278 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 21, 18-2S. 



Everii Family to make their own Sweet Oil. — It 

 ^9 reportfid ^a person is going to take out a patent 

 for making a small hand mill, for every person to 

 make their own sweet oil. This may easily be 

 done, by grinding or beating the see.i-j of white 

 poppies into a paste, then boil it in water,and skim 

 oif the oil as it rises ; one bushel of seed weijhs 

 50 pounds, and will produce two gillors of oil. — 

 Of the sweet olive oil sold, half of it is oil of pop- 

 pies- The poppies will grow in uny garden ; it 

 is the large head white poppy, sold by apotheca- 

 ries. Large fields are sown with poppies in 

 France and Flanders, for the purpose of express- 

 ing oil from their seed, for food. When the seed 

 is taken out, the poppy head is boilei! to an ex- 

 tract (see New Dispensatory j, which is sold at half 

 a dollar per ounce, and is, in some respects, to be 

 preferred to opium, which no* sells very high. — 

 Large profits may be acquired by the cultivation 

 of poppies. Some acres of it are now sown near 

 Cambridge. 



[I have u.sed during the summer of 1819 noth- 

 ing but the oil of the bene seed, procured from 

 South Carolina and Georgia. This oil may be 

 obtained in quantities so large, as to be employed 

 profitably in making soap. For salads, I aver 

 from my own experience, that the bene oil furnish- 

 ed to me by Dr. Mease of Philadelphia, is fully 

 equal to olive oil ; and may certainly be afforded 

 at less than a dollar for a gallon. I say the same 

 also of the poppy oil made ai the foruer Moravi- 

 an settlement at Harmony near Pittsburgh. I 

 have tried a bottle of it, and find it no way infe- 

 ri r to olive nil for any purpose. Half the salad 

 oil used in Pnris at this moment, is poppy oil. — 

 T C] — Domestic Encyclopedia. 



runners of melon vines, namely : " If the branches 

 be vigorous and long, stretch them carefully over 

 a level surface, and bnry every fourth or fifth 

 joint. This is best done by means of a wooden 

 crotchet. The object of pinching or shortening 

 the stem, are thus completely fulfilled, without any 

 of the risk attending that operation, and with ad- 

 vantages peculiar to this method, as whenever the 

 plant is buried, new roots are formed for the bet- 

 ter nutrition of the stem and the fruit." 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1828. 



HOW TO RAISE MELONS. 



The following method of raising early melons is 

 given in a "Treatise on Gardening," by J. Arm- 

 strong, of Dutchess county, N. Y. Select a spot 

 well defended against the north wind, and open to 

 the sun throughout the day. If such is not to be 

 found in your garden, create a temporary and art 

 iflci.il sliel'er producing the same effect. At the 

 end of Marcli, form holes two feel in diameter, 

 and distant from each other «even feet and a half 

 Fill these with horse dung and litter, or a mixture 

 of mould, dung, and sand. At the end of twenty 

 days, cover th*' holes, which have been thus filled, 

 with hand glasses. When the heat rises to 30 of 

 Reaumer, [li:j Fahrenheit] snv the seeds four in- 

 dies apart ; and when tlie plants have acquired 

 two or three leaves, pinch off the end of the branch 

 or runner. This will produce lalera' branches 

 which must again be pinched off, so soon as they 

 respectively attain the length of ten inches. — 

 When the ojant has out-grown the glass, the lat 

 ter becomes 'iseless, and may be removed — but 

 should the weather be wet or chilly, substitute 

 cov'erincrs of clean straw for that of glasses, until 

 the young plant becomes strong enough to be:ir 

 the open air. Two or three melons only, are left 

 to each vine, and under each of these is placed a 

 slate, without which the upper and under sides 

 vvill not ripen together." 



In another passage of the same worl;, the writer 

 .gives the following method of supersediug the ne- 

 cessity of pinching off the ends of the branches or 



Virginia Pumpkin. — A pumpkin of unusual 

 size, grew on the farm of John Reynolds, Esq. a 

 few miles from Clarkshurgh. Va. last season. It 

 weighed 320 pounds, and measured round the 

 middle 9 feet. All that grew on the same vine 

 weighed 840 lbs. 



Welland Canal. — The last Report of the Hoard 

 of Directors announce the rapid progre=s of this 

 great public work. It appears that the whole Ijne 

 from the Niagara and Welland rivers will be fin- 

 ished by October next, when the commnnicntion 

 between Lakes Erie and Ontario, around the Falls 

 of Niagara, will be completed. The imnortnnce 

 of this undertaking will he seen, when it is stated 

 that the canal is of suffi'-ient magnitude to he navi- 

 gated by vessels of l^."! tons burthen, and that 

 produce will soon be sent bv the o'-dinarv lake 

 craft, from all the upper lakes to Prpscot, 130 

 miles from Montreal, and to Oswego, IRfi miles 

 from Albany. The lof-kage, or fall from Prescot 

 to tide water, on the St. Lawrence, is only 196 ft. 

 and a canal of only 30 or 40 miles in length is re- 

 quired to connect the Lakes with the Ocean ; 

 which, if on the same scale as the Welland. would 

 render the Lake Navigation, to all intents and 

 purposes, n Sea Coast of greater extent than the 

 whole Atlantic Coast of North Amprica. It ap- 

 pears that ,50,000/ is required to complete the ca- 

 nal, and that Mr. Merritt. the Agent of the Com- 

 pany, is on his wav to England with an applica- 

 tion to the British Government for a loan to this 

 amount ; which, there can be no doubt will be ob- 

 tained. — JV Y. Mbion. 



Tooth Powder. — It may be gratifying to our 

 fair friends as well as those who wish to " stand 

 high in their good graces" on the score of cleanli- 

 ness, to publish the following receipt for making 

 a cheap and incomparably excellent dentifrice, 

 which not only makes the teeth white, but also 

 ^ives -itrens^th to the ^ums and an agreeable sweel- 

 tl'SS to the hreath — It is as follows : — Take half 

 an ounce of Gum Myrrh, one ounce of Chalk, and 

 one ounce of Charcoal. The ingredients must be 

 finely pulverized and sifted through a fine seive, 

 when it is fit for immediate use. — Am. Advocate. 



next day forwarded to New York, which it would 

 probably reach in about thirty days, thus afford- 

 ing president Adams an opportunity of perusing 

 his own speech m the Sun paper, after having 

 sailed across the Atlantic and bark again, a dis- 

 tance of 7000 miles, in about forty-eight days ! — 

 lAverpool Courier. 



RAIL ROADS. 

 We find in the iast New York Journal of Com- 

 merce, the following remarks on a subject in 

 which, we hope our fellow-citi/.ens are deeply in- 

 terested : 



RAIL ROAD TO THE WEST. 



" The plan of a rail road from the city of New- 

 York to the waters of Lake Erie, which has been 

 suggested to the public, appears to me worthy of 

 attenlive consideration. It is true that the Clin- 

 ton Canal (I know that I shall be understood, and 

 I wish the name might always be given) has real- 

 ized the most sanguiue expectations of those who 

 planned it. But it is equally true, that it is closed 

 at least four months in the year ; and the legisla- 

 ture might as well pass a law that it should not 

 rain, ss the one which was lately proposed, declar- 

 ing mat the canal should be closed only from De- 

 cember to March. When it rains, we must even 

 do as they'do in Spain — let it rain ; and when it 

 freezes, we must let it freeze. Without attempt- 

 ing ;o resist the ordinances of nature, we must 

 prufently accommodate ourselves to them, and 

 making the best use we can of the canal in the 

 vifarm season, we must contrive some other mode 

 of transportation for the cold 1 say we must ; 

 forivith all the wonderfil advantages of our local 

 situation and acquired facilities, the neighboring 

 states and cities are on the alert to take them 

 away from us. Massachusetts has lost none of her 

 wea'th or enterprize. She will soon construct a 

 rail road from Boston to Albany, which will make 

 the transportation of goods much cheaper between 

 those two places, than by the present circuitous 

 route, through New- York city If it be made on- 

 ly as cheap, it will at once prevent this city from 

 being any longer the entrepot of the trade be- 

 tween Boston and the west, of which 100,000 bbls. 

 of flour annually form one item. Still more, it 

 will unquestionably enable tie capitalists of Bos- 

 ton to compete with our merchants for the whole 

 trade of the west. For they will then meet us on 

 equal terms at Albany with for ign goods import- 

 ed into Boston, and transported on the rail road, 

 and for further transportation the canal is as free 

 to them as to us." 



Singular Eij^'eltnof ncros.i the Atlmitic. — As a 

 proof of the great celerity with which news is cir- 

 culated at the present day, we may insian 'p the 

 following :— The American President's Speech, 

 delivered at Washimrton, left New York in the 

 packet ship Sitn.i Richards, on the llih Decem- 

 ber, arrived in Liverpool on Monday the 31st, was 

 despatched, by express, to London at three o'cl'k. 

 where it readied at three o'clock on Tuesday ; 

 was printed and published by five o'clock the 

 same evening, in a second edition of the "Sun" 

 Evening Paper, occupying nearly Jive columns, 

 closely printed, and left London that night by all 

 the mails at eight o'clock, arrived again in Liver- 

 pool on Wednesday at seveD,copies of which were 



Nothing is more delightful than an evening par- 

 ty in a private German circle. You assemble for 

 this occasion immediately after tea, which is reg- 

 ularly taken at six o'cloi k. Some refreshments, 

 such as pine-apples, grapes, &c. are handed round. 

 The whist, quadrille, or omhrc tables are arranged, 

 and the company sit down to play. During the 

 play, a band performs tunes of Mozart's, Weber's, 

 and Rozini's operas ; and if there are daughters 

 iu the family, whom their friends are coming to 

 see, a dance is arranged before you are aware, — 

 I'here is in every house not only the music mas- 

 ter, but at least two or three servants who are ex- 

 cellent performers. Their rooms not being car- 

 peted, but parquetted and polished with wax, are 

 it any time ready for this occasion. It is in these 

 evening parties that the amiable and fascinating 

 character of the high classes of the Austrian em- 

 pire shines out in all its charms. — Austria as it is. 



