232 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
July, 
men bury peach stones. In the spring, as soon as the 
ground is in a fine friable condition, take them and plant 
them in rows, 10 to 12 inches apart and 3^ feet between 
the rows, in light soil. They will grow from eight to 
to twelve inches the first season. The nuts should be 
put in the ground as soon as possible after gathering. 
Perhaps your correspondent has failed to have them 
vegetate by letting them' get too dry before planting. 
They grow with me as readily as peach stones.” 
A correspondent with the signature J. T. IP, Newton- 
Center, Mass., thus describes his mode: “‘ My practice 
has been to gather the nuts when they had fallen from 
the tree, and were fully ripe—always selecting the larg¬ 
est and best; and then, without drying, mix them with 
sand and loam, in about equal parts. There should be 
enough of this to prevent the nuts from heating. Then 
they may be- put into a cellar, or any other suitable 
place, where they should be kept suitably moist, as well 
as free from the depredations of squirrels, mice, Sec. In 
the spring, when the ground is sufficiently dry, they may 
be planted; the land having been well pulverized, and 
manured with compost. They should be but slightly 
covered, unless there is a prospect of dry weather, in 
which case they may be covered deeper. They some¬ 
times rot in the ground by being covered too deep. Care 
should also be taken after they are planted, that they 
may not be carried off by squirrels, or any other animals. 
They will make from .one to two feet growth the first 
year, and sometimes more. They may remain in the 
seed-bed two or three years. When moved, the tap¬ 
root may be cut off. Should they grow crooked, they 
may, after they have got stout enough, be cut down even 
with the ground, when they will throw a nice, straight 
shoot, which will grow very rapidly, so that little time 
is lost in so doing while you get a straight tree.” 
J. R. L., Wilmington, Del., writes—“ Take chest¬ 
nuts as soon as they fall from the tree; plant in rfcwsin 
white sand, one inch under the surface,—the sand pack¬ 
ed hard: put the box in a green-house or hot-bed; water 
very sparingly until the shoots appear, which will be in 
a month after planting; then increase watering; when 
the plants are a foot high, prepare a compost, of sand, 
fresh soil and leaf mould, equal parts; transplant each 
root into a six inch pot, filled with the compost; keep 
the plants in the house or hot-bed until thoroughly 
rooted, that is until the roots fill the pots, turn out the 
ball entire, and plant where you wish the tree to re¬ 
main. The first winter tie up in straw. By this method 
we have been entirely successful—never having lost one 
plant—the trees bearing the fifth j^ear from the seed— 
and not over 5 to 6 feet high. The Pecan can be raised 
in the same way in this latitude.” 
G. B. D., Burlington, N. J., writes,—“ If your cor¬ 
respondent from Otsego will pack his chestnuts in moss 
or damp sand, soon after they fall from the tree, and 
place them in a cool Cellar until the ensuing spring, and 
then plant them out, I think he will have little difficulty 
in growing them.” 
Mr. Norton Case, Granville, Ohio, says—“In the 
fall of ”42. I gathered some chestnuts, so superior in 
beauty to any I had ever seen, that I thought to raise 
some trees, in hopes to get some like the parent. I took 
leaves and muck from the woods, mixed chestnut leaves 
and muck in a leaky box, (sufficiently tight to keep out 
the mice, but not the rain,) and put them on the north 
side of the fence. In the spring I prepared my ground 
as I would for beets, (deep and mellow;) when the 
chestnuts began to sprout, I planted them in rows an 
inch deep, spreading over another inch of leaves and 
muck. All the good and sound nuts grew, but they 
grew very slow the first three or four years. The last 
two years they have grown faster, being now from three 
to four inches through at the but, and from ten to twelve 
feet high. They were transplanted at two years old, 
without loss. Some have been sent to a distance of 100 
miles, but with what success I have not learned. I pre¬ 
sume the bad success your correspondent has had, is 
from the nuts getting dried. Mine were put in the muck 
the day they were gathered. I have grown the walnut 
in the same way—both the hickory and black walnut.” 
Cutting and Curing Grain. 
Experiments have pretty well settled the fact that 
wheat should be cut while the grain is in the state called 
doughy. This conclusion w r as, indeed, reached several 
years since in regard to wheat, but it has by the experi¬ 
ments of Voelcker, been clearly shown to be applicable 
to oats; (See Cultivator for 1850, p. 260,) and it is also 
known to be equally applicable to Indian corn. At 
fiist, it was feared by some that there would be a great 
shrinkage of the grain cut in this stage, which would 
amount to absolute loss. It is proved, however, that the 
sap of the stems or straw, is sufficient to perfect the 
grain, and that the grain, under such circumstances 
even possesses some valuable properties which it has not 
when it remains uncut till dead ripe. 
Mr. Colman states that he found by many inquiries in 
England, that “ the best rule for harvesting is not when 
the stalk below the head has changed color, and the cir¬ 
culations have consequently ceased, but when the grain, 
though it lias ceased to yield any milk upon pressure, is 
yet soft.” The advantages of cutting at this stage are 
briefly given as follows: “ Wheat cut early affords more 
grain, yields less bran, makes better flour, wastes less in 
gleaning, gives better straw, and enables the farmer to 
do the work more leisurely.? 
C. W. Johnson, in the Farmer's Encyclopedia , ob¬ 
serves—“ Grain, if not reaped until the straw is wholly 
yellow, will be more than ripe, as the ear, generally, ex¬ 
cept in the late seasons, ripens before the entire of the 
straw, and it is observable that the first reaped usually 
affords the heaviest and fairest sample. The indications 
of ripeness in wheat are few and simple. When the straw 
exhibits a bright golden color from the bottom of the 
stem nearly to the ear, or when the ear begins to bend 
gently, the grain may be cut. But as the whole crop 
will not be equally ripe at the same time, if, on walking 
through the field and selecting the greenest heads, the 
kernels can be separated from the chaff when rubbed 
through the hands, it is a sure sign that the grain is then 
out of its milky state, and may be reaped with safety; 
for although the straw may be green to some distance 
downwards from the ear, yet if it be quite yellow from 
the bottom upwards, the grain then wants no further 
nourishment from the earth, and if properly harvested, 
it will not shrink. These tokens will be found to suffi¬ 
ciently indicate the ripeness of wheat, barley and oats; 
but that of rye arises from the straw losing some of its 
golden hue, and becoming paler.” 
Some of the most valuable experiments which have 
been reported on this subject, are those of Mr. Ilannam, 
