142 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



For the New England Farmer. 

 SEEDING LANDS TO GRASS. 

 Mr. Editor:— Your correspondent, "J. F.," 

 in your last paper, has some very good ideas in 

 relation to seeding down land to grass, but there 

 are some things he seems to have lost sight of. 

 He arrives at the conclusion that it will not pay 

 to sow grass seed separately, without some kind 

 of grain, "taking into consideration the amount 

 of land, expenses," &c.. Now this may apply to 

 spring sowing, but in this vicinity there is a vast 

 amount of land laid down to grass in the fall, say 

 from August to last of September. We turn over 

 the sward after takmg off the grass crop, give it 

 a liberal dressing of compost manure suited to 

 the soil, harrow, sow the grass seed and roll the 

 same ; this buries the seed sufficiently, and you 

 have a good crop generally the next season, with- 

 out the loss of a crop, and without exhausting 

 the soil with a grain crop ; but this process is gen- 

 erally practiced on low meadow land, that is too 

 moist for early spring cultivation with grain crops. 

 On our more elevated lands, our sandy or grav- 

 ellv loams, we can more profitably cultivate our 

 grain crops. Our grass lands need renovation— 

 a rotation of crops— when they have lain to grass 

 four or five years. Then turn over the sward in 

 the spring (if silicious soil) just before you want 

 to plant, cultivate with corn or potatoes one or 

 two years, with a good dressing of manure, and 

 lay down to grass with summer grain, as your 

 correspondent suggests 



year 1793, he and his brother transplanted some 

 ot the wild Scotch roses from the Hill of Vrimoul 

 in the neighborhood of Perth, into their nursery 

 gardens. One of these bore flowers slightly tinged 

 with red, from which a plant was raised, whose 

 flowers exhibited a monstrosity, appearing as if 

 one or two flowers came from one bud, which was 

 a little tinged with red. These produced seed 

 from which semi-double flowering ])lants were ob- 

 tained; and by continuing a selection of seed, and 

 thus raising new plants, they, in 1802 and 1803 

 had eight good, double varieties to dispose of, 

 namely, the small white, the small yellow, the la- 

 dy's blush, another lady's blush with small foot- 

 stalks, the red, the light red, the dark marbled, 

 and the large two-colored. Of these they subse- 

 quently increased the number ; and from the stock 

 in the Perth garden, the nurseries both of Scot- 

 land and England were first supplied."— il/a^^a^me 

 of Horticulture. 



FACTORY SPIDERS. 



Lighting my candle before retiring to rest one 

 night, I witnessed a marvelous scene upon the 

 top of the flower-pot. When I first placed the very 

 tiny spiders upon the lump of clay they very 

 quickly disappeared, most of them taking posses- 

 sion of the mygalo's nest. During the day a few 

 watchers and patrols alone were to be seen ; but 

 when the candle was suddenly lit at night, from 

 thirty to forty of the spiders were seen busily en- 



Now.I ca„ „„T1.g;ee with hi„, that „« lands I^J^tL" r™^^'Se'fltT;-pTi:;fd "o^^lhe" 

 '11 1"!"™.'"" _»l>oaM _ be plowed in the fall. In LVp of elay. The pinnacle of fhe ZirZ the 



ray report to our county agricultural society some 

 years ago, I said, " We have not unfrequeiitly no- 

 ticed, in our travels through the county, that 

 some of our otherwise good farmers are in the 

 habit of plowing their silicious, loamy lands in 

 the fall, under the erroneous impression that the 

 soil is benefited by exposure to the frosts of win- 

 ter. On a soil of an opposite character, of an ar- 

 gillacous texture, where clay predominates, this 

 mode of husbandry is beneficial. On these the 

 frosts of winter have a tendency to render the 

 soil more permeable and less compact ; on the 

 other hand, a sandy soil will retain its adhesive- 

 ness and be more retentive of moisture, if plow- 

 ing IS omitted till the season for planting arrives." 



In my subsequent experience I have seen no 

 cause for changing my opinions. c. 



No. Pembroke, Mass., March, 1864, 



PRODUCTIOK- OP DOUBLE FLOWERS. 



The question is often asked concerning the 

 means by which double varieties of flowers are 

 produced. The means by which such efl!"ects are 

 produced are not very definite, and cannot be very 

 precisely stated. We can only say in general 

 terms, as we have already said, that they are pro- 

 duced by a long continuation of artificial applian- 

 ces. As an example of the successive steps by 

 which the wild Scotch Prickly Rose, or Burnet, 

 (f^osa spmosissima.) was converted into a fine, full 

 double rose, we will quote from the history of the 

 rose, by Mr. Sabine : 



"The first appearance," he says, "of the double 

 Scotch roses, was in the nursery of Messrs. Dick- 

 son & Brown, of Perth. I am indebted to Mr-. 

 Robert Brown, one of the partners of the Firm, 

 tor the following account of their origin : In the 



-_ pinnacle „. ^.v.>..^ „„., ^.t. 



broken wing of a dady-long-legs which I had put 

 upon the top of the clay, fancying the spiders 

 would eat it. The weavers were divided into par- 

 ties of warpers and woofers, and were under the 

 superintendence of overseers. On receiving a 

 hint or touch from the uplifted fore-leg of an 

 overseer, a woofer ran swiftly down from the ])in- 

 nacle, laying threads from his spinnerets, and fas- 

 tening them to the rim of the flower-pot, and then 

 running quickly up again. The woofer thus lay 

 down eight threads every time he descended and 

 mounted up again. the moment the woofer 

 reached the top a warper was started off from the 

 opposite side of the pinnacle which he laid down by 

 travelling over the circuit of a comparatively long 

 crescent, or segment of a circle, which also de- 

 scended down as far as the outer edge of the 

 flower-pot. Thirty or forty tiny spiders, with 

 white bodies and fawn-hued legs, busy weaving on 

 factory or cooperative principles a "dome of the 

 finest silk, made up a scene never to be forgotten. 

 It revealed what is called "instinct" in a new and 

 startling form, for the faculty of cooperation un- 

 der overseers, woofers, and warpers, is, as far as 

 I can learn, a new fact in spider life. The project- 

 ing ends of grass roots and the like were skillful- 

 ly used to keep the canopy about all round away 

 from the clay. This fabric was seen, besides 

 other persons, by two members of the Brighton 

 and Sussex Natural History Society. It was so 

 fine that the unassisted eye looking straight upon it 

 could not see it, but when viewed at favorable an- 

 gles both warp and woof were clearly discernable, 

 and on very close ins])ection I discovered a few 

 little holes. _ One of the Brighton naturalists who 

 saw it says it resembled in shape "a scull cap ;" 

 and the other naturalist, although fresh from the 



