THE CULTIVATOR. 
59 
growth of clover, and the phosphate to that of wheat Hence the ef¬ 
ficacy of plaster of Paris and crushed bones as manures. 
7. If lime or its sulphate be employed as the means of raising green 
crops, which have but small exhausting powers, the fertility of a soil 
may be maintained by ploughing them in, or increased by using them 
to feed cattle whose manure is applied to the ground. 
RULES FOR MANAGING THE MADDER CROP. 
\trom Radcliff’s Flanders.'] 
1st. The most suitable soil, a soft sandy loam, with two or three feet 
depth of earth, that the roots may run down without obstruction. 
2d. The land to be well ploughed and laid up in high ridges, in au¬ 
tumn, when the madder is intended to be planted in the spring. It 
should be well cleansed from couch and all other weeds. 
3d. In spring, plough with the deepest furrow, and let the bottom be 
still deepened by the spade. 
4th. Plant from the middle to the latter end of April, rake the ground 
well and lay it up in ridges, if disposed to be wet; if not, plant in rows 
at 18 inches interval upon the level. 
5th. Mark out the rows with a line, and dibble in the plants at 12 
inches in the row; secure them well in the ground, covering as little of 
the green as possible. 
6 th. Take the slips with as much root as possible if to be carried far; 
take them when they begin to bud out, pack so that they be not heated, 
and if withered, set them upright in water previous to planting. 
7th. Plant nothing in the intervals, but as the madder grows high, 
turn it occasionally from side to side, earthing up the roots, at the side 
from which the haulm is turned. The interval must be stirred at the 
same time, and the straggling shoots cut off; thus the roots will be 
strengthened to yield a double increase. 
8 th. Madder should remain three years (but some gather it at two 
years, with less profit.) The slips of the second and third years’ growth 
are the best to plant, and should be taken in the spring, when about an 
inch above ground. 
9th. In autumn when the haulm is withered off, earth up the rows, 
against the frost, and in spring hoe the intervals, and weed; attend the 
turning of the haulm in the summer, and dig between the rows till the 
season of the gathering, viz. about Michaelmas. 
10th. In the third autumn, when the haulm is withered off, dig a 
trench along the first row of madder, three feet deep, as near to the 
roots as may be, to receive the earth in digging up the roots. Each 
digger must have three pickers to gather the roots and clear them from 
the earth. Lay them thin upon the ground, but free from wet: the 
whole ground must be dug the same depth of the first trench, that the 
roots may be all fairly got out; it will be the best preparative for any 
other crop: viz. wheat, or garden stuff; as the same ground should 
not be planted again with madder in less than six years. 
11 th. Lying in heaps or taking rain, will discolour, therefore the sooner 
the roots are carried to the drying house the better. 
12th. The drying house should be defended from wet on all sides, but 
open to a free air. The roots should be spread on hurdles, placed at a 
convenient distance for that purpose, one over the other. Here they 
must remain till they are dry enough to rub the dirt clean off, and then 
they are to be removed to the cold kiln. 
13th. The kiln for hops or malt will serve for madder, with the addi¬ 
tion of a ventilator to preserve the colour. 
14th. On the first kiln they are to be dried with a gentle heat, being 
carefully turned, till they are dry enough to part with their husks, which 
are to be threshed off on a common threshing floor, clean swept, and 
then packed up separately. These sell at a much cheaper rate than 
the inside madder, under the name of mull. The mull is sold for about 
15s. per cwt. and usually pays the expense of drying and cleaning. 
15th. When the mull is threshed off, the roots must be dried a se¬ 
cond time, with a hotter fire, but great care must be taken that it be not 
too fierce, so as to discolour the madder, for on the brightness of the co¬ 
lour depends the price. 
16th. The last process of the madder is pounding and casking. As 
there are no pounding houses in England, any common stampers work¬ 
ed by wind, water, or cattle, may be made to answer. 
THE CULTIVATOR-JULY, 1836. 
TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND. 
THE HARVEST PROSPECT. 
The wheat crop is represented to be unpromising, throughout the 
middle and northern states, and in some districts to be nearly a total 
failure. This arises from three causes:—The first and most promi¬ 
nent is the ravages of the Hessian fly. The devastations by this in¬ 
sect have been almost unprecedented in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, 
Pennsylvania, N. Jersey, and in some of the southern districts of New- 
York. A correspondent in Virginia, writes—“ The crop of wheat in 
this vicinity is literally destroyed by the fly. Many of our farmers 
will not attempt to save their crop at all. Out of 160 bushels sown by 
me, on the same quantity of acres, I think it an extravagant calcula¬ 
tion to say I shall have 500 bushels. This land, in ordinary years, 
would have turned me out 1,500 bushels; and I am considered by my 
neighbors, as comparatively a light sufferer.” A correspondent at 
Height’s Town, N. J. says, “the wheat is entirely killed by the fly. 
Some of our farmers, who sowed fifty bushels seed, on good land, will 
not reap their seed. There is not, from strict examination, within ten 
miles, a single field or patch, but is prostrate. The rye is generally 
poor. Half crops we cannot have. I have good information from 
Pennsylvania, along the Delaware, and their wheat and prospects are 
alike blasted.” The second cause of failure, is the great quantity of 
snow which covered the ground last winter, and which smothered and 
killed many of the plants. The third cause of a prospective light 
wheat harvest, is the prevalence of the grain-worm, the periodical de¬ 
predations of which, have almost suspended the wheat culture, in 
many of the northern counties. Judging from the past, this insect may 
be expected to extend, this season, to Dutchess on the south, and to 
Oneida on the west. 
Rye suffered from the great body of snow, on the ground in the winter. 
It has not, besides, tillered well;—the continued warm weather in May 
having caused it to send up its seed stalks, before the roots had acquir¬ 
ed strength and vigor to multiply them. 
The prospect of the corn crop is also bad. Much of the seed planted 
between the 15th and 25th May, in this vicinity, failed to grow. This 
failure is imputed to several causes, all of which may have had an in¬ 
fluence. First—bad seed, caused by the September frosts, which ar¬ 
rested the growth of the grain before it had sufficiently ripened for 
seed, or from the grain having been heated either in the husk, or after 
it was cribbed. The weather last autumn was extremely unfavorable 
to saving the corn crop in good condition—some that was braided 
and hung in an airy loft, showing mould upon the butt ends of the 
cobs. Second—some failed from having been soaked till germination 
had commenced, and then planted in dry weather, and but superficially 
covered. The dry earth abstracted the moisture from the seed, and 
destroyed thereby its vegetating principle. This affords another argu¬ 
ment for planting when the ground is fresh ploughed, and of the plant¬ 
er treading upon the hill, after the seed is covered—the latter causing 
the earth, by giving it compactness, to retain the moisture. Much 
corn failed to grow, in consequence of the wet cold weather, which 
continued from the 22d to the 29th May. This happened also to the 
other seeds, as squashes, cucumbers, melons, Lima beans, &c. which 
in our garden, all rotted in the ground. In addition to all this, the 
grub worm has been particularly destructive to the corn, after it had 
surmounted the evils to which we have referred. This pest has sel¬ 
dom been more troublesome. In the Capitol park, an entire quarter 
of grass has been destroyed by them—scarcely a green blade remain¬ 
ing. 
The truth of these remarks, as to the causes of the failure of seed- 
corn, was, in a manner, verified in our practice. Our seed was plant¬ 
ed on different days, between the 12th and the 20th, it being our rule 
to plant immediately after the ground is ploughed. All, except the 
last day’s planting, three days having intervened between it and the 
previous planting, came up well; but of the last, not one seed in forty 
grew, which we ascribe to the wet weather, and which was equally 
prejudicial to other seeds, then recently planted. 
The grass, oat and barley crops, wear a promising appearance; the 
former seldom ever looked finer. But notwithstanding the flattering 
hope that these crops, and probably potatoes, will be abundant, there 
is great reason to apprehend a scarcity of animal food the coming 
year, and corresponding high prices. It is, therefore, an admonition 
of prudence, to those who expect to sell as well as those who expect 
to buy, to profit by the time that is still left, to provide for expected 
want. Buckwheat, and turnips, and even millet, may yet be sown, 
in this latitude, to make up for the deficiency in the corn and grain 
crops. The Swedish turnip may be sown the first week in this month, 
and later as we proceed south, with the prospect of a tolerable crop, 
and the common turnip all this month. 
THE MULBERRY. 
No little confusion and perplexity prevails as to the distinctive names 
and synonysms of the different kinds of the mulberry, and as to the 
relative qualities of each for producing silk. The kind specifically 
known as multicaulis, has been equally well known under the syno- 
nysm of Chinese. Seed has been recently vended in our market, as Chi¬ 
nese, at the enormous price of $5 the ounce, declared not to be the 
multicaulis, and believed not to be a species ever grown in China. 
The red of America has been confounded with the black of Europe. 
We hear of the Dandolo, Italian, Brussa and Constantinopolitana; and 
of the rough, dwarf and Pennsylvanian—the first four of which, we 
