VOI-. XVII. so. 19 



AND GARDENER'S JOilRN At 



91 



season at defiance, but which, in less favorable cir- 

 cumstances, would prove fatal to many, or the 

 most of therii. The dry weather that hastens their 

 growth operates to prevent a proper supply of food, 

 and thus causes or hastens their migrations. 

 About noon or a little before on a hot dry day 

 with little wind, the observer will see now and 

 then one rising from the earth, and in a kind ot 

 circlins flight, rising liigh into the air. The num- 

 ber will rapidly increase, until the whole atmos- 

 phere seems filled with them, or until all that are 

 capable of a sustained (light have floated away. 

 Many will fall to the eivth, and tlie heavy gravid 

 females with their clijlped wings, are, of course, 

 left to deposite their eggs for the continuance of 

 the race. 



The fliglit is with llie current of the air, and 

 when the sky is of a deep blue, and tlie s in is 

 shining bright, the millions of them glancing in 

 the sunbeiims at an. immense height, gives to the 

 part of the heavens occupied by the sun an appear- 

 ance the most brilliant imaginable. They seem 

 like shining spangles laid on the deep blue, and 

 glitter and glance in every direction. We do not 

 recollect that we have ever seen a flight of them 

 descend, repeatedly as we have seen them rise ; 

 and hence we conclude that in this country at least, 

 they disperse in different bodies, or gradually waste 

 away by the weaker ones falling to the earth. Be 

 this as it may, wherever they appear they are a 

 formidable scourge. Our ruta baga field this year 

 is by tlie side of a meadow, and since that was 

 mown, they have commenced feeding on the tur- 

 nep, and the bare ribs and stems of the leaves 

 on the plants most e.xposed, show plainly their 

 ravenous appetites, and powers of feeding. To 

 xhat extent they will injure the turneps remains to 

 be seen. We have known them greatly damage 

 corn fields, by eating off the silks before the corn 

 was impregnated, and we once had a field of beans 

 entirely destroyed by an irruption of grasshoppers 

 from an adjoining meadow. We have, therefore, 

 always hailed the beginning of their flights into 

 the air as a proof that we were soon to be rid of 

 their presence, and freed from their depredations 



The Chops in Penksylvania. — An intelligent 

 correspondent of Bicknell's Reporter, writing from 

 Pittsburg, gives the following valuable information 

 respecting the crops in Pennsylvania, west of the 

 AUeganies. 



"It affords me pleasure to inform you that the 

 crops in this vicinity are by no means as bad as I 

 understand they are in the agricultural counties 

 east of the mountains. Indeed, I never remember 

 a nmch better wheat and rye harvest than that of 

 the present year. Wheat has been remarkably 

 productive, and rye has shown a fair average crop. 

 At that time, however, the drought had not been 

 severely felt. We were only in the beginning of 

 that calamity, and I regret to add that we have since 

 suffered considerably from it. 



In the counties of Westmoreland, Allegany, 

 Armstrong, part of Indiana, Fayette, and Greene, 

 the corn will perhaps turn out better than in any 

 other districts of Pennsylvania ; than that east, f 

 should say, that in most instances, the crop will 

 not fall short of a very fair average. But then it 

 should bo remembered tliat this is by no means a 

 great corn country — the farmers chiefly growing 

 wheat, rye, and potatoes ; while for a supply of 

 corn in the cities, to^^'ns and populous villages, we 



chiefly depend upon Ohio and Virginia. A few 

 days since, a miller near Pittsburg, purchased .a 

 large quantity of wheat as low as 75 cents per 

 bushel, and it no where exceeds a dollar at the 

 present time. 



The chief loss occasioned to farmers by drought, 

 will be in potatoes, the plantations this year posi- 

 tively promising to produce next to nothing ! 



In the counties north of this — Butler, Mercer, 

 Venango, Crawlord and Erie, the same remarks 

 that I have made in reference to the better inhab- 

 ited western counties, will also apply, with the sin- 

 gle exception of the sandy districts, where nearly 

 all the crops are lost. Population in those counties 

 is yet but thin, and the loss, therefore, by no means 

 considerable to the community at large, though it 

 will fall heavily on individual farmers and cultiva- 

 tors. 



The crops of Western Pennsylvania may be re- 

 capitulated : 



In the rich lands, 



Wheat — an excellent crop. 



Rye — a very fair average. 



Corn — almost an average crop. 



Hay — the jirst crop abundant. 



Hay — the second crop a total failure. 



Oats — about two thirds. 



In the mountain districts, nearly all the crops 

 have failed. 



It will be remembered, however, that the wheat 

 and rye harvests were excellent and abundant. 



(For the Xew Englaiul Farmer.) 



Mr. Editor : Can yoti inform ine why I cannot 

 raise pumpkins ? I have taken pains not only to get 

 good seed, but also seed from abroad, and planted 

 it apparently on good ground, and yet on account 

 of the moon or the season, or the seed, or some 

 other cause, I have not got half a dozen pumpkins 

 fit for pies on my whole farm. It has been sug- 

 gested to me of late by a friend, that it was for the 

 want of old seed. An old farmer of his acquain- 

 tance tells him that he plants seed that is from 2 

 to 3 years old, and sometimes -1 >ears old. I asked 

 a neighbor of mine the other day, if he erer heard 

 of the thing ? he said he had, and this neighbor, 

 although not a farmer by profession, but a black- 

 smith, nevertheless has some good ideas about 

 farming, and withal raises some large pumpkins, 

 and has one now in his garden, which he and some 

 others think will weigh fifty pounds. And now, 

 Mr. Editor, seeing that pumpkins are of so much 

 value, especially in this section of country, that we 

 can hardly keep Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie, 

 would it not be well to give the above consid- 

 erations to the public, through the columns of your 

 agricultural Journal. If you think so, you would 

 oblige at least one agriculturist, if I may be per- 

 mitted to use that term, by so doing, but if you 

 have other matter of more importance or more in- 

 teresting, please to lay this aside and take that. 

 When I get a little more experienced in farming, 

 perhaps you will hear from me again ; for although 

 I like your journal very well, yet it does not exact- 

 ly coincide with all my views and experience about 

 farming, but, at present, I shall read, examine and 

 practise in silence. 



Yours, &c. 



J. MITCHELL. 



Chester, Ct., Sept. 21, 1838. 



REMAP. KS. 



We are truly sorry that our correspondent has 

 been so unsuccessful in his attempt to raise pump- 

 kins. The thought of keeping thanksgiving with- 

 out a pumpkin pie is surely almost insupportable 

 and especially for a Connecticut man. Should he 

 fail in obtaining a supply in his immediate neigh- 

 borhood for that important day, we shall be very 

 happy to forward him one, if he will say in what 

 way it shall be sent, as we have been more for- 

 tunate in our farming operations. The culture 

 of the pumjikin is so simple, that we supposed 

 every farmer raised them in abundance, without 

 difficulty. The most common method is to plant 

 them among corn. Sticking a seed in every other 

 hill at the first hoeing, but the better way is to 

 plant them by themselves, when fine pumpkins are 

 wanted. The land ahould be made very rich in 

 tlie first place. The hills sliould in this case stand 

 7 or 8 feet apart every way, or even ten feet if the 

 ground is in first rate order. It is generally sup- 

 posed that the seed, of all vinos, is belter for being 

 4 or .') years old. Mr. Marshall, an Englishman, 

 who published a book on gardening some years since 

 when speaking of melon seed, observes, that, " if 

 new seed only can be had, it should be carried a 

 week or two in the breeches pocket, to dry away 

 some of the more watery particles !" 



To which Mr. Cobbett in his treatise on garden- 

 ing exclaims, " What should we do here, where no 

 breeches are worn." We are of opinion tliat old 

 seed is preferable to neiv, and perhaps new seed 

 may be improved as Mr. Marshall directs by car- 

 rying it in tlie breeches pockets ! we have never 

 tried the experiment, but ive know those who do 

 prepare their melon seed by filling their pockets 

 with it a few weeks before they wish to plant it, 

 and who helieve the quality of the seed is improved 

 thereby. We^ have a few hills of pumpkins, which 

 were planted by themselves that have given us a 

 great quantity.. One was picked a few days since 

 which weighed 47 lb. and there are many others 

 of nearly the same size. A vine accidentally came 

 up in a rich part of our garden, and in consequence 

 of a partial destruction of the young crop around it 

 by worms, it was suffered to remain ; it spread out 

 in every direction 10 or 15 feet, giving a good sup- 

 ply of fine yellow pumpkins. J. B. 



Milk ! Milk ! ! — We have never visitsd any 

 place where the milk was so bad as that used in 

 the city of New York. We used to think its infe- 

 rior quality arose from its being adulterated by a 

 mixture of chalk and water. But our New York 

 city exchanges tell us differently. There are 

 18,000 cows in the immediate vicinity of the city, 

 from whose milk the inhabitants are supplied ; — 

 these cows are fed with 200,000 bushels of annually 

 distilled grains in the city and neighborhood. — 

 These grains are corrupt and unhealthy ; so much 

 so, that they consume t!ie flosli avound the cow's 

 teeth, also rotting the teeth, so that all these cows 

 becoming sickly in one year, are sent to the market 

 to serve tho people as a miserable substitute for 

 beef, and 18,000 new and healthy cows are substi- 

 i tuted in their place in one year, to share the fate 

 of their predecessors. So poisonous is this milk, 

 th.at out of 100 children fed with it, 49 die yearly. 

 Thus 2,000,000 bushels of grain distilled, scatters 

 disease among men and beasts. Our bread is de- 

 stroyed, and a distilled destroyer sent into all the 

 land. When will enlightened public sentiment put 

 down the growing evil ? — Olive Branch. 



