THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
165 
growing, eause the stalk to burst open, its juices 
to exude, and the seed to shrink. The result is 
stated to have been satisfactory. The mode of 
using the charcoal, as suggested, is by strewing 
it, well crushed, and as soon as possible, over 
the land; and that it be well moistened with 
soft water, by means ot a watering-cart. Ash- 
es have likewise been recommended hy Liebig 
and others. Some suppose they, or some alkali, 
are necessary to dissolve the silicious substan- 
ces, to furnish strength to the stalk. Liebig 
supposes it to furnish a silicate of potash — an 
ingredient in the grovrth of wheat. Some soils, 
peculiarly free from rust, it is said, are supplied 
with unusual quantities of potash. It has also 
been recommended, as a means of secur ng a 
good crop, notwithstanding rust, when the plants 
appear thin on the ground, in the spring, to sow 
spring w'heat among the fall wheat. This plan 
has been resorted to with good success in Can- 
ada. 
“ Bone manure is likewise mentioned as ve- 
ry useful tor grain, as bone is said to contain 
many valuable principles, such as fat, gelatine, 
carbonate and phosphate of lime. A striking 
experiment in confirmation of this is mentioned. 
The distinguished Berzelius, in I8l7, is said to 
have analyzed a soil which had yielded crops of 
grain, from time immemorial, without manure. 
5t was found to contain small fragments of 
bone; and after it had been boiled a long time 
in water, afforded a solution which yielded a 
precipitate to the infusion of galls. From this 
result, he conjectured that the ground had been 
a field of baitle.-’ 
Smut . — From amongst several expedients to 
prevent the wheat from smutting, we copy the 
following which we know to be efficacious; 
“The wheat, after being thoroughly washed, 
to be soaked ten or twelve hours in salt water, 
as strong as it can be made. It is further said 
that no injury will result if it lies in the brine 
for several days, provided it be in a cool place. 
After thus soaking it, let it be limed. Another 
person recommends that the seeds, when placed 
in the brine, be stirred up thoroughly, so that 
the light seeds may rise to the surface, and be 
skimmed off; afterwards, that the brine be drai- 
ned into a tub, and the seed thinly spread on the 
floor, and sifted with quicklime, at the rate of 
one gallon to a bushel, and, after carefully stir- 
ring the lime through the seed a few times, and 
then sown. The seed which underwent the 
perfect cleaning gave a return of pure wheat ; 
and that which was sown in its natural state 
was infected with smut, and had a mixture also 
of chess. In a Northumberland report on agri- 
culture, it is stated that Mr. Gulley, who grew 
annually from 400 to 600 acres of wheat, had 
but one instance of smut m forty years, and this 
was when the wheat was not steeped. Another 
experiment was tried on seed, in which were a 
few balls of smut — one-third being steeped in 
chamber 'lye, and limed; one-third steeped in 
the same, and not limed; and the remainder 
without steeping or liming-; and the result was, 
that the seed pickled and limed, and that pick- 
led and not limed, were free from .smut, but the 
other had smutty ears in abundance. /Another 
experiment was tried, by taking a peck of very 
smutty wheat, of which one-half was sown in 
its natural state, the other halt washed as clean 
as possible, in three waters, soaked two hours 
in brine strong enough to bear an egg, and dash- 
ed with lime: the result was, two-thirds of the 
unwashed was smutty, but of the pickled and 
limed seed there was a full crop, without a sin- 
gle ear of smut. A similar experiment, some- 
what varied, is the following : Of four sacks of 
smutty wheat, one sack was soaked in strong 
brine only; one prepared with lime only; one 
was soaked in strong brine, and then lay in lime 
all n'ght ; and the fourth was sown without 
anything: the result was, where brine only was 
used, now and then there was a smutty ear, but 
not many ; where lime only was used., there 
was about the same quantity of smut; where 
lime and brine were used, not a single smutty 
ear could be found; and where nothing was 
used, it was a mass of smut. In another exper- 
iment, however, mentioned in the Southern 
Planter, wheat salted at the rate of a quart of 
salt to a bushel succeeded effectually in preven- 
ting smut.” 
FALL GRAFTING. 
Capt. Josiah Lovett, who is distinguished for 
his success in raising superior vegetables and 
fruits, has given in the Magazine of Horticul- 
ture, his motile of fall grafting, by which he is 
enabled to get fine fruit from the scions the next 
season. 
“Your remarks in the November number of 
the Magazine, for 1843, page 423, respecting 
my mode of procuring the specimens of fruit 
presented on several occasions at the Horticul- 
*tural Society’s rooms, last autumn, is partly in- 
correct; they were not procured by budding, 
but by grafting. I have practised budding with 
fruit buds for some eight years past, and occa- 
sionally succeeded in getting good fruit from 
them. It is now three years since I have begun 
grafting with fruit wood in autumn, (and I nev- 
er heard of any person attempting it previous to 
that time) thus far I have been eminently suc- 
cessful with the pear and apple, (occasionally 
with the plum ;) the grafts thus set have been 
more certain t(> mature their fruit, than the trees 
from which the grafts were cut; this can only 
be accounted for by supposing the sap to flow 
slov er in the graft in the spring, in consequence 
of there not having been a perfect union with 
the stock in autumn; and the grafts, not bloom- 
ing or setting their fruit quite as early in the 
tree from which they were cut, escape the inju- 
rious effects of our late spring frosts and cold 
north-east storms, to which, in our climate, we 
are so subject. 
I select a healthy shoot fora scion, with fruit 
buds on it, I have them set a loot long with one 
or two side shoots. Immediately remove the 
leaves, and cut on one side in a sloping direc- 
tion, to a point, the cut from one to two inches 
long: then with a sharp knife I begin at the 
point and cut just within the bark, up about 
half an inch above the commencement of the 
incision on the opposite side ; then select a thrif- 
ty upright shoot, on a healthy tree, cutting well 
back, making a short stump; oat this stump in 
the same manner as the scion, rever-sed; and 
carefully but firmly bush one with the other; 
secure with bass or Russia matting, and cover 
with day; or I prefer to mix equal parts of 
beeswax and Burgundy pitch; a less quantity 
of rosin will answer in the room ofpitch ; soften 
to a proper consistency with hogs’ lard, and melt 
together, and spread on cotton shirting ; and then 
cut in strips of one half to three quarters of an 
inch wide, and after unitinggraft and stock, bind 
with this the cotton side next to the bark. The 
composition ought not to come in contact with 
the bark, as the bandage should be left on 
through the winter. If the grafts are carried 
any distance before uniting to the stock, it will 
be very important that the leaves be cut off un- 
der the tree, and the ends, as soon as possible, 
dipped in wax or something adhesive. 
Very respectfully, your obedient serv’t, 
Josiah Lovett. 
Beverly, March 5, 1844. 
N. B. — The mode of grafting above described 
is very similar to what is called whip-grafting 
by some, though I take much less wood with 
the bark than I have seen gentlemen do who 
graft by that mode. 
From the Connecticut Courant. 
PRODUCTIVE FARMS. 
To a person not familiarly acquainted with 
the history and statistics of English husbandry, 
the extreme productiveness of the farms of that 
country, will appear incredible. Nearly nine- 
tenths of the cultivated lands in Great Britain 
and Ireland, are rented to tenants, who pay, 
usually, from four to five pounds sterling per 
acre annual rent. Where is the farmer in this 
country, who could live under such a burden? 
Here a farm comprising a hundred acres is often 
rented for one hundred dollars, and even at this 
rate the tenant has a hard task. The cultiva- 
tion, even where there are a large number of 
acres in grass, will little more than pay the 
rent and taxes ; but in England the result is 
widely diflerent. The tenant who there pays 
£5 per acre annual rent, and finds all appliances, 
obtains not only a comfortable living, but in 
many cases wealth, from the prosecution of a 
business which here, with like burdens, would 
doom him to want and misery. 
In 1811, Irwin estimated the produce of one 
English farm of eight hundred and ninety acres, 
at £8,578, or $38,000 ! The quantity of manure 
applied was 13,746 one-horse cartloads in one 
year, and 10,250 the next ! Now admitting the 
rent of this farm to be $12 per acre, and the cost 
of manure and its application $12 more; and 
if to this sum we add, for interest, or expenses, 
taxes, and the various contingent expenses of 
cultivating, &c. $12 more, v’e shall find, upon 
striking the balance, that there will remain a 
profit of $10 the acre, amounting in the gross 
aggregate to the sum of $10,000 clear gain to 
the tenant in a single year! 
In the vicinity ol London, a hay farm, com- 
prising one hundred and si., ty acres was rented. 
The rental in this instance wa.^. $12 per acre, 
amounting in the whole to $1,920 per year. A 
very heavy expenditure was required for manure 
— probably as much as many a New England 
farmer would have been willing to give for the 
land, and yet the tenant succeeded, and has since 
become wealthy, and with no other income than 
the produce of his farm. 
In Ireland, a poor man hired an acre of land, 
erected his cottage, purchased manure and farm- 
ing tools, and the first season cleared all expen- 
ses and had a balance of £8 left. And yet that 
Irish peasant, in addition to the expenses and 
outlays above enumerated, had a church tax to 
pay, and to be at the expense of purchasing his 
own seed, and maintaining a family of four be- 
sides himself and wife. The frugality of the 
Irish peasantry is proverbial. But there was 
something more than mere frugality al the bot- 
tom of this man’s succes®. There was thorough 
cultivation — a thing which in New England 
may be said to be wholly unknown. This is 
the mystery, and the only one. That Irish pea- 
sa-nt, with like expenses, would have starved 
here on forty acres with our cultivation. 
THE PEACH. 
With the fertile soil of our country, we have 
but little difficulty in growing peach trees until 
they are three or four years old, when they are 
attacked by the worm in the root, or a disease 
called the yellow, and frequently by both. In 
either case the tree dies in two or three years. 
The following remedies have been found per- 
fectly successful in preventing the worm in the 
root. When a tree is first set out in the orchard, 
apply three quarts of fresh or unleached wood 
ashes, and add ashes every spring. Another 
method is to pour chamber-lye around the roots 
of the trees several times during the spring and 
summer. 
The method pursued by Mr. Pell, of Pelham, 
Ulster county. New York, is to pul one-half 
peck of fine charcoal to the roots of each tree 
when first set out in the orchard, and adding a 
quantity each spring, — B. G. Boswell, PMladcl- 
fhia. 
USE OF GRAPES. 
Dr. Underhill strongly advises the culture of 
grapes, both on account of the profit to be deri- 
ved from the sale of them, and from their value 
as food to sick and convalescent persons. At a 
late meeting of the New York Farmer’s Club, 
Dr. Underhill made some highly valuable ob- 
servations on this subject. After fifteen years’ 
trial with various kinds of grapes, he prefers 
some of our natives, and recommends the Ca- 
tawba and Isabella. He has three acres of the 
former, and seventeen of the latter. He says 
our people eat too much animal food, which 
renders their blood too thick, and causes disea- 
ses of the heart, liver and lungs. He thinks it 
would be infinitely better to substitute grapes 
and other fruit, with a little pure wine, for a 
portion of animal food. 
