AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



PUBLISUCD BY JOSEPH BKECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STUEET, (Agricultural Wabehoose.)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOJ-. XV. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 4, 1837. 



NO. 36. 



^<sma-^ws.i?ii3'iii^iE>; 



(From Ihe Maine Farmer.) 

 RAISING WHEAT. 



Mr Holmes : — In youf piipm- of the 9th iilt., 

 .1 correspontletit calls on me for fiinlior remarks 

 on my f;iniiiii<f operations, more partioulai'ly as to 

 my method of cultivating wljoat. 



I had intended to have made a communication 

 on this subject as soon as I had ascertaiiied the 

 amount of my crops. That time has not arrived, 

 but no matter,! shall not probably write so much, 

 nor so often, as to make it very biu-densoine, if I 

 begin now. 



In 1835,33 I have said in a former number, my 

 wheat was sown mostly on land broken up in June 

 and July previous — jiart of it in grass, most clo- 

 ver — the crop turned in — part was cross ploughed 

 in the fall, part in the spring, and ))art not cross 

 ploughed at all. The quantity sown, and manner 

 of preparing the seed and the amount of crop was 

 stated. On all that field, leached ashes were s|)rpad, 

 one bushel to the square rod, e.xcept two acres, on 

 which was spread twenty loads of barn yard ma- 

 nure. 



In 1836, sixteen bushels were .sown on eight 

 and a half acres, which was broken up the pre- 

 ceding August, after the hay was taken off. This 

 field had been in clover three years, which I take 

 to be one too many, as the clover roots are much 

 (liMiiiiishcd after the second year. This field was 

 rolled as soon as ploughed — harrowed in Octo- 

 ber, and the same amount of leached ashes spread 

 on, as 1 had used the year before. The seed was 

 cleared of oats and light kernels by washing in 

 lirine as strong as salt would make it — this being 

 more ponderous than water, will cause the oats 

 and defective wheat to swim, where it may be 

 skimmed off with an old tin pail cover, punched 

 full of holes, unless you have something better. 

 I will observe that my friend Samuel Taylor, of 

 Fairfield, showed me some Bitrhy cleaned in this 

 way, which was handsomer than any I ever saw. 



About the middle of Jun.'!, 20 bushels of air- 

 slacked lime wassowed on five acres, and a bush- 

 el and a half of plaster on an acre and a half more. 

 1 think this part of the field was better grown than 

 the remainder, but have no means of knowing 

 positively. On one acre, on which were potatoes 

 and Rnta Baga the year previous, I sowed two 

 bushels of beardless wheat, whether the kind cal- 

 led "tea wheal" I know not. This was steeped 

 in asohition of blue vitriol, two ounces to the bush- 

 el. The gro\ind having been manured the year 

 before, none was added, except one bushel of 

 plaster. The wheat was very beautiful in appear- 

 ance, and was ripe sooner than the other. 



Whether this was owing to the diflerent previ- 

 ous culture, or to the variety used for seed, I know^ 

 not. I iiave usually found beardless wheat tenor 

 fifteen d; ys later thaw other kinds I have sown. 

 I should have mentioned, that instead of cross- 

 ploughing, I used a cultivator, which stirred the 

 soil about three inches deep, drawn length-wise 



on the furrows. I intend to use this implement 

 in future for all my spring sowing, having a frame 

 made to that purpose, heavy and strong enough 

 for seven teeth, with a spread of four feet. Two 

 horses will go over four acres in a day with it. 

 Peas and oats should be sown before its use, and 

 other grains add after it, and the whole finished 

 with a light harrow and roller. I have threshei! 

 about one hundred bushels of my wheat, and be- 

 lieve it will yield about eighteen bushels to. the 

 acre — may be more — certainly not over twen- 

 ty. It was cut before it was fully ripe and does 

 not maise quite as much flour as did my crop the 

 year before. Five bushels (not tolled) will make 

 over a barrel, however, and I have it ground and 

 put in my barrels for fifty cents. I have this day 

 sold ten barrels for $1'2.5. The seed was perfp<-t- 

 ly free from smut, and so is the product. Hith- 

 erto, my wheat has been sown as the first grain 

 crop. 



I am prepare'', sliould I live another year, to 

 try it on sward land — after oats — after wheat, 

 and on land which has been mowed one year and 

 pastured two years with sheep, and ploughed in 

 July last. My opinion is, that where the hay crop 

 is abundant, in those parts of the country where 

 that crop does not bear, in such years, a higher 

 price than six or seven dollars the ton ; the suc- 

 ceeding wheat crop will amply pay for turning 

 the whole under, and rolling it close in June and 

 July, bosides having the soil in a most desirable 

 stale for future use. I have in two years, some- 

 time since, sowed clover with my first grain crop 

 to turn under in the fall. If the season is wet, 

 there is a fine amount of vegetable matter after 

 harvest, but I have never found a plough vet, 

 which would handsomely tin-n it under. If the 

 season is very dry, there will be little of it, and at 

 the present price of seed, I have contented myself 

 with my mode of two years to grass and two years 

 to grain. 



As to keeping my land in tilth, my creed is 

 short and simple. All the products of the barn 

 and hog yards, which have accumulated for one 

 year, are put under the surface in the spring, for 

 the culture of potatoes and Ruta Baga, to be fol- 

 lowed the next year with wheat. On the land 

 intended for wheat and other small grains, as much 

 ashes, lime, plaster and compost, as I feel able to 

 [irocure — an.d every two years follow my sheep 

 with the plough for wheat. I hope no one will 

 be led to adopt a course of culture unsuited to his 

 soil and circumstances from my theory or prac- 

 tice. All lands are not suited to grain crops — 

 and my candid belief is, that there is a greater 

 failure awiong our farmers from not studying the 

 nature of the soil they cultivate, and adopting the 

 proper crops and proper rotation of crops, than 

 even going abroad to mill. Yours trulv, 



JAMES BATES. 



Mr Paul Pratt, of Foxcroft, Maine, raised the 

 present season, a Ruta Baga Turnip, measuring 

 thirty-two inches in circumference ! 



MORUS MUliTICAlIMS, 



To the Editor of the Farmer and Gardener : 



Sir, — Having seen many statements and sug- 

 gestions in the public prints, that the Chinese mul- 

 berry, (morus iiiullicauli.s, ) was not as hardy as 

 the White mulberry, and that it would not bear 

 "the extreme cold of our winters, &c. , I deem it 

 proper to state my own observation on the sub. 

 ject. I was the first jx-rson south of New York, 

 who had the Morns Mnlticanlis ; it was sent to 

 me by my old friends, Wm. Prince & Sons, in 

 1828, in a collection of seven other varieties of 

 mulberry. It was not then known by the present 

 name, but it was called the Phillijiine Island mul- 

 berry, and I believe was received by the Messrs 

 Prince direct from those Islands. About a year 

 after 1 received it, accounts were received from 

 France of the receipt there of the Morns Mnlti- 

 canlis, and of its i'-reat value for feeding worms. 

 On examining my trees, \ at once found that my 

 Phillipine Island Mulberry was the Multicaulis, 

 and inuncdiately commenced feeding my Silk 

 worms with it; and from experiment, ascertained 

 the truth of all the French had .said about it. — 

 From that time to this, I have continued to urge 

 upon all, the propriety of cultivating this, in pref- 

 erence to the white mulberry. Its advantages are, 

 it is full as hardy as the white ; one pound of its 

 leaves contain as much nutritive matter as a pound 

 and a half of the white; the silk made from it is 

 of a finer texture and more lustrous ; its leaves 

 are so large that a pound can be gathered at half 

 the expense and trouble that a pound of White 

 Mulberry leaves require ; it can be cultivated with 

 infinitely more desjiatch than any other kind. 

 These are all great advantages, and I am so well 

 convinced of the correctness of this statement, that 

 I do not hesitate to say, that within ten years, ne 

 other nmlberry will be cultivated for feeding silk 

 worms ; simply because tl.'ose who feed the worms 

 upon the mulberry leaves will not he enabled to 

 compete with those who feed on Morns Mnltican- 

 lis, and they will be either compelled to abandon 

 the silk business, or adopt the multieaulis for feed- 

 ing. In relation to the hardiness of the Morns 

 Mnlticanlis, 1 have cidtivated it for seven years ; 

 never protected it in any manner whatever, and 

 never lost a tree by the cold of winter, or any oth- 

 er way. I had fifty young trees in my garden 

 last winter, and not even a kud on the extretnity 

 of the branches was injured, his true that about 

 fifty yards west from where the young trees stood, 

 there is a grove of oak trees, and on the north, 

 fifty yards distant, my dvveirmg-house stood ; and 

 my garden has an exposure to the south, with a 

 gentle decliniUioii. But my residence in the win- 

 ter of 1831-2, was very different. It was on a 

 farir.', four miles in the country, in a northeast di- 

 rection : the situation at an elevation of 3 to 400 

 feet above the tide water. There my morns mul- 

 tieaulis had an open exposure lo the norlhwest 

 wind; yet none were injured. During the whole 

 time, I have had the white mulberry of various 

 varieties, and have observed that they were all . 



