Vol. 6— No. 45. 



NEW ENGLAND FAHMER. 



355 



I FOB THE NEW KSGHNl) KIKMKR. 



' DESTROYING BUGS ON VINES. 



Mr. FF.S9F.M>E^, — The season is approaching- 

 . when gardeners nny havo ditficuliy in pre.^ervin>; 

 X Iheir young cucumbers and melons from being eat 

 by the siniill vfllow speckled bug-. 



A cheap und easy remedy. I accidentally discov- 

 ered one eveiiinn;, (a few years ago,) by seeing 

 Ihem fly into the candle. The next evening about 

 dark, I built several light blazing fires in my gar- 

 den, and repeated them several evenings; they all 

 disappeared, and I expect were burnt to death. 



Since that, if I see any of them in my garden, I 

 build a few such evening fires, and receive no 

 damage from them ; indeed, they appear to be 

 nearly exterminated from the premise- 



SAMUEL PRESTON. 



Stockport, Pa. May 19 1828. 



SIGNS OF A POOR FARMER. 

 He graces his mowing land late in the full, and 

 Iiis [jastures early in the spring, and consequently 

 ruins both. Some of his cows are much past their 

 prime. He neglects to keep the dung and the 

 ground from the sills of his buildings , and it costs 

 him twenty dollars to make repairs when one dol- 

 lar's worth of work vvoiiKl have been sufEcient if 

 performed at leisure time ten years before. He 

 sows and plan's his land until it is exhausted be- 

 fore he thinks of manuring. He has generally too 

 much stock, and many of them unruly. He is al- \ 

 ■ways sure to have a great deal of stake and pole 

 fence. He says that he cannot farm it for want of 

 money : this is frequently the case with good farm- 

 ers, but you may know a sloven by bis inattention 

 to little things — his children's shoes are spoiled 

 for shoe strings to tie them, or for want of a little 

 tallow to supple them — his door hinges comes off 

 for want ol a nail, and the door is destroyed for 

 want of a hinge, and his mow is trampled on and 

 cattle gored for want of a door; and all this loss 

 is occasioned by not timely driving and clench- 

 ing a single nail. Nothing is in order — he has a 

 place for nothing, and nothing in its place. If he 

 wants a gimblet, a chisel, or a hammer, he hunts 

 up chamber, out at the barn and corn-house, in 

 the cupboard, and lastly when he has spent more 

 time in pursuit than it takes him to do the job, he 

 finds it d'lwn cellar. He keeps no stock of the 

 smallest things ; if a button or a bail to a pail 

 gives way, or a key to a yoke, or a pin to a sled, 

 or a helve to an axe, a string or a swingle to a 

 flail, or even a tooth to a rake, he has none to re- 

 place them. He seldom does any thing in stormy 

 weather, or in an evening, and is sure to keep no 

 memorandum of little jobs that are to be done. 

 You will perhaps hear of his groaning about the 

 hardness of the times frequently in a bar room. 

 Death and the tax-gatherer he knows must come; 



yet he makes no provisions for either of them. 



Although he has been on a piere of good land for 

 twenty years, ask him for a grafted apple, and he 

 will tell you that he could not raise them for he 

 i^ever had no luck. His indolence amd carelessness 

 subject him to many accidents. lie loses so.ip or 

 cider for want of a hoop — in the midst of his 

 busy ploughing, his plough breaks because it was' 

 not housed ; and when he is reaping away from 

 home his hogs break into his garden for want of 

 an additional board. He does not take the advan- 

 tage of his business by driving it when he can, and 

 consequently he is like the old woman's son, "so 

 busy that he ne,ver does any thing ;" or at least he 



seldom finishes one linug before he begins anotii 

 er, and thercforn brings little to pass, und is oftei. 

 to bo seen in a great hurry. He is seUlotn neat 

 in his person, anu will sit down to table without 

 combing his hair, and suffer his children to do so 

 " ithoiit washing their hands and faces. He fre- 

 quently drives his cattle with a club, umi h ; pu 

 rally late to public worship. His children are al- 

 so api to bo late at school, and their books are 

 to'-n and dirty. He is careless; his children am! 

 domestics are so too. As he has no enterprise, so 

 he is sure to have no money. If he must have 

 money, he frequently tiiakes great sacrifices to ,4et 

 it ; and as he is sh'ck in his p/.yments, and tm/s 

 altotretlier on credit, he pays through the nose or 

 everything. His wtnt of forelhoug';it, economy, 

 and exertion makes him poor, and his poverty tend- 

 eth to poverty. You will generally see the smoke 

 begin to come out of his chimney \ons a<'tiT ■■'•■.!■; 

 liv'ht in winter. His horse stable is not dailyclean 

 ed out, or his horse littered, and curried — Boards, 

 shingles, and clapboards are to be seen off his 

 buildings month after month, without being replac- 

 ed. He feeils his liogs with whole grain and suf- 

 fers them to oe mucli inj ired for want of a warm 

 pen ; he seems to live without thinking; if his 

 lambs die, or the woo! couiesoff his sheep, he does 

 not seem to think I'mt it is fir want of care and 

 food. He is generally a troublesome borrower, 

 and frequently forgets to return the thing he has 

 borrowed. 



In a word, a poor farmer in the siri't sense of 

 the word, is a poor creature — he is a poor hus- 

 band, a poor father, a poor neighbor, and a poor 

 citizen. A good farmer may he poor, but a poor 

 farmer cannot act his p.-irt well : in other words, 

 he cannot be good as a man or as a christian. 



EXTRACTS FROM VARIOUS AUTHORS. 



Seed. — Let your seed be such as you would 

 wish to have your future crop — the best of the kind. 

 As the largest animals produce the most p^-ofila- 

 ble stock, so it is in vegetables : the largest seed 

 of the kind, plump and sound, is the best, being 

 well ripened, and kept from injuries of weather 

 and insects. 



Commonly speaking, new seed is to be prefer- 

 red to old, as growing more luxuriantly, and com- 

 ing up the surei and quicker. As to the age of 

 seeds, at which they may be sown and germinate, 

 it is uncertain, and depends much how they are 

 preserved. 



Seeds of cucumbers, melons, gourds, &c. which 

 have thick horny coverings, and the oil of the 

 seed of a cold nature, will continue good for ten, 

 fifteen, or even twenty years, unless they are kept 

 in a very warm place, which will exhaust the veg- 

 etable nutriment in a twelve month ; [three years 

 for cucumbers, and four for melons, is generally 

 thought to be best, as they shoot less vig-orously 

 than newer seeds, and become more fruitful.] 



0;ly seeds whose coats, though they are not so 

 hard and close as the former, yet abounding with 

 oil f.f a warmer nature, will continue good three 

 or four years, as radish, turnip, rape, mustard, &c. 



Seeds of umbelliferous plants, which are for the 

 most part of a warm nature, lose their growing 

 faculty in one, or at most two years, as parsley, 

 carrots, parsnips, &c. 



Peas and beans of two years old are by some 

 preferred to new, as not likely to straw. 



Sowinf^s should be generally performed on fresh 

 dug or stirred ground. There is a nutritious 



moisture in fresh turned up soil, that softens the 

 .-leeil to swell and germinate ([uickly, and nour- 

 ishes it with proper aliment to proceed in its 

 cjrowth with vigor, but which is evaporated soon 

 after from the surface. 



ICvelyn says, seeds for the garden cannot be 

 sown too shallow, so they are preserved from 

 birds, for nature never covers them. 



Steeps are used to render the .seed more fruitful, 

 as preservations against distempers, and to pre- 

 vent worms from eating it. 



[There are many well attested facts to prove 

 the utility of steeping seed for sowing. In some 

 dry seasons, especially, the steeping of the seed 

 or not steeping of it, makes the difference of a 

 good crop or no crop at all. Steeps may be cham- 

 ber lie, the cJiaining of a dung hill, or a weak so- 

 lution of salt in water. In cither of these the 

 seed should be soaked eight or ten hours ; when 

 taken out, sprinkle over it a quantity of newly 

 slacked lime, or plaster of Paris, or even ashes, 

 stirring the seed until every grain is covered — 

 This operation is done im.mediiitely before sow- 

 ing ] 



Toll relates that a ship load of wheat was sunk 

 near Bristol in autumn, and afterwards, at ebbs, 

 all tiken up, after it had been soaked in sea wa' 

 ter; but beinff unfit for the miller, the whole car- 

 go wns bought up by the farmers, and sown in 

 different places. At the following harvest all the 

 wheat in England h:ipr«ened to be smutty, except 

 the pro.luce of this bined seed, and that was all 

 clear from smutliness. This accident has justifi- 

 ed the practice of brining ever since, in most 

 parts of England. 



Liverwort. — A correspondent of the National In- 

 tel'igencer gives someinteresting particulars of 

 the Hepatica Triloba, or Liverwort, the valuable 

 properties nf which, in pulmonary complaints, have 

 so recently been discovered, and in many instan- 

 ces successfully tested. The plant, it appears, was 

 cultivated in England, by Gerard, as long ago as 

 the year 15)16. There are two distinct varieties 

 of the species — the one obtiisn, " having the lobes 

 of the leaves rounding, obtuse ; the other acuta, 

 bavins' the lobes of the leaves acute." The for- 

 mer is found in forests, the latter on mountains. 



Dr. Hereford has communicated another article 

 on this subject, in the same paper. It is in reply 

 to a writer in -i late Eastern paper, who thinks 

 that the Liverwort is useless in cases where the 

 lungs have becotie so far diseased, as actually to 

 discharge pus. This opinion is controverted by 

 Dr. H. who affirms that the medical virtues of this 

 plant have been k-own to operate successfully, in 

 many instances, even after that alarming symptom 

 has appeared, and when extensive ulcerations of 

 that organ must have existed. This is a most en- 

 couraging consideration, and one which should 

 prompt the thousands of consumptives with which 

 our country unfortunately abounds, to an immedi- 

 ate persevering trial of this panacea. It is neces- 

 sary that special caution be used in order to obtain 

 the genuine plant — as mistakes may not only 

 prove fatal, but result in a loss of public confidence 

 in the properties of an herb, which, when gen- 

 uine, is of the highest value to afflicted man. 

 Boston Bulletin. 



The importation of tea from Canton to New 

 South Wales, within the last two years, has beea 

 cjirried on to such an excess, that this article is 

 almost as cheap at Sidney as sugar. 



