Tou. xvm. jjd. as. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



I'or the New England Farmer. 



BERKSHIRE PIGS. 



"Iff Oar! Monsieur Tonson come acrain! .'" 

 Mk EnnoK— Some tin'ie in November last I re- 

 ived tlirouixh the post office a number oftlie « Uos- 

 n Cultivator," containing a commiinicalion from 

 m. S. Tnrner, which I presume lie intended as a 

 aly to mine in the New England Fanner of Oct. 

 d. As his name was written on the margin, I 

 d every re.ison to believe he intended it as a 

 ;noclv-du«n argument," and I must forever after 

 Id my peace. 



I immediately addressed a communication on tiie 

 jject to the Editor of the " Boston Cultivator,^' 

 ich, for reasons best known to himself, he has 

 ; published. 



The communication of Mr Turner, referred to 

 )ve, I also find in your paper of Nov. 20th, and 

 luld I let it pass unnoticed, some might consider 

 :onclusive. 



■^ow, sir, I assert that there is deception on the 

 y face of it — for there is no such firm as "Be- 

 nt & Glan,son," nor is there any such person as 

 nson residing in Albany. He says — "But to 

 ve they were procured of them, I send yon my 

 Cher, which is a bill of sale signed by Thomas 



!d, jr., and is in the following words 'Fra- 



gham, June l.'Jth, 18o'9.— I hereby certify that I 

 B this day sold to Mr VVm. Turner, 14 full I 

 ided Berkshire pigs, which I had of [O, tempera ! | 

 nores I where is his conscience .=] Messrs Be- 

 it & Glauson, of Albany, N. Y., and from- their j 

 immendations. 'J'homas Reed, Jr.' " I 



'his certificate appears to be Mr Turner's sheet 

 inr— his proof positive. He also says I did not 

 f that they were procured from Bement & Glau- 

 I said,_^"a3 regards mysrlf, J deny in iQto, of 

 ng ever sold any Berkshire pigs to \Vm. S. 

 ner, or any other person in that town." I did 

 of course, include the name of Thomas Reed, jr. 



did not then know tlicre was such a man in e.x- 



MAM.iiOTlI PEAR. 

 I This pear was raised in Virginia and given to Mr 

 I Fitch, of Danville, by his friend, Dr Green of the 

 I same place, as a sort of Christmas or New Year's 

 I present and served up in the family of Dr Ball, of 

 1 Northhoro,' and passed about to the guests as a part 

 j of the evening's entertainment — a portion of which 

 , was presented to us by Dr Harnard, of Dorchester, i 

 I who had the high gratification of carving it up fori 

 [ the company. We have had the pleasure of wit- j 

 nessing a longitudinal survey of the fruit, and are | 

 j thereby enabled to testify to the dimensions which 

 were given and proved to be as follows: longitudi- 

 I nal circumference 15 1-4 inches; transverse or hor- 

 I izontal circumference ]:! 1-4 inches; the weight of 

 I the pear was 1 3-4 of a pound. 

 j It is but just to say that the pear probably neith- 

 j er weighed nor measured so much as when taken 

 I from the tree. It had shrunk some. and was con- ' 

 j siderahly defective : the flavor, however, was not 

 impaired, and we found it very palatable Com 



make my story short— Not long after I re- 

 ;d the Boston Cultivator, I met in Albany, Jer- 

 h Miller, a farmer, who resides in the town of 

 idack, six miles east of Albany, who keeps a 

 Berkshire hogs and some Durham cattle. I 

 ed to him the substance of Mr Turner's adver- 

 lent, certificate, &,c. " Why," said he, I sold 



1 the 14 pigs, and they were only seven-eighths 

 shire, and I sold them to him as such." He 

 led me to give him a certificate that they were 

 iloodrd Berkshires, which I refused to do. He 

 y concluded it would be better not to have my 

 Jcate." [I presume he thought one from Be- 



& Glauson would answer better.] '• I sold 

 It the same time," continued Mr Miller, " one 

 loodcd Berkshire pig and gave him a certificate 

 It eff.'ct." 



le above, ]\Ir Editor, is the history of the « 14 

 ihire pigs," as advertised by Wm. S. Turner, 

 lacked by a certificate from '1 homas Reed, jr. 

 ving been procured of " Bement & Glauson." 

 further comment ie needless. 

 Respectfully, your obed't serv't, 



CALEB X. BEMENT. 

 rce Hills Farm, Jan. 1st, 1840. 



LSter operates most beneficially when applied 

 ry and clayey soil, or a heavy loam that is lia- 

 bake or gape open. It should be sown in 



! CHANGE IN SOIL EFFECTING A CHANGE 

 I IN PLANTS. 



I A change in soil may be effected either by re- 

 I moving a plant from one spot of earlh to another 

 I difiering from it in fertility, or by the addition of 

 manure, producing a change in the character of the 

 soil in which a plant grows, without changing the 

 location of the plant. The effect of removing a 

 I plant from a comparatively barren to a more fertile 

 soil, is to increase the size of all its parts, and often 

 to convert its organs of one kind into those of s neth- 

 er. Experience has taught us, that it is advanta- 

 geous to supply food to plants artificially. Where 

 increase in the size of vegetables, without reference 

 to their magnitude is desired, it can almost always 

 b«acieomplished, by affording an increased supply 

 of all the ingredients of the food of plants, distribu- 

 ted in well pulverized soil, in such a manner that 

 the roots of tlse plants ran easily reach it. The 

 effect thus produced, can be greatly increased by 

 additional heat and moisture ; and by a partial ex- 

 clusion of the diriTt rays of the sun, so as to mod- 

 erate the evaporation of fluids from the plant. Ex- 

 perience alone can determine to what extent this 

 may profitably be carried in the case of each spe- 

 cies of vegetable. The results which have been 

 produced in some instances are truly remarkable. 

 Loudon states th-it cabbages have been produced 

 weighing half a hundred weight, apples a pound 

 and a half, and cabbage-roses of four inches in di- 

 ameter, or more than a foot in circumference. Bv 

 cultivation and a change of soil, the appearance of, 

 many trees has been entirely altered. 'j he wild! 

 crab-apple, the original stock Irom which all our 

 vast variety of apples have sprung, has its stem and 

 branches thick set with thorns. On rcmovinn- it to 

 a more fertile soil and more favorable circumstan- 

 ces, all these thorns have disappeared, and their 

 place has been supplied by fruit-bearing branches. 

 Yet all the distinctive characteristics of the tree 

 the structure of its wood and bark, the shape and 

 arrangement of its leaves, the form and aggrega- 

 tion of its flowers, indeed all that a botanist would 

 consider characteristic of the plant, have remained 

 unchanged. 



Perliaps the most remarkable changes which re- 

 sult from a change of soil, are those of organs of 

 one kind into those of another. It is by such chan- 

 ges that all our double flowers have been obtained. 

 The organs which are most comiuonly converted 



241 



into others, are the sstamens, and next to them the 

 pistils. In the hundred-leaved rose, and some oth- 

 er double roses, almost all the stamens have been 

 converted into petals; in the flowering cherry the 

 pistils have been converted into green leaves ; in 

 the double collumbine a part of the stamens have 

 I been converted into petals, another part into nec- 

 j taries, whilst a tliird part have retained their origin- 

 al form. The perfect regularity with which the 

 changes have taken place in the last mentioned 

 flower is worthy of notice. Wherever one str.rnen 

 has been converted into a petal, a corresponding 

 one has always been converted into a nectary; and 

 so regularly have these changes proceeded, that by 

 careful dissection, you may separate one of these 

 double flowers into several single ones, each per- 

 I feet in itself, and destitute of none of it.s appropri- 

 ate parts. Wher° flowers have been doubled by 

 art, the only sure way of propagating them, is by 

 some means by which the new plant should be noth- 

 ing more than a continuation of the old one, as by 

 slipsor cuttings. Whenever the seed is resorted 

 to, there is danger that the plant will revert to its 

 original type, and the flowers appear single again. 

 A change of color also frequently results from a 

 change of soil. Respecting the nature of this 

 change, no fixed laws have been as yet discovered. 

 As a general thing, however, the brightness of the 

 colors of a flower is injured by enriching the soil 

 in which it grows ; and hence florists, when they 

 wish to procure tulips of very bright colors, prefer 

 planting the bulbs in a light sandy soil, which is 

 rather poor than otherwise. — Farmei-s' Reo-ister. 



JlgricuUurnl hnprovcment.—ln the retrospect of 

 ^the past, we will find that sgriculture has received 

 ja greater impulse during the last twenty years than 

 ^ in double or treble that period, previously,— that 

 j during this space of time, scientific knowledge and 

 enlightened education have been brought to bear . 

 upon the subject, and in putting theory into prac- 

 tice, the narrow prejudices contracted by the world 

 at large, have been thrown aside. Science has 

 clearly demonstrated that in this pursuit there is 

 an ample field for the exercise of the clearest facul- 

 ties, and the deepest scientific researches, calcula- 

 ted to aflbrd enjoyment to those enga^^ed in it, and 

 fully reimburse their expenditures. 



This march of improvement is not stayed, hap- 

 pily we may safely assert, that at no point of time 

 was it more in the full tide of progress than at the 

 present, and no limits can be set to its advance- 

 ment. To quicken it, our farmers themselves must 

 lay hold of the matter;— they should individually 



feel that a portion of this work is assigned the:ii ; 



that they are called upon as integrant parts of a . 

 great community, to further its interests, by the- 



means which they severally have at command; 



, they should be willing, impartially, and unbiassed' 

 I by old prejudices, to canvass all their actions, and 

 bring them to the test of reason. They shou'iJ not 

 I suppose luat many one particular have they reach- 

 ed to ultimate perfection, but keep tl-|is aiwavs in;_ 

 view as the point to arrive at. — Fii> ,ner g'' Cab. 



I Notwithstanding the immense gr ^in^crops of this- 

 country the past season, and thr fget that large 

 quantities of flour have beeu e ^;„,ted to Europe, 

 st.II several vessels have a-.^i- ,,7^. New York Late- 

 ly with rye from Od.ss, . -^^ ,^^; ,,„,, ,o.,e- 

 what strange to those . ,, JJ'^/ J,„„i„ted with 



the fact that this rye' = • "^ i j- i-n ^, 



naiUj Times. ^ " mtended for the rf.seJ.en,.— 



