will. IVa. 44. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



369 



' tatnns. The onions were measured in tlie 

 , -■i;ce of the cliairiin.i of your committee, and 



D making ample allowance for the tops which had 

 not hem stripped off, were adjudged equal to four 

 bushels to the square rod, or at tlu; rate of ti-lO 

 bushels to the acre. In these experiments 7 lbs. 

 of piitasii which cost 7 cts. a pound bought at the 

 retail price, were used. Potash, although dearer 

 than wood-ashes at 12 1-2 cents per bushel, is, I 

 think, cheaper than the wL'ite ash mentioned by Pr 

 Dana, and sufficienily cheap to make with meadow 

 mud, a far cheaper manure than such as is in gen- 

 eral used among our farmers. The experiment 

 satisfies me that nothing better than potash and 

 peat, can be used for most, if not all our cultivated 

 vegetables, and the economy of watering with a 

 solution ofgoine, such as are cultivated in rows, I 

 think cannot be doubted. The reason why the 

 corn was not very obviously benefitted, I think, 

 must have been that the portion of the roots to 

 which it was applied, was already fully supplied 

 with nutriment out of the same kind from the peat 

 ashes and manure put in the hill at planting. For 

 watering rows of onions or other vegetables, I 

 should recommend that a cask be mounted on light 

 wheels, so set that like the drill they may run each 

 side of the row and drop the liquid manure through 

 a small tap hole or tube frorn the cask, diroctly 

 upon the young plai ts. For preparing the liquor, 

 I should recommend a cistern about three feet 

 deep and as large as the object may require, form- 

 ed of plank and laid on a bed of clay and sur- 

 rounded by the same, in the manner that tan vats 

 are constructed ; this should occupy a warm place, 

 exposed to the sun, near water, and as near as 

 these requisites permit to the lillage lands of the 

 farm. In such a cistern, in warm weather, a solu- 

 tion of geine may be made in large quantities with 

 little labor and without the e.vpense of fuel, as the 

 heat of the sun, is, I think, amply sufficient for the 

 purpose.* If from further experiments it should 

 be found economical to water grass lauds and grain 

 crops, a large cask or casks placed on whirls and 

 drawn by oxen or horse power, the liquor from the 

 casks being at pleasure let into a long narrow, box 

 preforated with numerous small holes which woold 

 spread the same over a strip of ground, some 6, 8, 

 or 10 feet in breadth, as it is drawn over the field 

 in the same manner as the streets in cities are wa- 

 tered in summer. Andukw PIichols. 



I certify that I measured the piece of land men- 

 tioned in the foregoing stateoient, as planted with 

 corn, on the 21sl of Septe.nber, 18-39, and found 

 the same to contain two acres, Ihree quarter.^, thir- 

 tyone rods. Jon.v \V. PaocTOR, Sirvei/or. 



CABBAGE, AS FOOD FOR HOGS. 

 A gentleman remarked, in our hearing, a few 

 days since, that cabbage was a valuable food for 

 store hogs. The idea was new to us, and we in- 

 quired the manner of feeding. In reply, ho gave 

 us the following as the result of his experience, the 

 last summer. Having a fine patch of plants, and 

 observing the bottom leaves beginning to decay, 

 he directed his farmer to procure a water-tight 

 cask, and gather a bushel of the lower leaves from 

 the cabbage plants, and deposit them in the barrel 



* Perhaps in an excavation in a peat meadow, which 

 would fill witli water spontaneously, a solulion of geine 

 might be slill more cheaply obtained, by simply adding 

 potash, ashes, &c. to the stagnant water. 



with a handful of salt, and one quart of corn meal. 

 On this was poured the contents of the kitchen 

 swill-pail, and the whole was snfl"ercd lo stand un- 

 disturbed for twentyfour hours, when the process 

 was repeated, with the exception of i he salt — and 

 so, every day, until the cask was filled with a mass 

 of wilted leaves, about six quarts of corn meal, po'- 

 tatoc pealiiigs, crumbs of bread, &c., from thr 

 kitchen; all in a state of partial fermentation. 

 He now commenced feeding it to t!ie hogs, and 

 they eat with greediness, leaving other food for 

 this. 'I'hey were evidently as fond of this kind of 

 mush, as ever " Mynheer" was of so»r-/.ToiiY. 



While the hogs were consuming the contents of 

 the first barrel, a second was in the course of being 

 filled, and so alternately, till the stock of leaves was 

 entirely exhausted, which was about four weeks. 



This gentleman gave his opinion, that he could 

 not have prepared any other kind of food for hogs, 

 known to him, at double the expense, that would 

 have produced results so decidedly beneficial. An 

 increase of appetite, improvement in their general 

 appearance, and better heart, was the result of this 

 method. The Cabbages, he thinks, were greatly 

 improved by plucking the redundant foliage ; and 

 he intends to plant a large patch of cabbages, the 

 coming season, more fully to test the advantages 

 of this kind of feed for hogs. We invite him, and 

 others who may '• experimeut" in the business, to 

 give US the results^ for publication. — Farmrr's Cab. 



APPLE ORCHARDS. 



The orchards in the interior of New England 

 have been sadly treated for the last half a dozen 

 years. In the commendable zeal to make our pop- 

 ulation more temperate, war has been waged against 

 the apple trees, and some of the finest orchards have 

 been razed to the ground : in other cases-the trees 

 have been neglected and left a prey to catterpil- 

 lar.s, canker worms and the browsing of cattle, or 

 else from neglect of the friendly pruning knife, to 

 divest them of suckers and diseased limbs, have 

 gradually deteriorated both in quantity and quality 

 of the fruit. Now if the consumption of cider had 

 grown into entire di.^use, all the apple trees that 

 ever stood on the ground at any one time, would 

 not be too many for the profitable use -of the in- 

 habitants of New F.ngland. 



If apples, unfit to be eaten or used in various 

 ways for the use of man, were produced in quanti- 

 ties, it is ascertained that they may be advantage- 

 ously converted into food for brute animals — for 

 swine, cattle and horses. But there is not a tree 

 producing bad apples that may not by grafting, in 

 the course of five or six years, be made to produce 

 plentifully the best of fruit. The fruit does now, 

 and will for years to come, bear a high price. In 

 the vicinity of Boston, the venders go about among 

 the farmers and pay readily, taking the apples from 

 the fields, three dollars a barrel, containing little 

 more than two bushels, for Baldwins. As far in 

 the country as this place, good winter a[iples sell 

 for two dollars the barrel. Ip the yard, we believe, 

 of Mr Gould nt Henniker, in the month of Octo- 

 ber; we saw two trees at a distance, on which were 

 apples appearing to be the blue pearmain, which 

 would measure eight or ten barrels each. Now 

 what growth can be more profitable than the apple 

 tree which in a singh^ season shall yield twenty 

 dollars ? 



The true method of making an apple or any oth- 

 er fruit orchard productive, is to cultivate and ma- 



nure the ground as for any other crop. An orch- 

 ard should be kept in almost constant tilth. Ta- 

 ken wluMi young, the tree may bo so constructed 

 with the use of the pruning knife as (o interfere 

 very little with the use of the plough, and so that 

 almost any vegetable crop may grow under and 

 among the frc-s. On ground well cultivated, fruit 

 trees will invariably grow largi'r and fairer. 



If the prospect of raising an orchard to those in 

 advanced life look discouraging', we say unto all 

 such that the man wjio has strength to labor does 

 not live who is too old to plant and rear a fruit or- 

 chard. With careful cultivation on rich ground 

 in favorable |)ositions, an apple orchard will grow 

 up to bearing in less than half the time that it would 

 if left to itself and exposed to the clipping of cattle 

 and the inroads of destroying insects. We may 

 plant a nursety, and in two years the young tree 

 will be fit for budding by inoculation : intwoyears 

 more it will be ready to transplant, and in two more 

 the tree will begin to bear. An aged relative liv- 

 ing on the promises where the editor was born, 

 which premises long since our recollection had not 

 more than two or three apple trees of any kind fit 

 fiir eating, lately shewed us over the flourishing 

 orchard, planted by his own hands on a few acres 

 about the old mansion, which orchard has for the 

 last fifteen or twenty -years produced from one to 

 five hundred barrels of grafted Baldwin and russet 

 apples, paying the interest on this crop alone of 

 from three to five hundred dollars an acre. The 

 old gentleman plucked from a favorite tree apples 

 which it had borne several years, the grafts of which 

 wer(! by him there placed when his wife, now de- 

 ceased, to!d him it was probably too late for them 

 ever to witness their bearing : yet, he informed us, 

 she did live long enough to eat of the apples in 

 successive seasons, and he had lived after her for 

 several more years "to eat of the same tree ; and 

 now, at the age of seventyseven years, being able 

 not oidy to mount the ladder and pick his apples 

 from the trees, but lo take up his barrel of apples 

 ,and place it in the cart by main strength ; he is still 

 likely to witness the annual production of fruit from 

 the same tree ten, fifteen and by possibility twenty 

 years longer. — Farmei^s Monthly Visitor. 



Seeds. — The certainty and continuance of the 

 vegetative power of seeds depend greatly on being 

 fully ripe, well secured, and preserved from toa 

 much confinement, heat, and dampness. Some, 

 however, lose their vegetative properties much 

 sonner than others. 



Parsnep, rhuba.cb, and other very thin and scaly 

 seeds are not to be depended on the second year. 



Ueans, capsicum, carrot, cress, leek, nastratium, 

 okra, onion, salsify, scorzonera, and small herb 

 seeds should not generally be trusted the third 

 year. 



.Artichoke, asparagus, corn egg-plant, endive, 

 fetticus, lettuce, mustard, parsley, peas, skirret and 

 spinage, often fail after the third year. 



Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, kale, 

 radish, and turnip, will vegetate well four or five 

 years. 



Beet, cucumber, gourd, melon, pumpkin, and 

 squash — also burnet, chervil, and sorrel, have been 

 known to vegetate freely five to ten and more 

 years. 



Some seeds should not be sown the same season 

 they are grown. Ti.ere is too much of a tendency 

 in biennials to go to seed ; and in annuals to vines 

 and unfruitfulnesg. 



