26 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



August IV*, 182?. 



lime anJ dry, and appeared all over as white as 

 rice. There was no discernible ditTeronce in the 

 growth of the grain soaked in sea water, and tiial 

 soaked in ley. One peck of this seed was soak- 

 ed in weak ley only an hour, and then limed and 

 sowed by itself upon a quarter of an acre adjoin- 

 ing the land already sown, part of the two acres. 

 Tills was much blighted, and produced little in 

 comparison with, the other part of the two acres. 

 The produce of an acre and tliree quarters, which 

 - was sowed with the wheat longest soaked was 

 forty-four bushels, weighing sixty-two pounds the 

 bushel when first sowed. The Ir-nd on which this 

 grew was a good dark rich mould, and lierd's- 

 grass and clover was sowed with the wheat. The 

 <rrass was well grown, and covered the ground 

 when the wheat was reaped, and the writer sup- 

 poses that if no grass had been sown, the crop of 

 wheat might have been better. — Agricultural Re- 

 pository, vol. iii. p. 221. 



In the spring of 1814, Gorham Parsons, Esq. 

 sowed four acres and thirty-two rods with four 

 bushels ; ploughed in eight loads of manure to the 

 acre, and laid it down with herds'-grass, red-top, 

 and red clover. It produced eighty-four bushels 

 and an half of wheat, besides a good crop of grass, 

 which was mowed in September. Mr Parsons 

 thinks that his crop would have been better had 

 double the quantity of wheat been sown, or two 

 bushels to the acre. — Agricultural Reposilory, 

 Vol. III. p, 2/1. 



In 181(5 J. Lowell, Esq. observes, that "I selec- 

 ted a piece of land, measuring nearly three quar- 

 ters of an acre ; its quality is but indifferent, a 

 light thin soil on a gravelly base. It had been 

 leased to different tenants for six years, and was 

 very much exhausted, having been constantly in 

 tillage, and never surcharged with manure. 



" I sowed only one bushel of wheat, at least one 

 half less than I should have sown ; it was steep 

 ed in brine for tliree days, limed, and sown with 

 one bushel of plaster of Paris. The crop was 

 sixteen bushels of very fair, full and heavy wheat; 

 that is, about twenty-two bushels to the acre." — 

 Agricultural lieposilor;/, Vol. IV. p. 272. 



Mr Justin Ely writes to the President of the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural Society as follows : — 



" The largest crop of winter wheat was raised 

 in Springfield last summer (1816) that is known 

 ever to have been raised in this vicinity, and per- 

 haps larger than was ever before raised in New- 

 England. 



"Four acres of land, one of the house-lots in 

 Springfield-Street, belonging to the distillery 

 company, three years ago last spring were Eng- 

 lish mowing. It was manured and ploughed up 

 and planted with Indian corn, and dung put in the 

 hills. The crop was abundant. The next spring 

 it was covered with very rich manure from the 

 distillery, and hemp seed sowed thereon. The 

 crop was large and heavy. The land was then 

 ploughed twice and sowed with the bald wheat, 

 one bushel and three quarts to the acre. The 

 produce was two hundred bushels of good, clean, 

 heavy wheat, from the four acres. 



" About half an acre of the hemp was not pul- 

 led with the other hemp, but was suffered to stand 

 till the hemp seed was ripe, whereby the sowing 

 of the wheat, on that part, was delayed too late 

 in the season, which diminished the crop of the 

 wheat on that part, si.x or eight bushels, ae sup- 

 posed- 



" It ia the opinion of many people, that, the '.in- 



precedented cold and drought of the last sum- 

 mer checked :ind retarded vegetation so far as to 

 prevent the destruction of tlie crop by blast and 

 other caases, and that if the last summer had been 

 as v.'nrm and wet as usual, the whole crop would 

 have been blasted and lodged, so as to have been 

 wholly ruined." 



For further cxiieriraents relating to tlie culture 

 of wheat, see Massachusetts Agricultural Reposi- 

 tory, Vol. IV. p. 195. 267. 278. 345. Vol. V. p. 65. 

 192. 265. Vol. VI. p. 239. 



Mr Payson Williams, of Fitchburgh, Massachu- 

 setts, gives the following account of his method of 

 raising a crop of spring v.'heat, bciflg twenty- 

 eight bushels and thirty quarts on one acre and 

 an eight part of an acre, for which he receiv- 

 ed the Massachusetts Agricultural Society's pre- 

 mium of forty dollars, October 1819. 



The land on which the wheat was sown, was 

 in 1818 planted with potatoes, (for one acre of 

 which I obtained your premiim) which, after har- 

 vesting, was ploughed a short time before the 

 setting in of winter. In the spring of 1819, as 

 soon as practicable, (after spreading on six loads 

 of fermented manure) it was again cross-ploughed 

 — 26th April sowed on the furrows two bushels of 

 what is known by the name of the Gilman wheat, 

 (which I procured of the Hon. P. C. Brooks of| 

 Boston) on one acre and twenty square rods, and 

 cross-harrowed the same, following the harrow 

 at the same time with the clover seed, which in 

 turn was cross-harrowed in. The wheat before 

 sowing was washed in water until perfectly clean, 

 then immersed in a liquor, or ley, made in the 

 proportion of four pints of water to every pound 

 of wood ashes, then add one pound of unslacked 

 lime to every bushel of seed, as recommended by 

 M. Du Hamel. When the wheat plant was out 

 of ground two inches, I sowed on a part of the 

 field plaster of Paris at the rate often bushels to 

 the acre, which I never have been able to dis- 

 cover, has had the least effect, (I had the like ill 

 success in the use of a ton, on various parts of 

 tlie farm.) The amount of the wheat by actual 

 measure, was twenty-eight bushels and thirty 

 quirts. It may not be improper here to state, 

 that on the most close examination, I could not 

 discover one kernel of smutty grain in the whole 

 crop ; and had it not been for the ravages of the 

 grasshopper in this field (in many parts of which 

 they cut off one fourth part of the heads, which 

 v/ere of course lost,) there would probably have 

 been thirty four bushels. I esteem this kind of 

 wheat a valuable acquisition to this part of the 

 country. The grain weighing sixty-two pounds 

 to the busliel, and yielding at the mills in this 

 quarter, forty-five pounds of flour, in quality equal, 

 I think, to the best Baltimore." — Massaclnisetts 

 Agricultural Repositorr/, Vol. VI. p. 32. 3. 



From the A''orfolk Republican. 



r.L'ssrs. Fisk, Hayward, and Phillips, Commis 

 siomrs appointed by the State to examine the dif- 

 fereit routes for a Rail Road to Providence,starteu 

 fron the Norfolk House on Wednesday last, and 

 comnencod viewing. There are 2 or 3 different 

 rout;s which will be shewn them, taking about 

 halfa mile westward of Mr Davenport's house, 

 neai the Blue Hills, as a point to approach, which 

 I unlcrstand is on an air line from Boston to Prov 

 idente. I was with the commissioners viewing 

 one »f the routes to this given point, and was as- 

 tonidied to find, by starting from Mr John Heath'r 

 farmin Roxbury, and continuing a course^with 

 Ston; Brook, passing near the estates of John 

 Lowell and John Amory, Esqrs. thence through 

 to, aid crossing Dedham turnpike over a part of 

 Dedham and Dorchester, and near the Dedham 

 old factory to the point above alluded to, near Mr 

 Davenport's, which is about nine miles from Bos- 

 ton, that this distance could be obtained vvithou! 

 the smallest difficulty. In coining to this point, 1 

 hnvc supposed the commissioners had in view 

 that on the proper course from this point the ex 

 tensive level meadows by wliich a level route may 

 be obtained some 8 or 9 miles farther, which 

 would make a distance of at least 18 or 20 miles 

 from Boston, or half the distance to Providence 

 without meeting a ten foot immediate rise the 

 whole way. Beyond IS or 20 miles on this or any 

 other route, I know nothing of the situation of the 

 country. RAIL ROAD. 



Roxhury, Aug. 11 1627. 



Very flattering accounts of tlic progress of ar- 

 rangements for the establishment of Rail Roads. 

 Canals, and Highways, reach us from varioui- 

 Statee. Tney exhibit the union of Public Spiri' 

 and Individual Munificence. 



De Roos's Travels. — We are requested to state, 

 that the Honourable Mr De Roos's Personal Nar- 

 rative of Travels in the United States, with Ob 

 servations on the dockyards and the Maritime Re 

 sources of America, Emigration, «Sic. &c., and cv 

 taining ninncrous illustrative plates, will be rcadv 

 for delivery on Saturday, the ]6th. inst. 



Loudon paper, June 1'.'. 



Extraordinary Yield. — On the 24th inst.in a field 

 of rye growing upon the farm of Gen. A. Forbes, 

 in Windsor, Vt. were found 73 stalks of rye, grow- 

 ing from one root, the produce of one kernel, each 

 stalk having a fair head. The heads were shel- 

 led and found to contain 3000 kernels ! 



A coat of mail has been found by a farmer in 

 Vermont, while ploughing his field. The body is 

 composed of Iron rings linked into each other, 

 about one eighth of an inch in diameter. The col- 

 lar is made of brass rings, so closely interwoven 

 as to be perfectly stiff. 



Another Brick Building in rains. On Wednes 

 day afternoon during the gust, a two story brick 

 building creeled in the north v.cst corner of 

 Greenwich and Loroy streets, fell down and is in 

 complete ruins. We understand that tlie work had 

 been suspended for some time in consequence of 

 the death of the owner. — Evening Post. 



On the subject of the flimsy manner in which 

 some of the buildings of New-York are erected^ 

 the Times observes " We have seen erected with- 

 in the last 6 months a number of buildings with 

 brick walls of/our tnches thickness, and have seen 

 these very walls propped up by limbers from tht 

 outside, until the mortar should become sufiiciently 

 hardened to hold the rookeries together. 



Sir Jonah Barrington says in his Sketches, that 

 he once saw a Bishop play the fiddle at one of 

 the public concerts of the first Lady Westmore- 

 land, in Dublin Castle. The editor of the Nation- 

 al Gazette has seen several of the Judges of the 

 High Court of Sessions of Scotland, dancing high- 

 land reels at the Duchess of Gordon's balls, in 

 Dumbreck's hotel, Edinburgh 



