THE CULTIVATOR. 
91 
Walnuts. (Juglans )-*-'This genera includes the Maderia nut (J. 
Regia) black walnut ( J. nigra) and butternut (A cinneria.) Preserve 
the seed carefully and sow early in spring. The black walnut is pecu¬ 
liarly suited for planting. It grows rapidly, and makes a valuable 
material for the best cabinet and joiner’s work. It abounds in western 
New-York, Ohio, &c. It has grown with us nearly 40 feet, from the 
seed, in fourteen years. The juglans does best in a moist soil.. We 
shall speak particularly of the mode of preserving seeds in our next 
number. 
Honey Locust (Gleditschia triacantkos) is indigenous in the west, 
grows quick, and is readily propagated by seeds, which are best pre¬ 
served in their pods, and sown in the spring. This is hardly worth 
raising, except for ornament or hedges, and even for the latter purpose 
its usefulness is not yet fully established. 
Common Locust (Robina psuedo-acacia *)~-Sow at the time of plant¬ 
ing corn, in drills two feet apart, in well prepared ground, having first 
swelled the seeds by pouring upon them scalding water. This is one 
of the most profitable trees that can be propagated. It multiplies 
readily by sprouts, grows rapidly on most soils, and is highly valuable 
in naval architecture and for various purposes of the farm. It will 
bear cutting over every twenty or twenty-five years. 
Ash (Fraxinus.)— The white and black are the most common and 
valuable, and both have abundance of seeds. The first prefers a dry, 
the latter a moist soil. Gather the seed as soon as ripe, in autumn, 
and dry in a cool airy loft. Sow in April in a bed of well prepared 
mould; the plants will appear the following spring; or, sow immedi¬ 
ately when fresh gathered, and many seeds will vegetate the ensuing 
spring. The timber of the ash is extensively used in the mechanic 
arts, and for farm purposes. We are sorry to add, that some white 
ash of our planting have been attacked and destroyed by a borer, or 
worm. 
Oak (Quercus )~There are many valuable American species. A 
rich loam, with a clayey subsoil, brings the oak to the greatest perfec¬ 
tion, but it may be profitably cultivated in almost any description of 
Soil, except boggy and peaty. Sow the beginning oi November; or if 
deferred until spring, spread the acorns upon a cool dry floor, to pre¬ 
vent their sprouting or heating. 
Beech {.Fagics ) Abounds in most of the northern states, is much 
used in the mechanic arts, and affords excellent building timber and 
fuel. Sow in autumn or spring, in a sandy soil. The seeds often re¬ 
quire protection from field mice and other vermin. 
0° Note well, that all seeds of trees, not sown when gathered, should 
be dried in an airy situation, before they are packed for transportation 
or spring use, and some require then to be packed with dry sand or 
peat earth, lest they become rancid, and lose their germinating power. 
Chesnut —( Castania )—The only forest species are the common and 
the Spanish, and the lalter is believed to be too tender for this latitude, 
though it succeeds well on York Island. The growth of this tree is 
rapid, and the uses to which the timber is applied on the farm are va¬ 
rious and important. Large tracts are appropriated to its growth in 
Pennsylvania for charcoal. It will bear cutting over once in fifteen 
years for this purpose. A friend informed us, that a chesnut tree was 
cut, in his youth, to supply shingles for a barn; that when the shingles 
were decayed so far as that the barn required re-shingling, the sprouts 
which had grown from the old sump had grown so large as to furnish 
shingles for this purpose. A sandy loam produces the chesnut in the 
greatest perfection, though it grows well in clayey soils, if free from 
stagnant moisture. The seeds may be sown in early spring, and may 
be preserved in dry earth during winter. Michaux recommends that 
they be kept in earth in a cellar, where they will sprout before plant¬ 
ing time. 
Plane — (Flatanus) or button wood tree. Sow the seeds immedi¬ 
ately after they are gathered. The plane is also propagated by layers 
or cuttings. It prefers a moist loam, and grows rapidly. 
Elm —( Ulmus )—The seed of the elm falls from the 20th to 30th 
May. It should be immediately gathered and sown in drills, in well 
prepared soil. It often grows 18 to 24 inches the first year. We have 
gathered the seed of the elm, soft maple and plane tree (the latter of 
the preceding year’s growth) on the 25th and 28th of May, sown imme¬ 
diately, and had fine plants the same season. 
Whitewood —( Lyriodendrum tulipefera ) or tulip tree, is one of the 
most magnificent trees of our forest, whether we regard size, or the 
beauty of its foliage and flowers; and it is also a valuable timber tree. 
We lately measured a log of this tree at Lockport, and found it 6 feet 
2 inches in diameter. Michaux speaks of one which measured 22 feet 
6 inches in circumference. The seeds may be gathered and sown like 
those of the linden. 
CONE-BEARING TREES. 
These are the pines, firs, larches, &c. which may be beneficially cul¬ 
tivated in plantations, in belts or clumps, for shelter, ornament or tim¬ 
ber. The larch and Scotch fir, in particular, are extensively and pro¬ 
fitably planted in Great Britain and Flanders, for forest timber. The 
seeds are enveloped in the scales of the cone, where they are best pre- 
‘ erved till wanted for use, but from which it is difficult to extract some 
kinds of them. If thrown into an oven of moderate tempetature, the 
scales open, and the seeds are separated with a flail. But where this 
is done, the seeds should be afterwards gathered in a heap, and slight¬ 
ly sprinkled with water, that they may imbibe the moisture of which 
they have been artificially deprived, and which seems essential to the 
preservation of the vegetating principle. To extract the seeds from 
some of the large compact cones, it is common first to split them into 
halves or quarters, by driving a spike or sharp piece of wood into the 
pith of the cone, at the butt end. 
FRENCH AGRICULTURE. 
Agricultural improvement is receiving a new and vigorous impetus, 
from the active labors of eminent men in science and practice, associ¬ 
ates of the Royal and Central Society of France. Science has been 
long made subservient to the improvement of the manufacturing and 
mechanic, arts of that country ; but it was not until recently that asso¬ 
ciations of learned men directed their knowledge to the improvement 
of her agriculture, the primary source of national prosperity and 
greatness. In the sitting in April, M. Passy, minister of commerce 
and public works, presiding, prizes were awarded to the amount of 
several thousand francs, for improvements in agriculture, as for drain¬ 
ing, for works, memoirs and observations on the veterinary practice, 
for plantations of the mulberry tree, and on various agritultural im¬ 
provements. Among the prizes awarded, we observe mention made 
of the splendid work on agriculture, 2 vols. quarto, of Olivier of Serres, 
an edition of which has been printed at the expense of the society. A 
old medal was awarded to M. Graux, for liaving obtained, in his 
ock, a new race of sheep, with soft glossy wool, which he has suc¬ 
ceeded, by continual pains for six years, to preserve and multiply in 
its purity. 
The prizes advertised for future competition, indicate an enlightened 
policy, which looks to the substantial improvement of French agricul¬ 
ture. They embrace, among other, the following objects:— 
The introduction, into the different cantons, of new species of nu¬ 
tritive herbage. 
Biographical notices of theoretical farmers, cultivators or writers, 
worthy of being better known for the services they have rendered to 
agriculture. 
Translations of foreign works of merit on domestic and rural eco¬ 
nomy. 
For memoirs, &c. on veterinary medicine, and on irrigation—and 
for artesian wells. 
For plantations of the apple and pear into cantons where they are 
not grown; for plantations of mulberry trees; for draining; for nurse¬ 
ries and plantations of cork trees; and for the propagation of good 
species of fruit trees by means of nurseries. To the last object, a prize 
of 1,000 francs and two gold medals, are to be awarded in 1848. 
For the discovery of a simple and cheap means, within the power of 
small cultivators, to preserve wheat from the attacks of insects, a prize 
of 1,000 francs. For the discovery of means to arrest the ravages of 
insects in grain already attacked, 500 francs. For good observations 
upon the natural history of these insects, medals of gold, silver, and 
works on agriculture. 
The prizes offered for improvements in the beet culture, and the 
fabrication of beet sugar, as stated in our last, amount to eight or ten 
thousand francs. The franc, our readers will recollect, is about 18£ 
cents. 
From the report of M. Bodin, vice-secretary, we make the follow¬ 
ing extracts, which may afford useful hints to our exclusively wheat or 
tobacco farmers: 
“In times not very remote from our own, the production of bread 
stuffs, of wheat, above all, considered as the almost exclusive means 
of human subsistence, was, so to speak, the only object of agriculture, 
and that was an object not always actually obtained. Even yet, in 
many quarters, the idea of agriculture is associated almost exclusively 
with the plough; with waving fields of wheat; with harvests ready to 
fall beneath the sickle of the reaper. Artificial meadows were then 
unknown. Stock was rare, because the spontaneous herbage on which 
their chief dependance was for subsistence, was rare also. The pota¬ 
to, still neglected in many places, was far from being supposed capable 
of furnishing a fifth part of the subsistence of a great nation! The 
introduction of esculent roots was then* very far from being regarded 
as the commencement of a struggle with grasses and grain, in which 
the former are already half victorious. The soil exhausted by the too 
rapid succession of the crops of corn, was fast tending to the lowest 
degree of sterility. 
“But in the labors, as in the institutions of mankind, the evil often 
makes its appearance by the side of the remedy. The reduction of 
the price of wheat, accruing from its almost exclusive cultivation for 
human subsistence, became so excessive, as to counterbalance the ef¬ 
fect of all that had been previously attempted for the amelioration of 
