274 



]\EW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 21, 182S. 



must have much and good blood. At some future 

 opportunity I will make a few femarks upon the 

 question of foot lameness. I should be very hap- 

 py if any one else would give the result of his 

 experience upon it, as there is a vast deil oi such 

 information afloat, which the pjblic never jjets the 

 jrood of. I would ask any coach proprietor, most 

 of whom have ranch e.tperience of this kind forced 

 upon them, if he has observed more horses to be 

 lame in the near foot than the off one. It is my 

 firm belief that there are, and tliere is a plausible 

 reason for such an opinion I have subjoined the 

 pedigree of the two most distinguished stallions of 

 the Northern States. I would here remark upon 

 the corrupt use of the word stud. " A stud means 

 in English a collection of horses. Studhorse 

 may do well enough ; but when the language con- 

 tains an old established term such as stallion, 

 i.vhich perfectly expresses the idea of a horse kept 

 for the purpose of continuing his species, there is 

 10 necessity for our manufacturing a new one. 



Eclipse, a light chesnut horse, foaled in 1814 ; 

 ored in Long Island ; got by Duroc ; dam by 

 Alessenger out of the English PolSo's mare. — 

 Duroc, was a Virginian horse, by English Diomed ; 

 dam a celebrated Virginian mare, but I do not 

 know the pedigrees of the horses whose names 

 are contained in her pedigree. Messenger was 

 an English horse of the first blood ; and proved 

 in the States a most successful stallion. The 

 PotSo's mare's dam was by Gimcrack ; but I do 

 not know the rest of her pedigree. PotSo's and 

 Gimcrack are amongst the most celebrated names 

 of English horses. 



Henry, a dark chesnut horse, foaled in 1819 ; 

 bred on the borders of Virginia and North Caro- 

 lina ; got by Sir Archie ; dam by English Diom- 

 ed ; his grandam's pedigree is Virginian for sev- 

 eral generations, but I know nothing of the horses 

 contained in it but their names. Sir Archie is 

 supposed to have been got by Diomed himself; 

 his dam an English mare, bred by Lord Egre- 

 raont, got by Rockingham out of a Trentham 

 mare. It is impossible tor any English pedigree 

 to be higher than Sir Archie's; and he lias con- 

 sequently proved the most successful stallion ever 

 bred in the States. 



with this disease, and which I treated in the above 

 manner. They were so much affected, that I was 

 obliged to head down two of them during the sum- 

 mer of 1826. These trees have since made very 

 luxuriant wood, and free from any of those bunch- 

 es they have heretofore been subject to. In the 

 summer and autumn of 1827, I had the pleasure 

 of picking as good a crop of fruit (in quantity) from 

 these trees as I have ever seen; and they promise 

 as well for fruit this spring as last. 



R. TOOHEY, Gardener. 

 Wallham, March 1828. 



[From the Domestic Encyclopedia.] 



'iiWRW \ — Candle berry Myrtle. 

 This is a genus of plants comprehending the 

 following native species : 



1. .U Ccrifcra. This g owa upon boggy lands 

 in the southern States, rising with many strong 

 shrubby stalks to the height of six or eight feet — 

 the leaves are stiff and spear-shaped, of a yellow- 

 ish lucid green on their upper surface, but paler 

 underneath ; of a grateful odour when bruised. — 

 The catkins come out on different plants from the 

 berries, and are about an inch' long, and erect. — 

 The female flowers come out on the sides of the 

 branches in long bunches, »nd are succeeded by 

 si.-.all roundish berries covered with a mealy sub 

 stance, and afford a green wax by boiling. 



2. M. Cerifira hun His, dwarf candle berry my- 

 tle ; a variety of the former ; bark gray, leaves 

 shorter and broader, and more serrated. 



3. M. Gale, bog gale ; also grows in swampy 



FOR THE NEW ENt;LAND FARMER. 



DESTROYING BUGS IN PLUM TREES. 



Take of tobacco juice one gallon, this may be 

 had of the tobacconists, or you may make it by 

 putting some tobacco in warm water, (not boiling, 

 as that will take off a great part of the oil.) Oil 

 of tar, one quart — train oil one quart — soft soap 

 one and a half pounds, and a q\i;irtcr of a pound 

 of soot. Beat the oils together first, and then the 

 soap and soot, till well united, then pour them all 

 into the tobacco Juice, stiring them gently togeth- 

 Or. Wlien the li(iuid is cold, it is fit for use. It 

 should be applied with a common paint brush, in 

 the latter end of M.irch or the first of April. 



Previous to applying the mixture, I should re- 

 commend pruning; and when the trees arc very 

 much affected with the ahovementioucd disease ; 

 heading down at a, b, c, d, p, or f, according to the 

 size of the trees ; if any of the ulceis shouM re- 

 raain after pruning or heading down, they roust be 

 entirely removed from the tree and then apply the 

 composition. 



In the month of March, 1825, the plimi trees of 

 f!ie late Hon. C. Gore, of Waltham, were alFeated 



to the height of two or three feet; leaves lace- 

 shaped, smooth, and a little sawed towards thcj 

 points. The berries are dry, compressed at the 

 apex, and three lohed. This species grows in N. 

 Jersey, but abounds in the eastern States, and in 

 Nova Scotia, according to Mr. Bartram. 



The wax is obtained in S Carolina and Geor- 

 gia, by boiling the berries of the M. cerifera in 

 water, and skimming it. Mixed with tallow, it 

 forms excellent candles ; a soap may be also m;de 

 from it. The following receipt for the purpose, 

 by Judge Bee, is inserted ip a little pamphlet, pib I 

 lished in the year 1788, bv the Agricultural Scci- 

 ety of Charleston, S. C. To three bushels ani a ' 

 half of common wood ashes, was added half a bu?h- j 

 el of onslacked lime; these, being well mixjd, 

 were put into a sixty gallon cask, which was fll-' 

 ed with water. In forty-eight hours, the ley was 

 strong enougli to bear an eg^g ; it was then drawn 

 oflT, and from six to eight gallons of it put into a 

 copper kettle, capable of containing about twenty- 

 five gallons ; (our pounds of myrtle wax were ad- 

 ded, and the kettle kept boiling over a constant 

 stea'ly fire, from nine o'clock in the morning, till 

 three in the afternoon. For tlie first three or four 

 hours, a supply of strong ley was added, from time 

 to time, until the liquor ajipeared like soft soap ; 

 then weaker ley was poured in occasionally, and 

 the whole frequently well stirred. After six hours 

 boiling, two quarts of common coarse salt were 

 thrown into the kettle, which was left one iiour 

 more to simmer over i slow fire. The liquor was 

 then put into two large tubs to cool, where it con- 

 tinued twenty four hours ; ami then the soap was 

 taken out, wiped clean, and put to dry. The next 

 day it was weighed, and the produce was forty 

 pounds, and two ounces, of solid soa". The loss 

 of weight by drying is not mentioned ; but Mr. 

 Bee was informed by one who made the trial, that 

 at the end of six vvee';?. it was vcrv trifling. 



From Dr. Bostock's experiments on myrtle wajr, 

 it appears, that when boiled with liquid caustic 

 potash, the fluid becomes tubid ; but, after some 

 time, the greatest part of the wax rises to the sur- 

 face, nearly without color, in a floculent form. A 

 small quantity of it only remains dissolved in the 

 potash, and this may be precipitated from it by an 

 aci.i. That part of the wax which rises to the 

 surface, is converted into a saponaceous matter; 

 it has lost its inflammability and fusibility, and 

 forms an opaque solution with water. From this 

 solution. It is precipitated by an acid in the form 

 of white flakes, whirh, when collected resemble 

 very nearly the wax before its nuion with the pot- 

 ash. In the jMedical Repository, of New York, it 

 is stated, that Dr. Joseph Brow ne, of that city, had 

 discovered a cneap and easy piocess for bleaching 

 myrte wax, but it has not yet been published. — 

 No toubt, howe' er, the coloring matter maybe 

 destroyed by the process for bleaching common 

 bees-wax ; or by the vapor of alkalis, which, ac- 

 corJing to Chaptal, destroys the green color of all 

 vegetable matter. 



MACHINE TO BREAK FLAX. 



JVuvember 25tfi, 1827. 



JoiKV H. PovVEL, 



Corresponding Secretary of the Pennsylva- 

 nia Airricultural Society. 



Well aware, from experience, of the difficulty 

 attendant on the process of preparing flax in the 

 usual way, I was much gratified to find, that, at 

 length, a machine has been invented that appears 

 to obviate all the difficulty. On a recent visit to 

 New York, I stopped at Elizabethtown, New Jer- 

 sey, where I saw a machine propelled by a small 

 steam engine, at work preparing the raw flax 

 without liny rotting or previous process. A French 

 gentleman of the name of Frederick Roumage, 

 engaged the farmers last spring, in that neighbor- 

 hood to raise flax, for which he proirised to pay 

 815 per ton, as g.ithered from the field, after hav- 

 ing the seed beat out of it. In consequence of 

 this encouragement, he has now the produce of 

 about 400 acres. So well satisfied is he with the 

 machine, that he does not intend either to show 

 or to patent it. All you see is the rough flax put 

 on an endless canvass cloth — enter one side, and 

 in a short time emerge on the other, with the 

 woody fibre as completely separated from it, as is 

 usually done by the best process of breaking, after 

 the flax has been rotted. The fibre in this state 

 has a yellow coloring matter in it, that in a few 

 davs may be so completely washed away, that it 

 becomes as vvhite as paper, and almost as soft as 

 silk, a sample of which I enclose with his printed 

 directions to the farmers for the cultivation of the 

 plant. Should these machines be multiplied to a 

 sufficient extent, there is every reason to hope 

 that flax may come into as general use as cotton 

 is now, as .$15 per ton would make it a productive 



crop. 



REUBEN HAINES. 



Mr. Powcl, Chairman of the Committee on Agri- 

 culture and Manufactures. Reail Feb. 13, 1618. 

 An Act for the promotion of Agriculture and en- 

 couragement of Manufactures. 



I Whereas, the Agricultural interests of this ConV- 



Itnonwealth have never been protected by Legisla- 

 tive aid — and whereas, the firmers as well as all 



jour citizens, are made dependant upon foreign 

 supplies for the rmiirh materials, necessary for the 



' manufacture of various articles, now made objects 



