no 
CORE’S RURAL. PIE W-YORKER, 
AUG. 14 
giaijg of a pluralist. 
DAILY RURAL LIFE. 
From the Diary of a Gentleman near Now 
York City. 
TRANSPLANTING MELONS. 
July 26.—Having been uniformly success¬ 
ful in transplanting beets, carrots, parsnips, 
turnips, and other similar roots, I concluded 
to try my hand at extending this operation 
to melons. 1 havo noticed that wherever I 
had a patch of melons one season young 
plants were pretty certain to come up the 
following, and if not destroyed, they would 
seem to push forward more rapidly than 
those raised from seed planted with the 
greatest cafe. Usually I have changed my 
melon patch to new ground every season, 
in order to avoid mixing, which is likely to 
occur through the appearance of plants com¬ 
ing from self-R'wn seed. Tills season, as 
usual, melon vines appeared on the old bed 
as well as from manurc scattered in differ¬ 
ent parts of the garden, and as they were 
vigorous and healthy, JOHN proposed to 
transplant a quantity for the sake of ex¬ 
periment, to which I consented. The plants 
had already commenced to spread, some of 
them with runnel’s a foot or more in length ; 
but on the first rainy day a quantity were 
carefully lifted and carried to another part 
of the garden and planted again. Several 
rows of these plants were set out, with one 
only placed in a hill : then an old newspaper 
was spread over each and held in place by a 
little earth put upon the edges. The plants 
wilted considerably for the first day or two, 
but soon revived, am! to day both the water 
and musk melons treated in this manner are 
in every respect equal to .those grown from 
seed planted in specially-prepared ground. 
If vines can be transplanted from the open 
ground, they can certainly be started in 
pots in the house and then set oat, with far 
less danger of disturbing the roots or check¬ 
ing growth by the operation. In many of 
the Northern States the season is too short 
for producing a good crop of extra-fine 
melons, unless the seed are started iu hot¬ 
beds or in the house quite early ; hence this 
transplanting of the young vines is a subject 
worthy of some consideration, especially if 
everybody is of my opinion and appreciate 
this fruit as highly as I do. 
I never could fully make up my mind as 
to which one of all our cultivated fruits was 
the very best, taking all things into consid¬ 
eration. In early summer I am somewhat 
inclined to vote for the strawberry, but after 
a week or two of an abundance I begin to 
waver a little toward the raspberry, and be¬ 
fore corning to any definite conclusion the 
blackberries, peaehe?, early pears and grapes 
crowd in, completely unsettling an almost 
settled conviction that the-well, I have 
really forgotten which, was the best, of all 
our culitvated fruits. But on the melon 
question there is no wavering when the 
household is called on for a decision, once, 
twice, or as many times as melons are 
brought on to the table, the vote is unani¬ 
mous in favor of this being “ the best fruit 
of that particular time or hour.” If one 
should press this question a little further 
and ask for the name or names of the par¬ 
ticular varieties most highly prized, no defi¬ 
nite answer could be given, for I have been 
trying the last twenty-five years to arrive at 
some such positive conclusion as this in my 
own mind, but without success. In musk- 
melons I am inclined to favor the green- 
fleshed sorts, and in watermelons, those with 
dark-red flesh ; but there are scores of vari¬ 
eties in each section, and all excellent, if 
well grown and fully ripened on the vines. 
MULCHING REDDED GERANIUMS. 
Geraniums bedded out In summer have 
never been a success in my grounds. The 
leaves usually drop off and the plants re¬ 
main in a semi-sickly condition until the fall 
rains commence, or about the time one must 
begin taking them up for winter protection. 
This season 1 have tried mulching a part 
and leaving the others without it, and the 
results are decidedly in favor of the former. 
In fact the beds which were covered with 
hay at the time the plants were set out are 
all that one could desire in the way of 
healthy leaves aud growth, as well as an 
abundance of flowers. Of course I do not 
say that this mode of culture is best for all 
soils and climates, but it is certainly just 
what is required in toy grounds to make 
bedding-out geraniums a success. On soil 
that is naturally moist and compact mulch¬ 
ing may in some instances prove to be in - 
jurious, but on well-drained or light soils 
there need be no fear of ill effects, even if no 
1 decided benefits should result therefrom. 
ABOUT CHINESE YAM TUBERS. 
July 27.—A Dioscorea Battutas in my 
ground has already made a growth of 15 
feot, and it would probably go as much 
further if the tree upon which it is climbing 
waa that much higher. Tliis Chinese Yam, 
or Dioscorea , is a handsome climbing plant 
and worth cultivating for ornrinental pur¬ 
poses, even without taking into consideration 
its edible tuber. But the latter do not con¬ 
tinue to grow more than one year, as has 
been erroneously stated by almost every 
writer on the subject, for over twenty years. 
When this tuber was first brought to our 
notice by the French seed men they claimed 
that the ola roots, or tubers, continued to 
enlarge from year to year, thereby in time 
becoming of monstrous size. Our own seeds¬ 
men, in procuring this novelty and offering 
it to their customers, copied from the French 
catalogues all the good things said of it, 
errors as well as truth, wit hout questioning 
either, and both seem to have been repeated 
in the same manner ever since. 
In my second season’s experiments with 
this Chinese Yam, eighteen years ago, I dug 
down by the side of some of the plants in 
August to see how the new tubers were 
progressing, and to my surprise found the 
old ones were decaying just as the potato 
decays after fulfilling its mission. At the 
time"referred to above I informed some of 
the most extensive propagators ol' this plant 
of the error they were making in asserting 
that the roots were perennial and continued 
to enlarge from year to year , but it did not 
suit their purpose to correct the false infor¬ 
mation they had imparted, and hence the 
repetition of the same ever since. 
The old tuber of this yam probably fur¬ 
nishes the new with more nutriment than 
the common potato supplies to its immediate 
offspring, inasmuch as the new tuber on the 
former springs directly from a bud on the 
old one, while in our common sort, as is well 
known, the new crop is produced on subter¬ 
ranean! stems quite remote from the parent 
tuber. 
In quite a number of articles on the “ Chi¬ 
nese Yam” which have appeared in the ag¬ 
ricultural press during the present season the 
authors repeat the old story of ‘‘perennial 
tubers increasing In size from year to year.” j 
If these gentlemen have any of those plants 
growing near by, they can readily determine 
by a personal examination of the growing 
tubers during t he next few weeks, or before 
the old ones have eutii’ely decayed, whether 
or not I am correct in my assertions. 
WHO SENT THEM? 
Some good friend has sent me, in care of 
the Rural New-Yorker, a new seidlitz pow¬ 
der box full of beetles, mainly May beetles, 
and I would be pleased to know to whom I 
am indebted for the same. 
and Useful. 
SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL NOTES. 
In nothing, perhaps, is that fine moral 
which impresses the importance of “little 
things” more conspicuous than in the fact 
of the commercial value of insects. The im¬ 
portance of insects, commercially speaking, 
is scarcely ever thought of. Great Britain 
does not pay less than £1,000,000 annually 
for the dead carcasses of the tiny insect, the 
cochineal; and another Indian insect, gum 
shellac, is scarcely less valuable. More than 
1,500,000 of human beings derive their sup¬ 
port from the culture and manufacture of 
silk. 
Washing Made Easy.—The German wash¬ 
erwomen use a mixture of 2 oz. turpentine 
and 1 oz. spirits of ammonia, well mixed to¬ 
gether. This is put into a bucket of warm 
water, in which a K lb- °f soap bas been dis¬ 
solved. The clothes are immersed for 24 
hours and then washed. By this method 
the cleansing is said to be greatly quickened, 
and two or three rubbings in cold water will 
remove the turpentine smell. 
Iron Cement which is Unaffected by Red 
Heal. —Four parts iron filings, two parts 
clay, one part fragment of a Hessian cruci¬ 
ble ; reduce to the size of rape seed and mix 
together, working the whole into a stiff paste 
with a saturated solution of salt. A piece of 
fire-brick can be used instead of the Hessian 
crucible. 
Hair Restorative. —Boxwood leaves, good 
handful ; boiling water, one pint. Digest 
for an hour ; simmer ten minutes and then 
strain. This will strengthen the hair and 
prevent it falling off. 
VISIT TO JOHN JOHNSTON. 
I have just made my annual visit to my 
friend John Johnston, Esq., who still culti¬ 
vates his splendid farm on the east shore of 
Seneca Lake, a little way from the thriving 
village of Geneva, Mr. Johnston was 84 last 
April, and feels the infirmities of age some¬ 
what, so far as h* bodily strength is con¬ 
cerned, but not at sl-t as regards his mental 
powers. In fact it is. very wonderful to hear 
him give dates and specify, without refer¬ 
ence to any notes or memoranda, the years 
in which certain crape were raised on his 
several fields, the yields per acre and the 
prices obtained. Nor does he forgot his fail¬ 
ures. Two crops of wheat, one of 80, the 
other of 90 acres, have been destroyed by 
hail storms during the time he has been rais¬ 
ing wheat, and when he says he thinks that 
his life long average yield has been equal to 
28 bushels to the acre, he excludes these two 
years of total failure. 
Originally Mr. Johnston’s farm was a 
strong and heavy clay, and previous to his 
ownership, it was in the language of the 
neighbors, “ run down ” and, as a former 
owner of a part told him, the “cream” had 
all been taken out of it, receiving for a reply 
—“ I will make butter from it yet.” Au old 
barn, standing amidst the accumulated ma¬ 
nure of many yeans, lold the story of its 
management. Though the land was by no 
means springy— Id fact, 1 believe there was 
but one permanent spring on the place, and 
that was away from the lake shore—yet it 
was full of water that could not find its way 
through the tenacious clay. Mr. Johnston 
became the owner of this land, when he was. 
by no means a rich man. He purchased it in 
pieces, as his mean3 and credit permitted, 
until he had 300 acres ('since reduced to about. 
100). He now tells the story of a certain 
careful bankers' lending him money without- 
security on his note for eighteen months, to 
drain this land. He does not yet quite see 
how they dared to trust him for such large 
sums to invest in what was considered by 
most of his neighbors as a wild scheme of 
“ burying crockery ” iu his land, as they de- 
riditigly talked when they passed by, wag¬ 
ging their wise heads. “But Mr. Johnston, 
did you pay that large note by the time It be¬ 
came duel” “Long before,” was the 
prompt reply. The two crops of wheat that 
came in during the time, by their increased 
yield, wiped the debt all out, and gave him 
and some others confidence hi bis policy— 
which may be summed up by saying that he 
first took out the stagnant water from his 
land, aud then made all the barnyard ma¬ 
nure he could by feeding sheep and cattle 
during the winters, and turning into the 
ground great crops of clover and grass, when 
he plowed his pastures and meadows, to 
raise wheat. The immense work he per¬ 
formed will be best comprehended, wheu it 
is stated that he laid about forty-five miles 
of tile drains—-and tliis, too, on what is called 
upland, not, as has been said, made wet by 
springs, but by the water that fell upon it 
from the clouds—and he is recognized as the 
very father of the now so generally' practicod 
system of upland drainage in this country. 
The prejudices he encountered may be 
understood, when we are informed that to 
do the work thoroughly on one of his fields 
it was necessary, for an outlet, to make a 
drain through u field belonging to a neighbor, 
and that he could not obtain consent from 
the owner to do so. “Why,” said he, “if 
you should cut a ditch through my field two 
or three feet deep, you would take all the 
moisture out of it, and ruin it.” He had to 
purchase this field, which he was only able 
to do after long negotiation. Once in his 
possession, the whole field was speedily cut 
into strips two reds wide, bounded by the 
drains. The immense crops that followed 
astonished the former owner, so that he 
might be seen very early of u morning, when 
he thought he was unobserved, looking over 
the new line fence uppn the once wet, soggy 
land, that would give him very little but 
aquutio plants and nearly worthless grasses. 
How our wenerable friend loves |to tell this 
story ! 
He had a field of forty acres that was 
seeded to clover, and most of it (all but three 
or four acres in one corner) had been drained, 
which he wished to put into wheat, and he 
did not wish to plow it until the clover had 
become fully grown. To this end, he pur¬ 
chased in the early spring three pairs of 
strong oxen, intending to put on each plow a 
span of horses and a yoke of oxen—a boy to 
drive and a man to hold the plow. Acquaint¬ 
ances, as they passed along the road, began 
to ask why he did not plow his summer 
fallow ; but he bided his own time, pasturing 
ten sheep to the acre after the clover had be¬ 
come well grown, and until quite late in 
June. Then, with his three spans of horses 
and his men, he went to the field, sending in 
another direction for the oxen. For some 
reason, there wa3 delay in bringing the 
oxen, and having nothing else on hand, he 
started a team of horses before one of his 
plows and was surprised to find that two 
horses on a plow wore enough, and no oxen 
wanted. Bo when the oxen came, the boy3 
were told to drive them back, and let them 
get fat to be sold for beef. 
This saving of a boy to drive, and a yoke 
of oxcd, was due to the draining. The 
tenacity of the soil had been broken up by 
freeing it from water. This was demonstra¬ 
ted when the plows came to the part that 
had not been drained—left, as in Mr. Johns¬ 
ton’s judgment, not wet enough to materially 
injure crops. To plow this undrained land, 
it was necessary to use three horses to a 
plow. The lesson taught was improved, aud 
drains were at once put into this piece. So 
it was not merely the increase in the crop, 
but the lessened cost of producing it as well, 
that was gained. 
The after treatment of this field consisted 
in keeping the surface mellow, and leaving 
the clover in the furrow. In regard to this 
method of summer-fallowing, Mr. Johnston 
said that in 1850 he harvested t welve acres 
of Mediterranean wheat that measured 85 
bushels to the acre, weighing 64 pounds to 
the bushel (making the merchantable average 
37)^3 bushels). He plowed an old sod in June, 
deep, using three-horse teams, and kept the 
surface mellow by harrowing, but no other 
plowing. 
The largest yield of wheat he ever had 
was in 1827 ; twenty acres averaged 42>g 
bushels to the acre. 
8o it turns out that this master workmen 
has never been able to produce, on a field of 
real mother earth, more than 42>£ bushels to 
the acre of wheat in one crop. 
This will appear strange to some of your 
readers. We are often told of larger crops, 
and theorists urge us to aim at larger aver¬ 
ages than Mr. Johnston’s very best result in 
an experience of more than a half a century. 
It is certainly well to aim high—but iu this 
climate, whoever raises more than 10 bushels 
of wheat on an acre of land in one crop, must 
not only have the very best of land, and have 
it in the very best oondltlou, but all the 
chances must turn in his favor; the crop 
must come up well, and grow well in the 
fall; the insects must let it alone ; the 
winter must have enough mow to protect 
the young plants, and not so much as to 
smother them. The snow must go off at the 
right time in the spring, and warm showers 
must give a start, and uninterrupted good 
weather follow, till harvest. Neither rust, 
nor midge or Hessian fly, must injure it , and 
favorable weather must prevail iu harvest 
time. “Ah !” said Mr. Johnston, “I have 
raised many, very many crops of 30, S3 and 
35 bushels to the acre, but 10 is hard to go 
beyond.” The faculty of self-deception that 
some men possess, is entirely wanting in our 
venerable friend, and there is just one thing 
that he cannot do auy more than could 
General Washington- 
I saw on Mr. Johnston’s farm, two pieces 
of very excellent barley, and expressed my 
admiration of them. He said he did not 
think his land well adapted to this crop, 
though it did happen to bt good this year. 
He did raise barley long ago, but the price 
fell off and went below half a dollar per 
bushel, considerably, and he discontinued 
raising it. Now the price of barley is good, 
and he is trying it again, intending to sow 
wheat on the stubble this fall. He said that 
lie never raised a very heavy crop ; his 
largest was 41 bushels to the acre, by meas¬ 
ure, that, weighed 51 lbs. to the bushel, (for¬ 
ty-three and a half, market measure, to the 
acre.) He followed this crop of barley with 
Diehl wheat, and harvested 33 bushels to the 
acre, selling it for seed at S3.25 per bushel. 
When I told him that some of my neighbors 
were raising barley and averaging 40 busheis 
per acre for a series of years, and following 
with wheat that had averaged fully 25 
bushels per acre, he said this was far better 
than raising only the crop of wheat; and 
that if he could calculate on au average of 30 
bushels of barley to be followed by 20 
bushels of wheat, he would consider the two 
crops more profitable than one crop of wheat 
—which could not 'veil be estimated at more 
than live bushels per acre better on a 
feimimer-fallow than after barley, if the laud 
■was rich and properly cultivated—but to 
make either wav profitable, it must be both 
rich and well cultivated, and summer-fal¬ 
lows must occasionally be resorted to to des¬ 
troy weeds,—Georye decide* in Country 
Gentleman. 
