,0. o. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



69 



I I'ltiiees. Hence, in tlie spring of the year, ihey 

 in gieaily to aid by their activity in the eliin, in 

 k iil; the poorest cattle still more unable to increase 

 ir flesh. The more special care of the fanner 

 U to be bestowed npon sucli parts of his herd. 

 ■ raine is true also of the sheep; the iroorer suffer 

 i li more from those insects which have been depo- 

 -i M their nose. It is from the consequences of 

 5 Ian, that some judicious farmers never intend to 

 1.' ;• an inferior animal. 



\\ 11, lo mnicing such general and wonderful laws of 

 niiiiual world, itmay be well to explain a fact, sin- 

 u till understood. In summer and the hottest 

 : -I the day, sheep congregate beside fences and 

 - and the like, holding their beads down and be- 

 en their forelegs, till suddenly they run in terror 

 ] !;"glu to another part of the field, where the same 

 no 13 acted over. It is to avoid the insect that lays 

 ' i-'iTs in ibeir nostrils, that all this is done. In the 

 ■ ! u'eather, or cooler part of the day, the insect is 

 'live, and doe- not annoy them. 

 !i; respect to bols as a disease, it is to be remarked 

 i;i other diseases are often mistaken for it. Hence 

 - ino reason why the remedy applied often fails 

 Jesired success. Sometimes other animals ag- 

 e tbebots, and would prove fatal without the oth- 

 I have seen worms from four to six inches long, 

 :r. iig the liver and some other intestines of ahorse 

 .; wiiasick with botsaud died from one orbothcau- 

 I. It would be well if more frequent and carefnl 

 Tiiinatlons of the body were made in such cases, 

 vements in anatomical knowledge have been of 

 i'hest consequence to the understanding and cure 

 me diseases of man. Similar results might be ex- 

 i' J from like examinations, to ascertain the seat 

 i cause of disease in the horse, the noblest and 

 ist useful of our domestic animals. 



C. DEWEY. 



applied to some plum trees last season by our friend 

 Tboiuas Lcfever of the town of Venice. It consists 

 of a circular trongh made of tin, which was kept con- 

 stantly supplied with water; and the narrow space be- 

 tween the trough and the tree siufli;d with tow or 

 something similar. The trees so treated bore good 

 crops, while not a plum on the other trees cscoped. 

 A few of the plums however, were found to be wormy, 

 occasioned perhaps by some of the insects remaining 

 on the tree when the troughs were applied; and it 

 would therefore be prudent to jar the trees at that time. 

 About harvest the apparatus should be removed. 



Tin troughs of that description are worth about 

 eighteen pence; but the person who applies them, 

 must understand the art of soldering. t 



The Cuiculio. 



Now is the time to attend to the Curculio; and to 

 ■e your plums, nectarines, and apricots from des- 

 ction. We believe the winter-residence of this in- 

 .■t bos not been satisfactorily ascertained, thotigh it is 

 ibably in the earth; but for practical purposes, it 

 >y be sufficient to know that it is always ready for 

 sincss as soon as there ia any thing to do — always 

 uly to puncture the young fruit as soon as it is large 

 nigh to receive a nit. 



Several methods have been proposed or adopted, to 

 event its depredations. Spreading sheets under the 

 ■0. and kimcking down the Curculio on them, by 

 living the trunk or branches with a mallet or ham- 



:. has been found very successful. The insect af- 

 r ii has fallen, generally lies still long enough to be 

 light and crnshed; and its dark color contrasting 

 )iu the whiteiiets of the sheet, favors its detection. 

 ilia work should be done as early in the season as the 

 predator can be found. In a few days it may do 

 Hch mischief, and it is no easier killed after the 

 eepass is committed. 



Some have employed turpentine round the tree, and 

 l; of shingles dangling in the wind to frighten the 

 urculio away; but we are not prepared to say any 

 nng in their favor. The most recentproject that we 

 " r noticed is to dip strings in the drops that fall from 

 fi rubber as it burns, and then to tie them round 

 1' tree, which it is supposed will be sufficicnily viscid 

 ) arrest the insect in its ascent. We should be gratified 

 1 hear of any successful experiments of this kind; 

 ut though we have gone so far as to environ one tree 

 n the manner proposed, our hopes are not very san- 

 (uine. 



The most successful fixture to prevent the ascent 

 t tUit insect thtu has come to our knowledge, was 



From the Alhani/ Cullivfttor, 



ThR Sugar Ceet. 



Messrs. Gaylokd & Ti'ckkr — I have noticed in 

 the late numbers of the Cultivator, Dr. Guthrie's and 

 Mr. Beiuent's attacks on the sugar beet, insinuating 

 that it is an almost worthless root for the feeding of 

 slock; and as the opinions of these gentlemen, with 

 partial experiments, are directly at variance to those of 

 the most eminent agriculturists of France and Ger- 

 many, after an ex|)erience of more than thirty years, 

 and to those also of many of our own counirymcn, af- 

 ter trying it with satisfactory effect aoout five years; 

 and as I had the honor of oppearing in tlic fast May 

 number of the Cultivator, strongly recommending ils 

 production and feeding, I feel bound to make some 

 comments on these communications, and reiterate my 

 own experience in the feeding qualities, of what I con- 

 sider as one of the most valuable of roots. 



I am perfectly satisfied by Dr. G's statement of the 

 analysis that he made of the beet, vol. viii. p. 40, mat 

 he was either grossly imposed upon, in the purchase of 

 seed, and had grown the mangel wurtzel instead of 

 the white Siletian, or that he had planted it in so rich 

 a vegetutHe soil, as lo produce so jank a growth as to 

 almost destroy the saccharine matter that is usually 

 found in it, especially when he adds, that " the bee'.e 

 brought upon our talde are totally destitute of sweet- 

 ness." Now I have not only my own taste for three 

 years in eucceseion, lo prove that ihesugar beets rais- 

 ed in and about Buffalo, are exceedingly stocct and 

 nutritions, but can also luring a hundred witnesses at 

 any time to corroborate the assertion, from their own 

 daily eating. The famous blood beet cannot com- 

 pare with the sweet, tender Silesian, and as for man- 

 gel wurtzel and other beets, they are almost tasteless 

 al'ter them; and they are never boiled in a pot by 

 themselves, that there is not a sweet syrup at the bot- 

 tom, almost of thickness and agreeable taste of eugar- 

 molasses, which, in my opinion, only want lo be clarifi- 

 ed and graduated to make good suaar. So much (or per- 

 sonal taste and experience; now for that of stock. I 

 know that fed raw to cov>'s, they considerably added 

 to the quantity and especially the quality of the miih, 

 making the butter as sweet, and almost as yellow as 

 is produced on fresh summer's grass: they also keep 

 them, with the addition of hoy alone, in the best pos- 

 sible order; and the yonng stock fed on ihem, togeih- 

 er with hay, were as fat and almost as fine and glossy 

 in their coats, as when on the best of summer pasture. 

 I never tried them with horses, butshould hordly think 

 them hearty food enough for those at work. Not 

 keeping sheep, of course I could not experiment with 

 them; but others speak very flatteringly on this point, 

 as may be seen from some comiuunicatione that went 

 the rounds the year past in most of the agriculturol pa- 

 pers, copied, I think, from the Philadelphia Cabinet. 

 Bceis there were said to produce the best of mutton, 

 and the finest of wecj. 



The most important use, however, that I have made 

 of them, is with hogs. But as my breeds embrace on- 

 ly the China and Berkshire, it is in reference to ibese 

 superior animals alone that I can s;ieak; and here it I 

 seems that Dr. Guthrie's Berkshires did tolerably 

 well, while his others almost starved. The first win- 1 

 ter I kept my grown swine partly on beets and partly 

 on potatoes, raw; the second winter almost exclusive- 

 ly on raw beets, thrown to them on the ground. I 

 did not notice any difference whatever in their appear- 

 ance during these two seasons, but each time they were 

 kept in as good tlesh as ever I wish to have breeders, 

 and they were by no means allowed to eat their fill ol 

 them either. 'The third winter, (the last,) having 

 erected a steaming apjiaralus, with a new piggery, I 

 commenced cooking the feed for my hogs, and hace 

 rcquontly i. e mod beeis alone ond fed them to all 



ages, from the pig two months old, up to the grown 

 animal of four years. To the Inst, 1 lutd lo stint ihem 

 lo a common water pail half full twice a day, or say 

 fiom eight lo ten quarts, or they would get loo tat for 

 breeding; and as to ihe former, with the addition of a 

 trifling quantity of corn, I never taw onimals ihrivo 

 better, or more contented in my life. Thi y would 

 fill their bellies and lie down in their straw, and dose 

 away for bonis together as contented os puppies and 

 IIS whist as mice; and this sunk thus trcaicd, I om 

 not afraid to show, cither for general size or finenefls 

 of point, ogaiUBt any thing in the United Slates, sa- 

 ving my late importation, and that only fur great 

 weight, these lost being some what of a larger class thon 

 IS usu:.l among Berkshirca. During this same wiiitcr 

 I steamed a mixture of carrots und jioiniues wiih tbo 

 beets occasionally; but in feedinii 1 found that as a 

 generol rule, the pigs would pick out the beets first, 

 ihe potatoes second, and only cat the cariots when 

 hungry at lost; but if any one v\ere to ask which I 

 ibonghi the most nutritious, I should say the potato 

 without doubt. My occoninindaiions arc too liitiiled, , 

 however, to make the careful experiment as to the re- 

 lative value of roots, bushel tor bushel, and agoin in 

 comparison with grain, as rcquesicd by Mr. Caion, of 

 Illinois, but I trust that the above will be satisfoctery 

 to him and to others, so far as it goes, for it is expe- 

 rience and not theory. I must soy that I do not like 

 ihis jumping at conclusions from partial experiments. 

 I recollf ct reading an address, some two yenis ago, by 

 some one in Pennsylvania, before an agricultural socie- 

 ty, in which the writer maintained — and beseemed to 

 be an intelligent, scientific man — that ruta baga, by 

 analysis, was but little else than wood, and therefore 

 as a food for man and beast, it was almost totally 

 worthless. Indeed I And yet this same despised 

 root, together with a little straw, makes most of the 

 English beef and mutton, and in some instances at 

 times one-fourth supports its laboring population. — 

 Apropos to this ; I recollect once telling anJintelU- 

 gent neighbor that I cultivated pumpkins a good deal, 

 and liked thein much as food for swine. " Well," he 

 replied, *' they never did any thing for my hogs but 

 scour them." The fact was, he had an inferior breed 

 of animals. Again, I shut up some Berkshire sowa 

 that were quite poor, about three weeks to put them 

 in condition; they were allowed nothing but pump' 

 kins during this time, and were then turned out, hav- 

 ing got really, in that short time, almost too fat for 

 good breeding An intelligent gentleman who had 

 seen them previous to their being shut up, ond lbei\ 

 agoin when they were let out. ocknowledged that noth- 

 ing but seeing the thing with his own eyes would 

 have convinced him of the truth of it, and wound 

 lip by adding, (1 do not give the words exoclly, but 

 the idcos,) *' why, insteod of falling them, the urine 

 that would have come from common bogs thus ted", 

 would have iriade them skeleton poor by this time.''* 

 I am no chemist, and therefore humbly a^k what 

 would be the onalysis of clover ? Not much, 1 fnncy, 

 but water. And yet Berkshires, ond in fact, all good 

 crosses of the China bog, will keep fat upon it in 

 summer and grow well; and I will conclude this long 

 letter on sugar beets by saying, that if their stock does 

 not thrive upon them, why then gentlemen hove been 

 deceived in their seed, or they hove not got the right 

 sort of aniiaal to consume their roots. 

 Yours, 



A. B. ALLEN. 



A Crop of Corn. 



I give below on oecount of a crop of corn raised lost 

 year. The lot contained four acres, of a rich gravel- 

 ly soil. It was well manured from the barn-yard, and 

 then these rows were intersected with rows of majinre 

 from the hog-yard. It was ploughed of sufficient 

 depth, well harrowed, and planted about the fifth of 

 May. The corn wos a bright eight-rowed yellow va- 

 riety; the rows three feet by three and a half, five 

 grains to a hill. When sufficiently high, it was dres- 

 sed with a mixture of one port by measure of plaster 

 ond three of ashes, a table spoonful lo each hill. Afr 

 ter weeding, it received another similar dressing. 



The product was seven hundred and fifty btishelsof 

 good sound corn in the ear, twelve loads of pumpkins, 

 sixteen of stalks, and the nctt profit of the field wa» 

 ninety dollors. A. G. S. 



^pringhitl, Cayuga CJ)., April 12. 1841. 



Pride is the first thing that overcomes man, and the 

 I last thing that man overcomcG. — S(. Avgv}ti\ie. 



