No. 8. 



ANDGARDENER'SJOURNAL. 



119 



ly be formed; still I must insist, tbnt to a lormcr, these 

 etudiee are not the '* weightier matters of the low." 

 I would have him first learn to know something about 

 those sciences which pertain to agriculture. He 

 should know that wheat cannot degenerate into chees; 

 that in sandy land the fertilizing gasses of manure do 

 not escape by "leaching." That rotten, e.xhausted 

 manure is not as valuable as it is in its unfcrmented 

 otalc, &c. &c. 



I repeat, that if a farmer's son has a knowledge of 

 the theory as well oa the practice of his own calling, 

 he is one of nature's noblemen, and he will never be 

 considered as either ignorant or vulgar. S. VV. 



Seneca Co., Jiibj IS, 1840. 



Irrigation. 



Messes. Editors — In England, where they kno^ 

 tardlyany thing about our scorching suns, I am told 

 that irrigation is always practised where the situation 

 will admit of it. How much more necessary then is 

 it in our climate. I have a clayey garden on the bank 

 of the Seneca Canal, — it lies from a level to three 

 feet below the surface of the canal. Until this season 

 I have taken no pains to let the water on to it; but the 

 dry, hot weather now set in so early, that I could but 

 sympathize with those suffering plants which had not 

 yet acquired sufficient size or depth of root to resist its 

 power. I let in the water througli small gutters be- 

 tween the hills and rows of vegetables. Its genial in- 

 tlucnce was instantaneous; in ten days my early pota- 

 toes grew two thirds in size of tubor. In fact 1 have 

 never been able to get any thing like a fair yield of 

 potatoes in this garden before. Cucumbers grew 

 cf|ually fast, even beans and marrowfat peas bore testi- 

 mony to its quickening power. 



I am of opinion that garden vegetables often suffer 

 from want of moisture, that they stand still long be- 

 fore they exhibit a visible show of suffering; that a ju- 

 dicious supply of water, laterally applied, will perfect 

 vegetation during the hot weather with ten fold rapid- 

 ity. S. W. 



Fop the iVcuj Genesee Farmer. 

 Farmei-s' Daughters. 



Your fair correspondent Annette has hit off, quite lo 

 the life, the moral defects which a fashionable board- 

 ing school sometimes entails upon a farmer's daughter. 

 Verily that rusticity which necessarily attaches to the 

 present (but I trust not permanent) social condition of 

 the farmer, is better, far better, than that affectation of 

 effeminate gentility, which marks the character of so 

 many school girls from the country. 



But I apprehend that the boarding school (call it 

 fashionable if you please) is not so much at fault as the 

 previous domestic education of the pupil. Ill inform- 

 ed, unlettered mothers, and even fathers, have very 

 crude notions of what ought to be learnt by their 

 daughters, in order to make them truly genteel. Such 

 is the great simplicity of some parents, that they look 

 upon the teacher as a mugicinn, who ought, for a suffi- 

 cient Sffwi of moncijj to transfer to the pupil the whole 

 value thereof, like an article of merchandize. * Such 

 parents are often so fur mystified by the glitter and tin- 

 Bel of fashion, and superficial accomplishment, that 

 they count as nothing that discipline and laborious ex- 

 ercise of mind, 8 1 necessary to consummate the char- 

 acter of an intelligent, virtuous woman. 



With such notions, imbibed from the parent, the 

 daughter enters the school. From her more studious, 

 plain, plodding school mates, she turns with distaste; 

 while, to the idle, gossipping and extravagant — the 



*To tlie gross ignorance ami credulity of such parents, 

 (andtliey r.re Ie;;ion.) must lie attriljutcilUie success uf IJiat 

 host of empirics, who go a'loui the country pretending to 

 teach the uri of writing (Chirogrnphy) in twelve lessons ; 

 the whole spoken and written lar.guage of Die Freaoli in 

 twenty 'CS3011S ; and Pi;uio For'.c music, to the uiosl olidu- 

 rate taste, or intra'ttabic uic'hanical ttbilit\-. in as many 

 more. L. 



fearfully excited spoiled ones of wealth, she clings 

 with an admiring and even obsequious tenacity. 



Hence it is, that, in spite of the discipline of the 

 best school, the farmer's daughter sometimes comes 

 out of it with few real graces, and less learning; with 

 a distaste for the sober realities of her own home; 

 with her head completely turned, a fit subject to fall a 

 victim for life to some brainless coxcomb, oi beggaily, 

 untutored fop I I 1 



A good education must begin at home, — the fallow 

 ground mitst be prepared there, by patient and early 

 labor, or the crop will be choked by unsightly weeds 1 ! 



Seneca Co., Jidij 19, 1840. LUBIN. 



Fruin the American Farmer. 

 Ourowu Husbandry. 



Not ouu oicn, hut the Husbandry uf Mr. A. Drew, 

 Eilitorof tlie "Maine Cultitator." 

 We do not know when we have read any thiiig 

 with more satisi'action than we did what follows, Irom 

 the pen of a brother quill-driver — but bow can oite be 

 called a quill-driver, who inflicts it upon his readers, 

 OS we do, with a sfccl pen ? 



There is, they say, no mode of teaching so emphat- 

 ic and effective, as that of teaching by example '. We 

 may write much, and with some effect, on manuring 

 highly, and well cultivating a little land, in preference 

 to going over a large surface to obtain the same results, 

 with five times the labor; but how much more eftica- 

 cious is the lesson when praelicnily taught ? When, 

 as in this case, the Lecturer tells how he actually drew 

 support for his family — in vegetables, pork, mi'k, and 

 butter from a single acre ! Most gladly would we imi- 

 tate our worthy brother who cultivates his acre "most- 

 ly with his own hand." We have long been a convert 

 to the (Afory of plentiful manuring and careful cultiva- 

 tion; and no one entertains a higher notion than we, 

 of the healthfidness of agricuUural labor ! Of all 

 pursuits, the ploughman's is the most wholesome as 

 well as upright, — but we must confess, that after 

 repeated trials, we have found all actual labor, ac- 

 tually very fatiguing 1 The axe — the hoe — the spade 

 — the scythe, and the plough, have each had its brief 

 trial; but, to our shame, we admit that with neither 

 could we keep up our intercourse long enough to con- 

 tract that familiar acquaintance which is necessary to a 

 certain slight of hand, without which, unfortunately, 

 they cannot be handled with advantage. Few things 

 are so entertaining as to stand by and direct and see 

 others work — so much so that we are even plnying 

 overseer without wages. But let not our reader's at- 

 tention be any longer drawn from Mr. Drew. 



"The Editor's notions maybe peculiar, but he 

 hardly thinks that it is necessary for a man to skim 

 over his hundreds of acres for the security of stinted 

 crops, in order to qualify him as a practical writer on 

 the subject of agriculture. On the contrary, he is in- 

 clined to think, that even "a little laud, well tilled," 

 by him, gives him as good a claim to speak by way of 

 suggestion and advice, as if he were a larger and more 

 slovenly farmer. True, all his land is a garden;, but 

 this is only what, or nearly what, every farmer should 

 make of all which he cultivates. What is the use of 

 skimming over ten acres to obtain what mightbe secu- 

 red from a single acre ? Must he who does that be 

 called a firmer, whilst he who does this should be set 

 donnas wanting in a practical knowledge of the prin- 

 ciples of agricultural economy ! 



The Editor actually orterHte but a single acre of 

 Irnd, but t/iat he does culiicate, and makes it yield all 

 that land can yield. Nor, small as the quantity is, is 

 the amount of subsiance obtained from it unimportant 

 in the support of a small fainily. — One-third of on 

 acre he devotes annually to corn — the long tared, 

 large clevelled, eight rowed, yellow enrn, that is not 

 very early, and not very late. With him, it has ri- 

 pened every year for the last ten years that he has cul- 

 tivated it. "The soil he makes rich. He applies to it, 

 before manuring, at the rale of eighteen or twenty 

 cordsof long manure to the acre, (or six to the third of 

 an acre,) and turns it under by the plough. He 

 plants the hills three feet and a half apart one way, and 

 three feet the other — exactly by measuring with a line. 

 In each hill he depositcs either a shovel full of old rotted 

 manure, or as much night manure as will not over 

 stimulate the crop. From this third of an acre he has 

 realized on the average for years, over thirty bushels 

 ol sound corn for grinding, besides a tilth pig com for 

 the hogs in the fall of the year. This is as much corn 

 as he needs in his laniily; besides a sufficient surplus 

 f"r fattening one large "i two small hogs. From tho 



same land he ordinarily obtains some two or three hun- 

 dred pumpkins, which serve important purposes in tho 

 family, besides being an excellent article for boiling up 

 with the hog's potatoes, giving a cow, &c. From tho 

 snine land, too, he has generally obtained all the dry 

 white beans he has needed in his family to go with hia 

 pork — which he raises by the avails of his land, with- 

 out purchasing of olhers. The corn fodder is careful- 

 ly cut and cured, and helps as a subaistance for tho 

 cow. So much for one-third of an acre. 



A small portion of land is set opart for the cultiva- 

 tion of onions. Ordinarily he has raised from fifty to 

 seventy-five bushels on o bed, soy half a dozen roda 

 square. These he sells, on the overage ot one dollar 

 per bushel — say for .'JfiO per year. This purchases 

 his rye and Hour at common prices. So that from the 

 first third of an acre, and an onion bed, he raises all 

 his breod — brown and white. 



On one or two large beds, he grows about fifty bush- 

 els of mangel wurtzels and carrots. These are for the 

 cow's winter provender. They more than pay for 

 themselves in the milk and butter — to say nothing in 

 the saving of hoy and other provender. With a eery 

 little hay, together with the corn fodder and roots, a 

 goon cow — and he linds it economy alwaysto keep the 

 best — may be kept through the winter. 



Potatoes for summer and outiimn use, are planted 

 on the margins, and whereever there is a vacant 

 chance for a hill, and a department is expressly devo- 

 ted to them, large enough to raise all that are wonted 

 for the table — and enough to spare for the hogs, &c. 



So far, as relates to bread, butter, pork — and he 

 might add, poultry. 



'Then the rest of the land is devoted to — too many 

 things to be mentioned here — beets — parsnips — cobba- 

 ges — turnips — green beans — peas — green corn — cu- 

 cumbers — melons — squashes, summer and winter 

 sorts — &c. &c., besides fruits and flowers of vatioua 

 kinds; — grapes, Antwerp raspberries, black do., cur- 

 rants, white, red, black, and yellow; — English and 

 common gooseberries — and a few choice apple, 

 pear, plum, cherry, and quince trees. All this is from 

 a single acre, which he cultivates mostly with his own 

 hand — the same hand that guides this pen; — prefer- 

 ring to do the work himself, not only by the love he 

 has of it, but because he can do it more to his own sat- 

 isfaction than can any gardener he can hire. As to 

 the practical labors in this matter, he would not wil- 

 lingly yield to any one hereabouts. At least he has 

 never had a man to work for him — how high soever 

 he might stand as a gardener — whom he could not 

 teach." 



Another leaf out of the same book. 

 "SQUASHES. — If you would raise squasesfor winter 

 use, mark out on the surface of the land six or eight 

 spots for hills, eight feet apart each way. Then take 

 a spade or shovel and digout a circle, say three I'eet in 

 diameter, throwing the earth out six inches deep. In- 

 to each hole empty a wheel-barrow load of old rotten 

 manure, mixed with ashes, — ond if there is a little 

 lime in it, so much the better. On this draw the 

 loose earth back which you throwed out of the hole. 

 Now take your epade and dig and mix the soil and 

 earth well together, taking core to pulverize the whole 

 mass foithfully. Level the top off and sprinkle half 

 an inch of rich loam over the top. Drop a dozen 

 seeds on the hill, and press them on inch beneath the 

 surface with the finger. With a hoe smooth and press 

 the top down. If you have a box fitted to receive two 

 or four panes of gloss, put this on a hill — or rather, if 

 you have such a thing, place it on the hill before you 

 plant the seeds, ond drop them all within the frame. 

 Ultimately- leave not more than two plants in the hill 

 to stand. You will find that these will, in due time, 

 run out and cover the laud oil over, and produce you 

 more, larger ond better fruit, than if you hod the hills 

 nearer together, or ollowed o grcoter number of plants 

 to stand in the hill. It is well, however, to plant 

 enough in the first instance, as a contribution to worms 

 and bugs. If you save two healthy plonts out of the 

 dozen thnt came up, you will do well, ond these will 

 be enough. The roots of squashes under ground, will 

 extend as tor and occuiiy as much space where the soil 

 is free ond loose, as the vines will cover above ground." 



A targe and Productive Grape Vine. 



There is a Grape Vine at Castleton, Ireland, which 

 is 100 leet in length, and so luxuriantly productive as 

 to make it necessary for the gaidener to thin it by cut- 

 ling off 2000 bunches, leaving 3500 bunches on the 

 vine. — Eng. paper. 



The more pressing is the call, the more ought we 

 to be convinced of the necessity of paying immediate 

 Htlenlion to it. 



