VOL. XV. KO. 45. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



857 



i-i- .,.,n„,.tn!n A farmer lately re- I leiiKth of the field; then, with a complaisant air, 

 l^S ; u ' ; a 1 :;ea^w:tTt^ac:e7last havln, delivered the „lon,h to .ho n.ondarins, they 

 maiked to u. u..ii i j ,,,„..„ sneresslvelv folow IS examule, emulating one 



year, with seed which did not eomo well. It was 

 recommended as good, but proved to be had; thus 

 was lost almost entirely the labor of plantrng, and 

 the use of the Ian.!. He said lie had better have 

 given $100 for tiood seed, than to liavc i)lanted 

 That which he did. Prime seed is of the first im- 

 portance to a good croj). 



We have noticed an article which is gouig the 

 rounds of the papers, recommending that corn be 

 soaked before tarring it to prevent its destruction 

 by crows ; another statement has also appeared 

 that it will not come up without it is soaked be- 

 fore tarring. A farmer informs us than twenty 

 years expeiience has convinced him, that soaking 

 is at Isast entirely unnecessary, and that the corn 

 will come well without. He has always planted 

 it without soaking, and the result has been uni- 

 formly good ; it has always come well, and the 

 tar has been a perfect protection against the 

 crows. His method of pre|.aring is as follows:— 

 for a peck of corn, take about a gill of tar. The 

 tar is heated till (lerfectly melted, poured into the 

 corn and stirred briskly for about one or two min- 

 utes by which time every kernel, if well stirred, 

 will' have received a thin coating of tar. Then 

 put in about a quart of plaster of Paris, stir well, 

 and the corn will separate and plant as conven- 

 iently as if no tar had been used. The corn and 

 the vessel in which it is mixed, must be entirely 

 free from dust, to insure to the corn an even coat- 

 in" of tar. Corn thus prepared, may be kept for 

 weeks without injury, which gives it a decided 

 advantage over that which has been soaked. Soak- 

 ed corn, if permitted to dry in any degree, loses 

 a part of its vilality, and though it may come, it 

 will pro.luce a sickly plant. Hence the danger of 

 planting soaked corn at all times, and more espec- 

 ially when the ground is warm and liry.— Hamp- 

 shire Gazelle. 



The Empebor at the Plough. — On the loth 

 day of the first moon, in every year, which gener- 

 ally corresponds to the first of March, the Einpe- 

 ror (of Cnina) in person perforins the ceremony 

 of opening the Grounds. This Prince, in great 

 pomp, proceeds to the field appointed for the cer- 

 emony : the princes of the imperial family, the 

 presidents of the five great tribunals, and an infi- 

 nite number of mandarins, accompanying him. — 

 Two si.les of the field are occupied by the Empe- 

 ror's officers and guards; the third is allotted for 

 all the laborers of the province, who repair thith- 

 er to behold their art honored and practised by 

 the head of their empire ; the fourth is reserved 

 for the mandarins. 



The Emperor enters the field alone, prostrates 

 himself, and nine times strides his head against 

 the ground, in adoration of Tien, the god of heav- 

 en; "he pronounces with a loud voice, a prayer 

 appointed by the tribunal of the rites, invoking 

 the blessing of the Almighty Sovereign on his la- 

 bor, and on the labor of his people, who form his 

 family ; be then, in quality of sovereign pontiff of 

 the Empire, sacrifices a bullock, which he oSers 

 up to lieaven, as the source of every blessing :— 

 whilst they cut the victim in pieces, and place 

 them on the altar they bring the l';mperor a plough, 

 in which are yoked a pair of bullocks magnifi- 

 cent'y adorned. The Emperor then, laying aside 

 his royal robes, takes hold of the handle of the 

 plough, and turns up several furrows the whole 



successively follow liis example, emulating one 

 another in performing this labor with the greatest 

 dexterity. Theceremony concludes with the dis- 

 tribution of money, and pieces of stuff among the 

 laborers there jiresent ; the most active of whom 

 finish the remaining labor, in presence of the Em- 

 peror, with great agility and address. 



Some time after, when they have sufficiently 

 labored and manured their grounds, the Emperor 

 repairs again, in procession, and begins the sow- 

 ing of the field, always accompanied with cere- 

 mony, and attended by the laborers of tlie prov- 

 ince. 



The same ceremonies are performed on the 

 same days, in all the provinces of the Empire, by 

 the viceroys, assisted by all the magistrates of their 

 departments, in presence of a great number of the 

 laborers of their respective provinces. I liave 

 seen this opening of the grounds at Canton, (says 

 the writer of this article) and I never remember 

 to have beheld any of the ceremonies invented by 

 men, with half the pleasure and satisfaction with 

 which I observed this. — Pidou (X S.) Bet. 



Foretelling the Seasons. — After an obser- 

 vation of sixty years, I am led to believe that crops 

 are subject to a great rotation of twenty or forty 

 years ; 1 am not certain which. If it is twenty, 

 it will answer to calculate it at forty, but not at 

 twenty if it be forty. If it be true that there is a 

 regular rotation in crops, then no jiains should be 

 sfiared to understand it, as it would inform ns 

 what years a crop would grow well and what 

 years it would not. Besides this general rotation, 

 there is a smaller one. 



Jf'heat has a rotation of eight years ; and f9r 

 sixty years it has been so exact, that every otlier 

 leap year has been a good one for this crop, and 

 every other a bad one. 1 believe, but dont know 

 certain, that the proportion of good and had years 

 in the eight, is five of good an 1 three of bad ; or 

 four of each. The years 1833, '34 and '35, were 

 good years for wheat, and I believe 1832 was, but 

 do not certainly recollect. The year 1836 was 

 had, and we may expect 1837 and '38 to be the 

 same. 



Corn. Corn has a rotation of six or eight years, 

 I do not know certainly which. 1831 was a fruit- 

 ful year. 1832 and '33 poor ; 1834 good ; 1835 

 poor, 1836 bad. 1837 will be middling; 1838, 

 good, and 1839 excellent, 1840 middling again.— 

 The crops do not change from good to bad, and 

 from bad to good, at once, but gradually. After 

 a bad year, nature recovers herself by degrees. It 

 may be observed that the same years are not good 

 for corn and wheat. The years from 1777 to '80, 

 1797 to 1800, 1817 to 1820, were good years for 

 corn. A Uevolutionary Soldier. 



The above, as it purports to be, js from a revo- 

 lutionary soldier ; or at least, the substance of it. 

 The facts and dates are given altogether from 

 memory, and so far as we have ascertained, are 

 correct. ' It discovers much strength in that fac- 

 ulty. — Hamp. Gaz. 



coarse three-pronged fork, the tines eight inches 

 long, three quarters of an inch wide, and half an 

 inch thick at the shoulder, and lap|>ing to the 

 point, and seven inches in breadth, bent as much 

 as a common spade — the handle straight or nearly 

 so, and four and a half feet long. The advant^ige 

 is that it is easier fiirced into the ground than a 

 spade, and the upper end of the handle being 

 thrown forward to nearly arm's length, the fork 

 descends perpendicularly into the earth — then, 

 instead of lifiingand turning, the firocess is ratlier 

 rolling the lump over by lever power, first break- 

 ing it loose, then as the handle, with one hand 

 near the end, and the other about the middle, de- 

 scends, the arm rests on the knee, ami the for- 

 ward hand becomes the pivot of a second lever, 

 of less power than the first, and suflicient, with a 

 little-forward motion, if the ground is somewhat 

 adhesive, to turn over almost a cubic foot at orce. 

 If it inclines to turn backwards, drawing the fork 

 partly out, will generally obviate that difiiculty, 

 but sometimes the ol<l method of lifting and turn- 

 ing must be resorted to. 



Ground dug in the fall or winter, I conclude 

 should be left rough, as presenting more surface 

 to the action of the frost and air, it is in better 

 condition in the spring than if made srao(;tli, though 

 finely |iulverized. 



Very respectfully yours, G. H. 



— Tenessee Farmer-I 



Parasol Ants. — I had heard of the parasol 

 ants previous to going to Trinidad, but 1 could 

 hardly believe the account I had received of them. 

 The first morning I was at Belmont, Mrs War- 

 ner called me to see the parasol ants — and sure 

 enough there was a string of lilack ants, about 

 the length of a common house fly, moving as ants 

 do in England, in a long file ; and every ant with 

 a small bit of a green leaf, held erect over its head. 

 1 never beheld any thing so strange ; not one was 

 without the leaf. I heard a stranger story still, 

 that they plucked these leaves and took them 

 down a great way under ground. I was inform- 

 ed by Mr Gilman, of La Reconnaissance, that his 

 nsn-roes having by his orders dug into the ants' 

 habitation, it was found full of these same leaves, 

 withered, and at the bottom of the nest one or two 

 (I forget which) white snakes of from nine in- 

 ches to a foot in length ; ajid it was said that ev- 

 ery one who had dug out these nests, had found 

 the leaves and the white snakes. At Laurel Hill 

 we observed a great many of these parasol ants, 

 and Mr C. resolved to get at the truth. The ants 

 came from the high grounds, a considerable dis- 

 tance above the house ; their route was as distinct 

 and as bare of herbage as a sheep track. They 

 were accordingly traced to the side of the bank, 

 and we dug where they disappeared. It proved 

 a work of some difficulty to get fairly at the nest ; 

 it was from ten to twelve feet under ground, and 

 there sure enough, were found two contiguous 

 chambers full of the leaves, and a white snake 

 nearly in the centre. 



I have discovered a much easier and more 

 speeedy method of digging garden ground, than 

 that performed with the spade, which is merely 

 to substitute in its stead, the common manure- 

 tbrk— one, however, made square at the top for 

 the foot to rest on, would be better. Mine is a 



'A mother' in a Montreal paper, recommends 

 as a remedy for the croup, a tea-spoonful of the 

 solution of a piece of indigo about the size of a 

 pea, in a half pint tumbler of milk-warm water. 



A law of the Mass. Legislature entirely and ex- 

 pressly forbids the sale of intoxicating liquors on 

 Sundays, after the 20 iust. 



