THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
if [j f (Sartfn. 
WHAT OTHERS SAY. 
HARVESTING AT NIGHT BY ELECTRIC LIGHT. 
About Seeds. — From Mr. 
J. J. H. Gregory s instructive 
lecture upon the •‘Culture of 
Vegetable Seeds,” we make the 
following extracts, only regret¬ 
ting that we have not space for 
the lecture entire as giveu iu 
the Report of the Secretary of 
Conn. Board of Agriculture: ** The old, | 
rough-hewn idea of farming was, that the foun¬ 
dation of successful agriculture was found in 
the manure-pile. We, in our movement to¬ 
wards accuracy, which we call scieuce, have 
gone beyond that, or back of it, and we say 
now that it lies iu the seed planted. . . . 
Hence we go back of all and say. first of all, 
give us good seed. . . . 
“Of the seventy species of vegetables cata¬ 
logued, less tbau twenty enter into the general 
consumption of the people, the remainder be¬ 
ing mostly confined to the inhabitants of the 
large cities, and but rarely wandering outside 
the grounds of the market gardener. . . . 
“Where the seed sold by American seedsmen 
is grown is, for the most part, a question of 
cost and of climatic condition. Of the seventy 
species of vegetable seed, more or less of over 
half the varieties are imported. Of tnangold- 
wurtzel, about all: ruta-baga, about niue-touths; 
spinach, about nine-tenths; cauliflower, near¬ 
ly aU; lettuce, about half; carrots, about half; 
Cgg-plaQt, about half; parsnip, about one- 
third; radish, about all, with the exception of 
those of Messrs. Laudreth & Son, who practice 
raising their own. It is the general belief; of 
American seedsmen that foreign-grown radish 
seed is larger and better than home-grown. 
Parsley seed is largely imported, Brusscls- 
sprouts, broccoli, chickory, endive, kolil-rabi, 
and Swiss chard arc almost wholly imported, 
as is salsify, to a large extent. 
“Of celery, the finest varieties are grown in 
tins country in the vicinity of our large cities. 
Of cucumbers, but a few, and those of the 
fancy-frame sorts, are imported. Of peas, 
most of the hard sorts are home-grown, and 
probably rather more than half of what are 
called the softer, or wrinkled varieties. The 
Dutch or rough-leaved turnip seed are all 
home-grown. Of cabbage seed but few va¬ 
rieties are. imported, and these are confined 
almost wholly to a few early sorts. Onion 
seed is almost wholly un American crop. . . . 
“There are certain vegetables that, are pecu¬ 
liarly American, of which our English cousins 
know nothing, or next to nothing. There are 
over forty varieties of beans, forty varieties of 
corn, forty varieties or tomatoes, fifteen varie¬ 
ties of squashes, while of our fifteen or twenty 
varieties of cucumbers, and thirty-five or forty 
of melons, they know uothing, as an open-air 
crop. In England, the melons are all grown 
under glass, and cucumbers the same. They 
hang in glass-houses, us grapes hang here. 
I recollect, while there, going out to one 
of their great parks and seeing some large 
plants growing under glass, evidently carefully 
tended, aud upon examiuing them, I fouud 
here. This brings up the question of the duties 
of the seed-dealer tu the public. The box trade 
lias demoralized the business greatly. When a 
man sends out a box of seed to be sold on com¬ 
mission, aud has it returned to him. it i6 a se¬ 
vere strain on his morals to throw that seed 
aw r ay, if it is had, or partly had. lie is very 
loth to come to the point of throwing that seed 
away; and, of course, if he sells it, the risk is 
on the part of the planter. A remedy for this 
evil would he to require the country dealer to 
pay for what lie orders. In that case, the deal¬ 
er would be likely lo order only what he wants 
and can probably sell; whereas, under the 
present system, he orders indiscriminately, be¬ 
cause he has simply to return what he does not 
sell, aud takes uo risk iu the business. . . . 
Mr. Gregory, iu the course of his remarks, 
was questioned by several. 
Professor Brewer asked: “ Iu regard to dry- 
iug seed, you will find many farmers who be¬ 
lieve that they should be dried in the sun, and 
mauy others who believe they should be dried 
in the shade. I should like to know what Mr. 
Gregory’s experience has been in that regard, 
particularly as there have been most elaborate 
rules published by the Agricultural Depart¬ 
ment, which advocated the drying of all seeds 
m the sun. While that may be true in England, 
is not the sun rather too hot here for the vital¬ 
ity of certain garden seeds ?” 
Mr. Gregory replied that he had uo fear at 
all of suu heat on seed, so far as he had tried 
it. or of a temperature of seventy-five or eighty 
degrees. 
Prof. Brewer said: “Seed spread on a cloth in 
a metal pan aud exposed to the suu, as one will 
see farmers dry seed, will reach a temperature 
of 150 degrees, as can he tested.” 
Mr. Gregory said that he should want to test 
seed dried in that way. . . . 
Mr. Augur—“l have listened with a great 
deal of pleasure to Mr. Gregory’s lecture, aud 
1 would like to ask oue question. Mauy of us 
have the impression that in saving seeds, if 
we take the seeds of the earliest tomatoes, for 
iustauce. that ripcu, the tendency will be to 
give us early-ripening progeny; and so with 
beets aud other things. I would like to ask 
Mr. Gregory’s experience in that direction.” 
Mr. Gregory. “That is, I think, the tendency. 
That is the way we gel our early kinds, by sav¬ 
ing the seeds of the earlier vegetables. There 
is a tendency of ’like to follow like.' Let two 
men take the same strain, aud one exercise 
care ;in saving early seed, and the other not, 
and you will fiud, iu three or four years, that 
the crop of one ripens a week or ten days be¬ 
fore the crop of the other. Any one can satisfy 
himself iu regard to that.” 
.•’..iou3 squa.-h. as she describes it, like a Chi¬ 
nese shoe. The aunt says, looking on: “Don’t 
eat it, Jane! it is a gourd; it is poisonous.” 
The man begged her to cook it, and if she did 
not like it, give it to the hogs. So, to oblige 
him, she cooked it, liked it, and saved the seed. 
That is as far as I can trace thu Hubbard 
squash. We named it “ Hubbard " in honor of 
the old lady who first brought it to our notice. 
The variety I named the Marblehead was scut 
to me from the West a few years ago. It was 
stated to me that the seed was bought iu New 
York under the uame of “Custard" squash, 
which name, as every seedsman knows, be¬ 
longs to a variety closely allied to the veget¬ 
able-marrow squash, a very coarse *#*ir of the 
pumpkin class. On planting the seed 1 Ion ml 
that the crop of squashes was just about the 
same as I had raised some years previous- 
Iy from seed brought home from the West 
Iudics by Captain Stanley of Marblehead. The 
captain had so badly mixed his seed, growing 
it for years in his garden side by side with the 
Hubbard, I was unable to obtaiu it pure for in¬ 
troduction. This uew-comer having no name 
of its own, I therefore called it the “ Marble¬ 
head ” squash. The Marblehead undoubtedly 
came origiually from tke West Iudies. 
Carnations.—Rcy. II. W. Beecher tells the 
Gardener’s Monthly that there is a prevalent 
notion that much skill is required to raise Car¬ 
nations. Any man who can raise lettuce or 
peas can succeed with Climitations. Tic obtains 
the best seed possible; sows it thickly in rows, 
in Jumf, as ho would salad. It comes speedily. 
When about one or two inches high, prick it 
out upon a prepared bed, about eight inches 
apart ami lei it grow till frost conies, then very 
slightly draw earth enough to it to cover the 
collar, aud let it alone for the winter. \\ lieu 
he used to cover it with straw or brush he lost 
half his plants. But by leaving them open and 
unprotected they come through the winter with¬ 
out bleaching, and go to work early. 
The great difficulty in blooming Carnations 
is the want of good seed. Iu some seasons, 
buying the best seed in market, he has not 
raised a single double. It docs look as though 
foreign seedsmen sometimes adulterate their 
carnation seeds ; for that it should be done iu 
New York is not to be thought of. 
Duration op Asparagus Beds.—W e have 
known of Asparagus beds twenty years old, 
but Col. Curtis tells the N. Y. Tribune of one 
a hundred years old—“ a pleasant reminder,” 
he says, “ of the thoughtfulness of ancestors.” 
Those who follow this suggestion not with as¬ 
paragus ouly. but with other lasting farm im¬ 
provements, generations yet unborn shall bless. 
A 
ancons. 
they had our common bush-bean,—oue or two 
plants, I think,- under glass. They have no 
corn in England; they donot grow any squash¬ 
es there worthy of the name, the vegetable- 
marrow being their standard of excellence, 
and almost their ouly variety; and whoever 
has traveled in England knows the poverty of 
an English table. Go to the best hotels, and 
you miss the delicious melons, sweet corn, cu¬ 
cumbers, and the great variety of other vege¬ 
tables that are found on almost every tabl e 
Nearly at the close of Mr. Gregory’s lecture, 
J)r. Sturtevanf; requested him to give the his¬ 
tory of the varieties of Atneriaan squashes. 
Mr. Gregory—I will tell it iu brief, as far as 
known. The Hubbard squash was brought 
into Marblehead when an old lady 90 years old 
was a little girl, by a dealer named Green, from 
BostOH. One day he said to the mother of this 
lady, “Ma-am, you have been kind to mein 
many ways, aud I have brought you a present.” 
So lie goes out to his wagon aud brings iu thi* 
THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN FARMING 
It is probable that in the near future the ap¬ 
proach of storrus of rain or wiuil will be an¬ 
nounced by our Signal Service everywhere 
throughout the country. A forewarning of 
this kind would serve, even with our preseut 
conveniences, to greatly dimin¬ 
ish the heavy losses entailed on 
the farming community by the 
unexpected advent of stormy 
weather. Approaching discov¬ 
eries in science aud l lie useful 
arts will doubtless enable farm¬ 
ers to turn such warnings to 
still greater advantage. The ac¬ 
companying sketch of a field 
electric light shows one method 
by which tho farmers of the fu¬ 
ture can hurry up farming op¬ 
erations on the approach of ui - 
favorable weather. Norwill this 
be the only benefit derived from 
such a convenience; for when¬ 
ever it shall he widely intro¬ 
duced, many labors in the fields, 
which are now wearily pci- 
formed during the torrid heat 
of our midsummer days, can 
then be pleasantly done in the 
cool summer nights. Then 
again, such heavy and expen¬ 
sive machinery as thrashers, 
etc., can be utilized all the time 
in the busy season, by means of 
relays of men; and thus a con¬ 
siderably larger profit will be 
realized from the capital in¬ 
vested in them. Favorable 
spells of weather, too, can te 
utilized to the utmost aud the 
evil consequences of a paucity 
of labor will be reduced to a min¬ 
imum. There is uo class for 
whom the future holds so much 
social aud intellectual advance¬ 
ment; so much assured pros¬ 
perity, aud so much rational 
happiness as for those engaged 
hi the various departments of 
agriculture, aud in no country 
in the world are the farmers so 
well prepared as in this by intelligence, energy, 
enterprise and political as well as natural con¬ 
ditions, to pluck the earliest benefits from the 
treasures of the future. 
-- 
CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL EXPERI¬ 
MENT STATION, 
bulletin 23.—March 11. 1879. 
Analyses of Hay. 
XLVIII. Cut first week in July. 1877. From 
dry, rich upland, plowed about forty years 
ago. Consists of fine grasses. Large amount 
of Kentucky blue-grass (poa pratensis ), and 
timothy (phlenm pratensn. Considerable red- 
top (agrostis). 
XLIX. Cut second week iu July, 1S77, from 
rich, moist upland. Mostly timothy and Ken¬ 
tucky blue-grass. Some red-top. 
L. Cut last week in July, 1S77, from rich 
moist upland. Mostly timothy. Some red-top. 
LI. Cut last week iu July, 1877 from moist 
upland. Mostly red-top aud timothy. 
LI I. Cut first week in August, 1877 from 
intervale meadow, sometimes overflowed. 
Coarser than the preceding four. Mostly 
timothy and red-top, some red clover and 
white weed {Chrysanthemum vulgare). 
LIII. Cut about the middle of August, 1877, 
from wet lowlaud, sometimes overflowed. 
Contains a good deal of sedge grass (carex 
slerilis ), and some fern. Other weeds, such as 
brunelia vulgaris. Very little timothy. 
All the above were scut by Hon. T. S. Gold, 
West Cornwall. Except iu case of XLVII the 
meadows have never been plowed or seeded. 
IX II. Cut July l, 1878, when about one- 
fourth part was iu bloom. Very heavy, rank 
grass. Almost all timothy, a very little Ken¬ 
tucky blue-grass. 
LVIII. Cut July 11, 1878. A half or more 
had ripened enough so that the seeds would 
scatter out a little in bundling. The grass was 
of the same species as LVII. 
I.VII and LVIII, were both sent by J. W. 
Sanborn Esq., Hanover, New Hampshire, from 
the Agricultural College farm, and cut from 
the driest part of a flue heavy clay yielding 
two, aud under good culture, three to four 
tous of hay per acre. 
The water contents of these hays when re¬ 
ceived at the laboratory were as follows : 
Per cent. Per cent 
XLVII. UM LII.18.55 
XLIX. 13.08 LIII. 15.08 
L.to. IIS LVII.8.87 
LI.Li.97 LVIII.9.29 
All but the last two were received apparently 
iu about the usual marketable condition. 
To render the result comparable with other 
analyses on record, they are all reckoned on a 
the temperature is comparatively cool. In 
May they are planted in the open grouud and 
treated like seedlings. The Picotcc and the 
Garden Piuk are varieties of D. Caryophyllus. 
They have both large flowers and differmaiuly 
iu that the Picotee has the stripes ruuuiug 
around the edge of the petals, instead of from 
the base to the outer edge. They may be 
grown from seed; but to preserve the many 
excellent varieties, they are mostly propagated 
by layering. This is done in July. The lower 
leaves are removed from a 
young branch, and with a small, 
sharp knife a cut is made on 
the under side about half way 
through the stem, and then up¬ 
wards, lengthwise about an 
iuch. This portion of the branch 
is then bent into the ground and 
covered with about two inches 
of soil, the tongue cut loose 
pointing directly downwards. 
When the layers are rooted, they 
are cut loose from the old plant 
and in the full planted in pots 
aud wintered in a cellar or cold- 
frame. Tht sc are great favor¬ 
ites in Europe. 
Dianthus barbatus, Sweet 
IVilliam, aud D. pluruurius, 
Plumed Pink, are very common 
throughout the country, espe¬ 
cially the former. They are 
hardy perennials. The seed 
should be sown now; the young 
plants set on a nursery bed, 
and next spring transplanted 
to the border. The Plumed Pink 
grows low, and its petals are 
deeply cut so as to give the f!ow r - 
er a feathery appearance. 
