THE CULTIVATOR. 
63 
The usual practice of destroying the stock in order 
to obtain their goodly treasure, has been a matter of 
regret. No branch of rural economy excites the ad¬ 
miration ol all classes of people, more than the indus¬ 
trious and instinctive habits of this instructive little 
insect, connected with the ingenuity it displays in 
the accurate construction of its domicil, adds to the 
proof of an All-wise Power in the works of animal 
creation. 
I remain, dear sir, yours, 
SOLOMON W. JEWETT. 
Jesse Buel. 
Weybridge, Vt. April, 1838. 
Wheat on a Clover Ley—Peas. 
New-Stockbridge, March 12, 1838. 
Mr. Buel: —Sir,—Now, as I have leisure, I will 
write a few lines, which may be useful to some of 
your readers. The first is an experiment m plough¬ 
ing in clover to prepare the ground for a wheat crop. 
In 1834, I ploughed a piece of ground for wheat, 
which had grown corn and buckwheat the previous 
year. The piece contained three acres and one hun¬ 
dred and forty rods of ground, which was much ex¬ 
hausted, and covered with Canada thistles. I plough¬ 
ed it three times, and then sowed the wheat, and 
ploughed in the seed and harrowed it down. The 
next spring I seeded it with clover, and sowed on 
plaster. The wheat was plump, and yielded sixteen 
bushels to the acre. The next spring I gave it ano¬ 
ther dressing of plaster; the clover grew very luxuri¬ 
ant; I ploughed it in just as it was beginning to blos¬ 
som. I worked the ground the same as I did the na¬ 
ked fallow, except that I passed the roller over the 
last crop in the fall and again in the spring. The last 
crop I harvested the past season ; it was very much 
injured by the rust. I am confident that it destroyed 
one-third of the crop, notwithstanding I got one hun¬ 
dred and fourteen bushels of wheat, which is about 
twenty-nine bushels to the acre, by weight. I can 
assign no reason for this extraordinary difference, but 
the plaster and clover. 
Now a few words with respect to the pea crop. I 
am fully convinced, by close observation and experi¬ 
ment, that farmers generally sow them too thick. 
In 1835, I sowed eight bushels of peas on four and 
one half acres of ground, and raised one hundred and 
seventy-three bushels. 
In 1836, I sowed two bushels to the acre, with the 
exception of one half acre, which I was induced to 
sow at the rate of three bushels to the acre, to see if 
the result would confirm my previous experience. I 
found when I came to harvest them, that those which 
were sown thin were remarkably well podded and a 
very abundant crop, and that the half acre which was 
sown thick had only a few small pods on the ends of 
the vines, and were still in blossom. A neighbor of 
mine has been in the practice of sowing about four 
bushels to the acre, and has commonly got from ten 
to fourteen bushels. The last season, I persuaded 
him to try two bushels; he accordingly sowed four 
bushels on two acres, and he has told me that he rais¬ 
ed over eighty bushels from the two acres. From 
these circumstances, it is obvions to me, that where 
the ground is in good condition and well pulverized, 
they should not be sown more than two bushels to the 
acre; and if the ground is very rich a less quantity 
would be preferable. When sown thick they obstruct 
the circulation of the air, and exclude the heat from 
the ground, and become rotten or mildewed at the 
bottom. They should be harvested while the end of 
the vine is green, as they are valuable for fodder. All 
kinds of farm stock eat them greedily; sheep and colts 
are particularly fond of them. 
SIDNEY SPRING. 
To prevent the ravages of the Cut-worm. 
Dutchess county, March, 1838. 
Mr. J. Buel,— Dear Sir,—Many things have been 
prescribed to prevent the grub or cut-worm from de¬ 
stroying Indian corn in its infancy ; most, if not all of 
them, I believe to be ineffectual or inert, and some of 
them pernicious to the growth of corn. And as the 
season when the grub commits its ravages is near at 
hand, an effectual means to prevent its mischief I be¬ 
lieve might be of vast importance to the agricultural 
part of community. 
Believing myself to be in possession of a knowledge 
of means that will completely prevent the cut-worm 
from destroying young corn, I shall endeavor to com¬ 
municate the same to you, and shall consider myself 
fully compensated, without any reward from church 
or state, if they shall prove serviceable to the farming 
interest. 
The remedy consists simply in feeding the grub. 
Many farmers are in the habit of badly ploughing 
their corn ground for this purpose ; for bad ploughing 
leaves much grass for the grub to live on. But the 
practice of bad ploughing vastly increases the labor, 
and consequently the expense of raising Indian corn, 
rhe better practice is to plough well at first, and af¬ 
terwards to apply the remedy. 
The grub is not a dainty feeder, and will eat al¬ 
most any green herbage. The best I have found to 
be the following: y oung elder sprouts and their leaves, 
milk weed, clover, mullein, and almost any green ve¬ 
getable that happens to be at hand. My time and 
mode of applying them, is to apply them two or three 
days before the young corn makes its appearance 
through the ground, in compact handfulls in every 
fifth row, between every fifth and sixth hill, pressing 
the handfulls, when dropped to the ground, with a 
tread of the foot. The grubs, if numerous, will soon 
collect under these handfulls, in dozens, scores, and 
hundreds, and there remain for shelter and food as 
long as they find good accommodations, which will 
last for ten days or more. In the mean time it will be 
an easy matter to destroy them with a sharp instru¬ 
ment, going from handfull to handfull, along the 
rows in which they are deposited. I have in this way 
killed more than two hundred under a handfull, and 
thus saved my corn. Handfulls of fresh herbage must 
be reapplied if necessary. 
The remedy may appear to many at first notice al¬ 
most as bad as the evil; but I believe that a smart 
man will gather and apply the remedy to more than 
five acres in a day, and to destroy the grubs when 
collected is an easy matter. At all events, I believe, 
after a fair trial, that the remedy is the cheapest and 
most effectual that can be applied; and depend upon 
it, the remedy is no quack prescription, for it has its 
foundation in the animal appetite and disposition, that 
animal nature can be more readily coaxed than driven. 
Many farmers in this county have procured spring 
wheat to sow; and those that I have talked with, in¬ 
tend sowing it as early as possible. I tell them, as 
the grain-worm made its appearance in our county 
last season, there is good reason to believe that sow¬ 
ing about the 20th of May would be worthy of trial, so 
as to prevent the fly from depositing its eggs in the 
soft grain, as spring wheat, when sown about the 20th 
of May, does not come in head until after the disap¬ 
pearance of the fly.* 
I bought some spring wheat of a man that procured 
it in Oneida county, and he told me that the fairest 
and best spring wheat he saw there, was sown as late 
as the 4th of June. Can this be 1 What are the ad¬ 
vantages and disadvantages of late sowing spring 
wheat, and how late will it do to sow it in Dutchess 
county I 
I tried your method of steeping seed corn in water 
near the boiling point; but I found that was cooking 
it too soon, for not more than one-fourth of it came 
up, and being under the necessity of replanting, I 
found the same kind of seed came up to a grain, when 
planted dry. Yours, &c. 
A SUBSCRIB ER. 
Steaming apparatus—Apple Butter, &c. 
New-Bedford, Merc. Co. Pa., March 1, 1838.' 
Dear Sir,— I am pleased to have it in my power to 
communicate to you something at the commencement 
of each volume of your exceedingly interesting and 
highly useful periodical. I consider agricultural know¬ 
ledge (in connection with the sciences which develope 
its resources) as the basis upon which rests both in¬ 
dividual and national prosperity. Whatever some 
may say in relation to agriculture, that the study of it 
is menial drudgery, I am bold to assert, that as a sci¬ 
ence, in all its affinities and relations, it is better cal¬ 
culated to expand the mind and generalize the ideas 
than any other science that ever engaged the atten¬ 
tion of mankind. I might here expatiate, and attempt 
to show its vast importance to the human family— 
how from it necessarily flow all our temporal enjoy¬ 
ments and comforts, all our national strength, and 
whatever elevates the present state of society above 
the savage condition of mankind; but in the com¬ 
pass of a letter there is not room. Mankind have 
hitherto been asleep in relation to the immense im¬ 
portance of this subject—but are now, we hope, about 
to arouse from their torpor, and elevate their standard 
in agricultural pursuits. 
In the September number, volume 2d, we have a 
cut and picture of an improved hog-pen and steaming- 
apparatus. They are both perhaps very good—they 
may be excellent—but they are not adapted to the 
generality of your readers, on account of the expense 
of their erection. You apprised us of your intention 
of giving the above cuts and description in a previous 
number. At the moment of the receipt of the note I 
was in an advanced state in the construction of a 
steaming apparatus and hog-pen. I instantly post¬ 
poned the completion, till I should discover what new 
ideas and suggestions the communication would con¬ 
tain, that I might avail myself of them, in order to 
make every thing as perfect as possible ; the commu¬ 
nication came. I perused it with great interest, 
and was surprised at finding a remarkable coincidence 
and similitude between that you describe and the 
plan I was pursuing. The steaming apparatus, how. 
ever, cu* me short, and caused me to defer the finish. 
ing of it one whole year ; however well it may be 
adapted to men of capital, to a large proportion of 
your subscribers, and in some particular locations, the 
thing is nearly impossible. After deferring it as above 
stated, I recommenced work in order to finish it. On 
the resumption of the work, I was puzzling myself 
in thinking whether this plan or that would succeed 
best, when fortunately a number of the Cultivator 
arrived, containing an account of precisely such an 
one as I was erecting - , by Mr. Loomis. Here I will 
mention the great advantage individuals receive from 
publications which have for their object the promo¬ 
tion of interests compatible with their own, when 
the mind and genius of thousands are at work for the 
furtherance of objects of great importance, and the 
result of their experience made known in these pub¬ 
lications. Improvements must progress in their line, 
because they mutually stimulate and assist each other, 
confirm kindred associations of mind, prevent expe¬ 
rimental blunders, and retrieve from oblivion disco¬ 
veries which had all but attained their climax, and 
which, but for the aid of a kindred spirit arriving op¬ 
portunely, had been lost forever. Well, the commu¬ 
nication of Mr. Loomis arrived ; was read with great 
interest, and gave me confidence. The introduction of 
the false bottom and the setting the box right over 
the kettle, were the suggestions I availed myself of, 
as I had turned the steam by an elbow clear of the 
furnace : my boiler is a twenty gallon kettle, first set 
according to your direction, the present position of 
which is the result of three several experiments, and 
answers very well. My kettle lid is made in the first 
place with inch oak, ploughed and grooved, and co¬ 
vered transversely with two inch plank, well nailed ; 
the tube enters the centre of the lid, and is a little 
over four inches square inside, and enters the box 
near one side, which leaves one side of the lid unco¬ 
vered by the box, for the purpose of introducing wa¬ 
ter through a large plug hole, by a funnel; one end 
of the box is a little elevated, making a small angie 
with the plane of the horizon, that the condensed 
steam and vapour may run out at the draw end; a 
close lid covers the box which, in the operation of 
steaming, is covered with a carpet, an essential re¬ 
quisite. On steaming my second box full, which was 
apples, I applied my hand to the end of the box, 
where the condensed steam ran out, in applying it 
to the tongue, it tasted very sweet; as the process 
of cooking progressed, the sacharine matter accumu¬ 
lated. I directly constructed a trough, placed the 
one end in a tub and the other under the box, and 
collected in the tub a very rich cider; by continuing 
the fire, I could discharge the whole ot the saccharine 
matter, by leaving nothing but the core and vegeta¬ 
ble fibre. We immediately commenced making apple 
butter and preserves of every kind, and have set apart 
a barrel for vinegar, which we believe is better than 
cider from the press ; two or three buckets of water 
thrown over them in the finishing process, washes 
out the residue of the sugar. This process saves 
housewives immense trouble in boiling their sweet 
apples over the fire, and straining and pressing out 
the juice. The juice runs from the box toward the 
last of the process as thick as molasses. I prefer this 
for domestic use above all the other processes ever 
made. 
WM. JOHNSTON. 
Evergreens for Shelter and Hedges—Their price, 
&c. 
Judge Buel,— Dear Sir,— I am desirous of hedging 
in with a good wide belt of evergreens, the front of 
one of our farms, lying on the Niagara river. The 
land was cleared up, previous to my purchasing it, a 
la Americana, which is to say, every thing living was 
remorselessly cut down along the whole front, thus 
leaving the fields completely naked and exposed. My 
object, therefore, in growing this belt, would be two¬ 
fold, viz. a fence impervious to both man and beast, 
and a shelter from the rude winds, that come sweep¬ 
ing down the river, and across from the Canada shore. 
The belt would require some two or three thousand 
trees, and I should wish it as complete a representa¬ 
tive of the different kinds of evergreens as this latitude 
would produce, and as could be obtained at a moderate 
price, delivered on the bank of the Erie canal, six 
miles below Buffalo. 
As to the hedge, I must confess myself in very great 
doubt in the selection of material. I had thought o'f 
the red cedar, but if the objections to this tree, are as 
likely to be as great in this latitude, as mentioned by 
Mr. Garnett in the March number of the Cultivator, 
as taking place in Maryland and Virginia, it would be 
totally useless to attempt it. Of this, however, in 
conjunction with your good self; I have great reason 
to doubt. Evergreens, locust, and thorns grow in this 
vicinity in very considerable variety, and I have as 
yet neither seen or heard, of any attack of worms'or 
insects, and particularly solicit information on this 
point from any of your correspondents, who may late- 
1 ly have visited the cedar forests on the small islands 
* So says Mr. J. Buel. 
