560 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



dent. A good article of sumac, properly prepared, 

 brings double the sum named by H. E. T. 



MEAL FOR MANVRK. 



It was stated in the Farmer some weeks since 

 that the tobacco fanners of the Connecticut valley 

 were using corn, l)arley and other mcul for manure. 

 As the price per pound of such substances is much 

 lower than that of most of the commercial ma- 

 nures, as the chance for adulteration is vastly less, 

 and as there is no trouble in getting them at a fair | 

 market price anywhere, wc should feel much in- 

 terest in the statement of men who have used them 

 in regard to their working. 



Cotton seed meal is said to make a riclier ma- 

 nure when fed, than corn or wheat. I have just 

 top-dressed two square rods of grass ground, one 

 with twelve and one-half pounds cotton seed meal, 

 and the other with same amount corn meal. This 

 would be equal to one ton, or forty bushels per 

 acre. These grains contain all the elements ne- 

 cessary for plant food. They are easily obtained 

 and applied. It seems to me reasonal)le to suppose 

 that these substances would make a cheaper and 

 more relial)le fertilizer for hill application than 

 any of the guanos, poudrettes ur phosphates in 

 the market. 



It is not too late for experiments to test their fer- 

 tilizing value in some measure this fall, on winter 

 grains and mowing lands. , f. 



Franklin, Mass., 6vpt. 4, 1S71. 



RfeMARKs.— The following paragraph, clipped 

 from the Springfield, Mass., Homestead, is the only 

 report of the results of experiments in the use of 

 Indian meal that we have seen. Mr. L. G. Curtis 

 decided when he cut his tobacco, that the crop 

 where he used the Indian meal was worth one-third 

 more than it was where he used the same worth of 

 other fertilizers. He has been trying different 

 modes of enriching his land for several years ; has 

 used hay ploughed in, and sometimes ploughs in a 

 crop of rye, green, both of which have given good 

 satisfaction. 



TIME AND MODE FOR TRANSPLANTING CEDARS. 



I wouM like some information in regard to setting 

 cedar hedges. Can it lie done in the fall,— Septem- 

 ber or October, safely ; and how far apart in the 

 row sJiould they be set ? A Svhscriher. 



Jericho, ['t.,'Aug. ^0, 1S71. 



Remarks. — We have had the best success in 

 transplanting evergreens late in the spring, about 

 the time the buds are well swollen. In England 

 the fall is considered a favorable time ; but their 

 winters are very difierent from ours. But at what- 

 ever season evergreens are transplanted, we think it 

 very important that the roots should be exposed to 

 sun or light as little as possible. Out of the 

 ground, the roots of evergreens are almost as much 

 out of their natural clement as a fish is when out 

 of water; and the one will die almost as soon as 

 the other, when thus exposed. Transplanted in a 

 rainy or cloudy day, or oy night, with a good ball 

 of earth attached, cedars might live if removed in 

 the fall. In most soils the cedar is liable to die 

 out near the base, and give the hedge a bad look. 

 The tlistancc apart of the plants should be deter- 

 mined, in part at least, by the height you intend 

 the trees shall be allowed to attain. In his book 



on Evergreens, Mr. Hoopes recommends twelve to 

 titteen inches for arbor vitre, hemlock, &c., and for 

 pines, itc, for a large hedge or screen, three, four 

 and more feet. 



FLOWING MEADOWS. 



Your correspondent F. of Franklin, Mass., 

 wishes me to give a "chapter on my personal expe- 

 rience in regard to letting on water to meadows to 

 increase their fertilitv." In response to \\\nv\\ I 

 will say that in 1864 t built a short dam and tiowed 

 a small meadow of three or four acres, letting tlie 

 water renuiin on all winter. The ice tarried the 

 dam oft' in the spring, and it has not since been rc- 

 liuilt. The succeeding summer I found the hay 

 crop Increased from two ox loads to five; Init the 

 quality of the hay was far Inferior, — most of the 

 high ground grasses being killed out. Since tliat 

 time the crop has gradually decreased till the pres- 

 ent year, when I have secured only the two ox 

 loads that it usually cut before the dam was Imilt. 



My intention now is to ditch dry, plough and 

 reseed with herdsgrass, put down a Inilk head again 

 and flow in March or the first of April, one or two 

 weeks, when the snow Is going off; the water of 

 which, according to Dana, contains unusual rich- 

 ness, particularly in amount of ammonia. Tlicn 

 draw off dry as possible by means of the ditches 

 before mentioned, and the quality of grass will not 

 be injured, and the fertility will be kept up forever 

 without top-dressing with compost or leached ashes 

 or any other manure whatever, so long as this an- 

 nual flowing and draining shall take place. 



I should advise F. not to heed the warnings of 

 his neighbors that "the land will be made S(nir." 

 If sucirshould be the case, a few bushels of slacked 

 lime to the acre, sown broadcast, at a small cost, 

 will be a complete remedy. But does the annual 

 flooding of the earth by fall rains and melting 

 snows make "the land sour ?" 



SALT FOR CATTLE. 



Another of your correspondents has taken the 

 ground that salt lsin,)urious to cattle. The present 

 summer I found a valuable ox dead In my pasture 

 where I keep salt In a trough most of the time. 

 The ox was perfectly Avell, so far as I knew, the 

 last time I put salt there, and from appearances, he 

 must have died soon after. t>omeof my ncighliurs 

 think that he died from eating too much salt. But 

 If such was the case, why did not more of the 

 twenty-two head that were in the pasture die also f 

 I have, however, since disc^irded the trough, and 

 put down a handful for each head on the ground. 

 Will some of the correspondents of the Farmhi 

 give an opinion, with facts, relating to the above ? 



Epping, N. I{.,1871. M. J. Harvey. 



Old Rose Bushes.— A subscriber sends 

 the following on the management of old rose 

 bushes to ^e New York Observer: "Never 

 give up a choice but decaying rose bush till 

 you have tried watering it tAvo or three times 

 a week with soot tea. Take soot from a chim- 

 ney or stove in which wood is burned, and 

 make a tea of it. When cold, water the rose 

 with it. When all is used, pour boiling water 

 a second time on the soot. The shrub will 

 (piickly send out thrifty shoots, the leaves will 

 become large and thick, and the blossoms will 

 be larger and more richly tinted than before. 

 To keep plants clear of insects, syringe them 

 with Quassia tea. Quassia chips can be ob- 

 tained at an apothecary's. 



