1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



375 



SETTING STRAWBERRIES. 



Can you inform mc what season is the best for setting 

 out a strawberry bed ? Wliat is the best form for the 

 bed ? Wliat kinds are best to raise for mai-lcct, and at 

 wliat priee can the plants be procured ? u. c. c. 



Southboi-o', June 30, 1S60. 



Remarks. — August is a good time to set strawber- 

 ries, and so is April. Set the plants in rows two and a 

 half or three feet apart, and the rows one foot from 

 each other. Then put a row of beets in the centre be- 

 tween the rows and cultivate well. If the land is good 

 and the plants arc well tended, they will give great 

 crops for one or two years, when the runners that take 

 root in the centre of tlic rows may be preserved and the 

 old roots dug up. In this way the bed may be made 

 perpetual and vciy prolific. 



Several kinds arc now brought to market, and 

 among them Hovey's Seedling, Early Virginia, Cut- 

 ter's Seedling, Jenny Lind, Brighton Pine, Wilson's 

 Albanj'-, McAvoy's Superior, &c. The price of these 

 varies from ^'1,00 to $^1,50 per hundred plants. 



A WHITE GRAPE. 



In the Noveml^er numl)er, 18-59, Mr. Gregory, of 

 Marblcliead, Mass., wishes to sec a native white grape. 

 In reply, I would say , that the article has grown by a 

 little brook in my pasture for twenty years past, 

 though not every j-ear. Should the vine bear this year 

 I will endeavor to send him a sample, hoping they 

 will not destroy their good name by l)lushiug before 

 his scrutinizing vision. D. F.Tucker. 



West Northioood, N. 77., June2l, 1860. 



CORN AXD BUCKAVHEAT. 



In the Farmer of June 23d, "I. S.," of Mansfield, in- 

 quires if he can raise corn after buckwheat. I raised 

 buckwheat two years in succession on a light piece of 

 land ; the next year, (last year,) I put on a light spread- 

 ing of manure, plowed it in, and there was raised as 

 good a crop of corn on it as was raised in the neigh- 

 borhood. 



CURE FOR THRUSH IX HOESES' PEET. 



Clean all the dirt or filth out ai'ound the frog, jam in 

 fine salt, and then wet it with beef brine two or three 

 times a day, and a cure will soon be effected. 



Methuen, Mass., June, 1860. D. w. n. 



A LIST OF FLOWERS FOR A NORTHERN CLIMATE. 



Will not some of your correspondents who arc well 

 acquainted with the cultivation of flowers give me a 

 list of flowers which are hardy, and will stand a Ver- 

 mont winter out of doors, say thirty to forty varieties 

 of biennials or perennials ? Will your North Hartland 

 correspondent give the information desired, and much 

 oblige a farmer's daughter ? Mary. 



Rutland, Vt., 1860. _ 



A SICK cow. - 



I have a cow which usually has given about ten 

 quarts of milk at a milking. This year she calved the 

 first of April, her udder being, as formerly when calv- 

 ing, much swollen. I took the calf from lier when one 

 week old. She has almost entirely lost the use of two 

 of her teats. She gives about a gill on an average from 

 each. Will you give the cause and remedy ? 



Buck Eye. 



Remarks. — ^^Ve cannot. Got cold, perhaps. Two 

 or three doses of aconite might cure her. 



HOLDFAST. 



I have a valuable steer that has a swelling on his 

 under jaw, called a holdfast in this section. You may 

 have some other name for it. It is a hard substance. 

 Will you, or some of your subscribers, inform me what 

 will cure it ? N. Matthews. 



Ilenniker, X. IT., June 10, 1830. 



TO STOP BORERS. 



To Stop borers in fruit trees, I dig about old ones, and 

 put on the tree, near the roots, a wash of thin coal tar, 

 or gas-house tar. Put it on witli a brush. I think it will 

 not hurt the tree ; it has not mine, and the insect will 

 not trouble any such trees. G. L. Hitchcock. 



Ashley, June, 1860. 



Fur the New England Farmer. 

 CAUSE OF THE POTATO KOT. 



Mr, Editor : — I must be permitted to express 

 my profound surprise at the reply of Mr. Lyman 

 Reed to the call I made upon him to answer the 

 seven reasons I had offered to show that insects 

 were not the cause of the potato rot. He says, "I 

 answered Mr. Goldsbury through your columns. 

 May 12th, at his own request. His seven reasons 

 of March 3d, I refuted by actually showing, at- 

 tested by reliable certificates," (of seventeen mem- 

 bers of Congress who spent one Avhole day in ex- 

 aniing into the subject,) "that insects cause the 

 potato blight and rot." Again, "I have frankly 

 given him the authorities," (the seventeen mem- 

 bers of Congress,) "which establish beyond ques- 

 tion the true cause of this malady." And again, 

 "I gave Mr. Goldsbury no logical answer, because 

 I produced ocular facts — facts attested to by the 

 highest authority in the nation." 



Now, according to Mr. Reed's own showing, 

 my seven reasons remain untouched and unan- 

 swered ; he has given them no logical answer : 

 he has made no attempt to show that they are 

 unreasonable or untrue in point of fact ; he has 

 simply offered a certificate from seventeen mem- 

 ber of Congress, who have jumped at a certain 

 conclusion, because on a certain day at "Washing- 

 ton, Mr. Lyman Reed, by the aid of a microscope, 

 exhibited to their view certain insects on certain 

 potatoes which he had kept for that purpose. Now, 

 all this may be admitted to be true, and still 

 the potato rot may not be caused by insects, be- 

 cause the insects may be the consequent or con- 

 comitant of the rot, and not the cause of it. The 

 point to be proved is not that insects are found 

 u]5on rotten jiotatoes, but that they are the cause 

 of the rot. If Mr. Reed, who talks so much about 

 ocular demonstration and well attested facts, 

 would direct his attention to this point, — if, in- 

 stead of making so many assertions, and attempt- 

 ing to bolster himself up, on the certificates of 

 others, he would condescend to attack my seven 

 reasons, each and all of them, and endeavor to 

 show by the force of reason that they are unreas- 

 onable, he would be sure to secure my respect, 

 and stand some chance of making converts to his 

 cause. John Goldsbury. 



Warwick, June 25, 18G0. 



Preserving Lvdian Corn. — The Prairie far- 

 mers of the AVest preserve their Indian corn in 

 the ear, without the loss of a single grain from 

 heat and moisture, by piling it up in common 

 fence-rail cribs about 11 feet square and 9 feet 

 high, the mass being rounded off at the top and 

 exposed to the weather. Covered cribs are found 

 to be ruinous to the grain, as experience has 

 amply proved. So what Avould seem to be a shift- 

 less s'tyle of husbandry, is the result of skilful ex- 

 periment. 



