164 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



wov. aa, 1843. 



LETTER FROM MR COLMAN. I 



The last New Genesee Parmer contains rv letter 

 from Henry Colman, Esq., dated •' Edinburpjli, Sept. \ 

 2, 1843," addressed to the President of the New j 

 York State Ajricul. Society, Bnd intended to be 

 read at the Society's annual meeting, but did not! 

 arrive in time. Mr Colman says: 



" My friends may be assured that the honorable 

 mission on which they sent me to the old world, 

 has received the most cordial welcome in the fath. 

 er-land ; and that every facility is offered me for 

 obtaining such information as may be useful to my 

 own country. It would be strange, if there were 

 not much in the accumulated treasures of the ex- 

 perience of centuries, to be learnt ; and though the 

 intercourse between the two countries is now so 

 direct and speedy, as to put ns at once in America 

 in possession of the improvements of European 

 skill and science, and a common language removes 

 every impediment to the freest inter-commnnica- 

 tion, yet there may be obvious advantages from 

 looking at these things with American eyes and 

 American experience, rather than in receiving 

 them from those who do not fully understand our 

 particular condition and circumstances, and may 

 not therefore be able to place them before us in a 

 light best adapted to our comprehension or use. 



I am happy to find every where the kindest feel- 

 ings prevailing towards America ; and a strong 

 and continually strengthening conviction of a com- 

 munity of interest, and the unnaturalness of a war 

 or any hostility between two countries, who are in 

 truth kith and kin of each other. Political agri- 

 culture here occupies a great share of public at- 

 tention. With tliat, of course, it would be wholly 

 inconsistent with the objects of my mission to med- 

 dle; but I can never fail to express the wish, that 

 every impediment to the most free intercourse and 

 the mutual interchange of their peculiar advanta- 

 ges of climate, soil and place among the nations of 

 the earth, were removed out of the way ; and in- 

 stead of merely pecuniary and self-interested mo- 

 tives, those who control the de.«tinies of govern- 

 ment and society were actuated exclusively by the 

 benevolrnt motives of diffu.Hing as widely as possi- 

 ble and rendering accessible to all — the poor as 

 well as the rich, the humble as well as the exalted, 

 and the common laborer as well as the capitalist — 

 the blessings which Heaven certainly designed for 

 all. How in the present condition of society, so 

 long under the influence of the most narrow and 

 selfish principles, such a blessed result is to be 

 brought about, human sagacity has not as yet pre- 

 dicted. 



My agricultural friends shall hear from me in 

 due season. In their candor, they will not demand 

 of me that which is immature, and so might prove 

 worthless. I shall not, 1 am persuaded, be thought 

 to overrate the importance of my enterprise, in be- 

 ing anxious to give them only that information 

 which is certain, autlnntic, and useful ; but they 

 may be assured that I shall be more impatient to 

 give, than they can be to receive, the results of 

 my labors, as soon as they are worthy of their at- 

 tention." 



Persevere. — Many of the greatest men sprung 

 from humble origin, as the lark, whose nest is on 

 the ground, soars highest in the air. Narrow cir- 

 cumstances are the most powerful stimulants to 

 mental expansion, and the early frowns of fortune 

 the best security for her final smiles. 



CULTIVATION OP CRANBERRIES. 



In our absence, a number of gentlemen have 

 made inquiries at our oflice, in regard to the best 

 mode of propagating this much valued fruit. I!ut 

 very few experiments have yet been made, to our 

 knowlodge, o-n its cultivation, though there seems 

 to be but little doubt that cranberries of some kind 

 or other may be grown in almost any soil. 



The common cranberry of our Middlesex and 

 Norfolk county meadows, has become famous half 

 the world over, without any aid from closet farmers 

 or from chemists. This kind of fruit seems to de- 

 light in wet grounds, and we incline to guess it 

 will not flourish greatly in any other soils. The 

 vines can be easily transplanted, and the task 

 would not be Herculean to fill up an acre of soft 

 meadow with plants enough for the whole. 



Were we to engage in this business, we would 

 use sharp spades and take up sods six or eight in- 

 ches square, from meadows where the vines are al- 

 ready too thick. About iiCOO of these would be 

 enough for an acre ; they would then be half as 

 thick OS hills of corn, and would soon spread so as 

 to cover the ground. It will not hurt an old bed to 

 thin them out. We are satisfied, on the contrary, 

 that digging among the old vines will aid them, as 

 digging among strawberry vines will improve the 

 strawberry harvest. 



Rakes are now made on purpose to gather the 

 fruit, and though these rakes tear the vines in pie- 

 ces annually, yet the product has been much in- 

 creased by raking. A near neighbor of our own 

 began but a few years ago, to rake a little patch 

 of one-fourth of an acre. He obtained 1'2 bushels 

 only, the first season ; the next year, 18 ; then 2.5 ; 

 and so on, till his last harvest on this fourth of an 

 acre, was 65 bushels of handsome white cranber- 

 ries : we saw them on his barn floor. We have 

 yet heard of no one who has injured his cranberry 

 vines by raking. 



In regard to flowing, we need more experiments ; 

 the water may generally bo kept over the vines 

 till the middle of May. It should be kept on as 

 long as possible, to keep the blossoms back and 

 out of the way of frosts ; but if the water becomes 

 warm it will kill the vines ; you see no cranber- 

 ries in meadows that are kept flowed till June. It 

 is better, however, to draw the water off as soon as 

 the first of May, and after a day or two, flow attain. 

 In ]84"2, the cranberries were very generally de- 

 stroyed by the uncommon frosts of June, as late, 

 we think, as the 10th. Frosts in September some- 

 times destroy the berries, and it would be well to 



flow them in cold nights, where water is plenty 



Plousrhman. 



Stratoherries in JVuvember. — The New London 

 Advocate noticed the fact that strawberries had 

 been picked from the garden of Mr Brande^ree, of 

 that place, and asked, '' who can beat this .'" Mr 

 Simeon Marble yesterday presented us a bunch of 

 ripe strawberries, just plucked from the vines in 

 his garden, in this city. They were of two varie- 

 ties, red and white. The New London folks will 

 please to consider themselves beaten. — JVeio Haven 

 Herald. 



Some writer, in remarking upon the failure of 

 different tourists to give any adequate description 

 of Niagara, very happily says, that they all at- 

 tempt to be as sublime as the cataract itself, but 

 the cataract is always the victor. 



CABBAGES ON LONG ISLAND. 



The American Agriculturist gives the followit 

 description of the culture of cabbages on Long I 

 land : 



Cabbages are produced from forcing houses at 

 very early season ; the main crop, however, is n 

 set out till the last of July or fore part of Augui 

 On account of the liability of the plants to be d 

 stroyed in their early growth in the field by i 

 sects, they are sown in beds where they can easi 

 be protected, and are then transplanted in row 

 they find that this is less laiiorious and more ct 

 tain than endeavoring to protect them in the fieh 

 The land is made rich by a heavy coating of m 

 nure, and plowed deep and harrowed fine. T 

 plants are set out in rows, and the number occup 

 ing an acre is from 3000 to 7000. They are reg 

 lated according to the size of the cabbages wh 

 full grown, as the heads will weigh from 3 lbs. 

 30 lbs. each. They are supplied in immense nui 

 bers, not only to New York, but to vessels' s 

 stores, and are shipped to almost every port alo: 

 the American sea-bonrd from Newfoundland 

 Mexico and the West Indies. One of the gards 

 ers we visited, informed us, that one year wh 

 they were very high, he netted §2600 from ni 

 acres, after paying all expenses of rent land, cul 

 vation and marketing ; and that he had clear 

 .$1200 on an average for the past ten years, 

 about the same quantity of ground. He has i 

 doubtedly been fortunate in the cabbage cultu 

 We know of many a farmer occupying from 300 

 .500 acres of land, who does not, on an averar 

 clear half this amount; so that it is not the nu 

 her of acres after all, so much as the crop a 

 method of cultivation, that gives the largest pro 



It would be a curious paragraph of statisti 

 could the number of cabbages be ascertain i 

 which grow within a circle of 30 miles from tl 

 city. They must amount to several million hea 

 for the Horticultural Committee of the Amerie 

 Institute, reported last year upwards of 600,000 

 one tour they made of three miles only. 



Recipe for Curing Hams. — We have bern har 

 ed the following recipe for curing hams, by one 

 the most eminent practitioners in thiscilv; t 

 salaeratns is at least new to us, and we Iherefi 

 publish it, although it may not bn a new iiirrre 

 ent in the recipe to others. In Cincinnati, wh« 

 large quantities of hams are annually cured, p( 

 per, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and otl 

 like ingredients are usually added. But to I 

 recipe : 



" Cover the bottom of the cask with coarse si 

 lay on the hams with the smooth or skin side do\ 

 sprinkle over fine salt, and so continue until I 

 cask is full. A cask holding 64 gallons is sni 

 enough, and it would be better if it held 120 g 

 Ions. Make a brine in the following proportioi 

 6 gallons water, 9 lbs. salt, 4 lbs. brown suf 

 3 oz. saltpetre, 1 oz. salteratus. Scald and set 

 and when cold pour the brine into the cask ui 

 the hams arc completely covered. They ehoi 

 remain in this pickle at least three months, an^ 

 little longer time would do them no harm." — .4n, 

 Far. 



A very modest young lady recently asserted tl 

 she once lived near a barn-yard, and that it » 

 impossible for her to sleep in the morning, on ! 

 count of the outcry made by a gentleman hen. 



