VOL. XIII. NO. 36. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



28.5 



lo destroy tlicni, or even keep them from goiii<r to 

 seed, but let tliom stand until they ripen, when 

 tlie seed takes it aerial flight, to spread extensively 

 in all seetions of the eountry. It is a formidable 

 enemy, and the alarm should be sounded. The 

 lion. Dan Bradley has given us in Gen. Far. vol. 

 5, No. 2, an excellent dissertation on this subject, 

 which well merits the attention of all who have 

 this foe to condiat. 



But to my subject. I have practised mowing 

 the thistles every month successively during the 

 summer for three years. I have found this to be 

 the most effectual method I have tried. Contin- 

 ual cutting will prevent the seeds from reaching 

 maturity; and the same operation will in time de- 

 stroy the plant from the root. The next season 

 after I begun cutting them once a month, there 

 was not more than half as many, and they have so 

 diminished that there is only now and then a scat- 

 tering plant left, which by another season will be 

 wholly exterminated. 



The spot which contained about one fourth of 

 an acre, now affords good pasture, which before 

 was unproductive of anything else hut the detes- 

 table weed. But while I am indulging the 

 thought of getting rid of an evil of such magni- 

 tude, I must confess that tliese sensations are 

 sometimes overpowei'ed by the opposite thought, 

 that they may again reappear ; and I sliould not 

 be surprised to see them springing up in every 

 part of the fann and throughout the country. 

 AVhat else can I expect, when so many are sleep- 

 ing, as it were, over this subject, and when there 

 are so many who take no interest in their expul- 

 sion ? Farmers, we must be united. In vain will 

 a prudent, careful, vigilant farmer regularly cut 

 down the thistles on his own plantation, if his 

 neighbor suffers the beds of thistles to flourish 

 and go to seed on his adjoining ground. Hence 

 we see the necessity of a " uniformity and concert 

 of action." If the farmers would adoitt the easy 

 method of mowing down their thistles as often as 

 they grow high enough to mow, they would ar- 

 rest their progress, and idtimately extirpate the 

 alarming pestilence. 



The object of this commimication, therefore, is 

 to endeavor to arouse the attention of farmers to 

 this subject, and more especially those in this vi- 

 cinity, who will not be consulted verbally, and 

 who will not be induced to believe that the 

 evil may be remedied. A legislative enactment, 

 perhaps, would be the most effectual measure that 

 could be taken to arouse such from their state of 

 lethargy. Something has beensaid heretofore rel- 

 ative to making application to the Legislature for 

 the passage of a law forbidding any owner or oc- 

 cupant of land to suffer a bed of thistles to go to 

 seed under a suitable penalty. With such a legal 

 enactment there would be hopes of extirpating 

 this noxious weed. R. S. 



ON CULTIVATING TIMBER TREES. 



Though this subject has frequently been brought 

 before the readers of the Genesee Farmer, and 

 urged with the earnestness which the subject, 

 from its importance, demands, yet we doubt 

 whether our cultivators of the soil are generally 

 sufficiently awake to its growing importance. 

 Our noble forests are rapidly disappearing from 

 the face of our country before the ruthless axe of 

 the woodman ; and soon not only wood for fuel 

 will be scarce, (nay, it is already in some sections 

 of our country,) but timber for the necessary pur- 



poses of life. To supply this waste, and make 

 provision for the future wants of our country, no 

 adequate eflbrts have as yet been made, by an at- 

 tention to i)reserve young growing trees and plant- 

 ing out others. Where the large tind^er is cut 

 away for fuel and other purposes, the young grow- 

 ing timber should carefully be preserved : also, 

 where there has come up a second growth, if the 

 land can be spared, such as are most valuable shoidd 

 be permitted to grow. We know of none that 

 have planted out forest trees, particularly for tim- 

 ber. Sooner or later we shall have to resort to 

 thi.s. Years are passing away unimju'oved, when 

 the trees .should lie growing. Orchards of the 

 most valuable kinds of timber, as the White Oak, 

 English Oak, White Ash, Hickory, Black Walnut, 

 Chesnut, Locust, &c. should be planted out and 

 cultivated with as much care as we now cultivate 

 our fruit orchards ; pruned and formed into hand- 

 some trees. A few acres thus appro|iriated in 

 time would be exceedingly valuable. They will 

 form delightful spots for the eye to rest on, give 

 beauty to the landsca])e, and form cool and grate- 

 ful retreats for our cattle and flocks to repose in, 

 in the sultry sunnner months. In a few years 

 (10 or 15) some of them, as the Ash, Chesnut 

 and Locust, will furnish valuable tijnber for fenc- 

 ing, implements of husbandry and the various 

 mechanical arts. It is well known, that trees of 

 second growth, as the Ash, Hickory and Oak, 

 growing in open ground, are far more valuable 

 for timber, where solidity and toughness are requi- 

 site, than the same kinds growing in their native 

 forests. These groves will be continually increas- 

 ing in value every year ; and the time is not re- 

 mote, when land thus appropriated will be of 

 greater value than the most fertile cultivated soil. 

 The truth of these remarks is confirmed by a ref- 

 erence to England ; her most valuable lands are 

 those planted vvith timber. An English noble- 

 man (whose name is not recollected) became 

 nearly insolvent. A part of his estates consisted 

 in a piece of ground which was worth but little 

 for cultivation. To retrieve his fortmie he plant- 

 ed it out with choice timber trees. In the course 

 of j'ears it became exceedingly valuable, and he 

 lived to see his shattered fortunes retrieved by 

 the sale of his timber and land. Let our fanners 

 in like manner set out groves of the choicest 

 kinds of trees ; let our highw.iys and lanes be 

 lined with them ; they will add greatly to the 

 beauty of our country, and by their utility will 

 richly repay the small labor and attention which 

 they will require at our hands. — lb. 



article of foreign importation. This is well 

 enough, if the time formerly spent in the.se domes- 

 tic avocations is more profitably employed ; on 

 this subject I express no opinion; but can assert 

 with confidence that the introduction of the silk 

 worm would be in most families not only a source 

 of srreat [u-ofit, but the care and feeding of them 

 an innocent and healthy unuisement. The pro- 

 curing a few mulberry trees is the first step, and 

 there are few jdaces where these cannot readily be 

 procured ; this done, the rearing and feeding of 

 the worms, and the whole process to the finishing 

 of the cocoons for market is extremely easy and 

 simple. There is not the least reason why mil- 

 lions should be sent fro?u this country every year, 

 for an article whicli might be produced here in per- 

 fection, and which only requires the care and labor 

 of females and children for a few weeks in a year. 

 [We ben; leave to add our conviction, that reel- 

 ing the silk by the females of farmers' families, 

 will be found as easy as the raising of the cocoons, 

 and by far the most profitable part of the silk 

 business.] — Farmer and Gardener. 



SILK CULTURE. 



A sensible writer in the Genesee Farmer, in 

 discoui-sing on sundry matters interesting to far- 

 mers, makes the following observations : 



Another source, and 1 believe an exhaustless 

 mine of wealth, has been too long overlooked by 

 our farmers, and our citizens generally. Such 

 is the perfection of machinery, and the competi- 

 tion of manufacturers, that most articles of 

 clothing which formerly were made by female 

 industry at home, are now made at these estab- 

 lishments. The wheel and the loom as im])le- 

 ments of domestic economy are now rarely seen 

 or heard ; and the woollen, the linen, and the 

 cotton, instead of being the productions of the 

 fair hands of wives and daughters, owe their 

 existence to power looms and spinning jennies, 

 and are purchased at the store as would be an 



Agricultural. — Good farmers will take care 

 of their early Lanjbs. Ewes from which lambs 

 are soon expected should be housed if possible, 

 and well fed. There is little danger of losing a 

 lamb after it readies the age of four days, if the 

 dam afibrds plenty of milk, it will bear cold and 

 exposure i-.early as well as the mother. Early 

 lambs aftbrd the greatest profit in market ; nr>t 

 only so, but early lambs make the strongest and 

 largest and most profitable sheep. Nearly the 

 same may be said of cows and early calves, as to 

 housing, feeding, &c. as of sheep. The writers 

 in the Nevy England Farmer and other papeis de- 

 voted to agricultural subjects ofVen repeat it as a 

 truism that the introduction of foreign breeds of 

 cattle and shee|j among careless, improvident far- 

 mers, is useless. The old American breeds can 

 be starved as cheaply as foreign breeds, besides, 

 they do not cost so much in the first instance and 

 of course the heedless farmer can make experi- 

 ments on them at a cheaper rate. The writers 

 highly approbate the attempts to improve the 

 breeds of cattle ; but contend that a large share 

 of our farmers need improvement in their habits 

 of taking care of cattle, before our flocks general- 

 ly will exhibit anything very promising. — -Colum- 

 bian Resisler. 



The Louisiana Journal, of the 12th ult., after 

 giving notices of several cold days, and sudden 

 changes, observe as follows : 



The injury done this state by the severity of the 

 frost, is incalculable. The sugar cane, jjlants and 



rattoons, are nearly, if not entirely destroyed 



and it is questioiudjle whether the culture of the 

 cane will not be entirely abandoned. The orange, 

 lime and citron groves are doubtless cut down. 

 The fig trees, and all delicate shrubber)-, we fear, 

 are greatly injm-ed, while our vegetable gardens 

 are utterly laid waste — cattle are dying every 

 where around us. Such are the effects of this 

 frightftd winter. 



Bees. — Mr T. G. Henderson of Lancaster 

 county. Pa., took last year from a single j'oung 

 hive of bees — a June swarm— 137 pounds of 

 beautiful honey. The hive was a flour barrel, 

 prepared with cross-sticks in the usual way. 



