i-26 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 8, 1828 



The various sorts of wool are coarse or fine, Soak the seed in pond or rain water, previous to 

 long or short, hard or soft, elastic or brittle, round j sowing. 



or flat, crisped or not crisped. The fleece should : USE — Almost all kinds of animals eat the 

 be thick, and if it be weil filled with oil, it is a ■ leaves and roots, with great avidity. Both are pe- 

 si^n of its excellence. The hairs or fibres of me- culiarly good for feeding swine, and are not less 

 rino and Saxony wool should be round, even, eagerly devoured than corn. They are excellent 

 brio-ht, pliant, not breaking easily, and of suilahle for milch cows, and possess the quality of making 

 leno-th. When wool unites these qualities, it is them give a large quantity of the best flavoured 

 (■alfed in Saxony, Electoral wool. ' milk. They are said to be equally useful for fat- 



[The wool of the sheep is notliing but crisped tenins cattle. 

 iiair ; in some varieties it resembles the hair of Col. Powel, of Pennsylvania, has raised at the 

 oxen, and in others the hair and woo! are mixed.] rate of 2,0f)5 bushi-Is per acre, weighing more than 



The filaments of merino wool should be well 44 tons. Messrs. T. & H. Little, of Newbury, in 

 crisped or waved ; the fineness of the fleece may ls24, raised on an acre 74,518 pounds of these 

 be determined from the number of these curls roots, 

 and from their smallness. Wool of a superior 

 iiuality has commonly 20 of these little bends. If 

 merino sheep are not s'leared, the wool continues 

 to grow several years, but its growth diminishes 

 every year, until it entirely ceases iu the sixtli, or th„gg of England ; and yet she is surprisingly de- 



Eiom Cobbelt's American Gardener. 



GARDKNING. 



America has so.il and climate for surpassing 



.it the latest, in the eighth year, when the extrem 

 ities perish and become brown. The small races 



not be extravagant to say thai the expense and 

 profits of raising stock would be beneficially affect- 

 ed by having the best races of every sort that are 

 now known in Europe. New England will never 

 be a grain country, any more than she will become 

 the raiser of tobacco or cotton. But she ca)i prob- 

 aly supply two millions of people with beef, pork 

 and wool. 



'' Stcondly. To do this, she may and must use 

 for half a century her natural pastures, because 

 she cannot aSbrd at present prices, to break up 

 her uncultivated lands, but she can raise, and raise 

 to advantage, by a succession of crops, a sufficient 

 supply of succulent roots, such as the Swedish 

 turnip — the Mangel Wurtzel or white beet, car- 

 rots, and potatoes, to come in aid of her cultivat- 

 ed and natural grass-lands, to support, and im- 

 prove the condition of her stock of animals, to the 

 e.Ktent of double, nay, I believe, treble their pres- 

 ent numbers. 



" They will not, they cannot exceed the demand, 

 that must regulate the supply, after all we can say. 



fi(-ient in variety as >vell a;- quality of garden pro 



ducts. I am not alludinof to things of ornament, 

 of sheep produce more and better wool than the ^j appertaining to luxurions enjoyments, but to | or write, but much may be done to enaDle us to 

 large ones. Sheep with broad heads do not (^j^^g jj^^j are" really useful, and that lend to the ' f'se cheaper and better animals. W chtaper the 

 yield t^o fine wool as those with slender heads.— preservation of health, without which latter, life t <'«'«a'"' will be greater. We have done much in 

 Merinoes at their birth are covered with little jg not worth having. It is incredible to those, I "''« way, but much remains to do. 

 locks or tnfts of curled wool, about as large as a ^^ho have not had occasion to observe the fact, I " Thirdly, we are very deficient in Horticulture, 

 prain of barley ; the smaller these locks are, the |,ow large a part of the sustenance of a country- To ^e sure there is no great profit in cash arising 

 finer the fleece will be ; the closer they are to- , ^borer's family, in Emrland, comes out of his lit- 'o "le farmer from gardening beyond the limits of 

 pother, the more abundant ivill be the wool. i [je warden The laborers of Encrland are distin- ] twenty miles from a greattown. but when men have 

 i „^,ig"hed from those of other countries by several arrived to the degree of comfort which our farmers 



CULTURE OP MANGEL, AVURTZEL. 



Every man who assists in inuoducing the suc- 

 ssful cultivation of any new variety in aniina 



striking peculiarities ; but. by no one are they so 

 strongly <!islingui3hed as by their fondness of 

 their gardens, and by the diligence, care and 



or vegetable Irie which was before unknown or t.^t^^ ^..^ic, they show in ' the^ management of 



practised, and which promises to be more useful 

 than any one of the like genus or species, before 

 cultivated, deserves well of tlio pnblic. This ser- 

 vice, every farmer has, at times, an opportunity of 



them. The reproach which Solomon (Proverbs, 

 ch. 24, V. 30) afExes on the slothful and ignorant 

 husbandman, they seem to have constantly in their 

 minds ; and to be constantly on the watch to pre 



performing. The Mangel Wurtzel holds forth this ^.^^^ /^ ^^^^ applying to themselves. Poverty 



promise, lu a more eminent degree, perhaps, than 

 iijy other plant. It may be attempted, with hard- 

 ly the possibility of disappointment or lojs. There 

 can be but little or no trouble or expense in mak- 

 ing the experiment. 



ay apologise for a dirty dress or an unshaven 

 face ; men may be negligent of their person ; but 

 the sentence of the whole nation is, that he, who 

 is a sloven in his garden, is a sloven indeed. The 

 inside of a laborer's house, his habits, his quali- 



Why, then, Will not every farmer, or horticul- ^.^^ as a workman, and almo.st his morality, may 



♦urist, make the trial in a small way, if it be not 

 convenient to extend it bt>yond a little spot on his 

 <"arn>, or bed in his garden ? 



The Mangel Wurtzel is tlie Btia-ciria of the 



generally enjoy, they ought to seek innocent lux- 

 uries. We cannot hope or expect to see their 

 front yards ornamented like those of the Dutch 

 or English cottages, who are not worth a twenti- 

 eth part as much as they are, with flowering 

 shrubs and plants, so neat and so beautiful as to 

 roali-.e the description of the poets, who have de- 

 scanted on pastoral lite. This depends in those 

 countries on fashion, and as the more opulent in- 

 dulge in those luxuries, the others follow as imi- 

 tators ; but a delightful pear — an e.Kcellent plura 

 or peach, or an admirable winter apple, fresh in 

 April, would be as sweei to the palate of a fann- 

 er as to that of a luxurious and opulent merchant, 

 and why these are neglected, 1 never could com- 

 be judged of from the appearance of his garden. P'ehend, as the l:bor amounts to a trifle in pro- 

 It se'ems, at first siaht. very odd that this taste j (^ur'ng and in preserving them, 

 for cvardenin-T should not have been preserved in " No farmer ought to be without his asparagus 

 America; bul it is accounted for by reflecting, ' bed, which, once laid down, will last without his 



family of the Bf(«, sometimes called the -Ro"' "/ (,,^t „,|,gre land is abundant, attachment an"d | 'abor for forty years— no one ought to be without 

 &arc{t<i, and likewise called the fllnte Btd, ^^^^ attention to small spots wear away. To de- i '''^ patch of green peas— lettuce— early and late 



aire to possess land is an universal de.sire ; and beans. If more attention were paid to these com- 

 varity makes us prefer quantity to quality. You , f^^^ts, we should hear less of spotted and typhus 

 may prove as clearly as dayliaht, that it is better, fevers in our otherwise healthy villages, and our 



aiiich celebrated in England and Prussia 

 Time of sowing, months of April and May.— 



Prepare a plat or field as for turnips or potatoes ; ^^ ^,^^^, __ _ ^ _ , , • , 



Open two drills with the plough, two feet apart, ;„ ^g|.(^j^ ^^^gg to possess one acre thnn a hun- 1 females in the country would be more proud of 

 and put in a sufficient quantity of dung, according ^^^^ . '^^^^ ^^.j^^^.^ ^^ , j-^^^j di^ ^,^„ ^^^^^ prefers '''e grounds about their houses, and lake more in- 

 to the ground ; then cover the dung with the ' ^ wrh^n ^«rr,o ,i.,rrola nf land -irr terpst in their neatness and comfort than some, 



& 1 t^ ^[,g (,j,g acre .' wnen large p.irceis oi lauu <iil , ,.r , 



Jouble mould board plough once, or the single y^jg^f^j^g^ jo ,,p cultivated, small ones are held pumaps too many ot them now do. We do not 

 plough twice, by ridging them up as high as can ] .^ g^^jg j . ^^^ thono-h a o-ood trarden supplies "'oan '« say, there are not a great many farmers 

 he well done, with a man shovelling between the I ^^ ^^^^^ ^ ^^^ ^j. ^^^^^^-^^ consumed by a family, i "'"<> Pay some attention to these things, but the 



4,;„-.:„u. .„.,„.. ,.;„„.,,„ „,..r„„„ „f .h„ ^^^ ,,;^p^ supplying it all the year "round too, I 'deficiency is deplorable." 



there are many farmers even in England, who 



_. ... .- -. _ - .^j even a wheelbarrow full of manure that 



method of fallowing will repay the trouble of j^ bestowed on a garden. The garden may, be- 

 rjiovelling, by raising a full proportion of earth i^.^^^ its intrinsic utility, be made to be a most 

 mider the roots. After sowing, it should be well , ^,^,__^^,^ help-mate to the Farm. 



drills right and left, smoothing the surface of the 

 rtdge above the dung, which will leave a space 

 (if ton or tAplve inches bioad. This complete 



»olh)d. which completes the whole process. The, g^gry American Parmer, north of Carolina, at 

 crop to be afterwards treated the same as that of'j^^^ ^ ,^^ ^^ ,,^^g ^ Hot-Bed in the Spring. 



turnips or pctaloes, by pulling and taking on I 



Ojould, &,c. After the roots have been raised, the HINTS TO NEW ENGLAND FARMERS. 

 ground is in a remarkable fine situation for wheat "First. The improvement of the character and 

 Cr Oiv," other crop ; sow five pounds per acre. — qualities of all our domestic animals. It would 



From ihc Hampshire Gazette. 

 SHEEP AND WOOL. 



The " Bulletin des Sciences Agricoles," for Ju- 

 ly 1827, contains a review of a German work on 

 Sheep and Wool, by J. C. Ribbe — published at 

 Prague, Bohemia, from which we have translated 

 the following, save what is enclosed in brackets. 



The author adopts the opinion of Linneus, that 

 all the different kinds of sheep which exist are 

 derived from a common stock, the Ovis Argalis, 



