THE CULTIVATOR. 
57 
wine, and they require little skill or care in the manage¬ 
ment after planting. In planting them the buds should 
he cut from the shoots from the lowest part to several 
inches above the ground ; this will prevent the multi¬ 
tude of suckers or shoots that usually spring up from the 
roots, and giving a tree-like form to the shrub, enable 
the fruit to ripen better, and give a better flavor. There 
are three kinds of the currant grown, the red, white and 
black. The last is principally cultivated for medicinal 
purposes ; the red is the most common; but we prefer 
the white, as the fruit is usually larger, sweeter, and has 
a finer appearance when placed on the table. Red or 
white currants make one of the richest of jellies, useful in 
cookery, and valuable for medicinal purposes. A border 
of such bushes around a garden, while they occupy lit¬ 
tle space, will be found of essential use, and if not al¬ 
ready on the farm should be introduced without delay. 
Several varieties of Gooseberries are also known; 
the larger and more valuable kinds of which have been 
introduced from abroad. They are, however, more sub¬ 
ject to disease, than the native kinds, and are not in gene¬ 
ral as finely flavored. There are two kinds of the native 
varieties easily grown, not subject to disease, and great 
bearers, the smooth and the prickly varieties. The first 
is a rich flavored fruit but small; the last is larger, of 
equal flavor, but covered with prickles that detract 
largely from its value. Gooseberry bushes may be 
raised from seeds, or grown from cuttings or suckers. 
They should be produced in such a way as to keep 
the stem clear from shoots ten or twelve inches above 
the ground. Gooseberries make a fine wine, the best 
of jams, and a sweetmeat or preserve of the most deli¬ 
cate quality. 
Culture of the Pea. 
Mr. E. Bishop, of Washington co. Md., has requested 
some information on the culture of the pea—“ the best 
kind for field cultivation—the time of sowing—the 
quantity of seed per acre—the best mode of preparing 
the land—the best mode of harvesting—and the best 
mode of feeding.” 
The pea is one of the most valuable crops grown in 
the country, not only on account of its own intrinsic 
worth, butTor its use as a preparation for othor crops, 
particularly wheat. In all our wheat districts it is 
therefore extensively cultivated, and here as in England 
is considered next to the root crops as a preparative for 
that grain. The soil best adapted to the pea is one that 
is good for wheat, and where that grain is certain, peas 
may be considered so. The preparation of the soil de¬ 
mands nothing peculiar ; it must only be made in good 
order for seed, in the manner required for other spring 
crops, by being well plowed, harrowed, and if necessary 
manured. If manured too highly, however, the vine or 
haulm is apt to be too abundant, and the pea itself in¬ 
ferior in quantity and quality. In this as in most other 
cases too great a growth of vine or straw is incompati¬ 
ble with great crops of pulse or grain. Lime in all 
countries has been found an essential ingredient of pea 
or wheat soils ; and where it does not naturally exist 
in them, should be applied previous to attempting the 
culture of these crops. 
The kinds of pea most usually cultivated as a field 
crop, are the small yellow pea and the marrowfat. We 
prefer the latter; as it is equally certain with the other, 
is excellent for the table as well as for feeding, is as nu¬ 
tritious for animals, and generally more productive. 
In some situations, or in exhausted soils, the small yel¬ 
low pea may however be preferable. From thirty to 
forty bushels per acre is not an uncommon crop, and 
this highest amount is often exceeded. The quantity 
of seed required per acre may be stated at two and a 
half bushels, although some use only two, and some put 
on three bushels per acre. For covering the pea the 
cultivator is a very good implement, as it gives them 
more earth than the harrow and less than the common 
plow. The ground should be left smooth by the roller 
or otherwise, as the ease of gathering is greatly depend¬ 
ing on the state of the surface. 
In harvesting the pea some farmers hook them up 
with a scythe, some rake them by hand with the com¬ 
mon hay rake, but the most expeditious method by far 
is to use the horse-rake in gathering this crop. In 
whatever way peas are gathered, it is necessary they 
should be ripe, and of course if very dry at the time, 
there will be some loss by shelling, but not perhaps 
more by the horse-rake than by the other methods, and 
four-fifths of the time required by the two first methods 
is saved. This, where the land is to be put into wheat, 
is frequently of great consequence. Once gathered, 
there is no crop so easily thrashed and prepared for 
market as the pea, and few that better reward the cul¬ 
tivator. 
There is no plant cultivated which will bring pigs 
forward more rapidly than the pea, if the feeding is 
commenced as soon as the peas begin to harden, and 
the whole plant is fed out to them. When gathered and 
hard, two methods of feeding have been adopted, both 
of which are far preferable to the barbarous practice 
of giving swine the pea without any preparation. The 
first is to soak and swell the pea in milk if it can be 
had, if not, in water, and feed it to them in that state. 
The second is to grind the pea, either alone or with 
other coarse grain, and feed it to animals in that way. 
This is preferable to feeding whole, as in corn or any 
other food, the finer it is made the more readily it will 
be assimilated, and in all cases if cooked into pudding 
the advantage will be decisive. In England where corn 
can not be grown, a mixture of peas and barley is consi¬ 
dered superior to any other food for making pork; here, 
closing the process of fattening with Indian corn as 
giving more firmness to the pork, is preferred. 
The greatest enemy the pea has to encounter is the 
Bruchus pisa, or pea-bug, which deposits its egg in the 
young pea by perforating the pod, and the larvae or grub 
of which remains in the pea till the period of transfor¬ 
mation. To avoid this enemy some have proposed to 
use seed that was two years old, as in this case the 
seed must be free from the insect. Others have propo¬ 
sed to sow so late in the season as to have the period 
in which the bug deposits its egg pass before the plant 
blossoms or the pod forms. To do this the pea must 
be sown, as late as the 10th or 15th of June. The pea 
is a very hardy plant, little liable to be injured by late 
spring frosts, and hence when intended to be followed 
by wheat or required for an early market, they should 
be sowed as soon as the ground can be fitted tor their 
receptio n in the spring. _ 
Notices of Publications for the Farmer. 
The American Swine Breeder. 
The want of such a manual as the one now before us 
has long been felt by the farmer, and we are glad the 
work of preparing it was undertaken by one so compe¬ 
tent. Mr. Ellsworth, the writer or compiler of the trea¬ 
tise, is a resident of the Upper Valley ot the Wabash in 
Indiana, with which fertile district of our country his 
book on the Wabash had made us acquainted. Indiana 
is the paradise of pigs, if we are to credit the accounts 
given of the quantities of corn raised there, and the 
liberality with which the pigs of that region are allowed 
to feed upon it; and Mr. Ellsworth has turned to very 
good account not only what may be learned from per¬ 
sonal observation with regard to the qualities, habits, 
and diseases of these animals, but appears also to have 
consulted some of the best sources of information on 
these topics both foreign and domestic. 
Mr. Ellsworth has given us a volume of about 300 
pages, divided into six chapters that treat successively 
of the different breeds of swine in Europe and in this 
country—best means of improving the stock, rules of 
breeding, and general treatment—styes with reference 
to convenience, feeding, troughs, and making manures 
—the comparative advantages of raw and cooked food; 
theory of nutrition, and description of several kinds oi 
apparatus for the preparation of food—best modes of 
feeding, best kinds of food for making pork, treatment 
in fatting, killing, salting and smoking—diseases of 
swine and their remedies, with general remarks on kill- 
ling hogs and curing hams. 
ft will be seen from this imperfect notice of its con¬ 
tents, that this volume occupies the whole ground in the 
growth, treatment, and fattening of pigs ; and it is one 
which we have no doubt will be found very useful to 
every swine breeder or pork maker in the country. On 
one point, however, we must caution the American 
reader. In the modes of feeding recommended from Eu¬ 
ropean writers, is one spoken of very highly by a Mr. 
Sv unders, that of using hay tea. Mr. Burnham of Rox- 
bury, the present season, acting on this suggestion in this 
volume, has tried hay tea, and attributes the loss of 
some 40 animals of the most valuable breeds to its use, 
producing an obstinate costiveness, inflammation and 
death. Mr. Burham’s letter may be found in the New 
England Farmer, and an abstract of which will be given 
in the next number of this paper. 
The Farmer’s Instructor—2 vols. pp. 276, 247. 
The preparation of these volumes for the use of the 
American farmer, and as a part of the District School 
Library publishing by the Messrs. Harpers, was one of 
the latest labors of Judge Buel, and with the Farmer’s 
Companion, a work written expressly for the Massachu¬ 
setts School District Library, will establish his fame as 
an agriculturist, and writer, and give him a well-founded 
claim on the gratitude of every cultivator of the soil. 
Although in some degree a compilation from the pages 
of the Cultivator, the new arrangement of the matter, 
and the connecting notes, give the volumes all the value 
that could have belonged to them had they been entirely 
re-written. In the rich miscellaneous department of 
these volumes will be found collected a vast amount of 
practical information on almost every topic of interest 
to the farmer. It is unnecessary to say that the volumes 
are got up in excellent style by the publishers, and will 
be worthy of a place on the shelves of every agricultu¬ 
rist in the country. The addition of such volumes will 
give the New-York School District Library a character 
and usefulness it could not otherwise possess. 
Blacklock’s Treatise on Sheep. 
We have before us the last Edinburgh edition (1839) 
of this excellent work, and would suggest that a repub¬ 
lication of it in a cheap form would be a valuable pre¬ 
sent to the sheep growers of this country. It is less 
extensive than the volume published by the London 
society, but very full and practical in its details, and its 
arrangement is greatly improved in the present edition. 
It contains a number of illustrative engravings, relating 
to this valuable animal and the diseases to which they 
are subject. The contents of the several parts are as 
follows: 1st, History of the Sheep ; 2d, Wool; 3d, Wool 
trade; 4th, Improvement of the Breeds ; 5th, Manage¬ 
ment ; 6th, Accidents and operations ; 7tli, Diseases and 
their Remedies. 
We shall probably have frequent occasions to draw 
upon the volumes we have mentioned for the benefit of 
our readers, and have made such arrangements as will 
ensure the earliest receipt of all foreign agricultural 
publications and periodicals likely to be useful. 
Maple Sugar. 
Perhaps there are few trees in the American forest 
of more value than the maple, (Acer saccharinum.) As 
an ornamental tree, it is exceeded by few; for fuel it is 
only equaled by the hickory ; its ashes abound in alka¬ 
li, and from it a large proportion of the potash of com¬ 
merce is produced; and its sap furnishes a sugar of the 
best quality, and in abundance. Sugar has become not 
only an object of luxury, but of utility, to such a degree 
that a supply of it constitutes an important article of 
importation, and is of national consequence. For sugar 
the world has hitherto relied on the cane, with the ex¬ 
ception of some parts of India, where the sugar palm 
yields it much more cheaply. The sugar cane is, how¬ 
ever, a tropical plant, and of course its cultivation must 
of necessity be limited to such hot countries. France, 
during the wars of Napoleon, shut out from her India 
possessions or deprived of them, commenced making 
sugar from beets, and it proving unexpectedly success¬ 
ful and profitable, it has extended not only over that 
empire, but nearly the whole of continental Europe, 
where it forms an important item in their system of cul¬ 
tivation and profit. The manufacture has been attempt¬ 
ed in the United States; but though the facts of the 
case and certainty with which tke beets may be grown, 
and their great value for stock has been fully ascertain¬ 
ed, still little progress in the production of sugar has 
been made. The introduction of any such object of ge¬ 
neral culture, the history of the cotton and silk busi¬ 
ness in this country shows must be gradual, and rather 
the result of individual effort, than combined operations. 
The whole interior of the northern part of the United 
States have relied, and still rely, more on their maple 
woodlands for sugar than on any any other source, and 
as a branch of domestic manufacture and home produc¬ 
tion, the business is of no little consequence. The time 
occupied too in the business is very limited, and occurs 
at a time when very little of other labor can be done. 
The process of making maple sugar is very simple 
and easily performed. The trees must be of suitable 
size, and within a convenient distance of the place where 
the operations of boiling, &c. are to be performed. 
Tapping the trees to procure the sap, is best done with 
a half-inch or three-quarter auger, penetrating the 
wood about two inches, and spouts made of alder or 
sumach inserted to convey the sap to the buckets. When 
gathered, the sap should be boiled as early as possible, 
as the quality of the sugar is in a great degree depend¬ 
ing on the newness or freshness of the sap. There is 
a tendency to acidity in this fluid, which produces a 
quick effect in preventing the making of sugar; and 
which when the sap is obliged to be kept for many 
hours in the reservoirs, must be counteracted by throw¬ 
ing into them a few quarts of slaked lime. During the 
time of sugar making, warm weather, in which the 
trees will not discharge their sap sometimes occurs, and 
the buckets become white and slimy, from the souring 
of the little sap they contain. In this case, they should 
be brought to the boiler and washed out carefully with, 
hot water and a handful of lime to each. 
In reducing the sap, the great danger to be appre¬ 
hended is from burning the liquid after it is made to the 
consistence of molasses, since, when this is done, it is 
impossible to convert it into sugar; a tough, black, 
sticky mass of little value being the result. Indeed 
constant care and attention is required to produce a first 
rate article; for though sugar may be made in almost 
any way where the sap can be procured, yet unless the 
strictest neatness is preserved in all the processes, in 
gathering and boiling the sap, in clarifying the syrup, 
and in converting the syrup to sugar, a dirty inferior 
article will be made instead of the beautiful and deli¬ 
cious sweet which the maple properly treated is sure to 
yield. 
The quantity of sugar produced in a year, varies 
considerably from the same trees. The cause of this 
difference is to be found in the depth of snow, continued 
cold, or a sudden transition from cold to warm, thus 
abridging the period of sugar making. A sharp frost 
at night with still warm days, are the most favorable to 
the sugar maker. Perhaps four pounds of sugar from 
a tree may be a pretty fair average of seasons generally, 
although we have known the growth to exceed six 
pounds, and sink as low as three. A man will take 
care of one hundred trees easily, during the season of 
making sugar, which usually lasts from about the mid¬ 
dle of March into April, perhaps employing him twenty 
days in the whole. Dr. Jackson, in his report of the 
Maine Geological Survey, gives the following instances 
of the production of sugar in that state. 
Lbs. of sugar. 
At the Forks of the Kennebec, 12 persons made 3,650 
On No. 1, 2d range, one man and boy made .... 1,000 
In Farmington, Mr. Titcomb made. 1,500 
In Moscow, 30 families made. 10,500 
In Bingham, 25 families made. 9,000 
In Concord, 30 families made. 11,000 
Fortunately, we are at last to have the statistics of 
this important branch of domestic industry investigated, 
sugar being one of the items to which the attention of 
the Marshals employed to take the census of the U. 
States is to be called, in the agricultural department of 
their labors. We think the aggregate will be found to 
exceed the expectations of most of our citizens, and be 
found not one of the least interesting of those branches 
of industry belonging to the soil. 
