So. 6. 



AND G A R D E N E R 'S J O U R N A L. 



85 



Sugar Beet, . 



INJURED IN ITS QUALITY BY FRESH STABLE MANURES. 



All nrticle in the North American Review, on the 

 history of Sugar, contains the following hints : — 



"In 1809 — 10 experiments were recommenced in 

 France, particularly by M. Deyeux, oF the Institute, 

 which resulted in the production of n ccnsiderable 

 quantity of sugar — [but] — no more than 2 per cent, 

 was obtained, — the beets being of a bad sort and rais- 

 ed in the neigborhood of Paris, whore a vast deal ol 



AM5I0NIACAL MANURE, hostUc tO l/lC production (</" SAC- 

 CHARINE, is used." 



"In 1811, M. Drappier, of Lille, obtained 2i per 

 rem. of sugar. In the winter of the same year, an 

 experiment at Paris succeeded in obtaining 4i per cent. 

 from WHITE BEETS, raised at a considerable distance 

 from Paris, and tcithout uny vianurc." 



These hints arc all that I tind on the subject by this 

 writer; but C. L. Fleiehmann, in his memorial to 

 Congress on Beet Culture, says, " The beet requires 

 a deep soil, sufficiently provided with f/cco//y70>-e(/ ?«rt- 

 nurf, as lohen planted in green \fre^K] manure, they 

 i/icld much less sugar." He therefore reconmiends 

 manuring the previous year, and planting with In- 

 dian corn and pumpkins, which are also to be manu- 

 factured for sugar. 



Have we then the curious fact that '"ammonical ma- 

 nure" is not " hostile to the production of saccharine" 

 n Indian corn and pumpkins, while it is decidedly in- 

 jurious to the beet ? How, when, where, and by 

 whom, were these discoveries made ? and what wri- 

 ter has treated of the subject at large ? X 



Sugar Beets. 



After all the eulogisms on the proiil of Sugar Beets, 

 I think I can eay it is the very thing for this region, 

 Seneca county.) Our climate is too subject to 

 summer drought for ruta baga to succeed every year. 

 ?otatoes suffer from the same cause. But sugar beets, 

 iven when planted on clay, (well ameliorated,) shade 

 lie ground so much by their large leaves, that drought 

 Iocs not affect them. Plant early. I have had trans- 

 ilanted beets grow larger than from the seed; the 

 ransplanting was done m a wet time, about 5th June, 

 .nd done with care. Some of the beets weighed 91bs. 

 .nd grew mostly above groimd. Ruta bagas, planted 

 ide by side, were small,' and worm eaten. S. W. 



Harvesting Ruta Baga. 



Messrs. Editors — I do not remember to have 

 sen any description of the method which we have 

 tractieed for the last two years, to harvest the ruta ba- 

 ;a. It may not be new to all your readers, but if to 

 me, it will do some good, and will pay that person for 

 lis year's subscription. 



We cut the tops before pulling, with a common hoe, 

 ;round sharp; then rake them off into heaps, and pull 

 he turnips with what is called here a dung hook, 

 leing much like a two pronged fork bent at right an- 

 jles to the handle. I think we save at least half the 



jf oh^pf harvesting in this manner. 



,rii. ^5 we did not raise beets, or carrots, I cannot say 

 vhether the same plan would work equally with them, 

 « far as cutting off the tope. 



We lost several bushels of our roots by their being 

 niried too deep, I am satisfied there is more danger 

 a be apprehended from too deep than too shallow co- 



,Jfering. 



From the experience which we have had, I believe 

 iere is not sufficient attention paid to the root culture 

 n this section of the state. It is gaining favour slow- 

 y with the farmers, and has increased within the last 

 5ve years in this region nearly an hundred per cent.— 

 The public favor is at present divided between the su- 



5«r beet, the carrot, and the ruta baga. Large crops 



',.. if each kind have come under my knowledge in the 



farmer to make his straw a good substitute for hay, 

 and thus add greatly to the productiveness of his 

 farm. Sincerely Yours, 



J. C. PETERS. 

 Darien, May 16, 1840. 



ImproTed Horses Wanted in Oneida Co. 



Messrs. Editors — I am n farmer residing in Onei- 

 da county, and believing that there is great need of 

 improvement in the breed of our horses, I regret that 

 no more has been said in our agricultural papers on 

 the subject. It costs about as much to raise a colt that 

 will sell for only fifty dollars, as it does to raise one 

 worth one hundred and fifty. In the counties of Mad- 

 ison, Herkimer, Cayuga, and Oneida, I do not be- 

 lieve there is one really good stallion. And there 

 are many wealthy farmers in these counties, who 

 would willingly pay a handsome price for the services 

 of a first rate horse. I cannot but think that if some 

 person would introduce such a horse into the county of 

 Oneida, he would be well remunerated. The kind of 

 horse we want is one whose stock would, make what 

 are called ^^rs* rale carriage horses. We do not want 

 the unwieldy English cart horse; they are too alow 

 and too heavy for our use. Neither do we want the 

 breed of race horses; they may suit the sporting gen- 

 tlemen of the south, but we eastern farmers want 

 a horse that will combine the most usefulness with 

 activity and beauty. 



If you or any of your readers can inform us where 

 such a horse can be found, within any reasonable dis- 

 tance of Utica, and will insert a notice thereof in your 

 next paper, you will confer a favor on more than one 



May 6, 1840. ONEIDA FARMER. 



jut two years. On wheat farms I consider the root 

 RUlttire as indispeneible, inasmuch as it enables the 



Rural Taste. 



When at Newport, R. J., last summer, in passing 

 up Prospect Hill, a walk which gives one of the thou- 

 sand and one enchanting views of that "fairest Isle of 

 the Ocean;" I noticed a beautiful cottage whose piaz- 

 za in front instead of being supported in the usual 

 way by white Grecian columns, there was used as a 

 substitute, rough cedar posts, around one of which 

 clambered an Ivy — around onolher a Woodbine — then 

 the Azalea Japonica, Glauca, &o. &c. The rough 

 exterior of each simple poet was thus made the con- 

 ductor of Nature's own architecture, which, together 

 with the other "surroundings" of shrubbery and flo- 

 ral decorations, gave me a kindly feeling, mingled 

 with respect, for the unusual good taste of the inmates 

 or proprietor of the cottage. 



On inquiry, I learned that this was the summer 

 retreot of Finn, the celebrated comedian, who was 

 since lost in the Lexington. 'Tis said that this man 

 "loved nature for herself, and rural nature above all." 

 But, like Fanny Kemble Butler, he loathed "oronge 

 peel and paint," and the other factitious things of his 

 profession, from the very bottom of his heart. 



In riding about our beautiful lake country, I am al- 

 ways astonished at the evidences of uncommon agri- 

 cultural wealth. We have no precipitous, cold, wet 

 mountain land, no rocks of the sandstone family, no 

 swamps, no barren heaths, the whole substratum of 

 our region is a continuous fertilizing fossil. Nature 

 seems to have decided that our country should be the 

 most salubrious and fairest portion of her great do- 

 main. 



Of late it has been discovered that the deep chrystal 

 waters of our lakes are inhabited by numerous shoals 

 of the largest Trout. As our wood decreases, we 

 have the bituminous coal of Western Pennsylvania, 

 brought by rail road and water to our own door. Our 

 main rail road and steam boats on the North River, 

 has almost annihilated the distance between this region 

 and our great commercial New- York. But what 

 has man done to second nature — by improving all her 



blessings — liy the proper study of her simple, yet al- 

 ways impressive lessons in rural taste ? I answer, 

 nothing. 



If I had ever seen ten modern farm houses, built in 

 the form, or copying the simplicity of that which the 

 proprietor might have felt to he, Shenstonc or Wards- 

 worth's hcau ideal of a rural tenement, 1 would be 

 less severe in judgment. 



The village copies the city, and in like, (ht me call 

 it distempered J taste, the country copies the village. 

 How often do we see a farm house painted white, with 

 green blinds, standing on some bleak eminence, end to 

 the road, high proportions, as if the proprietor expect- 

 ed to lay out his whole front line in village lots; not a 

 tree of the original forest around it, or if perchance a 

 single oak has been spared, the axe of modern vanda- 

 lism, has made deep incisions into its trunk, the dead- 

 ly effects of which, nothing but the superior power of 

 its parent soil enables it to overcome. In the front 

 windows you see perchonce two or three dusty, star- 

 ved house plants, tended by unskilful fingers, or lan- 

 guishing neglected in clay pots, as if the farmer's 

 daughter meant only to imitate, or perhaps caricature 

 the fashion of the village, without a single impulse of 

 taste or enthusiasm in the matter. Not even a stinted 

 lawn, not a bush or clambering vine, relieves the eye 

 from the sepulchral whiteness of the house. Perhaps 

 a cabbage garden thrust out to the road side, is the on- 

 ly thing that brings the imaginotion back from the ten- 

 ements of the dead, to the edible comforts of the liv- 

 ing. S. W. 



Scnccaco., May 10, 1840. 



Insects (Aphis) on Fruit Trees* 



Messrs. Editors — Some of my fruit trees are cov- 

 ered with small insects resembling Uce, which I am 

 fearful will kill them. I have applied no remedy, be- 

 cause I know of none which I think will destroy them 

 without injuring the trees. I therefore apply to you, 

 and if you, or your correspondents, can give me some 

 information about these insects, with the means of 

 their destruction, you will oblige many readers in this 

 county, where trees are infested with them. 



Ontario CO., 3Ia.y, 1840. W". 



Remarlcs. — The insect mentioned above is too well 

 known to farmers and gardeners in this vicinity. The 

 genus Aphia embraces many species and varieties 

 commonly called lice, which infest trees and plants. — 

 In the green house and nursery they are very trouble- 

 some, and many kinds of garden vegetables, as cabba- 

 ges, &c., are frequently infested with them. They 

 sometimes attack fruit trees in the orchard or garden, 

 and greatly injure, although seldom destroy them. Va 

 riousmethods have been recommended for destroying 

 these insects, but all that we have seen are either difE- 

 cult of opplication, or but partially effectual. The fol- 

 lowing extract fr»m the Cultivator, contains some in- 

 formation on this subject :— 



"The true aphis are nsuoUy very small, their bodies 

 of a short consistence, the eyes entire, and the abdo- 

 men furnished with two horn-like projections at its 

 posterior extremity. Their movements in wolking are 

 slow, they cannot leop, and during a large part of their 

 lives are without wmgs. They have no proper 

 mouth, but are furnished with o sucker which they 

 use in extracting the fluids of plants which constitutes 

 their food. When the ophis first appears in the spring, 

 they are usually solitary, and all females. These give 

 birth to living young, and these, too, are females — the 

 males not being produced until late in the season.— 

 Unlike any other known insect, the females thus 

 produced continue to multiply their numbers without 

 connexion with the male — the effect of the parental 

 impregnation extending, according to Huber and 

 Bonnet, to no less than eight gcneraiions. The effect 

 of this singular mode of re-production, ia a multipli- 

 cation of such rapidity, that Remur calculates a single 

 mother in five generations may be the means of pro- 

 ducing 5,904;900,000 I Every farmer witnesses in- 

 stances of this rapid increase. A single female fixes 



