■aenra 
37 
•*. s. 
V THE CULTIVATOR. 
quench of each hill b^/ifig its complement of stalks, will not be 
less than six bushel's! J: So effectual is this method of preparing 
seed in saving the crop from the depredations of birds, that we have 
dispensed altogether with the use of scarecrows. Last year, one 
row in a corn-field was accidentally left unplanted. It was after¬ 
wards planted with unprepared seed. The crows took up the most 
of it, while we could not discover that they had taken a hill plant¬ 
ed with the tarred seed. 
A correspondent inquires at what distance the plants should re¬ 
main in the drill system of culture, where there are two or three 
rows in a drill. We cannot prescribe, but recommend from six to 
twelve inches, according to the richness of the soil, and the variety 
of the corn cultivated—the richer the soil, and the more dwarfish 
the growth of the stalk, the nearer the plants may be left. The 
more rich the pasture, and the smaller the animals which are put 
upon it, the greater number will it support. 
Luccrn may be sown till the 15 of this month, at the rate of 
sixteen pounds to the acre. The soil should be dry and loose, rich 
and clean, and the subsoil pervious, so that the tap roots may ex¬ 
tend down four or five feet, without encountering clay, hard-pan or 
water. Potatoes are a good preparation for lucern; but they ought 
to be well dunged, and kept clean of weeds. The seed of lucern 
may be sown in drills, with a drill barrow, the drills eighteen in¬ 
ches apart, when nothing is sown with it; or it may be sown broad¬ 
cast with small grains, and the ground should be well harrowed 
and rolled. Our practice has been to sown half a bushel of winter 
rye with the seed to the acre. When it has taken root it with¬ 
stands the drought better than any other grass, on account of its 
long tap-roots. It may, and if there are many weeds, it ought to 
be mown the last of August, after sowing. In subsequent years 
it may be cut as soon as it shows blossom, and, if the soil is good, 
it will bear cutting three, and often four times in a season. The 
great economy of this grass is to cut and feed it green. All farm 
stock, including hogs, are fond of it. An acre of good lucern 
will keep five or six cows from the 20th May to October. If made 
into hay, it should be cured in cock, to prevent the waste of the 
leaves. Partially cured, and mixed in the barn with barley straw, 
in alternate layers, it saves well, and very much improves the 
straw. The seed may be had at the seed shops, at twenty-five 
and thirty cents per pound. It is mostly imported from France. 
The Osier Willow is worthy a place on every farm, because 
it takes up very little ground, requires very little care, and fur¬ 
nishes the best materials for baskets, which are indispensable to 
the farmer. This, like all the willows, is readily propagated by 
cuttings. Where it has taken good root, its shoots, in good 
ground, grow from four to eight feet in a season. These shoots 
should all be taken off every winter, unless very large willows are 
wanted, and the number is thereby annually increased. The art 
of fabricating baskets from them is easily acquired, and may be 
practised in evenings and stormy days in the winter without cost. 
For ordinary baskets, the osier is used with the bark on ; but for 
neat house baskets they are peeled. The best way to divest them 
of the bark, is to cut, sort and tie the osiers in small bundles, say 
early in March, and place the bundles in a pool of stagnant water; 
and at the season the leaf buds are bursting, the bark will readily 
strip off. The osiers may then be laid up to be used when leisure 
will permit. A well made osier basket is worth three or four made 
of splits. We have them which have been in wear years, and are 
yet good. To give them firmness and durability, a good rim and 
ribs, of oak, hickory or other substantial wood are necessary. 
Transplanting Evergreens. —In reply to the inquiry, “ What 
is the best season for transplating evergreens?” we state the last 
of May, in this latitude, or when, in any place, the new spring’s 
growth begins to shoot. If they can be taken up and removed 
with a ball of earth about their roots, they may be transplanted at 
almost any season. But this can seldom be done, unless the plants 
are grown in a nursery; for here they are generally furnished with 
a large number of fibrous roots, to which the earth adheres, which 
forest trees seldom possess. Evergreens require a constant supply 
of food to sustain their foliage. If they are removed when in a 
quiescent state of growth, the mouths or roots are necessarily di¬ 
minished, and the plant is apt to die before the requisite supply is 
obtained. But if removed after the sap is in circulation, fewer 
roots will furnish a supply, and new roots become sooner formed. 
To prevent evaporation, from which the greatest danger arises, 
the ground about newly transplanted evergreens should be well 
mulched with a coarse wet litter from the barn-yard, and a pail of 
water may be occasionally thrown upon it, when the weather is 
dry. _ 
Kibbe’s Patent Cheese Press, a cut of which is given bplow, 
is an improvement deserving the attention of dairymen and others, 
who have occasion for its use. It occupies but little room, being 
three feet long, sixteen inches broad, and five feet high. It may 
be managed, by a child, and the pressure graduated at pleasure 
The patentee, S. Kibbe, resides at Esperance, Schoharie. The 
price of a Press, of the dimensions given above, is $15. 
Winter Butter, it is known, is generally deficient both in color 
and flavor. This arises partly from the cows being kept at this sea¬ 
son exclusively upon dry food, and partly from not managing the 
churning process under the right temperature. A writer in the 
New-England Farmer says he finds in the carrot a corrective for 
both these evils. To adopt his words, his method is, to “ take 
four carrots of the Altringham kind [and other kinds will serve as 
well] of about one and a half inches in diameter, to cream enough 
to make ten pounds of butter, and after washing them, to grate and 
cover them with new milk, and after they have stood ten minutes 
to squeeze them through a cloth into the cream, and the effect has 
been to make the butter come quicker, and give it the color and 
sweetness of May butter.” We can readily believe that carrots 
will impart a fine color to butter, and even a rich flavor,— if given 
to the cows in sufficient quantity-—the substance, and not the color¬ 
ing matter, must be required to give much flavor. Cows fed with 
rsta baga, or mangel worzel, or carrots, will produce butter, at 
all seasons, defective neither in color or flavor. 
Morus Multicaulis. —We have been censured forexpressing our 
doubts whether the Chinese mulberry would withstand our winters. 
Judge Bradley, of Onondaga, a highly worthy and ardent promo¬ 
ter of the silk business, has expressed to us similar doubts. His 
Chinese mulberries, he says, are frozen down every winter. This, 
we are aware, is not the case in some soils and situations; but in 
this case it is beet to err on the side of caution. The peach and 
cherry, as well as the mulberry, stand the winter better in a clay 
or stiff soil, than in one which is loose or sandy. 
The Silk Culturist , is the title of a monthly paper of eight quar¬ 
to pages, published by the Executive Committee of the Hartford 
County Silk Society, at fiflty cents per annum, the first number of 
which has just come to hand. It is particularly devoted to the cul¬ 
ture of the mulberry, the rearing of silk worms, and the processes 
of preparing silk. This work was much wanted; and we com¬ 
mend it to the patronage of every family who are employed, or 
design to be employed, in the silk business. 
Southern Clover. —A farmer remarked to us the other day, that 
he preferred the seed of northern, or large clover, for the reason, 
that the winter was less severe upon it than upon the small or 
