Vol. G. — No. 40. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



31 



crops especially by those which require the use of j ses in the metropolis of this country. [London.] — ter's mud and water, render them less liable to be 



:he hoe, and then such a quantity of clean, well The manner in which the American horses are | injured by the frost, and upon the whole the pro- 

 selected grass seeds must be sown as will clever- ' sustained to perform these labours, is generally by j duce per acre, where the rid{,'o Imsbandry isprop- 



!y fill the ground, and in their growth smother feeding them with hay and straw chopped about i eriy conducted, is so very much increased as in 



every other vegetable. For this purpose too much haif an inch long, with which is mi.\ed about half time to warrant a fair expectation of its sii'persed- 



seed cannot be put in the ground at once. The a peck of rye, oats or Indian corn meal, to about ing the broad-cast turnip husbandry in all case* 



practice of putting: a small quantity of grass seed two and a half or tliree pecks of hay or straw thus whatever ibid. 



on ground laid down for pastures or meadows, is chopped. A feeding trough sufficiently large for! pi i ,■ ,l 



one of the greatest errors in the husbandry of our fo„r or five horses to eat out of at the same time i ^ " °5 ^ " "'.' ^'"'"S'' P'"?^"" '" ^^^ '"'"''<' <=!'- 

 country. On this subject I wish that our farmers is attached to each wagon. The chaff is put into ,, , f,^'",] *^"!'''"' ^^°"''' "°t be so suitable for 

 would consult a book published in London, called this trough, and after being well mixed with the l"''^ <» ^he United btates. The row or drill cul- 

 the Comphtt Grazier. It gives receipts for the given quantity of meal, is moistened, and again ,'■ ''°"'^-ef' o" "■ P'"'" aurtace is preferable for 

 kinds ami quantities of seed per acre proper to be well stirred together till every shred of the hay t"™PS ; ""'Jansvyers the purposes oi saving ma- 

 sown on all the varieties, of soils, such as clay, or chopped straw is found to bo covered, or as it °"''^' '""'-'"s'"? '''o "op- ^nJ rendering the cul- 

 loam, sand, chalk, peats, up-lands, mid-lands. and were frosted over by the meal. The avidity with ^d TtZ ME Fa,'" I '"■°^'^"'=''' method.— 

 lowlands. As a sample, I will copy the receipt for which the horses eat their meal thus prepared,: ' •' 



The Potato. — The history of the potato conveys 

 to us a most instructive lesson, forcibly re/nindiiig 

 us of the e.Ntraoruinary lengths to which prejudice 



i^ . , . ^ . ,, , will carry mankind, and showing us by what appa- 



ll IS the pride of tne carters, as wel as the wagon ror^ii,. f-;,.;.,! „■-„ . .1- • 1- .r 



r , ... . rentiy trivial circumstances this prejudice is otten 



masters in that country to see their horses in a ,„„„,,_j ,„i,„„ ,i . t- ^ , ■ a .• i 



•', , . , , , removed, when the most powerful and influential 



I condition rather above than under the labour they _.„„_,„_,„ L„„ <• i ■ . , . t,, . 



, . ,.,,,., r arguments have failed to weaken it. The intro- 



nave to perform; and in a hundred miles trave - j.,^,i„„ „.■ n,; . i ui . . .u j j 



, . „ , . r.. ■. , . . • , nuction 01 this valuable root to the gardens and 



ling from Baltimore or Philadelphia, the surveyor : j^^les of the people, received, for more than two 

 In the receipts for the various soils the quantity ^lU be bound to say that as many prime ^agon\ cenlunes, an unexampled opposition from vulgar 

 of seed is generally about a bushel per acre. Let ''°"es, and in as high condition, shall be seen, as j prejudices, which all the phdosophy of the age 

 this be compared with our practice. '" ^"7 directitwi for that distance from the city of 



London. The adoption of a similar treatment in 

 the management of the farm and wagon horset- in 



in acre for low lands : 

 Meadow Foxtail, 

 Meadow Fescue, 

 Rough stalked poa. 

 Rye Grass, 

 Vernal Grass, 

 White Clover, 

 Marl Grass, 

 Rib Grass, 



2 pecks. 

 2 do.^ 

 2 do. 

 1 do. 



1 quart. 



2 do. 

 2 do. 

 2 do. 



may be well conceived. Their meal finished, they i 

 either pursue their journey or lie down to rest, 

 but in either case not without being well dried 

 and cleansed from the effects of their last labour. 



(To be continued.) 



Potatos. — It is a usual practice in Ireland to pre- this country, needs no farther recommendation 

 pare the potato setts [cuttings of potatos] from than the solemn asseveration as to the truths here 

 some of the fairest and best potatos, during the stated. 



broken weather in the preceding winter. In the! "The baiting of post, stage, and travelling hor- 

 dry situations they are then placed, they become ; ses with rye, oat, or bean bread, in the manner 

 encrusted with the ji ioe of the potatos, and «re performed on the continent, is an infinitely more 

 justly supposed to bleed less before gerirination economical and facile mode of administering re- 

 than if fresh cut in the spring of the year. The freshment to a jaded animal, than by giving them 

 set of course is stronger, and it puts forth a more 1 the crude unbroken corn, go universally practised 

 vigorous shoot soon after being planted. The j in this country." — Ibid. 

 planting of small potatos, or setts having more 



than two strong eyes, is with reason objected ta ; 

 the number of eyes, on what is called the crown 

 of the potato are alwys rejected, with the smsll 

 potatos, both being found to produce languid shoots 

 and a number of small bead potatos of no value.— 

 Vancouver's Survryof Devonshire. 



was unable to dissipate, until Louis XV. of France 

 wore a bunch of the flowers ot the potato in the 

 midst of his court on a day of festivity ; the people 

 then, for the first time, obsequiously acknowledged 

 its usefulness, and its cultivation, as an article of 

 fooil, soon became universal. Now, its stalk, con- 

 sidered as a textile plant, produces, in Austria, a 

 cottony flax. In Sweden, sugar is extracted from 

 its roots. By combustion its different parts yield 

 a considerable quantity of potass. Its apples, when 

 ripe, ferment and yield vinegar by exposure, er 

 spirit by distillation. Its tubercles made intft 

 pulp, are a substitute for soap in bleaching. Cook- 

 ed by steam, the potato is oac of the most whole- 

 some and nutvitious, and, at the same time, the 

 most economical of all vegetable aliments. By 

 different manipulations it furnishes two kinds of 

 flour, a gruel, and a parenchyma, which, in times- 

 of scarcity, may be made into bread, or applied to-' 

 increase the bulk of bread from grain ; and its 

 starch is little, if at all, inferior to the Indian ar- 

 row-root. Such are the numerous resoiirceswhich 

 this invaluable plant is calculated to furnish. 



Turnips. — It may not be amiss in this place to 



offer a few observations on the relative excellence 



of the Scotch two furrow turnip husbandry, with 



that of the common broad cast. Observation and 



experience clearly show, that the depredations of 



the insect called the fly, on the young turnip 



plants, are precisely in proportion to the feeble- 



Farm Horses. — " If we except the treatment of ness and want of growing vigour in the infant 



the farm-horses in Ireland, those In Devonshiie j plants ; and that as soon as they are pushed into 



have, perhaps as hard a measure of neglect and , the rough leaf, all farther danger from the insect 



ill-usage dealt out to them, as is any where to be [ is at an end. The rough leaf, however, will befre- Upwards of 1700 n-arments have been forwarded 

 met with in the united kingdom. J'rom the inju- , qucntly seen perforated, and as the foliage enlar- i [_^ (he Greek committee of this citv by the ladies 



dicious manner in which they receive the corn oc- j ges, the holes enlarge with it, giving the appear- ; ^p New London. JV. Y. Fanner. 



casionally given them, it is a point of some ques- ; ance of having been much damaged by the fly,: 



tiou, whether It affords them a benefit, or by di- ' and by wliich it certainly would have been de- Pike, or Pickerel Oil.-^-Tho oil of a pickerel is 

 verting their appetite from the hay, pea or other stroyed, had not its growing vigour sustained it j of a subtil, mollient nature, and is found in many 

 straw, absolutely produces an injury from the avid- against the attack. From the early and ample | cases to be of the greatest efficacy, especially in 



the ear ache, or sores in the head. Two or three 

 drops of the oil dropped in the ear, has never fail- 

 ed of giving immediate relief, in every case of the 

 ear-ache, though of the most r-Iidnrate kinds. It 

 has been applied in cases of burns and scalds, as 

 well as swellings and inflammations in the feet; it; 

 has the most happy effects. It has likewise beert 

 known to work a cure on an old wound, where- 

 almost every other means had been tried without 

 effect. To extract the oil, take the fatty parts of" 

 the entrails of the fish, (such as the rai'l, &c.) put 

 them into a clean vessel, and simmer them on a 

 gentle fire, until the oil becomes fine and clear — 

 then it may be strained through a fine cloth, and> 

 put into a vial, close stopped, for use. 



ity with which they swallow the corn unmastica- supply of nourishment afforded the vo^nig plants 



ted. To remedy this evil a better example no 

 where presents, than what may be drawn from the 

 management of farm and wagon horses in Penn- 



by the layer of dun* occupying the tops of the 

 two-furrow ridges, their roots strike immediately 

 upon or near it, receive the invigorating principle. 



sylvania and Maryland. These horses perform and a quicker and stronger growth ensues, great- 

 journeys of two or three hundred miles over the ly abating the risk of their destruction by the fiy, 

 stupendous mountains of that country, with pro- and %vith a much smaller allowance of dung per 

 digious loads of wheat anil flour from the interior, I acre than must necessarily be applied to afford 

 and wet and dry goods from the seaports to the I any thing like a prospect of success by the broad 



different points of embarkation, at Fort Pitt, Red 

 Stone, Charleston and Wheeling, and other pla- 

 ces on the Ohio river. Notwithstanding which 

 those wagon-horses, through the whole extent of 

 that country are seldom seen in a less high con- 



dition than the brewers' and other larga cart-hor- bottom.s being raised out of the reach of tlio win 



cast method. The distance between the rows from 

 top to top of the ridges, according to the prospect 

 of luxuriancy in the crop, may be varied from 18 

 to 26 inches. The facility of horse-hoeing and 

 setting out the plants by hand in the rows, the 



