NEW ENGLA]>fD FARMER 



jrCLV 16, 1S34. 



IMPOKTANT TO AGRICULTURISTS. 



THE TURNIP-FLY. 



The tiiniip-fly is not always of one kind, but 

 the diftereiice in them is not very iniportant, for 

 they only alter in tlieir pnint, their huild is always 

 alike. The most common is hottle-green, hut in 

 some fields all are painted hlack, with a white line 

 on each side from stem lo stern down the neck. 

 They are so active, that the only way in which I 

 could ever obtain them in newly sown fields, was 

 by sweeping the surface witli a gauze net, on an 

 iron hoop at the end ol' a strongisb stick. They 

 jump like tieas as soon as they see you. Tliis in- 

 sert, or rather its grub, commences its attack on 

 the turnip as soon as it is up, devouring the two, 

 cotyledons and the little heart, and sometimes in a 

 few days leaving the field as brown as it was on 

 the day it was sown. Schemes without number 

 luive been tried to get rid of or kill this little pest 

 wherever it has a|)peared. I have always observ- 

 ed the greatest quantity of grubs on very young 

 plants ; they are very various in size, and it is not 

 before the plants are a fortnight or three weeks 

 old, that the beetles appear in any quantities. Vet 

 there are some beetles ob.scrved at the first coining 

 up of the plants. Now I know from ex|ierience, 

 that the turnip-fly feeds on wild inustai'd, and sev- 

 eral other hedge plants, and therefore it is iiot im- 

 probable, that when they smell the fragrance of 

 the fresh bursting cotyledons of their favorite food, 

 they would skip down from tlieir spring habita- 

 tions, the hedges, and make the attack. I lirst 

 sowed some seed in a llower-pot, with earth out of 

 my garden ; it jnoduced the animal in abundance. 

 Secondly, I enclosed the pot with pasteboard and 

 canvass, with the same success ; but still there was 

 a possibility of the enemy getting in, as I liad not 

 the rover sufficiently close. Thirdly, I made a 

 light frame about eight inches square, covered it 

 with very fine silk gauze, carei'ully stopping the 

 crevices of the door with pasted paper, and round 

 the pot where the cover was fastened on with put- 

 ty, so that there was no possibility of any thing 

 coming to it from without. Yet this experiment 

 was attended with the same success ; except that 

 one point, a negative point, was now jn'oved, name- 

 ly, that the lly did not come to the turnip from 

 other plants, and this was a point gained. Fourth- 

 ly, I baked the earth in a cast-iron pot over the 

 fire, and used no other w-ater to water the seed 

 but such as I li.-id boiled myself, applying it at the 

 bottom of the pot with a common feeder. Then 

 1 e.xcrci.sod the same care, anil look the same pre- 

 •caulions as before. I did not take off the cover 

 till the plants were of a considerable size, and 1 

 found them all a-hop with beetles. I had now 

 made another step ; having before found that the 

 beetles did not come from other plants, it was now 

 clear that it was not in the oarili or the water. Filtli- 

 ly, with a lens I examined the seed, and found on 

 il a number of white tlattish siib.stances ; some of 

 the seeds were without any, but there were gen- 

 «rully one, two, three, four, and in one instance 

 five on a single seed. These I concluded were 

 eggs, an. I 1 thought the only way left me was to 

 attack them. U would have been easy enough to 

 j)oke them off with a needle, but I could not see 

 liow 1 was to eiiijiloy a needle and a magnifying 

 glass on a sack of turnip seed. I therefore made 

 some pretty strong brine, and soaked the seed in il 

 for twenty-four hours, then dried it thoroughly, 

 and with all iho precautions which I have men- 

 {ioued, I sowed it again, and there was not a single 



tly, neither was there a single turnip injured. 1 

 tried again and again, and I fuund that, without 

 weakening the brine, if the seeds were only kept in 

 it three hours, there were no beetles, but yet the seed 

 came upas well as ever. I now pracfise this method 

 with turnip-seed, cabbage-seed, and in fact with all 

 the crucil'orm plants in common cultivation, with 

 very satisfactory success. The whole of these e.x- 

 periments were made on the Swedish turnip, which 

 is generally more infested by these beetles than 

 any of the other sorts. — Etitomologiral J\[airazine. 



AVe sometime ago mentioned, in regard to avoid- 

 ing the attacks of the turnip-fly, that a farmer 

 completely succeeded in avoiding them for many 

 years, by rubbing, keeping and sowing bis turnip- 

 seed among flour of sulphur. Since the turnip 

 insect is attached to the turnip-seed, it is clear that 

 the sulphur must have destroyed them. This at- 

 tachment of the nidus of the insect to the seed is 

 a very remarkable circumstance, and requires far- 

 ther investigation than the experiments above re- 

 lated,' to establish the fact as a general one. — Edi- 

 tor of (luarterli/ Journal of Agriculture. 



From the New York Fanner. 

 CUIiTIVATIOjr OF GRAPE VINES IN POTS. 



Very consideraldc attention is now being paid, 

 by gardeners in England, to the cultivation of the 

 vine in pots. In some instances, the long cuttings 

 from large vines are curled around the inside of 

 the pot, leaving above the soil hut one or two eyes, 

 which, in consequence of the numerous roots that 

 are made, sjieedily obtain a vigorous growth. By 

 giving the vines a circular training, they will be- 

 come quite ornamental, and take up but compara- 

 tively little space. By putting the pot containing 

 the vine in another, and filling the space between 

 them with soil, a uniform irioisture may be easily 

 preserved. To families living in towns and cities, 

 the subject is of much importance ; to the ladies 

 in iiarticular we recommend it. ftlr. Btearns, a 

 gardener to the Duke of Portland, thus expresses 

 himself in the llorticultural Register, on this meth- 

 od of cultivating tliem in England. 



" By my method I shall introduce vines into any 

 farmer's garden in the kingdom, where none had 

 ))reviously been ; and at the expense of little be- 

 sides ten or twelve lights of glass will insure him 

 from 500 to 1000 fine bunches of good grapes the 

 first season ! If any one can boast tlie same, the 

 fiict has never been laid before the public, else it 

 is likely I should have seen it. I go thus far, on 

 purpose to raise a curiosity, and to e.xcite every 

 ilegree of emulation, knowing, that if such can be 

 excited, the system will very soon discover itself 

 to be most important to the country. The suc- 

 cessful cultivation of the grape is certainly one of 

 the simplest branches of the art, both in pots and 

 in borders ; if a vine be left entirely to itself it 

 will soon become fructiferous, after having been 

 I'm- years under the most rigid discipline to little 

 [uu-pose. A vine, excited to a high degree of lux- 

 uriance, is neither the most fruitful nor produces 

 the finest or best grapes. I have seen llamburghs, 

 from three to six and eight pounds weight each 

 bunch I The vines comparatively loeak, and vine 

 border very shallow, and by no means rich. 



"As curiosity will be created by such a remark, 

 I beg to state that such grapes were repeatedly 

 produced by a ftlr. Minnett, formerly gardener to 

 Mrs. I'owes, Berwick House, near Shrewsbury. 



"I have there seen bunches of Hamburghs from 

 fifteen to si.xtcen inches long, and from eight to 



ten inches across the shoulders; the berries all o 

 a perfect black, as close as they could grow to- 

 gether, and the size of a boy's large marbles. 



" I have coiled into pots this season upwards of « 

 hundred branches ; forty and more of which 1 hav< 

 got into action. I shall continue to introduce olhert 

 till the middle of June; if I can starve- ihein iiitr 

 dormancy by cold bleak exposure, or by buryinj 

 them in clay-coht mnrkey graves or caves! or by 

 being sunk under a wall on a north aspect. I air 

 begging of all my friemls the long branches which 

 they cut out in pruning, and as far as Soiiieisel- 

 shire, Worcestershire, Staftbrdshire, &,c. &c., E< 

 that I expect, in a short time, to have a stock oi 

 plants sufiicieiit to produce 1000 bunches the firs 

 season." 



" Put in your cuttings of young wood, in coils 

 of three, four, to five feet, binding all the eyes e^ 

 cept the uppermost. I choose lo leave two eyes 

 till the finest gets the lead, and is safe, for fear o 

 accident to one alone ; I then slip the weakest off 

 If placed into a bottom heat, and the eyes be bur 

 ied about an inch or two in the pots, in the cours« 

 of coiling, by the time the best eye appears abov*' 

 the soil, as strong as the bud of a fine as|iaragus 

 the whole coils beneath will bo completely occu 

 pied with young active roots, and by the lime tb( 

 shoots are four feet long, the pot will be a perl'ec 

 mat of those eager feeders. — Then shift and toj 

 the shoot and never leave on any laterals; plungd 

 as before into a fine bottom heat and enronrug* 

 the main topmost eye alone to push ; and lead i I 

 on, but without laterals, till it is again four fee ( 

 long; when, the pot is full of roots, shift, top i,.| 

 as before, and encourage again the uppermost eyii 

 only lo start; and by the time il is another fouil 

 feet, if not overpolled before, it will require a thin 

 shifting. If required you may stop at every foui 

 feet, five or six times ; but three shiftings will b( 

 found enough for the season ; and you had bes 

 not suffer it to reach above from twelve lo twenty 

 feel of clear bearing wood. At the end of tht 

 season you will have shootsone inch and a lialfdi 

 ameler, and with fine bold eyes, and full of fint 

 set bunches for the next season. 



" You will readily j)erceive, that, by such an ear- 

 ly and abundant accumulation of young vigorous 

 roots, and by such a top and bolloni management, 

 ills no extraordinary miracle to have every cutting a 

 fruit bearing shoot atone season's growth ; and by 

 a proportional coil of large older wood, it will be 

 equally obvious lo you, how readily such will pro- 

 duce a fine crop the first season." 



" The extraordinary progress of my grapes upoi 

 the coiled vines, placed in a bottom heat astonishe; 

 every one. In another season, when I have go) 

 my wood early ripened, I intend to start some in 

 October, and lo have plenty of fine ripe grapes by 

 the middle of February. I have some at this lime 

 half grown, the branch being only cut from the 

 vine, and )]laced in bottom heat 20lh November 

 " Can such things be ?" Yes, easily and simply 

 so. I intend lo keep some coders as late as tht 

 middle or end of July, before they are excited, and 

 then to place them in a bottom heat. The fruit bj 

 doing so will be perfectly ripe before the dul 

 weather of autumn sets in, but not so with tli( 

 wood ; by which circumstance they will retain the 

 leaves vigorously through the winter, and conse- 

 quently the fruit will retain its plumpness til 

 April or May. 



" You will now say this is going too far, but i 

 undoubtedly may be done. Newf ripe grapes m 



