VOL. XV. NO. 6. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



4-^ 



Agriculture. — The ancient Romans, previous 

 to their degeneracy through foreign conquests, 

 were an agricuhural people. Tlie hind was di- 

 vided into minute portions and necessity compell- 

 .ed its cultivation. Few farmers visited the city, 

 except on market days, vvhicli were every month, 

 when Ihey disposed of their produce and examin- 

 ed tlie laws posted on the capitol and in the mar- 

 ket place a certain numher of days before their 

 adoption by the people. Siil.joined are some of 

 the maxims most common among this class of the 

 Roman people, and which afford a pretty good 

 test of their agricultural character : 



1. Hj is a thriftless farmer who buys anything 

 that his farm can produce. 



2. He is no husbandman who does any work in 

 the day time, that can be done in the night, except 

 in stormy weather. 



3. He is worse who does on work days what he 

 may do on holydays ; and 



4. He is worst of all who in a clear sky works 

 within doors, rather than in the field. — Kennebec 

 Journal. 



H, 



iNT TO Dyers. — A practical dyer of Troyes, 

 in France, assc-rts that the acetate of iron is much 

 preferable to the sulphate, in dyeing blacks. That 

 stuffs which arc injured by washing in caustic 

 leys, or even soap, may be cleansed by rubbing in 

 a weak starch bath. — Bulletin Soc. d' Encourage- 

 ment, 4"c. 



Hi.vT TO RLh:ACHERS. — Tlie same individual 

 states that the nmriatic acid used instead of sul- 

 phuric, in decomposing blea:-l)ing salts, does not 

 render woolen goods harsh, as is often the result 

 of the common acid bath.' — lb. 



Mr Wm. Dukeheart of Baltimore, has invented 

 a new method of makitjg liarness. Sewing is 

 done away with, and copper rivets used. It is 

 said to be more durable and economical. 



SCOTCH KAI.E;, 



It has sometimes appeared to us, when looking 

 at the Scotch Kale while growing, that it might be 

 made eminently conducive to the comfort of the 

 milch cows on a farm, and contribute largely to- 

 wards the yield of the milk and butter of the dai- 

 ry. From its natural tendency to growing up- 

 wards, a very large amount might be given on an 

 acre of ground. Suppose we plant them a foot 

 square apart, at that rate 43,530 might be raised 

 on that quantity of land. If planted fioni the 

 15tli of May to the 1st June, in gooil rich soil, 

 well manured, they would grow very large before 

 winter, and afford a choice supply of succulent 

 food, just at that period of the year when from the 

 prevalence of the frosts, the pastures would have 

 ceased to afford any. The expenses of the cul- 

 ture should not -be discusse<I when the immense 

 benefits they are calculated to confer are consider- 

 ed. In a sandy loam, one ploughing and a har- 

 rowing would be sufficient to prepare the soil, and 

 in clayey laud an additional |)loughing would be 

 all that would be required ; to this add two hoe- 

 ings, and 'we have the whole extent of the cost of 

 cultivation. Now we would ask, what ia it com- 

 pared with the comforts to be secured to the 

 cows, and the large increase thus accruing to the 



The Silk Culture, in New Jersey, is about to 

 ba entered upon with great spirit and enterprizc. 

 A Silk Company with a capital of $200,000 has 

 just commenced operations by a subscription to 

 the whole amount of shares, (4000,) in a few hours. 

 They are making preparations to purchase a suit- 

 able tract of hind to cutivate the " Chinese Mul- 

 berry." — Southern JJgriculturist. 



Sheep. — A correspondent has furnished us 

 withthefollowing receipt, which he says he knows 

 from repeated experiments, to be " good for mak- 

 ing strong and healthy sheep." It is easy, cheap, 

 and well worthy of trial. 



" VVheu tlic oliccp ;= olium, dip a cloih in gotl 

 soap and rub the sheep all over — then dip the 

 cloth in warm water and give the sheep a com- 

 plete lather, and let it go. — Ten. Far. 



The hay in ?daine will be better than was ex- 

 pected, though not a heavy crop. It is to he hop- 

 e<I that farmers have planted jjretty liberally of po- 

 tatoes and ruta baga, if not in mangel wurtzel and 

 carrots ; all these are valuable fodder for cattle and 

 horses. There is nothing equal to mangel wurt- 

 zel for milch cows, and no root probably of which 

 so many huLhels can be raised on an acre. 



The diit on these roots does them no injury for 

 sheep and cattle. Where cattle- are kept a long 

 time from the ground by snow in the winter, they 

 suffer the privation. An agricultural writer in 

 New York says he and some of his neighbors sav- 

 ed their cattle by giving them dry clay, which 

 they ate greedily, while others lost a large portion 

 of their stock by the " hoof ail." Cattle' and hor- 

 ses need clay or dirt to correct the acidity of their 

 stomachs, as the human family needs magnesia at 

 tunes for the same purpose; and esculent roots 

 also, while they contribute largely as nutriment, 

 also promote the health of the animal fed upon 

 hay or straw. 



Hogs iu~ pens require the same remedy even 

 more than other animals, because they eat more 

 acid food, and because it is their nature to root 

 into the ground. Such hogs will greedily eat 

 charcoal if given them, and it is good for them. 



All domestic animals require salt frequently. 



Kennebec Journal. 



It is very important that many kinds of seeds 

 should be rolled in by a heavy roller, or by press- 

 ing the earth down hard upon them by placing a 

 board on the bed, and walking across it several 

 times. Celery, spinach, onions, and many other 

 kinds of garden seeds, will not vegetate unless the 

 earth is pressed on them hard, or rolled after being 

 sown. — Maine Farmer. 



Cattle should have salt twice a week ; or the 

 better method is to put salt where they can get it 

 when they please; this method is recommended 



productions of the dairy? An acre of Scotch i "^^ "'""y '""'"'S'^"^ '^''""^''^ "''i" ''^^"^ '°°g I""* 

 Kale, planted in the mode we have pointed out, 

 to be fed out in the place of the succulent food of 

 the pastures, would at 24 heads a day to each of 



tised it. A small quantity of saltpetre mixed with 

 salt is very beneficial to cattle. 



Unleached ashes mixed with salt, in the propor- 



20 cows, with the addition of the usual quantity of ''"" of eight quarts of ashes to one of salt, is said 

 hay, straw, grain, «&c. and we have no doubt it to '"^ conducive to the health of cattle, horses, and 

 would add half a gallon of milk to the daily yield ^'^^*'P ! '' increases their appetite, prevents botts in 



of each of the twenty cows, which would be eqna 

 to 10 gallons per day, or 900 gallons during the 

 three months, and this, besides the satisfaction 

 which the owner would derive froin the reflection, 

 that he had carried his animals through the win- 

 ter in fine health and full keeping ; that they had 

 entered npou the spring of the new year in a con- 

 dition which promised a liberal contribution to 

 the milk pail, and that while the cows of such of 

 his neighbors as were less provident, were suffer- 

 ing, his were revelling in the gayful luxury of 

 well filled stomachs. — JV. Y. Far. 



One thousand dollars have been subscribed at 

 New Bedford towards the Bunkerhill montunent. 



horses and rot in sheep. This is doubtless useful 

 in hot weather, as the alkalies are of a cooling na- 

 ture, and tend to reduce the stimulating poweis of 

 the blood. — Southern Agriculturist . 



It is a fact spoken of as not a little remarkable, 

 that in America, there are a hundred and twenty 

 different species of forest trees, whereas in the 

 same latitude in Europe only thirtyfour are to I e 

 found. — lb. 



A magnificent carpet forty yards square, has 

 been manufactured at Kilmarnock, for a London 

 Peeress. The style is Persian, and the colors re- 

 semble a beautiful painting on canvass. 



To DAiRy WOMEN — We have recently witness- 

 ed a method of making cheese, which, although 

 not of recent invention, may be new to many dai- 

 ry women within the circulation of our paper. It 

 is something after the manner adopted in the man- 

 ufacture of pine-apple -cheese. The curd is pre- 

 pared as in the ordinary way, and put in a i)ieco 

 of coarse canvass, a portion of the threads of which 

 have been drawn out to make it open, and allow 

 the whey to escape freely. It is then hung up in 

 the cheese-room, and requires no farther atten- 

 tion, as the cheese fly will not attack it, and it u, 

 not subject to mould. We have the authority of 

 those who have tested the experiment, in saying 

 that this method is a great saving of labor; the 

 cheese matures sooner, and is of better quality 

 than if dressed. The whey is allowed to drain 

 off", and it will do so effectually, instead of the 

 violent pressing, which all dairy women have oh- 

 ."crved forces out a portion of what should remain 

 to add substance and richness to the cheese. The 

 bag to contain the cheese should be made in the 

 form of a beeve's bladder. It is sometimes knit 

 in the manner of a fish net, with small meshes ; 

 but the most ready method is, to take a piece of 

 coarse linen, and pid! out three or four threads 

 alternately, both of warp and filling, and put it in 

 the proper shape. — A^iagara Den. 



Queen Cakes. — Take a pound of sugar beat 

 and sift it, a pound of well dried flour, a pound of 

 butter, eight eggs, and a half a pound of currants, 

 washed and picked : grate a nutmeg and an equal 

 quantity of mace and cinnamon, work the butter 

 to a cream, put in the sugar, beat the white of the 

 eggs twenty minutes, and mix them with the hut-" 

 ter and sugar. Then beat the yolk for half an 

 hour and put them in the butter. Beat the whole 

 together, and when it is ready for the oven, put 

 in the flour, spices, and currants ; sift a little su- 

 gar over them, and bake them in tins. — Farmer 

 and Mechanic. 



