388 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



APRIIi Hi, 184 



MELONS. 

 Amonij the fruit of this kind, t!iere is probably 

 no class which is so universally a favorite as this. 

 It is easily cultivated, and is always sure to bear 

 Bomettiir.f.' ; onoiir;h to repay for the care bestowed. 

 The two difficulties in the way of success, are 

 these: to protect the plants from the attacks of 

 insects — and drought. The striped rose-bug, as 

 it is commonly callod, attacks the plants of the 

 melon as soon as they show their first pair of 

 leaves : they are usually tender, and if cut oft' at 

 once, either kill or very much weaken the plant. 

 Sprinkling with nshes, lime, or soot, has been 

 much recommended ; but when the bugs are nu- 

 merous, they cannot be kept olT in this way. 



Since last summer, I have had some very fine 

 seed sent me, and with it the assurance, that 

 sprinkling with sulphur is effectual against the 

 striped bug — and that a little camphor-gum near 

 the plants will keep off the pumpkin bug, wliich 

 appears later, and sucks the juices from the vines. 

 These two things I think worthy of trial. But 

 the most effectual preventive is a small box with 

 a pane of glass fur its top, which can be pressed 

 down over tlie hill; this will bring the seed up 

 quick, and be not only a protection against the 

 bug, but will keep off cold winds and frosts, if 

 there should be any. But it must bo taken off a 

 part of every day, so that the plants may have 

 air, and not come up too weak. After the third 

 pair of leaves, they get so much advanced that 

 the bug cannot well destroy them, and then the 

 dusting with lime or sulphur will be beneficial. 



The best protection against drought, is to pro- 

 pare the ground by manuring well with cow ma- 

 nure, and plowing deep — twice before making the 

 hills. The manure for melons should be old and 

 light. 



The practice in some sections, where they raise 

 melons fur market, is to make a hole for each hill 

 about 18 inclies square, and the same depth, after 

 the ground is well prepared ; this they fill in with 

 rotten turfs, light manure and rubbish, well mixed 

 together with the earth. Into this the roots of the 

 melons run, and do not easily feel the effects of 

 dry weather. The best melon bed that I have 

 ever seen, was made by turning over in the spring 

 a piece of turf ground, which was light and in 

 good lieart. 



Four feet between the hills is little enougli for 

 musk melons, and six for water melons. They 

 want hoeing for the first three or four weeks often, 

 and in the morning when the dew is on : after that, 

 the surface should be kept clean and loose, so as 

 to receive the small shovrers. A shoving hoe is 

 best for this purpose, as it does not disturb the 

 vines. Care should be taken to keep the seed 

 pure, by planting different varieties at as great dis- 

 tance from each other as possible. They will mix, 

 too, with cucumbers, pumpkins, and so on. 



Melon seeds will retain their vitality for ten 

 years and more, and are more productive than 

 when fresh, as they do not run so much to vines ; 

 it is therefore advisable, for a man who has a good 

 kind of melons, to save as much of the seed the 

 first year as he can, and pjant several years from 

 that. 



The best varieties of the water melon are the 

 Black Spanish and Imperial ; of the musk, the 

 Nutmeg, when it can be gotten good, is the best 

 — at leaft, I like it best. — IfesUrn Farmer and 

 Gardener. 



From the London Gardener's Chronicle. 



AMERICAxV BUG. 

 The following is from " Waterton's Essays on 

 Natural History." After mentioning several inef- 

 fectual applications, such as unctuous preparations, 

 decoction of walnut leaves, spirit of turpentine, for 

 destroying the downy white insect, or American 

 Bug, on apple trees, the author says : " Despairing 

 of success, I was on the point of quitting the field, 

 and leaving the bugs in undisturbed possession of 

 it, when I began to conjecture that I had not gone 

 the right way to work. I reflected that none of the 

 applications could have penetrated sufficiently deep 

 into the curved and knotty sinuosities of the dis- 

 eased parts, and that on this account there would 

 be a sufficient force of the enemy left alive to re- 

 commence its depredations at the first favorable 

 opportunity. Wherefore I concluded that nothing 

 short of the entire destruction of the eggs, the 

 young, and the adult, could save the trees from 

 ultimate ruin. Knowing that the bug could not 

 exist if totally deprived of air, I resolved to bury 

 it alive, and this I effected by an application at 

 once the most easy and simple that can be imag- 

 ined — it costs nothing. I mixed common clay with 

 water till it was of a consistency that it could be 

 put on to the injured parts of the tree, either with 

 a mason's trowel or with a painter's brush. 1 then 

 applied it to the diseased places of the tree, and 

 it soon smothered every bug ; a second coat upon 

 the first filled up every crack which showed itself 

 when the Clay had become dry, and this resisted 

 for a sufficient length of time the effects both of 

 sun and rain. The sickly parts, now effectually 

 freed from the enemy which had been preying on 

 their vilals, were placed in a state to be cured by 

 the healing process of nature, and that nature has 

 done her duty, my apple trees amply testify." 



"THE FARMER OP MOUNT VERNON." 

 Washington was passionately fond of agricu 

 turc. Its improvement was ever with him an ob- 

 ject of paramount regard. Virginia can boast of 

 few sons to whom her agriculture has been more 

 indebted ; few who have assisted in promoting its 

 interests to a greater extent or with the manifesta- 

 tion of a more ardent and patronizing zeal. The 

 following account of his farming operations, will 

 serve to exhibit the Father of his country in his 

 true liglit. " The farm of General Washington at 

 Mount Vernon, contained 10,000 acres of land in 

 one body — equal to about 15 square miles. It was 

 divided into farms of convenient size, at the dis- 

 tance of 2, .3, 4 and 5 miles from his mansion 

 house. These farms he visited every day in plea- 

 •ant weather, aj:t^_v/as constantly engaged in mak- 

 ing experiments for the improvement of agricul- 

 ture. Some idea of the extent of his farming ope- 

 rations may be formed from the following facts : 

 in 1787, he had 500 acres in grass — sowed (500 

 bushels (if oats — 700 acres with wheat, and as 

 much more in corn, barley, potatoes, beans, peas, 

 &c., and l.')0 with turnips. His stock consisted of 

 j40 horses, 112 cows, 235 working oxen, heifers, 

 and steers, and .WO shoep. He constantly em- 

 ployed 250 hands, and kept 24 plows going during 

 the wliole year, when the earth and the stale of 

 the weather would permit. In 1780, he slaughter- 

 ed 150 hogs, for the use of his family and provi- 

 sions for his negroes, for whose comfort he had 

 great regard." — Maine Cull. 



For the N. E. Farmer. 



LIEBIG'S REMARKS ON SAUSSURE'S I 

 PERIMENTS ON THE ABSORPTION A 

 ASSIMILATION OF HUMUS BY PLAN 



Liebig observes that the plant in Saiissure's I 

 experiment, "had not taken up a corresponc 

 quantity of humus for each part of carbonat 

 potash." The solution of humus contained at 

 beginning of the experiment, 70 parts of hu 

 carbonate of potash, composed of .'52 parts carl 

 ate of potash, and of 18 of humus. At the en 

 the experiment, "there remained humus, H 

 bonate potash, consequently it had absorbed 9 

 mus, and 41 carbimate potash.'' Now, contii 

 L., " the plant ought to h.ive absorbed 14 par' 

 humus with 41 of carbonate of potash ; with 1 

 carbonate of potash, only 4 parts of humus sh 

 have remained. It is, therefore, evident, th 

 separation of the potassa from the dissolved hi 

 substance took place, which must have bren 

 duced by the roots of the plant; they Iiad ti 

 up the salt of potash, and left the humus in tin 

 maining liquid." 



On the second experiment of Saussure, (se 

 E. Far. 10th inst.,) L. remarks, that the liquid, 

 trnry to that of the first, was deeper colored a 

 end, than at the beginning. •' The fluid conta 

 ^Jj of humic carbonate of potash," yet, wiih 

 excessive dilution, " the coloring substance 

 not pass over in equivalent proportion with 

 potash into the plant, but was left behind." 



In the third experiment, the reader will havii 

 served that a solution of extract of mould, wii: 

 a plant, was placed beside that containing n pi 

 also that the liquor of the first, gave at the 

 of the experiment, O.UOOC of a grain of tes 

 while the last afforded 0.5082. The fact of rf 

 pearance of humus, therefore, L. does not ques 

 He admits that, and also the experiments of £ 

 sure proving the evolution of carbonic acid 

 moistened humus, or its alkaline solution, and 

 remarks on the 1st experiment of Saussure, 

 " it remains perfectly undecided under what 

 the y parts of humus, which had disappeared, 

 been taken up." On this point he adopts, or 

 er advances, a twofold explanation, at one timi 

 ferring it to carbonic acid, and at another, ti 

 salts of mould- "This aqueous extract of n 

 contained, however, according to the examin 

 of De Saussure, nitrate of potash and soda, as 

 as chloride of potassium and chloride of calc 

 substances which are very easily absorbed b_i 

 roots of plants. It is evident that these so 

 sails passed into the plant in a manner preci 

 similar to tlie absorption of the carbonate of 

 ash, described in the previous experiment;! 

 the diminution of weight, which the soluble co 

 nent parts of the fluid (in which the plant v 

 tated) sustained, finds, in this circumstance, a 

 fectly satisfactory explanation." 



II the reader recurs to the question asked I 

 in his "summary," (see N. E. Far. of 17th i 

 why Saussure had taken no account of the i| 

 ence of the atmosphere, <Si.c., he will see that 

 big leans to llie opinion that the humus has d 

 peared only as carbonic acid. It will be ren 

 bered that one of the three circumstances poi 

 out by Saussure (see N. E. Far. of 10th inst.) i 

 3d experiment, was, that the comparing solutii 

 mould became turbid. On this point Liebi, 

 marks : '' In the test fluid a change was prodi 

 as De Saussure states, by action of air. It bee 



