278 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MARCH 8, IE37< 



^mw 5i5jf^si£,iiSi'a> ss'^msffini^a 



BOSTON, VVEDiNESDAY, MARCH 8, 1837. 



FARMERS' WORK. 



O.N SOWING Gras.s Seeds.— Practical farmers are not 

 agreed relative to the best time in tlie year for sowing 

 Grass Seeds. Some prefer autumn, but a mrijorily oi" 

 those who have written on the subject, recommend 

 sowing in the spring ; and spring, so far as we are ac- 

 _qu inled witli the prailice of our cultivators, is gener- 

 ally ciioscn for sowing grasses. European writers di 

 rect, even when gra^s seed is sown on the isarne ground 

 with winter grain, to sow the prass seed in the spring, 

 and hdrroio it in. They say lliat the harrowing will, on 

 the whole, be of some service to the grain. The Hon 

 Richard Peters, likewise directed to " harrow your win- 

 ter grain in the spring, in the direction of the seed fur- 

 rows, or drills, and be not afraid of disturbing a few 

 plants ; manifold produce will remunerate for those des- 

 troyed." 



. But, although the spring sowing of grass feeds has 

 been generally recommended, and practiced by New 

 England Farmers, some experienced and S(;ientitic ciil' 

 tivators have preferred summer and^autumnal sowing. 

 J\Ir J. M. Gourgas. of Weston, Mass., in a useful article 

 published in the N. E. Farmer, vol vi. p. S33, makes the 

 following statement : 



" Dear bought experience has taught me the elEca- 

 cy of eowing grass seed in the spring with grain ; it was 

 a custom imported with the ancestors of the country, 

 from old England, where the cloudy Mimraers and moist 

 climate will warrant a practice, which under our clear 

 eky and powerful sun, is altogether unsuitable. 1 must 

 add that grass sown in the fall, imperiously requires to 

 be rolled in the spring as soon as the ground is in fit or- 

 der ; otherwise the small plants, slightly rooted yet, and 

 Keaved up by the (rost, will suffer much, perhaps total 

 destruction ; and tru'y among the many uses to which 

 the roller may be applied, none, perhaps, would be more 

 valuable than to roll all grass lands in the spring. The 

 plants suffer from the wind and heat, and this being the 

 case more or less every spring, it must necessarily bring 

 on a premature decay, which ihe yearly use of the roller 

 knight prevent." 



In I8"25,the Massachusetts .Agricultural Society awar- 

 ded a premium of |>30 to the Rev. Morrill Allen, for 

 his experiments to prove the best season and mode of 

 laying down lunds to grass. Mr Allen gave a stf^tement 

 of several experiments which he made, which tnay be 

 found in the New England Farmer, vol. xiii. p. 157, — 

 The following is an extract friim Mr Allen's report of 

 Ills proceedings fitr the above-mentioned purpose: 



" From the results of these several experiments, I am 

 led to believe the best time to commit grass seed to the 

 earth, is from the 15th of August to the 15th of Septem- 

 ber ; this time seems to accord with the intentions of 

 nature ; it is the season of ripeness in the s:'ed, when it 

 sptmtaneousiy falis to the ground : grass seed which is 

 Bowf d in the last of summer or the beginning of autumn, 

 is rarelv if ever obstructed in its early growth bv drought, 

 w!iich often proves destructive to young plants in the 

 summer months ; it gels finn hold of the ground before 

 winter, and in the following spring grows more rapidly 

 than grass on laiid which has been haidened by the heat 

 of summer and the growth of a grain crop. The sea- 

 eon, which it appears to nie to be the best ft r sowing 

 grass 8eed,ts far from being the most convenient for 

 farmers ; they cannot often do it at that time, without 

 loo little preparation of the soil to receive the seed, or 

 the loss of one crop ; my experiments have proved to 

 my own satisfaction, that much later sowing is prefera- 



ble to spring sowing with grain ; in one instance, I pre- 

 pared the land late in the fall, and cast the seed on the 

 snow with very good success; for fields designed to be 

 alternately in grass and tillage, the cooimon practice of 

 sowing grass seed in the s| ring with gram, m.-iy consist 

 with good husbandry, for ns often as wet seasons ensue, 

 the grass will prosper tolerably well, and in case of a 

 drought, which de-troys the grass, the rotation may be 

 changed without any other loss than that of the seed ; 

 but on fields which are unsuitable for frequent ploogh- 

 ings, when we wish to have the cultivated grasses re- 

 main as long as possible, and on sandy soils where it is 

 difficult to get a suflieient number of grass plants estab- 

 lished, the loss of a single crop is trifling, compared with 

 the gain which will be realized by sowing grass seed in 

 the month of ,-\ugi!st." 



We would not, in all eases, condemn the spring sow- 

 ing of grass seeds, though we have no doubt that, as a 

 general rule, fall-sowing is to be preferred. There aje 

 evils to be dreaded in either case. Grasses sown in the 

 fall, are liable to bo winter-killed, or destroyed by frost J 

 those sown in the spring, may perish by drought and 

 heat. But whenever they are sown, they should be 

 well covered with a harrow, and it will usually be of 

 service to press them down and smooth the surface 

 with a roller. 



BicoN. — About Christmas, if the weather be coldish, 

 is a good time to kill. If the weather be very mild, you 

 may wait a little longer; for the hog cannot be too fat 

 The day before killing, he should have no food. To kill 

 a hog nicely, is so much of a business, that it is bettei 

 to pay a shilling for having it done, than to stab and 

 hack and tear the carcase about. There are two ways 

 of going to work to make bacon ; in the one you lake 

 off the hair by scalding. This is the practice in most 

 p.irts of England, and all over America. But the Hamp- 

 shire way, and best way, is to burn the hair off. There 

 is a great deal of difference in the consequences. The 

 first method slackens the skin, opens all the pores of it, 

 makes it loose and flabby by drawing out the roots of 

 the hair The second tightens the skin in eveiy part, 

 contracts all the sinews and the veins in the skin, and 

 makes the flitch a solider thing, and the skin a better 

 protection to the meat. The taste of the meat is very 

 diff.rent from that of a scalded hog; and to this chiefly 

 it was tluit the Hampshire bacon owed its reputation for 

 excellence. As the hair is to be burnt ofi", it must be 

 dry, and care must be taken, that the hog be kept on 

 dry litter of some sort, the day previous to killing — 

 When killed he is laid upon a narrow bed of straw, not 

 wider than his carcase, and only two or three inches 

 thick. He is then covered all over thinly with straw, 

 to which, according as the wind may be, the fire is put 

 at one end. As Ihe straw burns, it burns the hair It 

 requires two or three coverings and burnings, and care 

 is taken, that the skin be not, in any part, burnt or 

 parched. When the hair is all burnt off close, the hoc 

 is scraped clean, but never touched with water. The 

 upper side being finished, the hog is turned over, and 

 the other side is treated in like manner. This woik 

 should always be done before day-light ; for in the day- 

 light, you cannot so nicely discover whether the hair be 

 sufficiently burnt off. The light of the fire is weakened 

 by that of the day. Besides, it makes the boys get up 

 very early for onci; at any rale, and that is something : 

 for boys always like a bonfire. — Cohbet's Economy. 



The Sciiool Fund. — The Report of the Secretary 

 and Treasurer of the Commonwealth, on the apportion- 

 ment of the School Fund, shows that the income to be 

 distributed is $l'.),00^ 24 cents. Twentysix towns are 



excluded from any share in the distribution, for not ma- 

 king returns according to law ; five others are excluded 

 for not raising the amount of money required by law, 

 'or the support of schools. The aggregate amount to 

 the counties respectively is annexed, Boston receives 

 $1.'')23 24; Chailestown, 227 89; Cambridge, 23191; 

 Rixbu;y, 153 98, &c, 



Suffolk, .... $1556 76 



Essex, .... 2703 73 



Middlesex, .... 2714 88 



Worcester, .... 2627 10 



Hampshire, .... 100324 



Hampden, .... 101554 



Franklin, .... 67068 



Berkshire, .... ioo3 12 



N..rfoIk, . ... . 120097 



l5ristol, ..... 15GGG0 

 Plymouth, .... 147688 



Barnstable, . . - - 834 35 



Dukes County, - - . 119 21 



Nantucket, . - - - 204 72 



— Courier. 



$19,002 24 



Soap from Flints. — Mr Sheridan takes tlie common 

 black Flint, calcined, and reduces it to powder, by wet 

 grinding ; then mixe-s with the caustic soda leys, or pot- 

 ash leys, and boils it till it obtains saponification. The 

 mixture so obtained, is added to the present soap mate, 

 rials, after the latter have been boiled to that state when 

 they have become soap, and are ready to be poured into 

 the frames. The mixture, which has a high detergent 

 quality, requires to be well crutcl/cd along witli the soap 

 materials, and when thus crutched together, the result 

 is a soap of excellent quality. The mixture liecomes 

 intimately incorporated with the soap materials. Thus 

 the commtm silex, which is obtainable at a very low 

 price, takes the place of tallow to the extent of nearly 

 one half. — London Mag. 



New Bkeaii. — A new mode of baking bread, has 

 been discoveied by Dr. Whiting, of Kensingl(m, En-i- 

 land. It is made from salt, water antl flour, without 

 fcrmenlalion, yeast or barm. Th.* sail is formed during 

 the manufaiture of the bread, by the combination of bi- 

 carbonate of soda, and dilute muriatic acid, so as t(* throw 

 the dough into a cellular structure, by means of the car- 

 bonic acid gas envolved during the process. Important 

 advantages are anticipated by its general use. 



dj'An excellent substitute for Flour bread, tnay be 

 made in the fidlowing manner, says the Portland Adver- 

 tiser. Boil three pints of wood ashes enclosed in a bair 

 when the water boils, add half a peck of corn, and boil 

 it half an liour ; when, if ihe lye has been strong ensugh, 

 the bulbs can bo easily rinsed off; then wash it thor. 

 oughly and boil it again in clear water. It may be kept 

 like bread fur future use, and eaten with milk, sugar or 

 molasses. 



Fattening Chickens. — The following process of fat- 

 tening Chickens, we see highly recommended ; Take 

 rice and boil it over the fire in skimmed milk, until the 

 grain bursts. This food, if given to ch ckcns five or six 

 days, it is said, will make them plump and fat enough 

 o grace an Alderman's table, — Bait. Fur. 



Sago Bkeaii. — We speak from experience. Take a 

 small quantity of Sago, boil it, then add flour enough to 

 thicken it moderately, say to the stiffncs? of cake, add 

 yeast, anJ you will have the most agreeable and cheap 

 bread that was ever eaten. Obtain the white sago, and 

 the bread will have a fine complexion, 



$100,000 worth of Indigo is annually raised in Louis- 

 iana, and exported to Europe. 



