VOIj. XV. NO. 39. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



309 



tFrom the Genesee Farmer.) 

 BRIEF HINTS FOR MARCH. 



Beforo spriii!? opens, the farmer shoiiM attend 

 to the [itrfoiiiiaiice of whatever pan be done now, 

 and whifh may prevent interruption in the bnsy 

 season of the year. Wood shoidd he drawn, cut 

 and corded ; rails split and drawn where needed, 

 corn selected and shelled, and tools repaireil. 



Where there will probably be a deficiency of 

 tools, it may now be conveniently .'fupplicd ; and 

 in procuring new tools, care should be always ta- 

 ken to get the best, even though they cost a little 

 more. Where a man can do one third more work 

 liy using a good tool, he will soon pay for the ad- 

 ditional expense. 



A common but expensive mode of raising calves, 

 is to suffer them to suck the cow. Tlie practice 

 which not unfrequcntly occurs, of suffering calves 

 t.i run constantly with the cow, should be strong- 

 ly reprobated, as the milk is drawn irregularly, 

 and not often clean, and the cow is consequently 

 soon spoiled. Where the calf sucks regularly, and 

 the milk is drawn completely from the udder, tlie 

 «x;?c)ise should d(tter from the practice, as the milk 

 will be worth more during the season, than the 

 calf in theautumn. But if the calf is soon wean- 

 ed to obtain the ndlk, a good animal cannot be 

 obtained, but poor, stunted, ill shaped calves will 

 be produced. 



A good way to raise calves, is to let them suck 

 the cow a few days, then let them suck the finger 

 in a pail of new milk, until they learn to drink, 

 then mix a small quantity of water with the milk, 

 at the same time adiling meal and mixing it, and 

 then gradually substituting water and meal for 

 milk, until th* nulk is entirely discontinued. Thus 

 sudden changes are avoided, which are always 

 injurious to calves. Warmed skimmed milk may 

 be used in place of new milk, after the first few 

 days. 



Calves, as well as other animals, should have a 

 good supply of clean litter. 



Milk your cosvs clean, if you do not wish to 

 spoil them. Sore teats may be prevented by wash- 

 ing them ea:'h time before milking with water. 



Working cattle and horses must be kept in good 

 order, that they may perform labor etBcienlly in 

 the spring. It is better to give animals extra 

 leeding, if by doing so they can do twice as njuch 

 work, and consequently enable the man who drives 

 them to do twice as much. 



Clover seed may be sown any time during this 

 inonlh, and when the season of freezing and thaw- 

 ing the soil arrives, they will be gradually worked 

 into the ground by the operation. This is found 

 by repeateil experiments to be better than to de- 

 fer it till the ground becomes settled in s|)ring. 



Pruning the raspberry shoidd be performed as 

 soon as the snow is off the ground in the spring. 

 Clear away the old stems, cut away the small 

 shoots, and leave four or five of the largest and 

 strongest of last season's shoots in each bunch for 

 the next croj). These should be cut off to 3 or 4 

 feet high, and tied to stakes driven in tlie ground 

 to keep them erect. Early in the spring the ground 

 should be cleared of grass and weeds, and loosen- 

 ed about them. 



Graftinj{ jdasters may now he made, and we 

 have found the cheapest and by far most conven- 

 ient material to spread the wax upon, to be brown 

 |>aper. A sheet may be covered by spreading the 

 wax with a knife, and then cut by scissors into 

 jilnsters of the reqidred size. 



Grafting wax may be made by melting together 

 the following substances : 2 parts tallow, 2 bees- 

 wax, 4 rosin ; or 3 rosin, 3 beeswax, 1 tallow ; or 

 4 parts pitch, 4 rosin, 2 beeswax, 1 hog's lard, 1 

 turpentine. 



Farmers often suffer much at this season from 

 wet feet, we therefore request leave to recommend 

 them to the India rubber application described in 

 the tenth nundjer of the last vol. of the Genesee 

 Farmer, the knowledge of which, an esteemed 

 friend assures us, is worth twenty dollars to him. 

 l''or those who have not that number at hand, we 

 will briefly repeat the mode of making it. Mdt 

 one pound of tallow in an iron kettle, add from 

 four to six omices of India rubber cut small, and 

 heat the melted tallow until the India rubber in it 

 is dissolved. It vvid then be fit for irreasirrg boots 

 and shoes, and will render them perfectly inqjcr- 

 vious to water, though in it all day. During the 

 preparation of this mixture it will boil up in foam 

 and send oft' copious pungent fumes, but this does 

 not injure it. One twentieth j)art of bees wax 

 im|)roves it. Old worn out India rubber over- 

 shoes may be used in the manufacture. 



As system and looking ahead, is indispensable 

 to success in farming, we wish to repeat a recom- 

 mendation of last year for making a memoran- 

 dum book. Provide a small blank book with a 

 flexible leather cover, that it may be conveidently 

 carried in the pocket, and appropriate one page to 

 each week in the season ; set down every thing 

 on its proper page, which is to be done at the 

 time denoted. By having this book constantly in 

 the pocket, many things may be noted down the 

 moment they occur to the mind, either during 

 i-eading or "otherwise, which without this would 

 be foi-gotten and neglected. Further, provide 

 another similar book, and note down in it biiely, 

 during the pi-ogress of the season, whatever work 

 is don^ at the time, with bints of such improve 

 ments as may occur. This will form an excel- 

 lent memorandum hook for the next se.ison. Thus 

 the farmer has everything in black and white be- 

 fore him ; he sees his business at one view, and 

 he makes his arrangements accordingly, without 

 unfiirseen ami unexpected interruptions. 



I then take that out and fiiit it in a tub to settle 

 until I want to boil it into sugar-. On the above 

 f)lan twentyfive buckets of .sap will boil away 

 from one kettle while I am asleep. 

 — Jb-] Musician. 



CuEss. — Mr Tucker — I suppose you will dread 

 to see anything on the subject of chess ; but as 

 the doctrine of transmutation seems at [iresent to 

 have no advocates, yet there are many that be- 

 lieve it as much as tiiey believe their bible ; few 

 of such, however, take or read an agricultnr.il pa- 

 per. It is my ahn only to call the attention of 

 farmers to the exceeding fruitfulness of chess. 1 

 found a plant of it in my field, of twentv straws 

 some of which contained 300 seeds ; there must 

 have been 2000 in the whole. Now if chess will 

 produce 1000 fold, and one seed in a bushel 6f 

 wheat be sown ; and the second year a thousand 

 in a bushel, and so on for five years, and then 

 suppo.se the wheat to be mostly winter killed, and 

 the che-ss to prosper, is it str-ange that such a crop 

 from seeds which werenot known to exist, should 

 induce the belief that wheat had turned to chess = 

 -lb-] A. ■ 



W. 



IMPROVEMENT IN SAP BOII,ING. 



Mr Tucker : — If I should tell those of your 

 readei-s who manufacture majde sugar how they 

 can save one quarter of their time, and a quanti- 

 ty of sugar from burning U[>, would they care in 

 what kind of style that inlbrmation was conmiu- 

 nicated to them.' Well, then, tell those who boil 

 in cauldrons or potash kettles, to hang them on a 

 balance — not stationai-y as my own grandfather 

 used to do, and myself after him, by which means 

 I. burned up more or less sugar every year, by 

 leaving too much fire under the kettles, when I 

 left them at nigjit. 



Now I lay a stiff pole aer-oss two stumps or in 

 two stiff ci-otches stuck in the ground. I tlien 

 take another straight pole, 25 or 30 feet long, lay 

 it across the fir-st pole, and hang my potash ket- 

 tle on the butt end of it, about four feet from the 

 cross bar-. I then put a weight on the ojiposite 

 end from the kettle, just so that the kettle will 

 balance with four buckets of sap in it. Then af- 

 ter boiling sap all day in my kettles, I can leave 

 as much fire under them as I please without fear 

 of burning up my sugar. In the morning, I find 

 my kettles swung Uj) four feet fi-om the fire, with 

 three or four buckets full of syr-up in eacli one. 



The Mokus MuLTrcAUi.is. — Friend Tucker. 



I noticed in one of thy Farmers, not long since, 

 an article on the Morus nmlticaulis, recommend- 

 ing the cutting off the tops of the young ti-ees in 

 the fall, and covering uj) the stumps, to prevent 

 the winter from killing the roots, I wish to in- 

 quire through the medium of thy useful Journal, 

 whether the tops or branches so cut off may not 

 be preserved until spring, and planted as cuttings ; 

 and if so, what would be the best mode of pre- 

 serving them ? If f.jis can be done, I see no dif- 

 ficulty in propagating the Morus multicaidis by 

 cuttings, in the hedge form, in our norther-n cli- 

 mate to any extent, in a very few years, and with 

 a trifling expense. \y g 



Randolph, 3d of 3d month, 1837. 



[lb. 



Curing Hams. — I have heai-d complaints from 

 people that had tight brick smoke houses, that 

 their hams diil not smoke well, an..l consequently 

 did not keep in summer. I think I have discov- 

 ered the whole secret. I have for twenty years 

 used a tight brick smoke li.use, but have a hole 

 near the r-oof of four inches squai-e, thi-oiigh which 

 passes a large volume of smoke, and with it all 

 the vapor that is extracted from the meat by the 

 heat of the fire. I stopped the hole last winter, 

 and found my hams to he wet whenever the fire 

 had gone out ; the confined vapor hecanre con- 

 densed and settled on the meat an.l walls, until 

 the next fii-e rarified it again. After a month I 

 thought of the stoppage, removed it, and the hams 

 were soon dry and seasoned, and as good in Sep- 

 tember as in April. " ' '•- | yy^ 



Lansingbuigh, March 4, 1837. \Ib. 



FtVE OUTS A.ND ONE ijv. — A poor yankeo, on 

 being asked what was the natui-e of his distress, 

 i-eplied that " he had five outs and one in — to 

 wit ; out of money, and out of clothes ; out at the 

 heels, and out at the toes ; out of ci-edrt, and ''n 

 debt." 



The Hort. Society of Philadelphia has offered 

 a iiremium of $500 for the discovery of the best 

 method of pr-eventing the blight in pear ti-ees, and 

 $50, for preventing mildew on geoseberries. 



