102 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



OCTOBER 8, Ifi34. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, WEUNESDAY EVKNI.NG, OCT. 8, 1834. 



WITHERED I.KAVES ON TREES. 



J. D in the Gardener's Magazine, observes, '• It is 

 Stated that in Normandy, children go about with liglited 

 torches of rye straw, for the purpose of burning the 

 lichens, mosses, and dead leaves on the apple trees. 

 Without offering an opinion on the merits of any mode 

 for removing the persisting dead leaves, it may be safely 

 remarked, that to remove them is most judicious and 

 desirable. When leaves, which should fall in autumn, 

 remain, though dead, through the winter on fruit and 

 other trees, such d{'ad leaves, on examination, will com- 

 monly be found to be but the envelopes of so many clus- 

 ters of eggs, or pupER of insects, which the sunshine of 

 spring will p.vcite to life and voracity just at the time 

 that the e.vpanding leaves of the trees have become eli- 

 gible food for their sustenance." 



the winter, will hold the paint more than twice as long 1 cut the shoot half through, just below the pot, so as tO 

 as one painted in warm weather. The reason is obvious | increase the number of roots, which will he formed about 

 for when paints are applied in cold weather, the oil i <liis lime in the soil contained in the pot. In the course 

 other inirredients form a hard mnr.nt. on the surfiici of Hi" month of October, according to the season, cut 



with other ingredients form a hard miir.nt on the siirfiii 

 of the clapboards, which cannot easily be erased; where- 

 as a building painted (as usual) in the heat of summer 

 will socm need a new coat ; for the hi a' causes the oil to 

 penetrate into the wood, and leaves the otlier component 

 parts dry, which will soon crumble oif." 



PACKING GRAPES. 



The following is the mode of packing grapes which I 

 adopted with success for many years, having to send 

 them nearly three hundred miles. A box having been 

 prepared, a bed of clean wool well separated, was laid in 

 ll)e bottom, on which a layer of grapes wps placed, each 

 bunch being separately enveloped in tissne paper. A 

 portion of wool was then introduced between each bunch, 

 and all the interstices filled up with it, and then a layer 

 of wool put over the top. For a second layer, a small 

 ledge of wood was fixed at each end of the box at the 

 level wanted, and a thin board made to fit in easily, so 

 as to fall down upon the ledges ; in the board there were 

 two finger-holes made with an inch centre bit ; and the 

 board, being fixed down upon the ledges with a couple 

 of small brads at each end, driven in half-way. A sec- 

 ond layer of grapes was laid in as above, and so on for a 

 tliird layer, if wanted. The finger holes I found very 

 convenient for getting out the board, after drawing the 

 small brads with a pair of pincers. In cases where wool 

 is an object or it may be thought too expensive, moss 

 well dried, cleaned and threshed, will be found a tolera- 

 bly good substitute ; but the superior elasticity of the 

 wool renders it preferable. — T. Rutgers in Loudon's Mag. 



PURIFYING VIATEK. 



Powdered alum possesses the property of purifying 

 water. A large table spoonful of pulverized aluuj, 

 sprinkled into a hogshead of water, (the water stirred 

 briskly round at the time) will, after the lapse of a few 

 hours, by precipitating to the bottom the impure parti- 

 cles, so purify it that it will be found to possess nearly 

 all the freshness and clearness of sjiring water. Four 

 gallons, it is said, may be purified by a single tea spoon- 

 ful. 



the shoot quite through, and remove the pot, with the 

 vine, laden with from twelve to twenty bunches of fruit, 

 to a dry airy room, with a northern exposure; iiere wa- 

 ter occasionally, till the leaves drop off, but no longer. 

 Thus treated, the fruit will keep good on the vine till 

 the end of February, preserving its natural flavor. The 

 best sort for this purpose is the White Sweetwater. 



COOKING POTATOES. 



Of all the good things which nature produces, through 

 the patient industry of farmers, there is nothing which 

 is so agreeable to the palate as the potato, nor any one 

 vegetable so universally esteemed ; yet this is so fre- 

 quently rendered unpalatable by the manner of cooking 

 it, that but comparatively few are acquainted with the 

 real flavor of this esculent root. Lovers of mealy pota- 

 toes will do well to attend to the following method com- 

 municated to us by a lady of this town, whereby potatoes 

 a year old may be rendered as delicious as new ones boil- 

 ed in the common manner. Pee! them, put them into 

 cold water, and let them remain two or three hours ; 

 then boil them in water which has been salted, observ- 

 ing that it boils when they are put in ; pour off the wa- 

 ter when they are done, shake them well for a short 

 time, put them on the fire again, and at the expiration of 

 ten or fifteen minutes they will be ready for the table. — 

 Lancaster CluzeUe. 



DRAINS AND SEWERS TO POPULOUS TOWNS. 



In Loudon's Magazine, we find the following remarks, 

 under the head General Results of a Gardening Tour 

 through several Totcns in Scotland : 



» '• The system of drainage or sewerage, in these towns, 

 is as bad as in most English ones. All towns situated 

 on rivers or streams drain into them, instead of into 

 main sewers constructed parallel to their sides. This is 

 a most important point in the system of town arrange- 

 ment ; and though it has been utterly neglected in the 

 case of London, and the waters of the Thames have be- 

 come, in consequence, unfit for use, yet this ought rather 

 to have served as a warning beacon for provincial towns, 

 than as an object of imitation. The omission of such 

 sewers in Scottish towns is the more remarkable as the 

 inhabitants are fully aware of tlie value of liquid manure, 

 a great quantity of which might be thus saved from 

 waste. If tlie evil be not checked speedily, it will be 

 found a very serious nuisance at no distant period, when, 

 in addition to contaminating the air, it has polluted the 

 only waters accessible to the poor. 



To render these sewers efficient for all the purposes 

 for which they are calculated, they should be commenced 

 farther up the river, and be continued farther down its 

 banks, than the town reaches ; and their lower extremi- 

 ties should deliver their contents into a pond for evapor- 

 ation, at least a mile from the town. In many situations, 

 instead of evaporating the water in the pond, it might 

 be employed, as it comes from the town, to irrigate ad- 

 joining grass lands, or pumped up into water carts, to be 

 used in various ways as liquid manure. In some cases 

 it might be worth while to erect a small steam engine 

 and scoop-wheel, like those in tlie fenny districts, for the 

 purj)ose of raising the comparatively thinner waters of 

 the sewer to an elevated channel, which channel might 

 convey them to a distance, for the jmrpose of irrigation. 

 By having two ponds for the deposit, the dense mud of 

 the one jmnd would be drying, while the otlier poad was 

 filling ; and the mud being deposited, as in the case of 

 the ponds near Paris employed in evaporating the mate- 

 rial, whicli forms the poudrettt. 



PAINTING HOUSES. 



A writer for the New England Farmer, whose com- 

 munication was published vol. i, page ;)14, says, " I be- 

 lieve it is a general practice for people to do their paint- 

 ing sometime during the three summer months ; but 

 repeated experiments have been made within a few years, 

 which prove that a house painted late in autumn, or in 



To preserve Grapes for the Table during the 

 Winter Months, which have been ripened in 

 the open Air. 



In the spring, before the buds have begun to swell, 

 take a healthy well ripened shoot of the preceding year, 

 and draw it up through the bottom hole of a flower pot, 

 of about I.') inches in diameter; then fill the pot with 

 rich soil, and cover both the soil and the outside of the 

 pot with moss, to keep in the moisture. Water now and 

 then, according to the season. By the end of August 



From the Anient Register. 



HORTICULTURAIj EXHIBITION AT BRAD- 

 FORD. 



As a further descri|)tiuii of tlie Hortieiiltiiral ex- 

 hiliitinn which took plnce in the Hail of the fller- 

 riiiiaek Ais'uleniy, al Biadfiml, on Wednesilay, 

 the 24lli Septemlter, 1834, than has yet heen giv- 

 en, friay lie interesting to yrmr readers, I therefore 

 coiiiiniiiiieate it to yon. This Exhihition was iin- 

 iler the direction of Prere|itor Morse, Principal of 

 the Academy in this place. It consisted of up- 

 wards of 300 varieties of plants, (natives and exot- 

 ics) most of which were then in flower. These 

 were arranged on two taldes in the central part of 

 the Hall, about five feet distant, leaving room to 

 pa.ss on the outside. On these tallies were placed 

 ill regular order, vessels, each <if which with few 

 exceptions, contained a large variety of flowers, 

 exhibiting in splendor all the colors imaginable, 

 and together with this lieaiitifii! display of flowers, 

 was exhibited a large collection of various deli- 

 cious fruits, many of which were cultivated in gar- 

 dens ill Salem, and others in this village. On the 

 stage, at flie liead of these tables, there gtood in 

 pots, a variety of biennial and perennial plants, in 

 tlie centre of which was standing an elegant Rosa 

 Multiflora, owned and eiiltivatediiy Mr. Morse. The 

 Hull being triiiiiiied with evergreen, added much 

 to the interest of this spectacle. The donations 

 of genilenien in S.ilein, which consisted of several 

 of the imist beamiful bouquets of flowers, together 

 with a variety of fruits, highly contributed to the 

 iieautifieation of this scene. It was obviously 

 manifest on that day, that a ileep interest is felt in 

 the cultivation of flowers and fruits in this place. 

 The yard in front of the Academy being somewhat 

 spacious, afl'ords ample room for the cultivation of 

 plants, and also fur a place of exercise for the stu- 

 dents. About two years since, the Preceptor be- 

 ing a gentleman whose whole attention is devoted 

 to the cause of education, and to the best methods 

 of facilitating it, thought it to be expedient for 

 the improvement of the interest of Botany among 

 those connected with the institution, to occupy a 

 portion of this yard as a garden, in which is to be 

 cultivated plants for the special benefit of the 

 School. In this garden are two hnnilred varieties 

 of plants, many of which were in flower on the 

 day of Exhibition. The advantages which are 

 .■ifforded by this garden to the School, and jiartic- 

 ularly to those sturlying the science of Botany, 

 cannot lie too highly a|ipreciated ; for, on the one 

 hand, to acquire any thing like what is now called 

 a good knowledge, theoretically, is in many in- 

 stances for tlie want of a sufficient length of time, 

 impracticable ; while, on the other hand practi- 

 cally teaching this science, not only renders it 

 much less laborious to the instructer, but far les« 

 time is required in accomplishing the work, and a 

 more thorough knowledge by the pupil is obtain- 

 ed. To those connected with this institution, who 



