THE CULTIVATOR. 
173 
ces when more than a week old; if up too early, a 
late frost is apt to sweep them clean. Seed to vege¬ 
tate requires to be near the surface of the wet soil, 
not buried deep into it; our ignorance of the wea¬ 
ther which will follow after planting, causes most of our 
errors ; when planted in a heavy soil, it is less liable 
to rot and dry out than in a sandy one, but the fruit is 
later. If it happens that there are more plants in a 
hill than we require, we find it an easy matter to era¬ 
dicate them with the hoe and fingers, but it is not so 
easy to place them in the hills when deficient. 
When the first rough leaves of the plants are about 
the size of a twenty-five cent piece, a cultivator is 
run through the rows both ways, and they receive the 
first hoeing; the plants are also thinned out, so as 
not to crowd each other. In hoeing, the soil between 
the plants should not be disturbed; large weeds, (if 
any,) be pulled out; fine soil drawn around the plants 
up to the seed leaves, so as to cover small weeds, and 
the hill made flat and not concave. We are careful 
not to hoe while the plants are very young, for if a 
storm should occur shortly after the operation has 
been performed, the hills soak in too much water, 
which is injurious. Ten or twelve days after the first 
hoeing, the plants (if good,) are thinned to six or eight 
in a hill, leaving the largest ones, and if possible 
three or four inches apart. About eighteen days after 
the first hoeing, or about the time when single blos¬ 
soms open, we run a one-horse plough twice through 
a row each way, (if the ground is hard, three times,) 
throwing the furrow from the hills, and then com¬ 
mence the second hoeing, which is performed in the 
same manner as the first, care being taken not to 
earth up higher than the seed leaves, and to scrape 
out the crust between the plants, if the ground is 
hard or covered with weeds: they are, also, if the 
plants are fair, thinned down to five in a hill. 
When the vines extend so that single ones meet 
each other between the hills, to prevent injury, they 
are carefully laid aside by hand, or with a short stick, 
and the cultivator for the last time is run once through 
a row each way. They then receive the third and 
last hoeing, the ground being loosened and drawn up 
around the hills with the hoe, and broken between 
the plants with the fingers. It is customary to leave 
five plants in a hill, standing from four to five inches 
apart, but some reduce them to four: have tried no 
experiment to test which is the best. 
Cucumber vines will yield fruit about eight weeks, 
and the fields are picked over at least every second 
and sometimes every day. In picking, a light stick 
with a cross-piece framed to it so as to resemble the 
letter T, is made use of to push the leaves aside and 
more readily discover the fruit. 
The insects which trouble and destroy the plants, are 
the black worm and striped bugs : the first is apt to be 
numerous in ground which was occupied the preceding 
year with red clover; they cut off the plants at or 
above the surface in the night, and are generally hunt¬ 
ed out early in the morning, when their burrowing is 
fresh, and they lay near the surface, until the ground 
is cleared of them: the striped bug or yellow fly eats 
the plants in the day time, and is sometimes very de¬ 
structive on land where a crust is formed on the sur¬ 
face, which being raised up by the young plants, af¬ 
fords them a harbor. The best remedy is, with the 
fingers to catch and destroy them in the morning, 
when the dew is on them and they are chilled, which 
prevents their flying and escaping as freely as when 
the sun has warmed them. Sandy land, having no 
crust to shelter these pests, is generally exempt from 
their depredations. 
We are acquainted with the system of rotation of 
crops, and it has been practised among our farmers 
for years, but cucumbers as well as some other vege¬ 
tables, do not seem to require it. I have a piece of 
about half an acre, on which I have cultivated them 
for the last ten successive years, ploughing in the 
usual quantity of street manure every second year, 
and they have flourished as well as on the adjoining 
ground, which has been similarly manured, and on 
which the crops have been changed. 
The following is the quantity planted, produce and 
amount of sales, for the last four years, viz. 
Year. 
Hills planted. 
Cucumbers sold. 
Am’t received. 
1835, 
6,000, 
104,965, 
$823 84 
1836, 
6,600, 
99,670, 
820 96 
1837, 
1838, 
7,370, 
130,735, 
532 00 
7,110, 
118,600, 
734 87| 
During each of these years, large quantities of (tul- 
lings, and, when unsaleable, good ones, were fed to 
the hogs and cattle, of which no account was kept. 
Yours, TUNIS G. BERGEN. 
Plan of a Garden, 
King William county, Va. Oct. 6, 1838. 
Judge Buel —Not liking the plan of your garden, 
as laid down in the last [September] Cultivator, for 
several reasons, I have sent you a plat of mine, which 
is at your service, either to be placed before your 
readers, or thrown under your table, as may seem in 
your better judgment the most advisable. 
It is the usual practice in the south, among mode¬ 
rate estate farmers to combine the flower and vege¬ 
table gardens. The desideratum among them, then, 
is, to lay off a garden which will accomplish the ob¬ 
ject in the simplest, neatest style. The one in ques¬ 
tion was laid off this last spring, and has been much 
admired. It is 60 by 80 yards—nearly an acre. The 
area is divided by two mam walks, eight feet wide, 
intersected by a circle twenty-four feet in diameter. 
This, you will perceive, throws the garden into four 
divisions; each division is divided into four squares 
by six feet walks, which are again intersected by cir¬ 
cles or octagons and diamonds, each twelve feet in 
diameter. A walk six feet wide runs the circumfe¬ 
rence of the garden, leaving a border next the paling 
of four feet. The centre circle is intended for a sum¬ 
mer house of lattice work, to be covered with vines, 
such as the multiflora, &c.—the smaller figures to be 
devoted exclusively to flora, and decorated and adorn¬ 
ed by fixtures, according to the taste of the individu¬ 
als who may bestow most attention upon them.— 
There are sixteen squares for vegetables; the bor¬ 
ders 1 shall sow in lucerne or flowers, as is the usual 
case. A VIRGINIAN. 
[Fig. No. 65.] 
REFERENCES. 
a a a a Main walks, 8 feet wide. 
b b Octagons or circles, 12 feet in diameter, 
c c Diamonds, 12 feet in diameter. 
d Circle, 24 feet in diameter, 
e 6 feet walk around the circle. 
ffffffff Walks, 6 feet wide. 
g g g g Walk 6 feet, the circumference of the gar- 
h h h h Border, 4 feet wide. [den. 
The walks round the octagons and diamonds 5 feet 
wide. 
Lunar Influence. 
Plymouth, (Conn.) Oct. 29, 1838. 
J. Buel, Esq.—Sir—I have not been much of a 
star-gazer or moon-gazer, but have often heard it re¬ 
marked that pork killed in the wane of the moon, 
would shrink away and waste in cooking. This 1 
have always doubted, although I knew that some years 
my pork wasted more in cooking than others. This 
I attributed to some cause other than the influence 
of the moon, without being able to assign any cause. 
Last year, I fattened and butchered three hogs, all 
fattened together, though not all of the same litter. 
One was killed the first day of December last, weigh¬ 
ing 238 lbs. and the other two the 26th of the same 
month, weighing 328 lbs. and 300 lbs. It will be 
seen that the first was killed in the new of the moon, 
and the two last in the old. The pork was salted in 
the same cask and in the same manner. The pork of 
the two last killed hogs wasted very much in cooking, 
either boiling or frying, so that it was noticed by all 
the family. The cook said, put ever so large a piece 
of pork in the pot or spider, and it would be very 
small when fit for the table. But it is entirely differ¬ 
ent with the pork of the hog first killed. It rather 
swells than shrinks in cooking. How to account for 
this difference, I do not know, except from the influ¬ 
ence of the moon. The hogs last killed were early 
March pigs, and the other some older. 
It is important to know the cause why meat some¬ 
times wastes so much in cooking; and if the above 
statement of facts should give any information on the 
subject, or elicit any, I shall be well paid for my trou¬ 
ble. Very respectfully, 
CALVIN BUTLER. 
Ice Houses. 
In the Cultivator for this month, is an article on the 
“ Construction of Ice Houses.” To those about to 
make them, it is an interesting one ; still, it may be 
desirable to see descriptions of others, that they may 
have a choice of plans. Four years ago, I had one 
made, simple, cheap, and it has proved sufficient, thus: 
Dug a circular hole eight feet deep, the earth thrown 
out forming a bank of four feet high; the pit thus 
made, being tunnel shaped, eight feet in diameter at 
bottom, and thirteen feet at top of the ground ; around 
the sides, placed white pine poles, of about thirteen 
feet in length, except the space for a door, close to 
each other, and inverted, without dressing them, save 
to make them of proper taper. Those of eight to ten 
inches thick at the buts, were put in whole ; those of 
larger sizes split into halves, and the flat sides put to 
the bank ; they are supported by resting on the bot¬ 
tom and sides of the pit; the buts were sawed to a 
level, and the earth thrown up on the outside to the 
upper ends. An octagon roof is formed by eight raf¬ 
ters of four by three, hemlock scantling, twelve feet 
long, resting on the buts of the poles, and framed in¬ 
to an octagon block at the top; eight intermediate 
shorter rafters of eight feet long, also resting on the 
poles in a line with the long ones, supported at top 
by a cross-piece framed to the adjoining long ones, thus: 
Used common oak lath, two feet apart, 
to nail the boards upon; covered with 
pine boards, tongued and grooved, the 
angles breaking on the long rafters. 
Door upright, four feet wide, five feet high, from ground 
level, and a cut out of the roof to allow this height. 
Jambs, to support the bank on each side, made of 
plank, nailed to posts set in the ground, and flaring to 
six feet. About forty wagon loads fills my house, 
where it keeps well. I use straw to about the thick¬ 
ness of a sheaf at the bottom, sides and top of the ice. 
What ice melts is mostly at the sides ; the water is 
carried off the underside of the poles, and from the 
shape of the pit, as the ice settles it leaves no va¬ 
cancy at the sides. At first, I put on a thatched straw 
roof; it proved a harbor for rats, and in one season 
they destroyed so much of it, that I had to substitute 
boards. I have shaded my ice house by an arbor of 
Isabella Grape vines, which gives us much fruit, and 
greatly improves the appearance of it, besides break¬ 
ing the rays of the sun. 
ROB’T WHITE, Jun. 
Rumson Neck, Shrewsbury, N. J. 10 th mo. 1838. 
Millers’ Tolls Again. 
Rahway, Oct. 21, 1838. 
Mr. J. Buel —Dear Sir—On the 16th of October, 
I had two bushels of wheat, weighing 120 lbs. ground 
and bolted by Mr. John Florence, at his mills, under 
my inspection. When I called at the mill, Mr. F. 
was grinding rye, which he finished, and then put 
about one peck of corn in to clean the stones. When 
this was all ground out, he weighed my wheat, and 
put it in the hopper; the following is the weight of 
flour and bran, which it made, viz. 118^ lbs. which 
deduct from the weight of the grain, leaves a loss of 
1| lbs. in two bushels, or 120 lbs. of wheat, which of 
course, will make a loss of 10 oz on one bushel. I 
do not believe, the average loss in grinding 20, would 
exceed 7 oz. Now the mystery is, how to account 
for this loss. I will account for a part of it, in two 
wavs, viz. first, that the dampness of the grain is ab¬ 
sorbed by the heat, caused by the friction of grinding, 
[which dampness, or water, Blair says, is 900 times 
heavier than air.] Of this fact, any person may con¬ 
vince himself; by putting his hand up into the top 
part of the leader, that conveys the flour from the 
stones, he will find it wet, and pasted with damp flour. 
And in the second place, the flour ooming from the 
stones hot, and perfectly dry, into the damp atmos¬ 
phere, the finest and dryest of it will rise into the air; 
there remain until impregnated with its dampness, 
then settle in every part of the mill. I consider it 
much more philosophical, to attribute this loss of 
weight, to the dampness, or water, contained in the 
grain, than to suppose, as Mr. David Walton has, 
that it is all fixed air. He appears rather dissatisfied 
with my requiring the proof for the quantity of air he 
wishes to make exist in ft bushel, or 60 lbs. of wheat, 
and wants to know, what loose air has to do with the 
just or unjust tolling of grain 1 I will reply, that it 
has nothing to do with the miller’s toll; and if lie 
will put a pair of artificial optics astride his nose, and 
look more attentively at my former communication, 
he will there see asserted, that if he confined a bushel 
of loose air in a bushel of grain, it would only add 1 
oz. 9 dwt. to its weight: this is the point I am con¬ 
testing. I wish him to prove that there is more air 
in any species of grain than the open portions of said 
grain will contain of loose air. The only way he 
