10 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER, 



JtlLY 10, 1839. 



I 



my knowledge respecting the vegetable kingdom, 

 and respecting American trees it is the only work 

 of my acquaintance of much value. But that is 

 valuable and interesting to every farmer, and every 

 mechanic, and even to a general reader. 



But where did they obtain the materials for their 

 ■work .' Was it from the graduates or professors or 

 presidents of colleges ? Not a particle ; and very 

 little from any American botanist. Much the 

 greatest and most valuable part of the materials 

 for these very useful volumes, were obtained of this 

 ship builder, that carpenter, and another cabinet 

 maker, or some other mechanic, and a large portion 

 from farmers. 



I will suppose a case on the same subject; a 

 case too, of which many thousands actually exist 

 in our own coimtry. Suppose that a scholar, in 

 his five years thumbing his Latin and Greek diction- 

 aries, learns that what we call oak, the Romans 

 called quercus, and that the Greeks called the same 

 thing drus. But if an oak and maple tree were 

 shown to hira he could not tell one from the other, 

 or the name or properties of either. Show the 

 same things to an unpretending farmer, and he 

 could inform you that the one was white oak, or 

 black, grey, red or Spanish oak ; also of its growth, 

 strength, durability, &c., and of its various uses 

 founded upon its properties. The case is of course, 

 that the scholar has three terms, but not one idea ; 

 the farmer has one or two terms with various ideas 

 connected witli each. Here is a learned scholar 

 and an ignorant farmer, but which is the man of 

 knowledge ? As the same illustration will apply 

 to hundreds of other subjects as well as botany, 

 ■whose ideas are most e.xtended ? 



The occasion does not permit of an extended 

 view or a variety of illustrations of the subject. I 

 must therefore leave it for the present, with the 

 question, UTiich have the greatest amount of useful 

 knowledge, farmers or professed scholars ? If any 

 should think the latter, I have only to add, that he 

 differs from me in opinion. 

 With the kind regards of 



Your Friend, 



J. HOLBROOK. 



a supply of light fresh earth around the stem, and 

 renewing it as occasion may require. In my opin- 

 ion, the experience of our best potato growers is 

 in accordance with these facts ; certainly my own 

 ■would go most conclusively to show . thatrthe more 

 ample the supply of Ifght, rich, pendrablt earth, 

 furnished the plants, the better usually would be 

 the crop. But it also follows, from my view of the 

 matter, that the greatest care should be exercised, 

 not to disturb any of the first formed shoots, by 

 subsequent earthing ; a -point to which too little at- 

 tention is paid in ploughing and hoeing this plant. 

 I have noticed tliat in potato plants grown in hard 

 land, or that were not properly hoed and furnished 

 with a supply of loose earth for the shoots, that 

 they Avere short and diminutive, the tubers crowd- 

 ed, and usually inferior. A potato crowded out of 

 the ground, and exposed to the air in growing, is 

 good for nothing ; and where hilling is not prac- 

 tised, more or less will be in this predicament, if 

 the crop is anything like a fair one. Yoii will, 

 therefore, permit me, for the reasons given above, 

 to question the propriety of not earthing potatoes, 

 though the observance of hilling can well be dis- 

 pensed with in the culture of corn. Planter. 



[From the Genesee Farmer.] 



HILLING PLANTS. 

 Mr TncKER — I have seen in the columns of 

 the Farmer, and the Cultivator, considerable writ- 

 ten on the subject of hilling plants, particularly 

 potatoes and corn, and tlie conclusion to which 

 the writers have generally arrived, seems to have 

 been tliat the practice was injudicious, and should 

 be abandoned. To this conclusion I give my as- 

 sent, so far as corn is concerned ; as from the na- 

 ture of the system of roots, and the manner in 

 which the braces are thrown out, it is clear that 

 hilling, by covering the first crop of these upper 

 roots, and starting new ones, exhausts the plants 

 needlessly, as but one set of brace roots are es- 

 sential to the plants. But unless I am much mis- 

 taken, the case is different with the potato. In 

 this plant, as every one who has paid attention to 

 it knows, the tuber, or valuable part, does not 

 grow on the root proper, but on shoots protruded 

 .&om the stalk of the plant, beneath the surface of 

 tl'ie earth. To produce good potatoes, and a large 

 crop, the putting forth of these shoots should be 

 encouraged as much as possible ; and no way 

 seems so likely to produce this effect, as providing 



The Perfume of Plants Deleterious in 

 Confined Apartments. — It is not sufficiently 

 known by the admirers of flowers, that the agreea- 

 ble perfume they emit, when in full bloom, is de- 

 cidedly deleterious when diffused through close 

 apartments, producing headache, giddiness, and 

 other affections of the brain. But it is only in 

 confined rooms that such effects are produced. In 

 the garden, when mingled with a wholesome and 

 exhilarating atmosphere, amidst objects that awa- 

 ken the most delightful sensations of bur nature, 

 these sweets are a pai-t of our gratifications, »nd 

 health is promoted as a consequence of our enjoy- 

 ment. Who has not felt the excitement of spring ? 

 of nature in that delightful season, rising from 

 lethargy into beauty and vivacity ; and spreading 

 the sweets of the primrose and the violet for our 

 gratification? Amidst the beauties of the flower 

 garden, these pleasures are condensed and refined; 

 and the fragrance there hovering on tlie wings of 

 the breeze, is not only pleasant but wholesome. 

 Whatever increases our gratifications, so peculiar- 

 ly unmixed with the bad passions of human na- 

 ture, must surely tend to the improvement of man- 

 kiiid, and to the excitement of grateful feelings 

 towards that beneficent Creator who has so bounti- 

 fully supplied us witli these delightfiil luxuries. — 

 JV*. Y. tiun. 



Sheep Shearing in Nantucket is an annual 

 jubilee. The "woolgathering" of the present 

 season is thus noticed by the Nantucket Inquirer. 



"The Carnival has commenced. The orgies of 

 the mutton-worshippers are beginning to burst 

 fortli, and all the woolly world is in an agony and 

 a catastrophe of helter-skelteriiahness. The mill- 

 hills skip like rams, an(3 the hammocks like young 

 lambs ; and the sheer-pen rageth and foameth as it 

 were a sea of living fleece — not lleas — bah! 

 Four legged creatures of all practicable sorts — 

 and one, two, three, aad four wheeled vehicles of 

 all supposable shapes, are getting into a furious 

 passion. The very cows' commons are in commo- 

 tion. All around, the moving elements are head 

 up and tail up — and the predominating cry is "cut- 

 on-Dunnum," which meanetb, Go it Jerry ! The 

 whole countrv is bewitched : th;; sands thereof are 



turning topsyturvy ; and the grand design is toi 

 knock all creation into a Whooraw's nest ! 



Reader ! didst ever bestride a water-logged spar 

 in the still dock — and spying in the oozy bed be- 

 low a wriggling eel — didst ever clnp thy thumb 

 upon the serpent's tail with the hope of holding 

 him thereby ? Or didst ever think of detaining 

 within thy grasp, by the aid of soft soap or other 

 saponaceous unction, the like extremity of a swine 

 or an alligator ? Or hast ever undertaken, in any 

 similar fashion, to catch a bumblebee or a devils- 

 darningneedle .' If nay thou answerest, then dost 

 thou know naught of the impossibilities of philoso- 

 phy I Thine experimental acquaintance with the 

 perplexities of existence, are as nothing and less 

 than nothing, and thy wisdom not wortii a brass 

 baubee : for thou art but an abecedarian in the 

 mysteries of potheration ! But if thou canst com- 

 prehend these aforesaid difficulties, then wilt thou 

 appreciate that tribulation which at this present 

 tiftie besetteth us, tlie publishers and printers here- 

 of — viz: the revolt of all hands against laboring 

 among types and ink during the Feast of the Mut- 

 tonheads, which they profanely call the Patriachal 

 Jubilee. Consequence is, no paper next Satur- 



BRIGIITON MARKET.— MosDAT, July 8, 1829. 

 Reported for (lie New Englind Panuer. 



At Market, 290 Beef Cattle, 20 Cows and Calves, 

 2500 Sheep, and 280 Swine. 140 Swine have been be- 

 fore reported. 100 Beef Caltle unsold. 



Prices — Bee/ Cuttle. — We again reduce our quota- 

 tions to conform ro sales. First quality, $8 75 a $9 00. 

 Second quality, $8 25 a $8 50. Third quality, $7 00 

 a $7 75. 



Cnws and Calves. — Sales "dull." We notice the fol- 

 lowing : $30,. •542, $50 and $58. 



Slieep and Lamhs. — Lots $2 25, $2 50, $2 75 and 

 $3 Ot, VVeihers $3 25, $3 50, and $3 75. 



Sujine — Lots of large barrows at 7 1-2 and 8. A lot 

 of small pigs at 7 and 8. At retail from 7 to 9. Small 

 pigs 10. 



THERiMO.METRICAL. 



IlttpiirteU for the New England Farmer. 

 Rangeoltlie Tliennometer at the Ganlenof the proprietors 

 of tlie NewErigland Farmer, Brigliuin, Mass. in a shaded 

 iVoitlierlyoiposure, week eniling July 7. 



JP LT, 18! 9. 

 Monday, 

 Tuesday, 

 Wednesday, 

 Thursday, 

 Friday, 

 Saturday, 

 Sunday, 



I 5 A.M. I 12, M. 



TULIPS, RAXINCUH'SES, PIXKS AMD VIOLiAS. 



S. WALKERof Roxbury, olTers lor sale in l.eds, or of 

 suuh quantities s may suit purchasers, from I to 250U liuibs 

 of choice Tulips The bulbs were imported from Holland, 

 France and Ellwand, to which yearly additions have and 

 will continue Uihe made of the newest and choicest vari- 

 eties. Persons 'ishinsr 10 pu*hase a bed of superb Tulips 

 will do well to na/ct a selection X^r themselves when Ihe 

 bulbs are in blooi. (aliout the 1st of June.) The prices will 

 conform to the quJity of the flowers selected, but in no ca.se 

 will the charge e.:eed the lowest market prices, in the coun- 

 try where the buU were raised, and cheaper than the like 

 quility can be imprted. 



Tulips in beds! from 30 to 100 rows, containing from 

 TIO to 700 bulbs, cby Ihe dozen, lOO or 1000. 



Viola grandijlrji — Pansi/, or Heartsease. Upwards of 

 2000 superb varans will be exhiimed and offered for sale 

 when the Tuhps a: in bloom. 



Ranunculuses— ns mixtures, at from Sa to Ss per 100. 



l-'inks— fins naied varieties, from 25 cents 10 Si each. 



For particulars ipply to S. WALKER, or to JOSEPH 

 BRECK & CO. eow 



