107 



from various casualties;* to supply their places, there- 

 fore, the seedUng beds should be attended to after the 

 field plants are pretty well grown, it will be necessary 

 to top them, that is'to take off the growing tiower bed 

 as soon as they form in any degree, in order to 

 strengthen the plants and to prevent them from string- 

 ing and rvmning to seed, the topping is best performed 

 by the fore finger and thumb, as their grasp closes 

 the pores which if cut with a knife or scissors would 

 be left open — after this operation little sprouts will 

 continually shoot out ; these must be carefully pulled 

 oif, and when saved they will sell for probably as 

 much as will pay the expense of taking them off; the 

 plant is ripe when the leaves become wrinkled and 

 mottled with yellow spots in the raised parts, while 

 the cavities continue green, and when they exhibit 

 a black streak along what I shall call the spine or 

 back-bo7ie of the leaf; the leaves should be taken off 

 (choosing, if possible, dry weather,) by women and 

 children as fast as they ripen, (^if frost appears let 

 them he all cut down at once ripe or unripe and re- 

 moved to sheds f ) and exposed for a day to the sun, 

 which renders them flexible and pliant. If the wea- 

 ther be wet, they must be at once removed to cover, 

 and in all cases laid in little heaps for twenty-four 

 hours until they begin to ferment a little, when they 

 must be moved. Women and children are then to be 

 employed in stringing the leaves on twine, (which 

 can be homespun from hemp) according to their size, 

 previously to their being hung up in sheds or rooms 

 well ventilated — a fi'ee cm-rent of air in a damp cli- 

 mate hke this, being necessary to prevent mildew and 



* AVlierever the wire worm is found to infest the ground, 

 the loss will be incalculably great, whole fields of young 

 plants were last year destroyed by them. In wet seasons 

 Ihey are most mischievous. 



f An injurious frost is, however, hardly to he apprehended 

 before the lOth October, long before wliich time the chief part 

 of the crops ought to he secured. 



