VOL,. XV. NO. 43. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



339 



witli the clieaii improved miicliiiiery now in suc- 

 ces.sfiil operation in tliis and other places ? 



This family be^un the former year with some 

 10 or 12 worms iti order to olitain the eggs, of 

 vvliich tlicy hatched and fed about 1200 worms. 

 But not liavini sulliiiient feed on their own pre- 

 tuises, were necessitated to gather tiiem at the 

 distance of about two and a half miles. To pro- 

 vide for the feeding the present year (1S37) a few 

 white mulberry trees have been procured to set 

 out about the house and barn-yard, and intends 

 to tiy a few (/hinese mulberry ; but instead of a 

 few trees, he had better procure a few bmidred — 

 not only for propagation, but for the benefit of the 

 foliage, wliich may be gatliered the first year with- 

 out injury to the plant. It is the pecidiarity of 

 the Cliiiicse Midberry, the more the leaves are 

 pricked the better they grow, being careful net to 

 injure the buds. 



Mr Iiioody contemplates a small simple im- 

 provement for the greater perfection of the twist- 

 ing process, and then he will consider his estab- 

 lishment the most perfect of the most perfect of 

 the kind, and fxpects to go right ahead. 



We should not be surprised to hear that Mrs 

 Moody has wove herself a suit or silk dress in her 

 own loom — she can and we trust she will do it. — 

 jYortkampton Com. 



Cure for the Dropst. — A gentleman in the 

 Kentucky Reporter gives the following : 



Take cinder from a blacksnjith shop, and beat 

 it fine, sift it, to take out the coarse particles ; — 

 mix the tine cinder in a pint of honey until it is 

 stift' enough to lay on the point of a case knife, 

 not hard like pills. Give the patient as much as 

 will lay on the ptiint of a case knife, thre(j times 

 a day, morning, noon and at night. This mix- 

 ture is very purgative, and will cause the patient 

 to discharge great quantities of water, pnrgatively 

 and by urine. The portion may be given accor- 

 ding to the operation ; if that appears too severe, 

 give less ; if it does not ojierate enough, give more ; 

 continue it until the swelling is gone. 



The patient may eat any fliet but milk, of which 

 he shou'd not taste a drop, neither take any other 

 kind of medicine while using the above. I have 

 known several persons who v\ere cured of that 

 dreadful disease by using the above mixture, some 

 of whom were so bad that the water oozed out 

 of their feet and left their tracks as they walked 

 on the floor. 



A Massachusetts farmer after giving the weight 

 of a hog he had fattened, called on the N. Hamp- 

 shire farmers to beat that if they could. The re- 

 ply was a pretty good one, but not quite equal to 

 one made by a friend of ours, who was told by a 

 VVorcetter County man [Mass.] that a neighhorof 

 his, raised that season eleven hundred bushels of 

 potatoes, and tauntingly asked if Vermont could 

 beat that. Our friend answering rather moderate- 

 ly thought she could, for a farmer six miles from 

 Burlington (alluding to Judge Meach of Shelburn) 

 planted the same season fourteen hundred bushels, 

 which was a fact. — Burlington Sent. 



Dekp Pi,oughi.-\g. — .Much of late had been said 

 upon shoal and deep ploughing, and it may not 

 be aniiss here to discuss that question, thereby 

 elicit information. We believe the nature of tlie 

 soil and sub-soil nnist determine the depth. A 

 shoal soil with a clay sub-soil will not admit of 

 being |doughed deep. But any soil itomposed of 

 loam or sand, may and probably ought to he 

 ploughed much deeper than has been the practice 

 of our farmars. For such sward land, seven or 

 eight inches are not too deep. The advantages 

 are nutnerous. It will allonl a better opportunity 

 to cover long and unrottcd manures, the fermen- 

 tation of which beneath the sward must be of 

 lasting benefit to the soil. It gives an opportuni- 

 ty to work above the sward with the smaller 

 plough, harrow and hoe — is a greater saving of 

 the manm-e of the sward, which has been estima- 

 ted at twelve tons to the acre ; and if the land is 

 to be stocked down inunediately to gra>s without 

 hoeins, it can be done nuiclr sooner with the 

 same smoothness by means of the harrow and 

 roller ; and a dee|)er and looser soil is created, 

 much to the advantage of the succeeding crops, 

 as the tendency of the manures ploughed in, is to 

 rise and go ofl' by evaporation, and not, as has 

 been supposed, to soak downwards. There are 

 some disadvantages in ploughing deep. More 

 manure is required for a single crop. The crops 

 will be later in arriving at maturity, which is a 

 serious injury in some instances, to Indian 'corn 

 I)articnlarly ; but au advantage to many other 

 crops, and especially to w.ieat, as it will be lon- 

 ger in growing, of course less likely to blast; and 

 afford a better opportunity for harvesting, in con- 

 nection with the farmers' other crops. And more 

 STRENGTH of team is required to plough the same 

 land. On the whole, we are decidedly of the 

 opinion, that good policy requires us to plough 

 ileeper than has been the general custom of our 

 farnjers. — Report of the Trustees of the Kennebec 

 Agr. Society. 



A Maine paper saya— " The state the last year 

 paid oul $4,000,000 for bread stuffs. The legis- 

 lature have passed an act, giving $2 to every one 

 who shall raise 20 bushels of wheat ; and for ev- 

 ery bushel over and above 30, 6 cents per bushel. 

 Good I Good ! I GOOD ! ! ! 



Agriculture. — It is very evident that fora few 

 years past the Agriculture of America has been 

 rising in the scale of human enqdoyments ; its 

 rewards have been greater than were ever real- 

 ised before. We do not mean that a given quan- 

 tity of farmer's produce has sold for more <^oll»rs 

 than it ever commanded before, but with a given 

 amount of labor the farmer is enabled to produce 

 a greater amount of wealth, to comujand a great- 

 er amount of the substantial comforts and con- 

 veniences of life. 



A glance at the causes of this appreciation of 

 Agricultural industry, will convince us that it is 

 destined to be i)ermanent. 



There is no apprehension that our Agriculture 

 will ever degenerate, aiul CM back to the unskil 

 ful, insufficient labor of the half barbarous culti- 

 vator with his wooden spade. 



As far as the prosperity of this leading occupa 

 tion depends upon a skilful and judicious ndtiva- 

 tion of the earth, it is not only certain not to re- 

 cede, but to advance. 



But the pros|icrity of the Agriculturalist is pro- 

 moted not only by improvements in the processes 

 of his own s^rt, but by impiovejuents iti all other 

 arts. The products of Agriculture, being articles 

 of prime necessity, have at all tinu's nearly the 

 same intrinsic value. But their exchangeable val- 

 ue varies very greatly. Before the invention of 

 the spinning jenny and the power loom, a bushel 



of wheat might have paiil for two and a balfyards 

 of cotton cloth of a given quality ; whereas now 

 a bushel of wheat will buy six or seven yards of 

 a fabric of equal or better quality. So a great 

 number of manufactures have contributed to is- 

 crease the exchangeahle value of agricultural pro- 

 duce. And it is obvious that these advantages 

 are as permanent as the applications of mechani- 

 cal power that have given birth to them. The 

 present improved processes in th<^ manufacture of 

 useful fabrics will never be abandoned unless still 

 belf^r are discovered. 



It is the growth of various manufactures incur 

 own and other countries, and the improved means 

 of transportation by which these mannfa'jturcs are 

 brought to our doors, that have chiefly contribu- 

 ted to secure a better reward for agricultural in- 

 dustry. 



Finally, agricultural industry was greatly ele- 

 vated when the plough was suhstitiued for the 

 spade. Its condition was still further improved 

 when the several kinds of labor were divided, and 

 mechanical expertness acquired in the various 

 arts. It advanced still farther, (and of this last 

 amelioration we have by no means reached the 

 utmost extent) when labor-saving mncb'nery was 

 generally introduced in the manufacturing arts. — 

 Detroit Journal. 



Raising Wheat.— Jl/r Saijwnrd : — The season 

 for sowing wheat being at hand, and having heard 

 much, and read more on the subject of smutty 

 wheat, I take the liberty to communicate to you 

 my experience. Between the years 1820 and 

 1826, my crop of wheat was much injured by 

 smut, since which time I have made use of blue 

 vitriol, and think I can safely say I have not had 

 a smutty head when the operation has been faith- 

 fully performed. 1 put into a trough or long tight 

 box, 0(ien at the top, a convenient qnaniity of 

 seed wheat, after having washed it and drained 

 the v.ater oft' in a basket, and dissolve in about a 

 pint and an half of warm water, 2 oz. of blue vit- 

 rol to each bushel, turn the solution on the wheat, 

 and shovel it over thoroughly until it shall give 

 a greenish hue to the whole mass, wdiich it will 

 very soon do. Then put in dry wood ashes, suf- 

 ficient to separate the grains for sowing, and the 

 work is done. I do not give this as my own dis- 

 covery, or any thing new, for I have seen it pub- 

 lished several years since. But we farmers need 

 ' line upon line and precept ujion precept.' I think 

 Sir Hunqihrey Davy is correct, when he says the 

 smut is occasioned by insects, notwithstanding the 

 ridicule cast upon the idea by a late writ?r in the 

 New England Farmer. Such is my confidence 

 in this preventive that, but for the aj-pearance of 

 ostentation, 1 would offer good wlieat for all the 

 smutty wheat any one would raise after thorough- 

 ly pulling in practice the above recommendation. 

 Many of my neighbors have tried it with uniform 

 success. Yours, cVc. 



Oliver Crosby. 



Atkinson, April 22, 1837. [Bmigor Far. 



A Good Exasipi.e. — A young man whe served 

 his time in this city, has tureed his nitention to 

 farming. He has brought in two loads of ll,^y this 

 week and solil for cash — and bought two loads of 

 manure, loaded by himself, and drives a team as 

 well as an experienced farmer. Lei others do 

 likewise, and the times will soon imitrove. — Bos. 

 Mercantile. 



