334 



N E W E IN (J L A IN u r A n ivi Ji. n , 



APRI'f 



• »», 1935, 



52rj3w ii3ia'0^^s?as> Js-Asasffins^a 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APUIL 2'J, 1833. 



FARMERS' ■WORK FOR MAY. 



Seeds for Field and Garden Crops. — It is not 

 necessary to enlarge on the importance to a farmer of 

 his raising and selecting the best of seeds to propagate 

 from. One might as well expect to gather grapes Irora 

 the wild ivy as to obtain good crops from seeds which 

 are not of a good quality. The causes of defective seeds 

 are 



1st. JVot being properly sitvatcd in growing, and well 

 ripened. — If we were about to purchase seeds, we should 

 be glad to know whether they had been well brought 

 up, and had not been contaminated by evil communica- 

 tions, which are attended with bad consequences to all 

 sorts of entities. Different sorts of plants of the same 

 or similar species impart to each other their respective 

 qualities. If the genuine ruta baga were set to grow 

 for seed near the common turnip or turnip cabbage, the 

 seeds of the former will have in part the peculiarities 

 of the latter, and viceuersa. "To generate the best 

 kinds of seeds, the most healthy plants should be cho- 

 sen, and those which are most early in the season. 

 These should be so placed as to have no weak plants of 

 the same species or even genus in their vicinity, lest 

 the fecundating dust of weaker plants should be blown 

 by winds upon the stigmata of the stronger, and thus 

 produce a less vigorous progeny."' It is best to let all 

 seeds intended to propagate from, remain on the parent 

 stock till fully lipe. For instance, wheat intended for 

 seed should stand in the field till fully ripe, and the 

 kernel perfectly hard ; but that which is intended for 

 other uses, should be cut before it is dead ripe, as some 

 phrase it, and while the joints of the straw have still a 

 greenish appearance. So in seed corn, that whichripens 

 earliest should be preferred, but Dr Dean advised to 

 mark such ears, and let them stand on the stalks till they 

 had become sapless. Seeds will grow if gathered green , 

 and afterwards dried in the sun, but they will not pro- 

 duce so good plants as if they had been fairly ripened. 

 2. Select the heaviest and largest seeds for sowing and 

 planting. The way to try seeds is this. Put a small 

 quantity of them in luke-warm water, and let the water 

 be four or five inches deep. A mug or basin will do, 

 but a large tumbler glass is best ; for then you can sec 

 the bottom as well as top. Some seeds, such as those 

 of cabbage, radish and turnip, will, if good, go to the bot- 

 tom at once. Cucumber, lettuce, endive, and many 

 others, require a few minutes. Parsnip and carrot, and 

 all the winged seeds, require to be well wetted before 

 you put them into the glass ; and the carrot should be 

 rubbed, so as to get off part of the hairs which would 

 otherwise act as the feathers do to a duck. The seeds of 

 beet and mangel wurtzel are in a case or shell. The 

 rough things that we sow are not the seeds, but the 

 cases in which the seeds are contained, each case con- 

 taining from one to five seeds. Therefore, the trial by 

 water is not, as regards these two seeds, conclusive, 

 though if the seed be very good, it will sink in water 

 after being in the glass an hour. And as it is a matter 

 of great importance that every seed should grow in a 

 case where the plants stand so far apart ; as gaps in 

 roots of beet and mangel wortzel are so very injurious, 

 the best way is to reject all seed that will not sink, case 

 and all, after being put in warm water, and remaining 

 there an hour. 

 But seeds of all sorts are sometimes, if not always, part 



sound and part unsound, and as the former is not to be 

 rejected on account of the latter, the proportion of each 

 should be ascertained if the separation be not made. 

 Count, then, an hundred seeds, taken promiscuously, 

 and put them into water, as before directed. If filly 

 sink and fifty swim, half of your seeds are bad, and half 

 good ; and so in proportion as toother numbers of sink- 

 ers and swimmers. There may be plants the sound seeds 

 ofwhichwillnotsinkjbut Iknowofnone. If to be found 

 in any instance, they would, I think, be found in those 

 of the tulip tree, the ash, the birch and parsnip, all of 

 which are furnished with so large a portion of wing. 

 Yet all these, if sound, will sink, if put into warm wa- 

 ter, with the wet worked a little into the wings first.— 

 I incline to the opinion that we should try seeds as our 

 ancestors tried witches ; not by fire, but by water ; and 

 that, following up their practice we should reprobate 

 and destroy all that do not readily sink.* 



3. Seeds should he well preserved. They should be pre- 

 served in a dry and temperate place, and the air should 

 not be excluded. Miller says " the seeds of cucumbers, 

 melons, and gourds, which have thick horny coverings, 

 and the oil of their seed being of a cold nature continue 

 good eight or ten years ; and radish, turnip, rape, &c., 

 with other oily seeds (whose coats are not so hard and 

 close, as the others,) yet abounding with oil, which is 

 of a warmer nature, the seeds will keep good three or 

 four years ; whereas the seeds of parsley, carrot, pars- 

 nip, and most other umbelliferous plants, whose seeds 

 are for the most part of a warm nature, and have little 

 oil in them do lose their growing faculty, often in one 

 year, but seldom remain good longer than two years. 

 The seeds of cucumbers, melons and pumpkins improve 

 by being kept till they are three or four years old. 

 When kept that time on hand they produce more and 

 earlier fruit, and less vine. If seeds of that age, how- 

 ever, cannot be obtained, they should be well washed 

 to cleanse them from mucilage, and thoroughly dried 

 before planting." 



4. Wheat, we are told, is improved for seed by being 

 kept on hand a year, and will then produce a crop with- 

 out smut and will not be injured by the fly. Judge 

 Buel observed, " I am almost a proselyte to the opinion 

 that the nit is deposited in the down of the kernel be- 

 ore the grain is harvested, and that the same warmth 

 which causes the seed to vegetate in the earth hatches 

 the insect there also. I am inclined to favor the hy- 

 pothesis, and not without evidence, that the seed of both 

 the smut and the fly lose their reproductive power dur- 

 ino- the lapse of a twelvemonth. I will not venture to 

 say, that liming seed is as efficacious against the fly, as 

 it is against smut ; but thus much I can say, that I 

 always lime my seed wheat, and never have it injured 

 by smut or fly, while many fields in my neighborhood 

 are annually devastated by the one or materially in- 

 jured by the other." 



Mr Elijah Cobb was admitted a subscription member ' 

 of the Society, 



Adjourned, Chas. M. Hovey, Sec. pro. fern. 



Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, ) 

 4th April, 1835. J 



My Dear Sir — At the first formation of the Horti- 

 cultural Society over which you preside, I was desirous- 

 of becoming a member, and my name was kindly allowed 

 to be added to the list, but I have to regret that it has 

 not been in my power to be in any way useful to that 

 respectable establishment. Having no knowledge of 

 Botany, I cannot say if we have in this Province, any 

 indigenous plants that differ from those of the United 

 States, but should your superior information enable you 

 to point out any, it would give me great pleasure to send 

 them to you. X have not noticed in the New England 

 Farmer, any mention made of the Chinese Naked Oats, 

 or a description of wheat called the Spanish Long Moun- 

 tain Wheat ; a friend sent me a sample of each of those 

 which were sown last spring rather late in May, and the 

 season being cold, the wheat was rather shrunk in the 

 kernel, but I am inclined to think it would do very well 

 in your warmer climate, I therefore take the liberty of 

 sending you a small quantity of oats and wheat, in the 

 hope that they may be acceptable, although it is possible 

 they may be common in Massachusetts. With sincere 

 wishes for the prosperity of the Horticultural Society, 



I am, my dear Sir, respectfully your obt. servt. 



Chas. R. Prkscott. 



Z. Cook, Jr. Esa. 



PreE. Mass. Hort. Society. 



* Darwin's Phytologia. 



The celebration at Lexington on the 20th of April ap- 

 pears to have been all that could have been anticipated 

 or carried into cff'ect by the efforts of enlightened patri- 

 otism, to honor the memory of those who died for their 

 country at that place on the 19th of April, 1775. It 

 would not^be possible for us to give even the outlines of 

 the proceedings, without excluding from our columns 

 the matter to which our paper is devoted. Besides, the . 

 newspapers of the day have already given such notices 

 of what was said and done on that occasion, as were de- 

 manded by the good, who would honor the brave. Mr 

 Everett was the Orator of the day, and his name is a 

 sufficient eulogy on the performances; which Judge 

 Story, than whom there can be no better judge, declared 

 to be " one of the happiest efforts of his life." Those 

 who would wish to read an able and minute account of 

 this day's transactions at Lexington will find them re- 

 corded in the Bunker Hill Aurora of the 2oth inst. 



MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAI. SOCIETY. 



A meeting of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 was held on Saturday, April 25, 1835, at their room in 

 Cornhill E. Vose, Esq., presiding. 



C. M. Hovey was chosen Secretary pro. tern. 



A letter was received from C. R. Prescotl, Esq , en- 

 closing seeds of the Chinese Naked oats and Spanish 

 Long Mountain Wheat; also, from Mr John Redman, 

 enclosing seeds from Mexico. 



Voted, — That the thanks of this Society be presented 

 to Messrs Prescott and Redman for their liberal donations 

 of seeds. 



* Co1)bett's American Gardener. 



Wearing Flannels. — As the genial sunshine of 

 spring advances, those accustomed to wearing flannel 

 undergarments are too much disposed to lay them sud- 

 denly aside. This is an error of great magnitude. Keep 

 them on till the east wind is no longer elaborated ; till , 

 the flowers are blooming in the fields, and a uniform at- 

 mospheric temperature is established. A multitude 

 annually, are hurried to an early grave, in the very me- 

 ridian of life, in consequence of not understanding, or by 

 neglecting, this simple though important advice. — Medi- 

 cal Journal. 



In Buff'alo,N. Y. Mr Fuller has obtained in the Cir- 

 cuit Court, a verdict of $1000 against Drs Hoit and 

 Wallace for malpractice, in injuring both arms by bad 

 bleeding. 



The Bangor papers say there will be more buildings 

 erected in that city the ensuing summer than during any 

 previous year. There is no question but Bangor is in- 

 creasing in wealth, business and population, with remark- 

 able rapidity. 



