VOL. XVm. NO. 14. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



-^ 



119 



iijto tlie box should be closed when the box is re- 

 moveil, and remuin so until it is replaced the next 

 summer. 



Bee pasture. The man who turns his herds or 

 his llocks upon their own resources for a eubsis- 

 i; tenci>, can expect but little profit from them, unless 

 le they become hii^hway ro')bers, (and then the par- 

 taker is teorse than the thief) and enter his neigh- 

 bor's lieUls and spoil his crops. Tlioiigli we have 

 no idea that a comnuinity of bees can be restrained 

 by fences, pokes or fetters, yet we do think that 

 their rambling propensities may be checked. The 

 facilities of their labor increase their enterprise, 

 and the endearments of their home made still more 

 dear by — we should have said cultivating flowers 

 for their benefit, but this would sound weak to the 

 ears of some strong minds, so to such we say allow- 

 ing tliem to grow. 



But the ladies admire flowers — so do gentlemen, 

 therefore we have no hesitancy in recounnending 

 their culture, especially when so many objects of 

 utility demand it, as in the present case. The 

 mignionette is a beautiful little flower, and when 

 once sown will keep itself in, if the ground is kept 

 clean. It continues blossoming very late, its fra- 

 grance perfumes the atmosphere agreeably, to a 

 great distance, and bees are as fond of it as we are 

 of lioney. '1 he raspberry and bramble flowers are 

 favorites with them, and we never heard a person sav 

 that they did not like their fruit, so they should be 

 set plentifully in the garden and eultivided, that they 

 may, at home, produce an abundance of flowers for 

 the bees and fruit for man. The strawberry too, 

 that we unitedly love so well, ishould always je 

 found growing for our mutual benefit in our con- 

 mon gardens. The poppy, thoug'h somewhat cal- 

 culated to lull the drowsy faculty uf man to repose, 

 possesses not the least lethargic quality to them, 

 but in the reverse arouses their faculties. Catnip 

 not in mints or juleps, but in blossom, they much 

 admire. We too have tested the effic acy of its heal- 

 ing qualities through strong potions of its tea. 



Yours truly, W. B. 



Mount Osceola, Oct. 4, 1839. 



altogether upon the frames. Some persons not 

 having time to reel all their silk, butterflies are 

 seen to go out and lay eggs almost immediately. 

 The accumulation of cocoons produce a kind of 

 fermentation, and the heat causes the butterflies 

 to hatch before the proper period. This prema- 

 ture development has never any good results, fur 

 the butterflies are sick : and from thence it conu'S 

 that the silk-worms produced from their eggs, are 

 affected by diseases from the moment of their 

 hatching. 



" The cocoons for reproduction ought to be sepa- 

 rated, and put in a well aired chamber, and spread 

 upon very clean mats, a layer nf the thickjiess of a 

 single cocoon only." (Chinese Treatise, published 

 by P. Force, p. 150.J 



I have about 40,000 silk- worms of seven varieties. 

 They are remarkably healthy, and a large portion 

 of them spinning in handsome style. 

 Respectfully yours, 



Layton Y. Atkins. 



P. S. There is no advantage to be derived from 

 a forced and premature development of the silk- 

 worm in any of its stages. 'J'lie nearer the time of 

 spinning to the nitural period of its lite, as stated 

 by Dandolo, the better. The precocious and the 

 tardy are always feeble, and eggs should never be 

 saved from them. I have made nine roarings of 

 the " two-crop" white, and of the cocoons formed 

 between the 25th and ;30th days it has reqi ired 

 from 700 to 800 to weigh a pound, and so of the last 

 which spin ; but ol cocoons formed from the 30th 

 to the S.'Jth day, .350 to 400 to make a pound. De- 

 pend upon it modern writers on silk-culture are 

 promulgating a pernicious error on this point ; and 

 before the learned silk-ioorm doctors publish any 

 more infallible prescriptions, I advise them to put 

 on their spectacles and bring their remedies to bear 

 on four or five cases. 



If a forced and premature development is so im- 

 portant, what reason or sense would there be in the 

 following passaje from the Chinese' Treatise : 



" The moths which come out the first day are 

 called grass moths The last of all are called 

 mogno, (that is to say.thr last butterflies.) Mither 

 of these ought to be kept." 



iMark the care of this people about procuring 

 eggs. Cocoons are first selected, and when the 

 butterflies come out, the first and the last are re- 

 jected. Let the people of the United States make 

 numerous and careful experiments. We beardless 

 boys of Virginia at least, do not mean to open wide 

 our mouths rnd swallow nostrums as an unfledged 

 bird does its food. L. Y. A. 



Causes of seeds not germinati.ng. — We have 

 known and heard of considerable loss and disap- 

 pointment from seeds, particularly onion seeds, not 

 growing. We have thought and inquired in refer- 

 ence to the cause, and the result of our cogitations 

 and inquiries may be thus stated. 



Without a certain degree of moisture^ &eeds will 

 not germinate. On dry sandy soils, and; in a dry 

 season, it seems highly probable, then, that seeds 

 may be deprived of the requisite degree of mois- 

 ture : perhaps receiving |ustas much as will mould 

 them and destroy their vitality, or being so near 

 the surface as to be injured by the sun's heat and 

 light. 



Hut the seeds may have germinated, and have 

 commenced to send out their roots and stem stalks 

 and yet be destroyed. If the soil is not pressed 

 closely to the seeds, and very dry weather occurs 



just at this period of the process of germinati<ui, the 

 root being too distant from tlie soil, and too feeble 

 to draw any supply of moisture, ^he liquid fnod of 

 the plant coutiiiied in the fermented seed iniiy be 

 dried u\>, and the life thus destroyed. 



If you would avoid disappointment and loss from 

 seeds failing to grow, the preventive process is in- 

 dicated by a knowledge of the causes most fre- 

 quently productive of this result, which we think 

 are those stated above. If you sprout your ;-eed8 

 before putting them into the ground, you will pre- 

 serve them from the first cause of failure, but if you 

 pulverize your soil thoroughly and press it in this 

 state with hoe. spade, or roller, upon the seeds thus 

 sprouted, the root stem will soon and surely derive 

 suflicient moisture from the soil. 



In a few instances I have found my neighbors 

 blaming the seed as useless, particularly of onions, 

 carrots and parsnips, when I have obtained a little 

 of the seed, and found it to sprout quite well. You 

 may easily save yourselves from such reflections, or 

 from the temptation to bhme others, by steeping the 

 suspected seed in warm or tepid water from six to 

 twenty-four hours, according to the size and hard- 

 ness of tlie seed, and then setting it away in a warm- 

 ish place for a day or two. If good it will sprout 

 in this time ; if kept warm in a darkish place, and 

 it does not sprout in this time, the seed is faulty. 



In connexion with this subject, I may state that 

 several circumstances incline me to the belief that 

 corn which has been sprouted — no matter in what 

 steep — is safe from the ravages of the red or wire- 

 worm. It has been fashionable to steep in a strong 

 solution of copperas, and to ascribe the safety of 

 the seed in this state, not to the change which fer- 

 mentation has produced in the germ or chit which 

 is usually first attacked, but to the change in the 

 taste from the copperas. We have known corn 

 soaked in simple water — in water alone — to escape 

 from the attacks of the worm as well as that soaked 

 in a copperas steep. Until this matter is made 

 more certain however, I would hold it bail husbandry 

 to neglect the copperas, as in addition to the change 

 produced by heat and moisture, we have also the 

 disagreeable taste communicated by this salt. — Cul- 

 tivator. 



Fruit Trees The famous Pickman farm, in 



Salem, the best in the country, is lined round the 



borders of the fields with engrafted apple trees 



These trees are very thrifty, deriving most of their 

 nourishment from the ground under the walls, which 

 keep the soil loose, warm and moist, and preserve 

 the roots of the trees from external injury. The 

 trees in this situation are an ornament to the farm, 

 while they are no hindrance to the farmer in culti- 

 vating his field, nor injury to the crops by with- 

 drawing nourishment, like those in the interior of 

 the field. Yet those trees round the field are be- 

 lieved to yield a greater profit than the annual crop 

 within, with all the labor necessarily bestowed up- 

 on it — and the annual sales of the apples and fruit 

 on this farm are said to be enough to purchase a 

 farm of moderate dimensions in the interior of thi» 

 State jYewburyport Herald. 



In the Irish Gardener's Magazine it is stated that 

 the decoctions of the leave? of the common camo- 

 mile, will destroy insects, and that nothing con- 

 tributes so much to the health of a garden as 8 

 number of camomile plants dispersed through it. — 

 No green house or hot house should ever be with- 

 out camomile in a green or dried state. 



