pliable, wluch may be well when the 

 grain has been suffered to stand till it has be- 

 come very ripe. It may likewise be well In 

 bind your sheaves, when the straw is brittle, 

 towards evening, as a small degree of moisture 

 ■will not only make the straw tougher, but in 

 some degree prevent the shelling of the grain. 

 When wheat or rye is blasted or mildewed it 

 should be cut immediately, though still in the 

 milk. It may lie on the ground till the straw is 

 sufficiently dried, and the grain is in some de- 

 gree hardened. But care should be taken that 

 it be spread thin. Dr. Deane observed that 

 " the beads should lie so as not to touch the 

 ground ; which may be easily done if the reap- 

 ers will only take care to lay the top end of 

 each handful on the lower end of the preceding 

 one." 



Rye may be reaped as soon as the straw is 

 all turned, except at the joints, and immediately 



belcv the ear has become so dry that no sap 

 can be forced out by twisting it ; and the kernel 

 has lecome so hard that you cannot well break 

 or mash it between your thumb and linger. 



" tVbeat and other grain that is lodged, may, 

 and ought to be cut the earlier ; for after the 

 strau is broken or corrupted, it conveys no 

 noniishment to the grain, or as bad as none. 



" The ancients reaped their corn, as Pliny 

 says before it was fully ripe. And it is certain 

 that great inconveniences arise from letting 

 some sorts of grain stand till they come to their 

 utmjst maturity. The chaff and straw are the 

 worse for fodder. And if such corn chance to 

 tak( wet in harvesting it suffers more for being 

 ter; ripe. But grain cut in a greener state 

 will bear a good deal of wet without damage."* 

 Butif wheat be intended for seed (as we shall 

 shov hereafter) it should not be cut till quite 

 ripe 



L)oK TO vouR Gardens, Nurseries, Orchards, 

 &c.— We are not a little apprehensive that in 

 conjequence of the hurry of hay time and har- 

 vest your garden, orchard, &lc. have not com- 

 manled a sufficient share of j'our attention. In 

 order to destroy wasps, ants, &,c. you should 

 hanf up, or place glass phials, filled with honey 

 or sigar water in such parts of j'our premises 

 as are most exposed and most liable to their 

 depredations. But these contrivances tor de- 

 btrojing insects should be made use of before 

 [the "ruit begins to ripen, otherwise the plun- 

 derers will prefer the fruit to your bait, and 

 shuD the road to their ruin. Hoe the ground 

 aboTit your fruit trees, flowering shrubs, &,c. of 

 all descriptions, that the weeds may not rob 

 thcin of the nutriment which they would other- 

 pise derive from the earth. Cut off all suckers 

 and sprouts which spring from thj roots of the 

 Irees. " Pick off all punctured and decaying 

 sruits, nn<l gfivo tliem to hogs; also siiich as have 

 filleo in that state from the trees ; lor tlie worms 

 that are in these fruil«, which have been the 

 ciuse of their decline, will soon arrive at their 

 ty or winged state, and attack the remaining 

 i'uit."t Or where it can be done without in- 

 ury to any crop it would be of use to turn pigs 

 nto an orchard, to eat the fallen and decayed 

 Vuit, and thus destroy the insects contained in 

 such fruit. If any of the branches of any spe- 

 .ies of fruit tree appear to be overloaded with 

 ruit, they should be not only propped up, so as 

 prevent their being broken down, but it will 

 jften be found advisable to pick off by hand a 

 part of the fruit, in order to give more room 

 :br the remainder. This process is more par- 

 ■.icularly necessary for peach and nectarine 

 trees, in favorable seasons, but sometimes will 

 be serviceable for apple trees, cspeciallv such 

 ;is are young. Some people will consider this 

 a Tery disagreeable task, both on account of 

 casting away so much fruit, which they might 

 think would do very well, and also on account 

 of the time spent in performing the work; but 

 this is a mistake, as the loss in number will be 

 more than repaid by the size, flavor, and ex- 

 cellence of the remaining part; and besides, 

 the trees will be preserved in health and vigor 

 for the production of future crops."| 



When trees are suffered to bear a superabun- 

 dant crop, the extraordinary efforts made to 

 support their too numerous ofispring^, often so 



* Georgical Dictionary. 

 t M'Mahon. 



exhaust them as to bring on diseases of which 

 they frequently do not recover for at least two 

 or three years ; and sometimes always remain 

 weakly and stunted. 



Coi.LiTTixG Seed?. — Great improvements mav 

 be made by selecting seeds from the earliest, 

 most vigorous and thrifty plants. Even wheat 

 for seed has been picked from the field by such 

 single heads as were most forward, vigorous, 

 large, and filled with the most plump and sound 

 berry ; and in that way a gradual improvement 

 of the kind may be introduced. If we were 

 about to purchase garden seeds, we should wish 

 to be infiirmed in what neighborhood, or fra- 

 ternity of other vegetables they grew. Differ- 

 ent sorts of plants of the same or a similar spe- 

 cies, impart to each other their respective qua- 

 lities. Thus if the genuine ruta baga grew 

 near the common turnip, or turnip cabbage, the 

 seeds of the former will have in part the pe- 

 culiarities of the latter, and vice versa. If a 

 mangel wurtzel root, intended for seed, has 

 grown near a plant of the common kind of beet 

 which has likewise gone to seed, the seeds of 

 each plant will partake in some degree of the 

 qualities of the otlier. You should never save 

 seeds from such water-melons, musk-melons, 

 squashes, cucumbers, pumpkins, gourds, Sic. as 

 have grown near each other, unless in your 

 crop from such seeds you would like to have 

 melons which have somewhat of the flavor of 

 squashes, cucumbers which taste a little like 

 pumpkins, and pumpkins not much sweeter 

 than gourds. There can be no cross between 

 a cabbage and a carrot ; but there can be be- 

 tween a cabbage and a turnip ; between a cab- 

 bage and a cauliflower nothing is more com- 

 mon, and the different kinds of cabbages will 

 produce crosses presenting twenty, and perhaps 

 a thousand degrees, from the Early York to the 

 Savoy. Turnips will mix with radishes and 

 ruta baga ; all these with rape ; the result will 

 mix with cabbages and cauliflowers ; so that if 

 nothing were done to preserve plants true to 

 their kind, our gardens would soon present us 

 with little besides mere herbage. To save the 

 seed of two sorts of any tribe, in the same gar- 

 den in the same year ought not to be attempt- 

 ed ; and this it is that makes it diSicult for any 

 one man to raise all sorts of seeds good and 

 true.* 



Seeds should stand till quite ripe, should then 

 be gathered when dry. If when threshed or 

 shelled any moisture remains attached to them 

 they should be dried in the sun, or near a fire. 

 They are best kept in a room where there ie 

 occasionally at least, a fire in the winter. They 

 are most securely kept in the pods or on the 

 stalks, but this is sometimes inconvenient and 

 often impracticable, unless it be for such as are 

 very valuable, very curious, and lie in a small 

 compass. Mr. Cobbett says that great care is 

 necessary to avoid the use of unripe seed. — 

 " Even in hot weather, when the seed would 

 drop out, if the plants were left standing, pull, 

 or cut the plants, and lay them on a cloth in 

 the sun, till the seed be all ready to fall out ; 

 for, if forced from the pod, the seed is never 

 so good. Seeds will gro-w if gathered when 

 ihey are green as gr:'.ss, and afterwards dried 

 in the sun ; but they do not produce plants like 

 those coming from ripe seed. 1 tried L'ome years 

 ago, fifty grains of wheat, gathered green, 



tibid. 



* American Gardener. 



