vol.. XIII. NO. 1. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



.5 



Fehniary, and plenty of old grapes till the end ol' 

 June! Tliei-c is little heyond the power of inan 

 if he will hut exert those faculties with which 

 God has endowed him." 



Ft-oin th>^ (ifiwsii Fanticr. 

 CUI/TURK OP OKIONS. 



The account given in a late nuinher of the 

 Farmer, of the henelicial elVi;cts of charcoal dust 

 ill the culture of onions, reminds me of an experi- 

 tnent made hy one of our farmers last year, and 

 vvhirh I think may be turned to good account. 

 He hail prepared his onion beds in tlie usmd man- 

 ner, sowed his seed at the proper time, hut the 

 seed did not come up, and his beds were goon 

 covered with young weeds which grew unmolest- 

 ed. After he had finished his corn planting, he 

 prdcured some good seed, and to refit liis beds 

 for its reception, covered the surface with straw to 

 the depth of a foot or more, and burned it over. 

 Ly repeating this operation the gromid was com- 

 pletely cleared of tlie weeds, and without stirring 

 the surface more than was necessary to deposit 

 the seeds, he sowed them ; they grew finely, no 

 weeds came up, and he had a fine crop of onions. 

 Tills year he caused his onion ground to lie pre- 

 pared early, that the weeds might have time to 

 start before the time of sowing, when he as last 

 year burned straw over his beds, and sowed his 

 onions. By this proceeding he secures two im- 

 portant end.-J — he eradicates all weeds from the 

 surface, and the ashes and charcoal of the straw, 

 furnish the best possible dressing for the onions. 



W. G. 



Olisco, May 30, 183-1. 



ox ASHES AS A MiVSfURE. 



From a letter just received from a correspond- 

 ent in Pennsylvania, we make the following ex- 

 tracts. We are aware that many of our Genesee 

 farmers consiiler the use of ashes as a manure at 

 least doubtful, — ascribing its supposed inefiicacy to 

 some peculiarity either in our soil or climate ; but 

 we have not been disposed to adopt this opinion. 

 !n fields which yield large cro|is, the diflerence of 

 a few bushels to the acre, is scarcely perce|nible ; 

 and it follows that the value of a manure which 

 produces such diiibrenee, may be nnicli under- 

 rated. Yet it is evident that five bushels of {ndian 

 corn, added to the forty or fifty bushels which the 

 land W'ould produce without manure, are worth as 

 much to the farmer, as when that addition is made 

 to the product of more sterile lands ; or when it 

 increases the crop from twenty to twenty-five 

 bushels an acre. 



We want experiments in the western parts of 

 this state, on the subject of ashes as a manure. 

 We believe that farmers, instead of selling im- 

 leached ashes at tlieir doors for six cents a bushel, 

 vvoidd find it more profitable to keep them for their 

 own use, and to apply tliein to their own corn- 

 fields as manure. 



" r put a small handful of unleached ashes into 

 each hill of corn at the time of planting; and I 

 think this way is better than to put it on the hill 

 alter the corn has come up. Last season, I dress- 

 ed a few rows of corn with it, and am satisfied it 

 is fully worth seventy-five cents a bushel for this 

 purpose. These rows alternated with others, so 

 that the experiment was fairly tried ; and the dif- 

 ference was apparent through the whole season. 

 There was a gain of at least five bushels to the 

 acre. The ashes cost fifteen cents a bushel, the 

 quantity not exceeding three bushels to the acre. 



" This year, I bought potash for soap making, 

 so that 1 might save my ashes for manure, vnharh- 

 ed. I am satisfied that leached ashes are not worti 

 near so much ; yet with the latter, the corn was 

 much better than in that part of the field which 

 had no ashes." — Genesee Farmer. 



Keeping four winters on bay, &c. 40 



Keeping four summers to grass, 16 



FORCING ASPARAGUS. 



Ai'TER visitiug your market at New York, I am 

 rather sur|iiised at <he little attention paid to forc- 

 ing that useful vegetable, the Asparagus, which I 

 deem one of the first importance to the market 

 gardener. The mode of forcing being simple, and 

 the jiroduce generally satisfactory, I trust a few- 

 practical reiriarks on the subject will be acceptable 

 to some of our readers. 



As soon as the frost is out of the ground, let a 

 very moderate hot-bed be made, of any conven- 

 ient size, with hot horse manure ; the frame being 

 placed on it in the usual manner, cover the bed 

 three inches thick with earth, whereon the aspar- 

 agus roots are to be placed, taken from an old bed, 

 or nursery rows three or four years old. Tlie roots 

 will require no trimming, but merely placed as 

 thick as possible in the bed, so that the crowns 

 are not to be placed in one another. This done, 

 they are to be covered three inches with light 

 soil or tanner's bark, when the sashes may bo 

 closed to draw the heat ; but care must be taken 

 not to let the lights remain on a day after the heat 

 begins to rise, when six or eight inches more of 

 light earth may be covered over the bed. The 

 treatment is simply to give plenty of air in the 

 day, and moderately covering the frame at night: 

 to keep out the frost is suflicient. After the bed 

 has been ])lanted ten or twelve days, the roots will 

 begin to vegetate, when a good watering is to be 

 given every other day ; and in three weeks after 

 the time of planting, a good supply of asparagus 

 will appear, and continue if properly managed 

 from ten to twelve days. 



Edmund Sayres. 



From the Farmer^s Journal. 

 BREED OP CATTL,E. 



The only reason that can be assigned why the 

 farmer does not find the raising of cattle the most 

 lucrative branch of his calling, is that he does not 

 pay proper attention to the breeds of those he 

 keeps. No point is so much neglected — while it 

 is generally acknowledged that none could be more 

 profitably attended to. If the farmer would sit 

 down and make a careful estimate of the differ- 

 ence in the profit upon a good and a poor animal, 

 he would readily see the importance of this sub- 

 ject. The writer of this recently sold two cows of 

 the same age — the one a good, and the other a 

 poor cow. Both came in at three years old, and 

 both have had a calf every spring since. Both 

 were sold without the calf — the best for 830, and 

 the poorest for $17. Since the sale I have, as is 

 my custom, proceeded to "count the cost," or to 

 estimate the loss and gain in the case. The fol- 

 lowing is* the result — estimating that 25 dollars is 

 the amount iu butter, cheese, &c. obtained yearly 

 from the best cow ; that the other gave only ludf 

 as much milk, and had poorer calves ; and that 

 the expense of keeping was the same for both : 



BEST cow. 

 Amount in 4 years in butter, cheese, &c. §100 

 Amount of 4 calves, sold for $4 each, 16 



Amount for which cow sold, 30 



146 



-56 



Nett profit from cow, - - 90 



POOR cow. 



Amount in 4 years, in butter, cheese, &c. $50 



Amount of 4 calves sold for iJS each, 12 



Amount for which cow sold, 17 



79 



Keeping, four winters on hay, &c. 40 



Keeping four Eummers to grass, IG 



Nett profit from cow, - - 23 



Now suppose that instead of raising these cows, 

 I had bought them at the same for which the best 

 cow sold — for at 4 years old both cows had cost 

 me the same in raising — I then have a nett profit 

 on the best cow of $60, while on the jioorer I sus- 

 tained an actual loss ofS"- In my estimate I inay 

 not have calculated precisely the cost of keeping, 

 &c. ; but this does not affect the difference be- 

 tween the good and the poor cow, estimated from 

 its ultimate bearing upon my purse. I only ask 

 my brother farmers to look at this calculation and 

 see how much they lose by keeping poor cov\-s. 

 On other stock the same difference exists between 

 the good and the poor ; and if those who see this 

 fact as I do, will still persist in their neglect of 

 their breeds, it can only be through that almost in- 

 fatuation which sometimes dictates their agricultu- 

 ral principles. 



INDIA RUBBER CARPETS. 



Dr. .Tones of Mobile, in a letter to Professor 

 SiUiman, says : 



" Having some India rubber varnish left which 

 was prepared for another purpose, the thought oc- 

 curred to me, of trying it as a covering for a car- 

 pet, after the following manner. A piece of can- 

 vass was stretched and covered with a thin coat 

 of glue, (corn meal size will probably answer best) 

 over this was laid a sheet or two of common 

 brown paper, or newspaper, and another coat of 

 glue added, over which was laid a pattern of 

 house papering with rich figures. After the body 

 of the carpet was thus prepared, a very thin touch 

 of glue was carried over the face of the paper to 

 prevent the India rubber varnish from tarnishing 

 the beautiful colors of the paper. After this was 

 dried, one or two coats (as may be desired,) of In- 

 dia rubber varnish were applied, which when 

 dried formed a surface as smooth as polished glass, 

 through which the variegated colors of the paper 

 appeared with undiminished if not with increased 

 lustre. This carpet is quite durable, and is im- 

 penetrable to water, or grease of any description. 

 When soiled it may be washed like a smooth 

 piece of marble or wood. If gold or silver leaf 

 forms the last coat instead of papering, and the 

 varnish is then applied, nothing can exceed the 

 splendid richness of the carpet which gives the 

 floor the ap|)earance of being burnished with gold 

 or silver. A neat carpet on this plan will cost 

 when made of good papering, about 37 1-2 cents 

 per yard. 



CEMENT. 



The Dofnestic Encyclopedia states that the 

 juice o{ garlic is the best and strongest cement 

 that can be adopted for broken glass and china. 

 The first cup of young Hyson from a cup so 

 patched, must have a delightful flavor. 



