rOL. XVIII. XO. 34 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



Id niiiko in the whole 150 l-'2busliels of shelled 

 1. But n deduction should be made for the 

 mness of tlie forii, it p.otbeing yet sufficiently 

 to be called niuiketable ^i how much it will 

 ik I am not sufficiently experienced to form a 

 ect estimate. 



he soil whii-li I cultivate is what geologists call 

 iss : it contains a small trace of clay, and a- 

 idsiniVon; no lime can be detected: it has 

 •■ than the usual attraction for moisture, and in 

 atural state, was called by farmers cold moist 

 — the produce of which ten years ago, was not 

 h twentyfive cents to the acre : it was subdued 

 brought into mowing by myself, about eight 

 i ago, in which condition it has remained — a 

 ing lot, without manure or cultivation, until 



t a year ago, when it was simply ploughed. 



It the first week in May it was harrowed, and 

 tyfive loads of long or green horse manure 

 d over it: it was then ploughed as deep as it 

 1 conveniently be done ; then harrowed again 

 a horse harrow, and seventeen loads to the 

 of fine fermented manure which had lain in a 

 during the winter, spread over it and ploughed 

 htly with a horse. The land was then furrow, 

 e way only, with a space of three feet and 

 nches between the furrows : seven loads of 

 nanure to the acre was put in the hill, at about 

 istance of two and a half feet. The corn was 

 !d upon this small quantity of manure to the 

 in the tenth of May — five or si.\ kernels'to the 



287 



gust. Or should a superabundance of rain fall, the | Linnieus will fully denronstrate. It will he te^U 



fff th ''w't '"^ °"'' '^"^ °"'-'' ^^ """ ^^°"^^ '° """^ i '"'■^'"^ ""^ '"''"^' '''"' '" "'"= °'' '''« botanical excur- 

 rp.Vr^'^'f ,-.T , ,r sions he visited u country where the cuttle were 



beThph '^ "/7"'7''"=h I Pla"t^d I <^°"^ider to j all dying off as by a pestilence, greatly to the dis- 

 be he best adapted to our northern latitude, of any j may and pecuniary damage of the inhabitants. By 

 Im can be found It contains eight rows of ker- | his research, he discovered growing in their fields a 

 nels, ,s ol a beauUful golden yellow color, produ- I plant, which from its peculiar features, he pronoun- 

 cing occasionally three, and very frequently two ced the cause of the sad calamity. His discovery 

 ears on a stalk: the cob is comparatively small, as was communicated to the inliabitants, the we.-d de- 

 w.l be seen by the average of shelled corn to the stroyed, and the evils which it had occasioned were 

 bushel of ears : the kernel is deep and large-quite | stayed. How far such applications of this science 

 Heavy— fifty ofthe largest weighing an ounce. I | might produce salutary effects in this, and indeed 



all countries, we know not. There are probably 

 many plants that we scarcely notice, which in their 

 present localities, are exercising more pernicious 

 effects than we usually imagine; and were their 

 qualities fully known, we should probably be won- 

 ders to ourselves that we allowed their existence, 

 while their extirpation might destroy causes which 

 are actually impeding our progress. 



The connexion between ve-getable physiology 

 We hereby certify, that we were present at the i ^"'^ practical agriculture is obvious, from the fact 



have no particular name for this corn 



SAiMUELHARTVVELL. 



I hereby certify that I surveyed the ground for 

 DrHartwell above referred to, and found it to con- 

 tain one acre, one fourth and four rods. 



LUCIUS H. AMMIDOWN, 



Surveyor. 



e corn was hoed (ploughed but one way) three 

 in the old fashioned way, by hilling up, on 

 nth and twentieth of June and. first week in 



ia extraordinary production is to be accounted 

 rtly by the manner of cultivation - and partly 

 i kind of corn that was planted. In the Sfst- 



it is necessary from the shortness of our sea- 

 to select a kind of corn the most prolific and 



will ripen in the shortest space of time 



, the land and manure should be adapted to 

 mediate wants of this tender plant from its 

 ermination. It is well known to agricultural 

 3iS, that the best and only proper nutriment 

 iding plants is geine, or decomposed organic 

 s. Now it will be seen that this method of 

 ng manure (above mentioned,) is well calcu- | 

 or these purposes. The small quantity of 

 anure that was put in the hill, contained the 

 in a soluble state — ready elaborated for the 

 ants of the tender infiint plant. 'I he second 

 ing of decomposed manure was calculated to 

 3 in a similar manner, after the corn roots 

 panded to their farthest extentand exhausted 

 uble geine in the hill: the green or lono- 

 5, which was fir.^t deeply ploughed in, would 

 i decomposed, and the geine rendered solu- 

 1 fit for assimilation by the corn at the time 

 :aring and filling out. 



he time of hoeing, I prefer the plough to the 

 tor, for this reason — that it elevates the hill : 



measuring of Dr S. Hartwell's corn, above referred 

 to, and found it to be two hundred and fiftyeight 

 bushels of cars., 



LINUS CHILD, 

 MOSES PLIMPTON- 

 Southbridge, Oct. 17, 1839. 



For the N. E. Farm.ir. 



A KNOWLEDGE OF BOTANY IMPORTANT 

 TO THE FARMER. 

 Botany, or the science of plants, is one of very 

 great importance to the world, inasmuch as from its 

 subjects we derive many of the most important re- 

 medies for our sicknesses, as well as the essential I 

 and luxurionsartides of our diet in time of health. 

 So greatly important are its subjects in supplying 

 the physical wants of man, that if they were extint 

 guished from the earth, then indeed it would be- 

 come a desert, unfit for the abode of rational beings, 

 whose existence here must also cease with doatli'of 

 vegetable nature, 



that all plants are living things, having periods of 

 germination, growth, maturity and decay, and that 

 to carry them tlirough such an existence, they are 

 provided with organs adapted to the various purpo- 

 ses which their existence requires — such as nutri- 

 tion, exhalation, &c. ; that their growth like that 

 of animals, consists of an extension of their parts, 

 which in different individuals varies in proportion 

 with the circumstances attending it, and with the 

 species and variety to which they belong. 



Plants, unlike animals, are destitute of the pow- 

 ers of locomotion — consequently, the materials 

 which continue their existence and enter into their 

 composition and growth, must all be found in and 

 around the little territory they occupy. Conse- 

 quently, a knowledge of their nature and habits is 

 of the greatest consequence to the cultivator, for 

 without it he cannot adapt them to localities favora- 

 ble to their perfect developement ; while by an ac- 

 quaintance with these, he may, as has been done 

 with many of our most valuable vegetables, culti- 

 vate them in a perfection far beyond what the worfc- 



rp, „ • . c , , , .... I iiigs of nature-eveT aceompliahed, even under the 



1 he importance of a know edn-e of this sc ence ,,, t c ii ■ » 'm 



^. „^ u. imo Bi,iciii.e 1 ,-,i(,s[ favorable circumstances. Thus science aids 



him continually, if he will invoke her aid, in bring- 

 ing new and undreamed of qualities to light. But if 



to a farmer, is so clear that it might seem an idle 

 waste of words to employ them in attesting the so- 

 briety of the fact. He lives surrounded by the I • ° f.u -■•■-■- —t- -^ ..^.... „„. .. 

 „„„,,, ,■ , „, , uuuc" uy '"euo-jioronce of the subjects of his care and solicitude, 

 vegetable kingdom. The emDlovment of Ait /lYc is i ^ ii i • , ,• ,■ 

 .„''„ ,, ", , ,,'"'""•' ""'"^ ™ "'* "'"^ '« spreads Its black cloud over his operations— his 

 to cause the herb and the tender d ant to sfinnt \ -u o ,, • 

 f ,, .„ , . lenuer piant to snoot | chances of success are small— not one, agaii.st ten 

 tortn with more luxuriance, and to imnrove in riuali- 1 „*■(■ 1 m . i .u c . .■ 

 ,„,,,■ . ' " '•"""'""*'= ""|U'i"- of failure. Plants have the power of extracting 

 ty under his nursing care. All nature contribntp<! c .i . l , i ., , ,■ ■ 



,. .. . •'',,■. , ""-""^ '-"""'""'^''^1 from the atmosphere and the earth, such (lualities 



ot Its energies to aid him in his grand designs. The L<= ^.^ k„ , ,.q .„ i » .i ■ .i .u .i 



„, °, ,■ , , " ""i^'s"'- -^ "c as are best adapted to their growth : or rather they, 



storm ana the sunshine, day and nin-ht times andLnv i. • \ > i- i ,• \ i ■ i 



, uaj, uiiu iii^iiL, uineb ana after having nartaken of the aliment which nature 

 seasons, are powerful auxiliaries in accomnlishino- ' „ ■ i .u " l /• .i • .i- i 



L- ■„ ,, , >' aiic^ 111 'ii-i-"mpiisning.^ pjo^jiigg t|,g„^ i,ayg organs for throwing oft such 



his will. Nor are the resu ts of his abors, his faiM o u^ *• • . .u • •.• 



•J, ilia lauuio, uis i<tii substances as are foreign to their composition. — 

 ures or successes, fraught with consecuences tn tr ii ^^i n » r c \ 



. ". . 'i^' '-""ocquciii.e.^, to I J4e„ce we see that they, will not of len for two gene- 

 rations flourish to advantage on the same soils, and 



him alone. " The king himself is served of the 

 fruit of the field." Tha wondering eyes and fain- 

 ting stomachs of every other class in Community, 

 from the king on his throne to the culprit in his cell, 

 demand of him the life-continuing necessaries and 

 observed that a hill of corn on my land {hat | '^°'"f°'"ts of their existence. To them, then, he is 

 d above the general average height, yields responsible for the care with which he sows and 

 J-est corn ; while one below the average, 'he attention whereby he reaps, 

 lly yields small corn. It is not. our oLjtct in this short communication, 



he third hoeing the plough sinks into the, t° call the attention of young farmers to the analy- 

 andbrings the geine within reach of the s's of flowers and by that to a classification of plants, 

 roots of the coin — while at the same time '^'his, however !m;5ortr()!; it may be in the economy 

 ng, the subsoil completely covers the soil "f farming, would be deemed an act of ultraism 

 nure, preventing the same from evaporating <iu'te unpardonable. Still, however, its advantages 

 'ing during the hot weeks in July and Au- must be evident, as the anecdote of the immortal 



that those which are most tenacious of the paren- 

 tal inheritance, will eventually extract all those 

 qualities, unless they are renewed, which are pecu- 

 liar to themselves, and become extinct. While the 

 earth is thus exhausting itself in the support of one 

 kind of plant, it may be accumulating materials for 

 tlie advancement of another ; and from this suppo- 

 sition leads us to adopt a system of rotation of crops, 

 a system wliich we find pervading the operations 

 of nature, from her noblest forests of pines anil oaks, 

 to the more humble groves of ferns and lichens. — 

 How, in the common pursuits of agriculture, shall 

 we determine what kind of plants are best calcula- 

 ted to succeed such as have recently matured on 



