NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JIXY Ifl, 1834. 



N K VV ENGLAND FAUJJJiK. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 16,1834. 



For the Nero England Fanner. 

 Mr. EnnoR — Sir, Anion<j n luiiiiher of excel- 

 Ipiit things yiiu liavi; nfliitK years iiiciitioiied as coin- 

 iiij; into t'asfiioii, J l)e^ leave to reiiiiiid you ol' 

 " FinlaysoiiV Ituiioiis SfOtcli liarrovv" notired liy 

 ,yoii in tlic 4tli vol. page 86. 15nt more parti<Milar- 

 ly I call yoni- attention to the " Cow Cabijage Tree," 

 of which at present I hear nothing. I suppose the 

 cow caliliage tree cainiot support our winters. If 

 it can, pray let us know it. The " Gaina Grass," 

 aliout wiiich, last sunnner, you made such a flour- 

 ish, induced nie to procure some seed, which I 

 jilanted on the frst day of April,; and not a single 

 seed has vegetated. If any one of your readers 

 has been more successful than myself, I wish he 

 would send you a. word on the subject: For it is 

 my ojiinion that if the Gania grass could be natur- 

 alized here, njilk would shortly run down your 

 streets in streaujs. liut, sir, the greatest flourish 

 vou made last year wasyour notice of the project of 

 Professor Kafinesriue's " Incombustible Houses," 

 which seem to have gone oft' in a flash. 



On the strength of "Cow Cabbage," " Gama 

 Grass," and " Incombustible Houses," to be built 

 eheafier than wooden ones, I purchased ten acres 

 of excellent loild land within two miles of Boston, 

 with a view of supplying all the good people of 

 ISoston with nulk ; and I encompassed the land 

 with a more than legal fence, for I liold it equal 

 to an eleventh conuiiandment to keep a five rail 

 fence against one's neighbur. And now sir, the 

 least you can do for me, is, to tell me what I had 

 better do with my land. 



Yours, Lac-milk. 



By the F-ditor. We are nuicli obliged to Mr. 

 ^^Lac-miUc" (who, it seems does not lack wit,) for 

 directing our attention to the articles and topics 

 adverted to in his communication ; and are sorry 

 that our infurtnation relating to them is not so full 

 an<l explicit as we coidd wish. And, first, 



Finlatson's Harrow. The notice we gave of 

 this implement was taken from the English Far- 

 >Ker''s Journal, a jiaper published in London. It 

 was there highly commended, but not described 

 with such precision as to enable any person to 

 copy its form or comprehend exactly the principles 

 which gave it superiority over other implements of 

 the kind. Since ])nblishing our notice of said 

 Harrow, we have seen in Loudon's Gardener's Mng- 

 ri-ine, vol. i, p. 102-3, a review of an agricidtural 

 work, published by John Finlayson, the inventor 

 of Fiidayson's Harrow, in which this and several 

 other inipli'ineuts of the same man's invention are 

 mentioned. JJut ihe able Comluctorof that Magazine 

 says; "All these implements have lieen very much 

 approved of in diflc'riMit parts of Scotland ; but be- 

 ing chiefly calculated for land in an imperfect state 

 of ridtivaiion, or where very rough stidibles arc 

 left, it may be doubted if they come into general 

 use." A\'e shall, however, make fm'ther in(piiries 

 res|)ccting this harrow, and if we should, thereby, 

 be led to supfiose it woidd prove serviceable in 

 this country, will give it farther notice. 



Cow Cabbage. The last we recollect to have 

 heard or read of the cultivation of this vaunted 

 vegetable, in this country, is contained in a letter 

 with which we were favored, from Dr. J. Thacher, 

 dated Plymouth, May 8, 1830, and published in 

 the New England Farmer, vol. viii, p. 312. Uy 



this it apfiears that Dr. Thacher received s<ime of 

 the seed of the Cow Cabbage (Cassarean kale) from 

 Dr. Mease of Philadelphia, which the last named 

 gentleman had recently imported from France. 

 That according to Dr. iMease, " in the Provinces ol 

 iMayiie and iirittany, where the variety is exten- 

 sively cultivated, chiefly for cattle, the stalks live 

 finu' years and grow ten feet high. The plants 

 may stand out all winter in Europe, but as the cohl 

 of the Old Colony might possibly kill them they 

 should be defended, by a sheaf of straw well se- 

 cured at the top." It appears that some plantetl 

 by Br. Thacher were killed by frost, but he ob- 

 serves, " Fortunately, one of ujy neighbors, from 

 a curiosity to ascertain their worth, took up his 

 ()lants in autumn and put them into his cellar. 

 They flourished well, and he cut the leaves and 

 young sprouts several times in the winter and 

 Ibund them excellent for table greens. One of the 

 plants is now [May 8th, 1830] six feet high, and 

 its sprouts to the very summit are covered with 

 yellow blossouis, from which a large quantity ot' 

 seed will be produced," &c. What becauje of 

 these plants or of the culture of the Cow Cabbage 

 in the Old Colony we have not learned. We 

 should be thankful if Dr. Thacher would be so 

 good as to forward us a line on the subject. 



Gama Grass. We understand that our corres- 

 pondent has not been the only person who has 

 failed to succeed in causing Gama Grass seed to 

 vegetate. We sent some to a friend iti Vermont, 

 who wrote to us as follows : 



" I must give you my thanks for the Gama Grass 

 seed. I was very attentive in ])lanting it, and 

 ujade as many hills as seeds, which were about 17. 

 liut to my disa[)pointnient not one of them has 

 vegetated. Il" it were not owing to the age of the 

 seed it must be to the severe cold we have had 

 this spring — the latter I thiidi is the case." Sev- 

 eral other persons have obtained seeds of the Gama 

 grass from the office of the N. E. Farmer, but we 

 have received no notices of the results of their 

 trials. AVe should be glad to be informed if any 

 have succeeded. We have always entertained and 

 expressed doubts of the possibility of cultivating 

 that grass in the Northern States, but, hoping it 

 jnight' become acclimated, have thought the ex- 

 periment worth the trial. We do not yet abso- 

 lutely despair of its eventual success, and would 

 recommend the procuring of fresh seeds, s[)routing 

 or starling them in hot beds, and taking tlie proper 

 measures to enure the plants by degrees to the rig- 

 ors and changes of our climate. 



With regard to our " flourish" as our corres- 

 pondent calls it, relative to '■^Incombustible Houses," 

 we were neither principal nor accessary in any 

 flourish, pu(f or recommendation of Professor lla- 

 finesqne's alleged Discovery of erecting Incombus- 

 tible Houses. We republished from the Philadel- 

 phia Gazette an article on the subject,* leithout ex- 

 pressing anij opinion of its correctness, giving credit 

 to the papiu- from which said article was extracted. 

 Indeed it was not possible for us to say whether 

 the " Discovery," as it was called could or could 

 not be relied on, because as the article ilsell' states 

 the modus operandi or manner in which the incom- 

 bustil)ility is effected, "he [the Professor aforesaid] 

 wisely and discreetly keeps to himself; but with 

 magnificent liberality he oilers to divulge the se- 

 cret to any architi'.ct for the sum of one thousand 

 dollars" &c. Now if our correspondent is an ar- 



Sec New England l''ariner, vol. xi, p. 3(iU. 



chitect, and will apply to Professor Kafinesque, and 

 pay him .flOOO, he will probably be let in to the 

 secret, and for aught we know will be taken in 

 into the bargain ; but at any rate we do not " take 

 the rcsponsibllilij." That houses may be made in- 

 cornbusiible we have no doubt, but cannot say 

 whether said Professor (not having the honor of 

 his acquaintance) knows any thing worth knowing 

 relative to this or any thing else, which lie jjrofes- 

 ses to know. "A Constant Reader," in New Eng- 

 land Farmer, vol. xi, p. 377, supposes Iron Houses 

 would combine with Incombustibility many other 

 advantages. In remarks on that article we stated 

 some objections to Iron Houses, the principal of 

 which Was in substance, that iron being a good 

 conductor of caloric, houses nuide of that metal 

 would be nearly as cold in winter and as warm in 

 summer within doors, as the atmosphere without 

 them. To conclude, we wonlil inform Mr. " Lac- 

 milk" that we do not mean to giiaianty the truth 

 of every report, nor the utility nor practicability of 

 every alleged invention or improvement of which 

 we take notice in our Journal. We always, im- 

 less by oversight, g-ii'e our avihoriiy, name the 

 book, paper, or otlier source from which our in- 

 formation is derived, and thus our readers are pre- 

 sented with the same means of judging of its cor- 

 rectness, of which we are ourselves in possession. 

 In short, we take no responsibilities in articles of 

 that kind except iu cases which have come under 

 our own personal observation. More or less un- 

 certainty pervades every other art and science as 

 well as those of agriculture and rural economy. 

 Truth and falsehood not only often wear the same 

 garb but a|)proach us by the same avenue, and 

 noiliing short of omniscience can always distin- 

 guish the one from the other. 



VARIETIES OP IKDIAN CORIV. 



By the kindness of the Rev. Dr. Harris of 

 Dorchester, we have received from the plantation of 

 Doctor Whitridge of Charleston, S. C. four speci- 

 mens of as many diflerent sorts of Indian corn. 

 They are labelled Yellow Flint, of South Caroli- 

 na ; Madeira Flint, six years planted in South 

 Carolina; Common Flint of South Carolina ; Tus- 

 carora corn, from the celebrated Collins' planta- 

 tion, which has been planted six years at Rose 

 F>ank, St. John's Parish, Colleton District, South 

 Carolina. They may be seen at the oflice of the 

 N. E. Farmer. 



LIGIITKING COKDI'CTORS. 



It is fancied that it is quite sufficient to put up 

 an iron rod, with one end in the ground and the 

 other a few feet higher than the roof, to protect a 

 building from lightning. It should be impressed 

 on the public that conductors, uidess perfectly in- 

 sulated, are calculated to produce the disaster tliey 

 are intended to prevent. The best mode of insu- 

 lating them is for them to pass through glass rings, 

 and in no part to be in contact with any thing but 

 glass. The lightning conductors placed on tbe 

 Royal Exchange at Paris are a perfect model in 

 this respect. — Penny Mag. 



THE SEASON. 



Since our last notice of the season we have had 

 a favorable change in the weather, and vegetation 

 has advanced with rajiid strides. But it has been 

 rather too wet to be most favorable to the Indian 

 corn. The season, however, has not yet got so 

 forward as usual, and our farmers have not done 



