256 THE CULTIVATOR August. 
WEATHER PREDICTIONS. 
person, while another rapidly stirred the mixture. 
This occupied another five minutes.” It is then left to 
cool—if there is much fire it should be put out. It 
should be used the next day, or by being- excluded from 
the air, may be kept longer. The quantity given to 
each bullock per day, is eight pounds, with hay or straw 
in addition. 
THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 
Mr. Tucker —Permit me through the medium of the 
Cultivator to call the attention of farmers more gene¬ 
rally to the practice of using the water-pot in their gar¬ 
dens. The garden is generally too much neglected; 
this should not be so. The kitchen-garden is the source 
from which many of our delicacies of food are to be 
derived. It is an excuse urged by farmers in general, 
that they have “ no time to speud in the garden,” and 
allowing themselves to be governed by this idea, they 
seldom spend but very little time in them after their 
planting. 
Now I would recommend to every farmer who pre¬ 
tends to have a garden, to spend more or less time every 
day in hoeing and watering it. This is the only way 
by which good and luxuriant crops of garden products 
can be obtained. The garden should be visited every 
day during drouths, with the water-pot. The best time 
for watering is immediately after sundown, as the water 
has a chance to soak into the earth before the morning 
sun comes up to bake or harden the soil. In watering, 
care should be taken not at any time to use cold water. 
Well water should not be used uuless it has been drawn 
for a day. Soap-suds and the washings of barn yards are 
excellent fluids for watering. 
Time spent in the garden is never lost. When your 
healthy-looking vines yield their rich delicacies, and 
the garden gives up its substantial and palatable eata¬ 
bles, then will you not grudge the time spent in it. 
Nicholas. 
Watertown , July 2d, 1846. 
WOOL GROWING. 
Mr. Editor —Can you tell me what encouragement 
there is for a wool grower to strive hard to improve his 
flock, while the present feeling and policy of the man¬ 
ufacturers exist ? For years the farmer has been deaf¬ 
ened with the cry that wool is lower this, than last 
year; and now their agents talk of its being five or six 
cents less, and they must buy it at this reduction or not 
at all. I will venture, if a memorandum had been kept 
for a few years past, it would be found that by this time 
they would require a small premium to induce them to 
take it at nothing, if their assertions are to be believed. 
I would ask the manufacturers, if they believe this course 
just, even to their own interests ? Can they expect the 
farmer to spend his time looking up fine crosses and 
paying $20, $30, or even $50 for bucks to improve his 
flocks, if he is always to be met with the never failing cry 
of “ wool is falling.” Let me tell them that a silent 
change is fast going on; heavy-fleeced, middling wool, 
is fast superseding the really fine . Why, because no 
discrimination is made between the qualities, commen¬ 
surate with the expense of producing the fine. Will 
they be wise in time for their own interest ? 
A Wool Grower. 
Preserving Timber. —$. W. Jewett of Vermont, 
impregnated in 1834, a stick of basswood timber, (which 
decays more rapidly than nearly all other kinds of wood,) 
with a solution of blue vitriol; it was green, cut in 
June. It was partly buried in the ground, and exposed 
to constant alternations of moisture and dryness. In 
eleven years (i it was, to all appearance, as sound as 
when first cut. The remaining portion of the tree, nn- 
inimpregnated, had decayed years before. 
The London Gardeners' 1 Chronicle furnishes an ex¬ 
tract from an article written by the celebrated astrono¬ 
mer, M. Arago, in which he states that he has “ fre¬ 
quently been led to consider whether it will ever be 
possible, by means of astronomical calculations, to 
determine, a year in advance, what in any given place 
will be the annual temperature, that of each month, the 
quantity of rain, or the prevailing winds.” The re¬ 
sults of these investigations, he observes, “ demonstrate 
peremptorily that the lunar and cometary influences are 
scarcely sensible ; and therefore that weather prophecy 
can never be a branch of astronomy, properly so called. 
For, in fact, our satellite and the comets, have been in 
all times considered, in meteorology, as the preponde¬ 
rating stars.” He protests “ loudly ” against those pre¬ 
dictions which are yearly laid before the public in his 
name, and says: “No word has ever issued from my 
mouth, either in the intimacy of private conversation, 
or in my courses delivered during thirty years—no line 
has ever been published with my assent, which could 
authorise the attribution to me of an opinion, that it is 
possible, in the present state of our knowledge, to 
foretell with certainty what the weather will be a year, 
a month, A week —nay, I will say, A single day, in 
advance.” 
Such, then, are the conclusions of the greatest as¬ 
tronomer of the age, in regard to weather-prophecy. 
What will our weather-wise (?) almanac makers say to 
them ? 
ROTTING HEMP. 
The Report of the Commissioner of Patents states, 
that important improvements have lately been made in 
the preparation of hemp and flax, particularly in the 
rotting process. Water-rotting, according to the old 
mode, occupied from five to fourteen days, and dew- 
rotting, from two to six or eight weeks. It is stated, 
that under the recont improvement, the whole process 
is gone through within “a day and a-half, or two days 
at furthest.” In the old mode, the natural temperature 
of the air or water is relied upon; in the new mode, 
artificial heat is resorted to. The hemp or flax is put 
into large vats, and steeped in warm water, until it is 
completely macerated; and as soon as it is brought to 
this condition, the temperature is suddenly raised to the 
boiling point, which arrests all further rotting. The 
critical point in hemp-rotting, is to check the putre¬ 
factive process at the proper time, and where it depends 
on the temperature of the air, it requires great discern¬ 
ment to ascertain when the operation must be checked. 
LOCALITIES FOR PEACH ORCHARDS. 
There is little doubt, that in many parts of the 
country, where the peach is not raised from the se¬ 
verity of the climate, a selection of locality would 
give regular crops. The great advantages derived from 
nearness to large unfreezing lakes, is well known. The 
superiority of hills over valleys, has often been no¬ 
ticed; the former being colder in summer, and favoring 
a more moderate and well ripened growth of wood, and 
being less subject to sharp frosts on clear nights. 
A very striking case was lately mentioned to us by 
R. Raymond, of Conhocton, Steuben Co., New York. 
The river valley at that place, though many hundred 
feet above the level of the sea, is much lower than the 
surrounding country, being flanked by hills about 500 
feet high. In the valley, the peach cannot be cultiva¬ 
ted, he himself, as well as others, having had their 
trees killed completely to the ground in winter. But 
on one of the neighboring hills, 500 feet above, an or¬ 
chard has been planted, where not only the trees them¬ 
selves escape, but they yield regular crops of fruit. 
This hill is probably over 1,200 feet above the level of 
the sea. The experiment, both on the hill, and in the 
valley, were made on dry, firm soils. 
