vol.. TVIII. MO. 96. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



223 



JSE OF BRANCHES AND LEAVES OF 



TREES FOR MANURING LANDS. 

 h-anslated from Le Cultivnteitr, by Charles H. U. 



Breck^ for tht A*. -E. Fanner.] 

 The loaves of the chcsnut, walnut and horse 

 esnut trees, and even those of the linden tree, if 

 ked up as soon as they fall, and placed around 



2 roots of vines or any trees, will decay in course 

 time, and form a manure, the strength of which 

 I] last many years. Those of the walnut and 

 isnut are be.st. With these last the burrs can 

 also gathered up, which increases the bulk and 

 !S not harm the quality of the manure ; it will be- 

 ne more powerful if a little ashes, lime, or dung 

 birds J3 mixed with it. The whole should be 

 ered witli a little earth, to prevent the wind from 

 tterinof the leaves; oak leaves should not be 

 d in this way, because it has been observed that 

 places where the wind had gathered a certain 



intity of them, are very sterile. 

 r have remarked that leaves ouijht to be gather- 

 immedi»tely after their fall, otherwise the rains 

 "rest would cause them to lose their good quality. 

 The leaves of willows, osiers, &c., make doubt- 

 3, a good manure, since the land on which they 

 iw is made fertile by them ; but it is hardly pos- 

 le to use them, on account of the difficulty of 

 aining them from the water and marshes, and 



3 of drying them sufficiently. Leaves of walnut 

 I chesnut trees can be easily obtained. The 

 Dure is much sooner formed, and easier to spread 

 n straw manure; much of it is used in Limou- 

 , where chesnut trees are very common. 



!t was customary to spread a large quantity of 

 «e leaves at the entrance of stables, and in the 

 ds where the cattle were kept, as well as ia the 

 .ters by the sides of roads. The successive 

 shintrs and triturations form in course of time an 

 ■.ellent mould from this kind of gatherings ; care 

 luld be taken to gather them up in heaps at tlie 

 se of winter, to prevent the strength from drain- 



or washing away. This mould is very excel- 

 t for light lands and gardens ; one car. almost see 



vegetables grow in it. 



Everv one knows that the chips from joiners' 

 ips, branches of all kinds of wood, old stumps 

 auldered and decayed, form a very good mould, 

 is resource can only he had in countries where 

 ests are very common, otherwise it costs too 

 ch. 



Another kind of manure is obtained from the 

 nm. -.i which are cut from the trees in the 

 nmer, during the abundance of leave.'. The 

 inchrs covered with leaves, when half withered, 

 placed around the roots of vines or trees, the 

 •th berig removed a litth' for them, and covered 

 ain v.ith the same, will procuce a tine eli'ect, 

 ich will last many years. 'I he owners of woods 

 ght to be eager to profit by this indication, which 

 perienco has shown to be such an advantage, and 

 it it is always good to prune trees during the 

 mmer. 



For ibe New England Farmer. 



CUTTING OF S I'ALKS. 



Several writers have, within a few years, recom- 

 ;nded to let corn stalks stand until harvesi, and 

 en take all together. They say the corn will 

 5igh liiore, and that it is not more work to har- 

 st the crop than when the stalks are cut. The 

 rn may be a little heavier ; but suppose it is, that 



advantage is more than counterbalanced by the ex- 

 tra labor caused by the stalks not being cut, be- 

 sides a loss of valuable fodder. I have, in several 

 instances, liad a frost take a jjart of my corn before 

 the stalks were cut, so as to kill the leaves, but not 

 to injure the corn, and did not cut the stalks; and 

 have, in every instance, found that it cost more to 

 harvest the crop, than to cut the stalks and secure 

 them, and then harvest the corn; that is, it is 

 cheaper to secure them separately, than to take 

 both at once. When stalks and corn are cut both 

 at once they are too bulky, and it takes much more 

 room to secure them than to take the stalks otf 

 first, and bind them in bundles. 



Curing of Stalks. — It is a favorite method with 

 some, to bind their stalks as soon as they think they 

 will do, and immediately secure them under cover, 

 and hang or set them up in an airy place. So 

 managed, they look very nice, but do cattle like 

 them best.' This is what we want. Now it is a 

 fact I have learned from actual experiment, that 

 housing them is not the better way, but another way 

 is better, as any man's cattle will tell him, if he will 

 but try it. It is this — the next day after the stalks 

 are cut, when the leaves are not so dry as to crum- 

 ble, bind them in small bundles, and then shock 

 them, or as it is called where I live, pike them — 

 which is to set eight or ten bundles or such number 

 as appears to be suitable to make a pike of proper 

 shape to shed rain, on their butts — draw their tops 

 together and cap with two bundles — when they 

 are sufficiently dried to keep, put them into some 

 building, and if the butts are too green, place the 

 bundles to stand with the butts upwards. In this 

 way my cattle prefer them to any other : there is a 

 sweetness in them that cannot be had when dried 

 in a building. 



Mixing OF Corn Here I shall differ from all 



that \ have ever read, or heard spoken on this sub- 

 ject. 'I'he common opinion is, that the blossom on 

 the top stalk falls on the end of the ear, and causes 

 the mixture. This seems to me to be hardly possi- 

 ble, when it is considered that the silk, as it is call- 

 ed, lops down,as soon as it has grown beyond the 

 length of the ears, and aho that it is not probable 

 that one blossom in a thousand, or .the farina, lodges 

 on the end of the ear. My theory, and 1 believe it 

 to be the true one is, that there is a silk from the 

 bottom, that is, next the cobb, of every kernel n 

 corn : the silk is hollow — a tube, so to express it. 

 Go into a field with a good gla«s, when this gen- 

 dering takes place, and I believe there will be seen 

 a vapor, or myriads of vapors, resembling so many 

 spiders' webs, loading in all directions, from the 

 top stalks to the ends of the ears — I saw it once 

 with my naked eye. This, in my poor "pinion, is 

 the way in which corn mixes, — it is by sympathy, 

 or attraction, or whatever name the learned may 

 call it by. 



By my observation, corn seldom mixes more 

 than two rows each way, when two kinds or colors 

 are planted side by side — vifhereas if it were done 

 by the blossom falling on the ear, I see not why it 

 might not mix fur a much greater distance, by the 

 wind blowing the blossom:. A F.armer. 



Dec.-Xi, 1839. 



Frosl-bitten Potatoes. — Thomas Dallas has pub- 

 lished some very important observations upon the 

 modes of treating potatoes which have been aflTect- 

 ed by the frost. With us such potatoes are reject- 

 ed, as being unfit either fu- food or fur furnishing 

 fecula. The able agriculturist above mentioned, 



considers them in three different states — 1st, when 

 they are slightly touched by the frost ; 2d, when 

 the outer portion of their substance is frozen ; and 

 3d, when they are frozen throughout. 



In the first case he finds that nothing more is 

 necessary, than to sprinkle the roots with lime to 

 absorb the water formed under the skin, which 

 would speedily occasion their complete decompo- 

 sition. In the second instance he causes the po- 

 tatoes to be pared and thrown for some hours into 

 water slightly salted. When the potatoes are com- 

 pletely frozen, he finds them to yield, upon distil- 

 lation, a spirituous liquor resembling the best rum, 

 and aflx)rding much more alcohol, and that of a 

 better quality, than can be procured from the roots 

 before freezing. — Chiiptal. 



Preservation of Grains.-^The preservation of 

 grains has always been an object of much conside- 

 ration both to governments and agriculturists, and 

 it is a peculiarly interesting one, because bread 

 forms so large a portion of the nourishment of Eu- 

 ropeans, and because the scarcity and high price of 

 it have been the cause or the pretext for popular 

 discontents and insurrections. 



It appears that the people of the most ancient 

 times preserved their grains uninjured through sev- 

 eral years, merely by secluding them entirely from 

 the action of air and moisture. 



The Chinese have from time immemorial pre- 

 served their grains in pits, which they call teon : 

 these ditches are either hewn out in rocks, free 

 from chinks and humidity, or what is still better, 

 they are dug in a firm, dry soil. If there be any 

 danger of humidity about the pits, they are lined 

 with straw, or wood is burned in them to harden 

 and dry the earth. The grain is not put into the 

 pits till some months after the harvest, nor till it 

 has been well dried in the sun ; it is then covered 

 over with .mats made of the ehafi of the grain or of 

 straw, and this again by a bed of earth well beaten 

 down that it may not be penetrated by water. 



VaiTO, Columella, and Pliny infoim us, that the 

 ancients preserved their grain in ditches hollowed 

 out of rocks or dug in tlie earth, the sides of them 

 being lined v/ith straw. Q,uintius Curtius relates 

 that the army of Alexander experienced great pri- 

 vation upon the banks of the Oxus, because the in- 

 habitants of the country preserved their corn in 

 subterranean pits, the situation of which was known 

 only to those who dug them. 



In some warm and dry countries, it has been cus- 

 tomary from time immemorial to preserve grain 

 with less precaution certainly than in the granaries 

 above described, but in situations where it could 

 be kept for six or seven years. Prosper jMpinus 

 relates, that not fur from Cairo there was u high 

 wall built, enclosing a spot of ground of about two 

 miles in circumference, which was filled every six 

 or seven years with heaps of wheal : he adds, that 

 the abundant dews of night softened the outer por- 

 tions of the grain and caused it to germinate, but 

 that in a chort time the sun dried the young shoots, 

 which then formed ii hard covering to the mass, 

 and did not permit either air or moisture to pene- 

 trate it. In a similar manner individuals may pre- 

 serve their grain upon floors in the open air, mere- 

 ly by covering the heaps of it with mats. — Ibid. 



Let those who despair of improvement in agricul- 

 ture, compare the present with the past, and all rea- 

 sons for disbelief will vanish. Nature herself ii 

 improved by man — of this the apple, peach, and po- 

 tato are present witnesses. — Genesee Far. 



