n 



74 



Uie form of rain. This makes the skin tf^ndcr and j 

 increases the size of the berries. You frvadually j 

 uncover the berries and expose them to the sun 5 

 to heighten the colour and improve the flavor. j 



If you wish to leave them out, till after frost, j 

 you may cover them with paper b{fg.«, which are 

 of use also in protecting them from insects and 

 birds. 



In making this translation as literal as possible, 

 one could not avoid some gallicisms. 



Such are the remarks of Mr. Vilmnii!. To me, 

 some are wholly new and surprisinj^. I had no 

 idea that the small and almost invisible buds at 

 the root of the branch were there, which produced 

 the exquisite grapes sold in Paris under the name 

 of Chasselas de Fontainbleau. It is true, th;\t last 

 year I thought I had discovered an anomaly in the 

 grape. I found a fine shoot filled with fruit grow- 

 ing apparently out of the side of an old branch as 

 big as a man's wrist. I deemed it so strange that 

 I was upon the point of asking some friends to 

 come and see it, but upon e.xamining it more 

 closely I found that there had been a shoot there 

 the year before, and which the gardener intended 

 to extirpate but did not rub off the buds at its 

 base. It is these buds, scarcely visible, which fur- 

 nish the fruit at Thomery. 



THE ISABELLA GRAPE. 



This is now perfectly ripe in my garden, its 

 matnrity having been accelerated by girdling. It 

 is larger, its skin and pulp more tender, and its 

 Inice more abundant and sweeter than that of our 

 wild fox jrrape — but it has the very peculiar fla- 

 vor of that grape so strongly, that I am persuaded 

 it is only a variety of it. Its skin, if retained too 

 !ona', 01 pressed too hard in the mouth, loaves the 

 same unpleasant flavor as the fox grape does. To 

 those who cannot (from want of skill) raise the 

 European grapes, it may be valuable ; and if a se- 

 rious effort shall be made to make wine in New- 

 England, I think the Isabella offers the fairest 

 prospect of success. It is a^very vigorous plant 

 md a great bearer. 



For the table, however, even the little cluster 

 urape, called the Miller grape, the least valuable 

 of all the imported grape.s, is, in my judgment, 

 preferable to it. 



We continue our selections from the invaluable Hiuls to Ameri- 

 can Husbandmen, published by the Pennsylvania Agricul- 

 tural Society. 

 On Orchard Grass — Manner of cidtivr.lion — se- 

 curing the seeds — (Quantity soii<n — Season and 

 mode — Causes of failure — Product and value 

 for pasturage and hay — iti nutritive qualities, 

 and superiority over timothy, both when green and 

 dry. 



BY LOYD JONES, ESQ. 



Monlgomerv Countv. (Pennsylvania,) ) 

 February. "3, 18i7 ' \ 



Dear Sir, — I have cultivated orchard grass for 

 five and twenty years. My crops failed from the 

 bad quality of the seeds, until they were secured 

 by myself. When they are in the state at which 

 they can be shaken from the heads, the stems are 

 cut by a skilful cradler just above the lops of the 

 under grass. -Vfter some practice, he is enabled 

 to catch with his left hand the portions taken by 

 the cradle, and to place them regularly as he ad- 

 vances. They a'e immediately bound in sheaves 

 large as a man's leg. Double swarths are after- 

 wards mown with a naked scythe to remove the 



NEW EM GLAND FARMEK 



Sept. 23, 1827. 



under grass, and leave at proper distances through- statements, with implicit reliance upon their va- 

 oul the field, openings upon which the sheaves ' lidity and force. He is the most successful cul 

 arc shocked. They remain in this state from tivator of orchard grass, with whose practice 1 

 eight to ten days, until sufficiently dry to be car- j have become acquainted in any part of the United 

 ried to the barn, where they are forthwith thrash- 1 States. 



ed to £jnard against heating', tlic great source of; As he has detailed his mode of securing the 

 injury to the seeds of this valuable crop. The i seeds. I may be a lowed to state, that I have for 

 usual manner of securing them, by putting the several years induced him to send large quanti 

 sheaves into the mow, is, I am satisfied, the most ties of them to my agricultural friends, whose e.x 

 effectual mode to destroy the principle of vegeta- 1 perience, in confirmation of my iir.pressions, thai 

 tion, as they can rarely be so treated, without bo- ; when properly treated they seldom fail, establish- 

 ing mow-burned. es the correctness of his management in collect- 

 After having been thrashed, they should be 



strewed upon the barn floor — occasionally stirred 



ing them. 



I have before brought to vour notice the extra- 



f the quantity be large, during eight or ten days, \ ordinary product of cocksfoot or orcnard grass as 

 until they arc perfectly dry — without this prccau- 1 pasturage upon strong soils; its early appearance 

 lion thoy would inevitably be heated. ' in the Spring; its vigorous and rapid growth 



The under grass should all be mown for hay, ' tjiroughout the Summer and Autumn, affording 

 as soon as possible, after the seeds have been har- even in December, tiie most succulent and nutri- 

 vesled. If it bo allowed to stand but for a few ; live herbage I have in this climate seen. 

 days.it loses its nutritive properties — in fact dies, j Of timothy as pasturage, I have had during 

 after having lost the heads. The hay thus made, ; twenty years, opinions similar to those conveyed 

 and properly secured, although necessarily harsh | by Mr Jones. 



from having been allowed ;o pass the stage of its j On highly manured, or deep alluvial soils, if 

 growth when most succulent and nutritious, I produces greater crops of hay, tlian any grass I 

 have found good fodder, for both horses and neat have grown, except red clover. Mr Welles, of 

 cattle. |Bosion, afew years since obtained four tons ot 



The product of seeds varies from ten to twenty timothy hay per aero, from a large field. His well 

 bushels per acre. I have had in a very favorable known precision, independent of the ample proofs 

 season, twenty bushels upon land which would not he adduced, sufficiently establishes the fact. — 

 have aft'ordcd, I think, ten of wheat. The pro- , When allowed to become mature, I think it cans 

 duct of this, as of all crops, depends much, of'es as much cxiuiustion as a crop of Spring barley 

 course, upon the season, and the preparation of | or oats. And so far from land becoming bettor, 

 the land. The crop to which I advert, was pur- j whilst exposed to the effects of the scythe, and 

 poselv grov/n upon a poor soil, to show the excel- 1 ihe rays of the sun in a regular course, wherein 

 lence of the plant, and the fallacy of the assertion ; timothy is introduced as the meliorating crop, I 

 that it required very rich land. am led to believe tliat it is made worse. If limo- 



I sow from eight to ten quarts of clover seeds, i (fjy be depastured after the first crop has been 

 and a bushel of orchard grass seeds per acre in | taken, I apprehend that, as its after growth is ex 

 February, upon wheal or rye land. I should pro- tremoly feeble, in this climate, the sun must have 

 fer their being sown with oats or barley, as the great effect upon the soil, throughout the hottes*- 

 seeds could be covered more regularly with the gg^gon of the year. 



harrow, and their vegetation would be secured. — [ Red-top or herds-grass has recently been bro'l 

 I do not apprehend injury from frost in early sow- ^ore into notice, .-ind it will, I have no doubt, be 

 ing, but I dread the ofiects of drought from late, extensively cultivated, wiien it shall have been 



I have never sjfi"ered from early, but have goner- better known. We see it generally upon the ill 

 I ally had cause to regret the evils of late sowing, reclaimed marsh lands of an adjacent state, where 

 I I consider orchard grass the best herbage for perhaps its extraordinary hardiness and large pro 

 {pasturing upon upland — for hay it certainly can- J juct, even under the mo.st slovenly management 

 i not be excelled. 1 may have retarded to a ceitain e.xtent, the im- 

 I I cultivated timothy for many years. As pastur- j proveraent of the district in which it is principalh 

 {age it is utterly worthless after the first of J«ly, ' grown. It will flourish where no other grass. 



upon upland. Timothy hay is valuable for turf which toe cultivate, can live. Its apparent qnali- 

 horses, and those used in quick draught ; but fur ties, and the quantity of nutritive mailer, are no 

 ■ the purposes of farmers I think it should not be doubt very much influenced by the state of the 

 raised. I have long since discontinued its growth. | land upon which it is produced ; hence when of- 



II is a great exhauster, and should never he ciil- ; fered in the market in competition with the pro- 

 tivated, unless it can be carted to market, and be Jnce of the most highly cultivated upland — it is 



I replaced by large supplies of manure. i condemned. The seeds of tins grass, as those of 



I am, very obediently, &c. ! cocksfoot, are rarely brought to the shops in a 



1 L0\ D JON.jS. , sound state — they, as the former, are surrounded 



' by chaff, which, if closely examined, will be found 

 I frequently to envelope shrivelled kernels, and to 

 be infested with some of the most noxious weeds 

 with which a farmer can contend. 



Upon a small piece of land which had been oc- 

 cupied by Swedish turnips, and had been care- 

 fully tilled for many seasons in succession, two 

 bushels of herds-grass seed per acre, in addition 

 to the usual quantity of clover and timothy seeds, 



John Hare Powel, Esq. 

 Powelton. 



On Grasses ; Orchard or Cocksfoot : Timothy add 

 Red Top, or Herds-grass ; their comparative 

 values for Pasturage and Hay. 



BY JOHN HARE POWEL, ESQ. 



Powekon, February 10. IS27. 

 In presenting Mr Jones' communication, it is 



not necessary tliat I should advert to his accura- } were sown with Persian barley in the Spring of 

 cy and reputation as a farmer, with which you are 1820. A much larger piece was sown at tiie same 

 sufficiently acquainted, to receive his opinions ai^d'time with timothy alone. The timothy soon (lis- 



