vol.. XIII. NO. 46. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



365 



to the orange, is wanted, four ounces of the murio- 

 sulphate of tin, and two ounces of alum, and one 

 pound of bark, managed in the same manner as 

 above directed. Pure briglit yellows, of less body 

 may be colored by employing smaller portions of 

 the articles above mentioned. 



A good yellow may also be produced by boiling 

 the cloth for one hour in a seventh of its weight 

 of alum dissolved in a suitable quantity of water, 

 and then, without being rinsed, put it into a dye- 

 ing vessel with clean hot water, and about as 

 much quercitron bark tied up in a bag, as was 

 used of alum. Boil and turn it as usual, until it 

 takes sufficient color, then dip it in warm lime 

 water for ten minutes, and rinse it innnediately 

 afterwards. Tin, however dissolved, when used 

 in coloring wool or silk, renders the fibres a little 

 harsh, but this may be in a great measure obviated 

 by employing the murio sulphate of tin with a 

 mixture of alum, or alum and tartar, and com- 

 bining these with the coloring particles of the 

 bark before they are applied to the stuff's. 



In dyeing silks, more alum and less tin should 

 be used than is directed for woolens, because tin, 

 unless used sparingly, always diminishes the 

 glossiness of the silk. 



To produce a lively yellow on silks, it will be 

 sufficient to boil after the rate of four ounces of 

 bark, three ounces of alum, and two ounces of 

 the murio suli)hate of tin, with a suitable quanti- 

 ty of water, for ten or fifteen minutes, and the 

 heat of the liquor being reduced so that the hand 

 can bear it, the silk is to be put in and dyed, as 

 usual, taking care to agitate the liquor continually 

 that the coloring matter may not subside, until it 

 has acquired the proper shade. By adding very 

 small proportions of cochineal to the bark, the 

 color may be raised to a beautiful orange, 

 or even aurora. A similar effect, though less 

 brilliant and beautiful, is produced by adding 

 madder to the quercitron. 



[To be continued.] 



The two following articles are from a commu- 

 uicatiou read before the New York Agricultural 

 Society at its last meeting, by H. Hickcock, Esq. 



DESTRUCTION OP AVF.EDS. 



The spirits of turpentine I have found a subtle 

 poison to all plants experimented upon, and among 

 others, I have applied it to milkweed, burdock, 

 and Canada thistle; a teaspoonful dropped on the 

 stem will run down and destroy it to the ground, 

 and if the root is not, on the first trial, destroyed, 

 a repetition will be sufficient. This remedy may 

 be of particular use where weeds start up from 

 under stone walls or other inaccessible places. 



Johnswort is regarded by many farmers as 

 more noxious than the Canada thistle. It fre- 

 quently usurps whole fields to the exclusion of all 

 the valuable grasses. On some spots of land 

 covered with this weed I spread gypsum, at the 

 rate of three bushels an acre, and had the satis- 

 faction to find that the spots were soon covered 

 with a thick mat of white cbvcr and other grass- 

 es ; while the Johnswort was fast running out. 

 It is quite possible that a less quantity of gypsum 

 per acre might answer a similar purpose. 



COMPOST. 



There are two ways of making a compost, or 

 mixture of earth with manure. Agreeably to one 

 method, a mound is formed in the barn yard or 



near it, consisting of alternate beds of manure 

 and earth : when the manure has fermented, the 

 mass is turned over with the spade and partially 

 mixed. After a renewal and subsidence of fer- 

 mentation, the materials are again turned over 

 with a spade and more thoroughly blended to- 

 gether. The compost is then drawn out and 

 spread on the field. 



The other way of mixing earth with manure, 

 is much less laborious and expensive, and is 

 thought to be, in nuiny respects, more advanta- 

 geous. The method is tliis. In the spring of the 

 year, draw out all the manure, including straw, 

 cornstalks, cobs and all other coarse materials 

 fit for the purpose, into the field ; spread it, and 

 turn the whole under the soil, from six to twelve 

 inches deep, with the plough. In order to have 

 the work well done, one or more persons must 

 follow the plough, and with a rake, or hoe or fork, 

 place the coarse manure in the bottom of the 

 furrow. 



When the manure is not spread over the whole 

 of the field, as in common cases, and the coarse 

 materials cover a still less portion of it, one per- 

 son is sufficient to follow the plough. But when 

 a lot is entirely covered with coarse manure, two 

 followers will be required, and even three if the 

 business is not properly arranged. The follow- 

 ing regulation will save the labor of one hand, 

 by rendering unnecessary the passing and repassing 

 of the rakers, which the method suggested by our 

 first thoughts, would require. The first raker 

 must set in after the plough, and continue his 

 course ; when the plough has performed one 

 bout, the second raker begins his course. The 

 first raker upon completing his round will stop: 

 for he will find the furrow here filled with ma- 

 nure by his companion ; but his stop will not be 

 long, for the team will be close upon him, barely 

 allowing him to step aside and permit it to pass ; 

 when he again sets in with his rake, or hoe -or 

 fork. In this way the business will be conducted 

 with great regularity and to the best advantage. 



When the manure has been thus buried under 

 ground, it is usual to plant corn in the field, that 

 plants may be present to partake of the food 

 which the manure furnishes during its decompo- 

 sition, and also, to keep the field constantly pro- 

 ducing valuable crops. In the autumn after the 

 corn is gathered, the soil is turned over with the 

 plough, and with the assistance of the harrow, 

 the decomposed manure and the soil are well 

 mixed together. The compost is now perfected 

 and the field is in a state of preparation for win- 

 ter grain. 



To this method it has been objected, that 

 the gases, which first escape during the fermen- 

 tation of manure, are poisonous to plants, and that 

 their disengagement should be eflfected, in places 

 where they could not exert their efforts injurious- 

 ly. The resulls of several experiments which I 

 have made, would appear to speak a different lan- 

 guage ironi this. 



I excavated a spot in my garden about a foot 

 deep, and filled it half lull with clean wheat straw; 

 over this was thrown the soil which had been dis- 

 placed, and melon seeds were planted. The fruit 

 was the largest and best I had ever raisecL Upon 

 examination, I fouud that the straw had undergone 

 a thorough deconjposition. 



Another spot in the garden I trenched, to the 

 depth of two feet, and deposited in it manure 

 from the horse stable six inches deep, and then 



filled the trench with the soil which had been 

 thrown out. On this bed were sown parsnip 

 seed ; when the roots had attained the size of a 

 goose quill, I dug some of them uji. The roots 

 had pass<'d straight down to the manure, and at 

 this depth, which was eighteen inches, they were 

 of two thirds of their size at the surface; the 

 roots when dug up for the table, were rather long 

 than large, and they were excellent. 



I excavated another spot in my garden, three 

 feet in diameter and a foot deep, and threw in 

 fresh manure from the horse stable, without any 

 admixture of straw, to the dejith of six inches, 

 after it was pressed down. In the centre of the 

 manure I placed a stake two inches in diameter, 

 and completed the filling up with damp clay, well 

 statnped down with a spade. The stake was 

 then withdrawn, and the hole, having the capacity 

 of about a pint, was filled with garden mould: in 

 this were planted two kinds of corn. The stalks 

 of these plants were not large ; but from the first, 

 they preserved a healthy color, and each one pro- 

 duced a fair ear. The particulars of this experi- 

 ment were so arranged as to cause the gases evol- 

 ved from the manure, to act with the greatest 

 force on the tender roots of the corn plants as 

 they became developed ; and when we consider 

 the effects of the extreme drought which prevailed 

 last summer, and that the roots of these plants 

 were confined to about a pint of ferfile earth, it is 

 reasonable to suppose that the manure supplied 

 them with wholesome nourishment rather than 

 concentrated poison. If coarse manure be but 

 thinly covered over with earth, the soil will be too 

 puffy and dry to produce healthy plants; but I 

 can assert from repeated observations, that the 

 hottest kinds of manure, bin-ied a few inches deep, 

 warm the soil, and give additional vigor to vege- 

 tation as well in the gardens as in the fields. 



Orchards on Rocky Farms. — The farm on 

 which I now am has no orchard, either of apple 

 or peach. A considerable part is rocky. Instead 

 of setting out my fruit trees in a regular orchard, 

 it is my intention to place them in various parts 

 of the farm, where they will occupy comparative- 

 ly no portion of the productive ground. In some 

 fields there are rocky places, which cannot be 

 ploughed, but which will grow three or four trees. 

 Often a detached large rock occurs, on the south 

 side of which I shall place a fruit tree, the shar^e 

 of which will be principally on the rock. I find 

 that I can set out several hundiHsd froit trees with- 

 out encroaching on my tillable land one-fifth of an 

 acre. There are advantages and disadvantages 

 attending this method. The saving of the ground 

 I conceive to be of very considerable importance, 

 particularly where it is valuable. Standing singly 

 or in small clusters, the fruit will receive more 

 light and sun, and consequently ripen better. The 

 trees having many different exjxisures, there will 

 seldom be a general failure of fruit. It gives 

 more varied interest to a farm, and is, perhaps, 

 more picturesque. For some rocky farms this 

 method is better adapted than others, especially for 

 tliose that may be divided into smaller farms. The 

 disadvantages are, that live stock cannot be so 

 conveniently kept from the fruit, and that it is more 

 inconvenient to gather the fruit. If any of the 

 readers of the Farmer know of other disadvanta- 

 ges, I should be pleased to know them through its 

 columns before the time to set them out. — TV*. Y. 

 Farmer. 



