182 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



above the ends of the second course, with a thick, 

 heavy coat of paint, and then, to finish off, paint 

 the portion exposed after the roof is thus finished. 

 Then, what water falls through the interstices will 

 fall upon a painted surface, and be conveyed out, 

 instead of following the grain of the wood down 

 under the paint. 



Peat or Swamp Muck. — Will it pay to haul 

 peat two miles on a good road where a yoke of 

 oxen can haul half a cord, spaded up directly from 

 the bed ? The muck to be composted with stable 

 manure, or otherwise, used upon an alluvial soil 

 of naturally very good quality. The soil has been 

 much reduced in productiveness by former occu- 

 pants. The peat was pronounced, in 1837, by 

 Dr. Charles T. Jackson, "excellent peat, of a re- 

 markable character, it being in part bituminizcd 

 by the process of decomposition." It lies upon a 

 hard, gravelly bottom, gradually deepening to- 

 wards the centre. O. W. True. 



Elm Tree Farm, near Phillips, Me., Jan. 31, 1862. 



Remarks. — We have no doubt it will "pay," if 

 the work is economically done, by hauling when 

 other important work is not pressing. 



USE OP HEN" MANURE OW CORN". 

 I have been in the habit of using hen manure, 

 applied in the hill, on corn, for a number of years, 

 with excellent success. I take my hen manure to 

 a convenient place — say a barn floor, and pulver- 

 ize it thoroughly — then mix two-sixths ashes and 

 one-sixth plaster, with an equal proportion of the 

 manure in bulk, of both ashes and plaster. After 

 preparing my ground by spreading, say twenty- 

 five cart-loads, of stable or other good manure on 

 the turf, and plowing it under, I mark out my 

 ground without either harrowing or bushing, and 

 then drop one gill of the above mixtm-e in each 

 hill, either planting my corn beside, or kicking on 

 a little dirt Avith my foot, over the mixture, and 

 planting directly on it. I row both ways, three 

 and one-half feet apart. In this way I have suc- 

 ceeded in getting fine crops. I generally use 

 about fifteen bushels of the hen manure mixture 

 to the acre ; but if I used no other manure to car- 

 ry out the crop, I would certainly use at least for- 

 ty bushels of the same. I think most farmers miss 

 it in running over too much ground to get a bush- 

 el of corn, when by manuring heavily, they get 

 the same grain on less ground, and make a saving 

 in labor, and leave the soil in a better condition 

 for stocking down. — E. Allen, PomJ'ret, Conn., 

 in Country Gentleman. 



Preventive of the Curculio. — Mr. A. C. 

 Hubbard, of Detroit, publishes in the Michigan 

 Fanner a statement that "common" elder bushes 

 tied to the bi-anches of plum trees had prevented 

 the operation of the curcuUo for tlu*ee years, in a 

 garden he recently visited. His friend had been 

 upon the place five years. The first two years he 

 tried to save his fruits by shaking the insects upon 

 cloths, vith but poor success. "An old French- 

 man" told him to put elder bushes in his trees. 

 He has done so for three years with the same suc- 

 cess — a full crop of perfect fruit. The bushes 

 were put into the trees every few days from the 

 time the fruit was set until full grown. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE CULTIVATION OF WHEAT. 



J. Palmer, Esq., — Sir: — Your letter of in- 

 quiries respecting winter wheat has been received, 

 in which you say "you have cultivated winter 

 wheat upon a small scale the two past seasons, 

 and that it has not been injured by the midge ; 

 but that you find it difficult to get the corn off the 

 land in season to sow wheat, and seed down to 

 grass ; that you cut up your corn as soon as it 

 will possibly answer, and remove it from the 

 grounds, and shock it, which is a good deal of la- 

 bor ; and further say, you should prefer to sow 

 spring wheat if jou could obtain some that the in- 

 sect would not injure, and ask if I know any 

 such?" I know of no variety of wheat, either 

 winter or spring, that is midge proof, though it 

 appears that some varieties are less injured by the 

 insect than others. 



I have successfully grown winter wheat for the 

 past nine years, on my farm. Spring sown wheat 

 has been a very uncertain crop. If sown early, it 

 has usually sufi'ered badly by the depredations of 

 the midge. If sown late — say the last of May — it 

 may escape the insect, but has been pretty sure to 

 rust, mildew or blight. My farm lying in a val- 

 ley, the wheat crop is more liable to injury from 

 rust, midge, &c., than that grown on our hill- 

 farms. But as low-lying as is my farm, I have 

 suffered, during the period I have grown fall-sown 

 wheat, but very trifling loss from midge, rust, or 

 winter-kill. Winter wheat on my farm has been 

 a surer crop than that of corn, oats or potatoes. 

 I have usually sown between the 25th of August 

 and 10th of September. By early sowing, the 

 plants are less liable to winter-kill, and obtain an 

 earlier start in the spring, thereby getting ahead 

 of the midge, rust, &c. 



The Japan Avheat you ask about is the earliest 

 winter wheat I know of. I cut a part of mine the 

 12th of last July ; it does not stand our winters 

 so well as some other varieties, but it never has 

 been injured by the midge, nor rusted in the least. 

 From its eai-ly ripening, it was badly injured the 

 past season by whole troops of yellow birds, who 

 shelled it badly, while the grain was in the milky 

 state. It is a red wheat, beardless, but makes a 

 very good quality of flour. I have sown the past 

 fall quite a patch of it, and shall know, another 

 harvest, whether it will be a profitable variety to 

 cultivate. 



You ask what variety I consider the safest and 

 best. I have grown Gen. Harmon's "improved 

 white flint," the Tuscan from Michigan, Early Noe 

 from France," and on a smaller scale, a dozen oth- 

 er varieties, all of which have done well. The 

 past season I grew fourteen different varieties ; 

 two of the latest kinds were somewhat injured by 

 midge and rust. The white flint gives forty-seven 

 pounds of superior flour per bushel ; some of the 

 others not quite as much. The Early Noe makes 

 a very white flour, but bread made of it dries tip 

 sooner than that from some other variety. I know 

 nothing respecting the Java wheat you inquire 

 about. 



I have never grown winter wheat after corn. 

 Cannot get the ground cleared of it early enough. 

 Very much depends upon early sowing ; therefore, 

 let oats or barley follow corn, then manure the 

 stubble, plow and sow wheat and grass seed. Or 



