a28 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
JtFLV 
The Horticulturist. —For prospectus of the 3d 
vol. of this work, see advertising pages. The first 
No. (for July) of the new vol., will be one of the most 
interesting yet published. 
The Season and Crops. —April was quite dry, but 
in other respects was not, unfavorable to vegetation; 
and the rains which set in with the first week of May, 
brought out more abundant and richer foliage than is 
usually seen. Grass and winter grain made a luxuri¬ 
ant growth, though the prevalence of cloudy and damp 
weather produced too much succulence of the stems to 
give the strength to support the grain in the best man¬ 
ner. The latter part of May, and fore part of June 
were remarkable for cold and moisture, as well as for 
very high winds. Frost occurred in many places on 
the first of June, and in some places on the thirteenth; 
though the injury by frost was less than that caused by 
the cold winds, which had a blighting effect on some 
tender fruits and plants. On the fifteenth of June, the 
weather became suddenly hot, the mercury ranging, for 
several days, from 88° to 96° in the shade. So great 
a degree of heat, with seasonable rains, has caused a 
rapid advance of all crops. Hay will be very heavy; 
winter wheat will be good, if it escapes rust, and has 
favorable weather to ripen; the same may be said of 
rye. Oats and barley look well; Indian corn is rather 
backward. In this vicinity, there is an entire destitu¬ 
tion of peaches, plums, and fine cherries; but mid-way 
between this and New-York, cherries were abundant; 
and in New-Jersey, we hear peaches are plenty. Ap¬ 
ples and pears are generally well set, though there is 
considerable appearance of blight on the trees, and 
many fine pears have nearly perished this season. 
The wheat crop at the south and west is generally 
spoken of as good. 
Hogs in the West. —The number of hogs slaugh¬ 
tered in the valley of the Mississippi last year is stated 
to have been 1,500,000, a fourth of which were put 
up for market in Cincinnati. The bristles from these 
hogs are estimated to be worth 50,000 dollars. Eleven 
millions of pounds of lard from them is calculated 
to have been run into lard oil. This oil is exported to 
the Atlantic cities, and to foreign countries. It is 
used in the Eastern States for the adulteration of sperm 
oil, and in France it is used to adulterate olive oil, the 
skill of the chemists being such that they are able to 
incorporate 65 to 70 per cent of the lard oil with that 
of the olive. 
Good Farming jn Ohio —A correspondent of the 
Ohio Cultivator, says: “ I always plant my corn on a 
clover lay or stubble, and apply all the manure I can 
collect, which is no very small quantity, as I manure 
for no other crop. I do not pretend to know all about 
farming, but I do know that I raise about one-third 
more corn to the acre than I did 35 years ago, when I 
tilled the virgin soil, while I see the once fertile river 
bottoms falling off nearly one-half.” 
To destroy the Wire worm. —S. Davidson, of 
Greece, Monroe county, N. Y., states in the Genesee 
Farmer, that he successfully destroys the wire worm, 
and other insects, by covering the ground two or three 
inches with straw, where it remains two or three weeks 
to settle. During this time the worms work on the 
surface, under the straw. On a dry day the straw is 
burned, destroying worms and eggs. This remedy 
was applied to a part of a field, “ full of wire 
worms.” Where the fire went, there has been no ap¬ 
pearance of wire worms; on the rest of the field they 
continued abundant. 
Potato Disease—NeW Remedy. —Dr. Klotsch, of 
Berlin, is to receive 2000 thalers, (about $1,40©,) for 
a new remedy for the potato disease. It consists, in 
substance, in pinching off the tips of the shoots, in the 
fifth, sixth, and seventh week after planting, wdien the 
plants are six to nine inches high. Only half an inch 
of the tips are removed, a greater portion is injurious. 
This causes an increase in the direction of the root, 
strengthens the leaves and stalks, while the action of 
the sun’s rays is mitigated by the thickened foliage. 
Rows which were selected for experiment, were rea¬ 
dily distinguished from the others, by their more nume¬ 
rous branches, and larger and darker foliage. Much 
success has attended this experiment, after various re¬ 
petitions. 
U. S. Crops. —The Commissioner of Patents says, 
the quantity of grain of all kinds exported during the 
year, ending Sept. 1, 1847, was 41 million bushels. 
Of this, about 20 million was wheat, 20 million corn, 
and the rest rye, barley and oats. The whole wheat 
crop, 114 million of bushels, and corn 540 million 
bushels. 
Time por Budding. —As a general rule, the best 
time for this work, is when the bud has become fully 
matured or full grown, and when at the same time the 
bark of the stock will peel freely. 
Chess. —A correspondent of the Ohio Cultivator, 
says, Go among the best wheat shocks at harvest, 
and select the largest and best ears for seed—sow the 
w T heat on a piece of perfectly clean ground for seed 
another year. By this means, if proper care is used, 
“ the seed will be quite clean, improved in quality, and 
will not turn to chess. I have tried this plan and have 
not had a spear of chess in the crop.” 
Rotation. —A good farmer in Ohio, who has ren¬ 
dered his farm richer, while others around him have 
been making theirs poorer, has adopted the following 
rotation:— 
1st year, Corn, well manured after clover, 
2d “ Fallow, 
3d “ Wheat, 
4th “ Corn, 
5th “ Oats, with clover, then pasture 3 years. 
Sweet Potatoes for Stock. —A writer in the 
Southern Cultivator, housed last fall, two thousand bush¬ 
els of sweet potatoes from ten acres of ground. He 
used them for fattening his hogs, which were fed al¬ 
most exclusively on boiled potatoes, and he says he 
never saw hogs thrive better. He also fed them cook¬ 
ed with turneps to working steers and milch cows with 
much success. 
The Wool Market. —Samuel Lawrence, the great¬ 
est wool purchaser and manufacturer in the country, 
says, 11 the business of wool growing in this country, 
is destined to be of immense importance, and I am firm 
in the belief, that within 25 years, we shall produce a 
greater quantity than any other nation ;” and he adds, 
“ there is not enough annually raised in the country, by 
10,000,000 to meet the demand of the manufacturers.” 
Profits of Draining and burnt Clay. —At an 
agricultural dinner at Robert Peel’s, last autumn,- 
Woodward, an eminent practical farmer, stated that 
some undrained land had come into his occupation, hea¬ 
vy land which only produced 10| bushels of wheat to 
the acre—it was drained three feet deep, subsoiled, and 
dressed with burnt clay, and the first year he obtained 
from it 51 bushels He regarded the burning of clay 
as a most important practice, rendering the soil more 
friable and convertible, and worked with much less 
horse-labor-[and particularly applicable to heavy 
land.] 
Culture of the Cranberry. —Sullivan Bates of 
Norfolk county, Mass., who has had very extensive ex¬ 
perience with the cranberry, sajs, “ As far as I have 
ascertained, there are three varieties of the cranberry, 
viz:—the Barberry, the Cherry, and the Bell. I have 
never known any other variety of the berry that would 
naturalize to dry soil, except the Bell cranberry; this 
grows much in the shape of an egg, it is inclined to 
