414 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



*' In farm yards, where there is an opportunity 

 of making cattle, horse, and hoij dung, it is al- 

 wa^'S to be preferreil. as tlie one corrects tlie 

 defects of the other, and prevents the ferment- 

 ing process from going too rapidly forward. — 

 These substances should be laid slralmn super 

 stratum, [one layer above another] which can 

 easily be done every day, when the stable*, 

 cow house?, and hog styes are cleaned out. If 

 a little eartii can be put between each stiatum, 

 so much the better." Even in your pastures, 

 if you have plenty of help, or boys who run the 

 risk of being idle, it will be best, especially 

 near watering places, places where your cattle 

 are sailed, &c. to gather tVequcntly their drop- 

 pings into little heaps, and cover them with 

 earth, or sods of grass, with the grass side 

 down. The whole may be carted to your large 

 manure heaps, compost beds, stcrcoraries, &.c. 

 or applied, if sudiciently rotted or fermented, 

 to your grass ground, as a top dressing in au- 

 tumn. This ivould be what we call neat fann- 

 ing, and a slovenly farmer will not thrive. 



Do NOT FOHCET TO GIVE SaI.T TO VOIR CaTTI-E, 



Horses .4nd Sheep. — One would think that for- 

 eign writers had not, till within a few years, 

 been aware of the use of salt as an article in 

 the diet of domestic animals. Sir John Sinclair 

 (Code of .Agriculture, page 56) mentions it as 

 somelliiug remarkable, that "in America, salt 

 is given to cows, oxen, horses and to'lieep, but 

 not to pigs." He also says that " lumps of rock 

 salt might be kept in troughs, protected against 

 the eflects of rain in the lieids, by covers, but 

 accessible to sheep or cattle." It appears that 

 a patent has been obtained by Messrs. IMartin 

 and Co. in England, for a peculiar mode of pre- 

 paring salt in large cakes, by which it is ren- 

 dered less liable to melt and waste by rain than 

 common salt. It is recommended to allow 

 calves, especially, to have constant access to 

 tine salt, to be kept in a trough near them, sep- 

 arate from their other food. It is said that it 

 prevents and cures the rot and flukes in sheep ; 

 and prevents injury to stock by moist feed. 

 Likewise, when horses are alflicted with saliva- 

 tion, or a running of saliva Irom their mouths, 

 salt will mitigate if not cure their complaint. 

 Some writers say that twice a week during the 

 summer is often enough to give salt to any do- 

 mestic animals. Sir John Sinclair asserts that 

 " the quantity given in spring, summer, and au- 

 tumn, to oxen and milch cows, is about a quart 

 to each every two or three days, in very hot 

 weather. In cooler seasons it is only given 

 once a week." We are inclined to think this a 

 liberal allowance. But if salt is kept in troughs 

 under cover, where they can have free access to 

 it, we do not believe they would be apt to con- 

 sume more than would prove lor their benefit. 



Late Teas. — We thirdi it very possible that 

 peas may be raised, by pro|)er management, 

 during the whole summer, and till severe frosls 

 commence in autumn. The evil, which has 

 usually attended late sown peas, and rendered 

 it impracticable to raise them to much advan- 

 tage after about mid-summer, has been their 

 lialiility to mildew or rust. " Both in Europe 

 and America, the pea sowed for an autumnal 

 crop, is generally, we might sa}' almost univer- 

 sally, subject to mild'jw, so that ue cannot en- 

 joy this delicious green vogelablc for more (ban 

 two months in the year." A very valuable, pa- 

 per •' On the prevention of Mildew, in particu- 



I lar cases : by Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq'r. 

 j F. R. S. &c. &.C. President of the London Horti- 

 1 cultural Society," was pijhiished in London, and 

 1 re-published in the last No. of the Massachu- 

 I setts Agricultural .lournal. The author of this 

 , |)aper adopts the opinion of the venerable Pre- 

 j sident 'f the Royal .Society (the late Sir Joseph 

 Banks) that mildew is a species of plant, which 

 botanists call fungus, and which grows on wheat, 

 peas, some sorts of grass, &.c. and robs them of 

 a part ol their nourishment. That this plant 

 has its seeds, like other plants, which seeds are 

 excessively light and capable of being dispersed 

 every where by the wind. The author then 

 proceeds to point out the means by which the 

 injurious effects of the common white mildew 

 may be in particular cases prevented, as fol- 

 lows : 



" The secondary, and immediate causes of 

 this disease have long appeared to me to be the 

 ^■aiit of a sufficient supply of moisture from the 

 soil, with excess of humidity in the air, particu- 

 larly if the plants be exposed to a temperature 

 below that to which they have been accustom- 

 ed. If damp and cold weather in July succeed 

 that which is warm and bright, without suffi- 

 cient rain to moisten the ground to some depth, 

 the wheat crop is generally injured by mildew. 

 I suspect thai in such cases, an injurious ab- 

 sorption of moisture by the leaves and stems of 

 the wheat plants takes place ; and I have prov- 

 ed, that under similar circumstances much wa- 

 ter will be absorbed by the leaves of trees, and 

 carried duwnzcanls through their aW7irnous sub- 

 stance ; though it is certainly through this sub- 

 stance that the sap rises under other circum- 

 stances. If a branch be taken from a tree when 

 its leaves are mature, and one leaf be kept con- 

 stantly wet, that leaf will absorb moisture, and 

 supply another leaf below it upon the branch, 

 even tbougii all communication between thoni 

 through the bark be intersected; and if a simi- 

 lar absorption takes place in the straws of wheal 

 or the stems of other plants, and a rctrogTade 

 motion of the fluids be produced, I conceive 

 that the ascent of the true sap, or organizahle 

 matter, into the seed vessels, must be retarded, 

 and that it may become the food of the para- 

 sitical plants, which then only may grow luxu- 

 riant and injurious. 



"This view of the subject, whether true or 

 false, led me to the following method of culti- 

 vating the pea, late in autumn, by which my 

 table has been as abundantly supplied during 

 the months of September and October, as in 

 June or July, and my plams have been as near- 

 ly free from inilden'. 



" The ground is dog in the usual way, and 

 the spaces, which will be occupied by the fu- 

 ture rows are well soaked with water; the 

 mould upon each side is then collected so as to 

 form ridges seven or eight inches above the 

 'previous level of the ground, and then are well 

 1 watered, .\lter which, the seeds are sowed in 

 single rows along the tops of the ridges. The 

 plants ver}' soon appear above the surface, and 

 grow with much vigor, owing to the great depth 

 of the soil and abundant moisture. Water is 

 given rather prolusely once a week, or nine 

 days, even if the weather proves showery. — 

 Under this mode of management the plants will 

 remain perfectly green and luxuriant till the 

 young blossoms and the seed vessels are de- 

 stroyed by frost, and their produce will retain 



its proper flavor which is always taken away 

 by mildew. The pea which 1 have planted for 

 autumnal crops is a very large kind, of which 

 the seeds are much shrivelled, and which grows 

 very high. It is now very common in the shops 

 of London, and my name has been, I believe, 

 generally attached to it. [It is well known bv 

 us by the same name, and is an excellent late 

 rariety. — Kd. .Ig. Journal.] 1 prel'er this vari- 

 tty, because it is more sweet than any other, 

 iiud retains its flavor better late in autumn. It 

 is my custom to sow some of it every ten days, 

 and I rarely ever fail of having my table sup- 

 {lied till the end of October." 



CLOSE OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 



The present number completes Ihe first vol- 

 ume of the New England Farmer, and with the 

 njfext we shall commence a second volume, with 

 renovated exertions, and hopes invigorated by 

 some degree of apparent success, which has at- 

 tended our past labors. We are told that our 

 efforts have been in some measure acceptable, 

 aid the cheering sound of " well done," will 

 excite us to summon all our powers, and put all 

 our faculties in requisition to render ourselves 

 4ill more " useful to the farming interest." — 

 Xew sources of agricultural information are 

 daily unfolding before us, and all that our in- 

 dustry can accomplish, aided by an undissembleil 

 fondness for the science and predilection for the 

 pursuits of the art which is paramount to all 

 other arts, we unhesitatingly promise to per- 

 form. The Editor hopes and expects to be 

 able hereafter, as long as the patronage of the 

 public and his own capacity for intellectual toil 

 shall continue, to devote himself 7>iorc entirely 

 to the object of rendering his paper worthy of 

 the approbation of the enlightened cultivator, 

 than has hitherto been practicable. He pro- 

 poses to explore new fields of agricultural in- 

 lormation, with an inquisitive, if not with a dis- 

 cerning eye, and the result of his researches 

 will be faithfully submitted to the consideration 

 of that greatest and most important class in the 

 community, to whose interests the New Eng- 

 land Farmer is principally devoted. As he con- 

 tinues his -work he promises every endeavor to 

 become a better workman, and hopes eventu- 

 ally to become a prnflable, as he proposes to be 

 a diligent laborer in the great field of Agriculture. 



We respectlully solicit the continuance of the 

 favors of correspondents, and return our sincere 

 thanks for such as we have already received. 

 We wish to collect for the use of the public, 

 ihe fruits of actual experience. Theories and in- 

 genious speculations may be useful, but facts ju- 

 diciously selected and accurately reported must 

 he uiful. We likewise are very solicitous not to 

 publish any thing which may ini^lead the prac- 

 tical farmer. Our intentions are upright ; but 

 " to err is human." For instance, should the 

 Editor, or any of his correspondents, recom- 

 mend any plant, or any process of cultivation, 

 which any of our friends, who are better iu- 



