THE CULTIVATOR. 
175 
very little. I feed them to my hogs and milch cows 
very freely ; I give my hogs all they will eat, and keep 
them in good flesh till spring. Through the summer I 
feed them so as not to lose flesh. After harvest they 
are turned into my wheat stubble, where they live very 
well for a few weeks till the apples begin to fall; by 
this time I design to have them half fatted. From the 
first of September to December they run in my orchard, 
or are full fed with apples in the pen. I prefer then- 
running at large in the orchard unless the apples are 
so abundant that they will waste and destroy them, for 
they will then never go hungry; they will lie very quiet 
and never run so as to waste their flesh. 
I am aware that most of those who have written up¬ 
on the subject, recommend picking up the apples and 
boiling them; but this costs too much in labor and fuel, 
and I have doubts whether there is much benefit deriv¬ 
ed from it. The stomach of the hog was made to di¬ 
gest the raw material, and no doubt is adequate to that 
purpose. I see no more need of boiling the apples for 
the hog, than the grass for the ox; I have in a few ca¬ 
ses boiled them, but found the animals preferred them 
uncooked, and I suppose they were the most suitable 
judges of what was best for them; at any rate, in the 
way I have recommended, I made very good pork, with 
very little trouble; and I am certain that to pick the 
fruit and boil it for 15 or 20 hogs, for three months, 
would be a very serious deduction from the profits of 
the concern. E. D. ANDREWS. 
Pittsford, N. Y 
that where at least one half the roots are timothy, it 
does not show its heads at all, and the whole appears 
orchard grass. There is no more reason to suppose 
that the feeding off or freezing out of wheat, changes 
the plant to chess, because that weed assumes its place, 
than there is to suppose that timothy changes to cock’s- 
tail, because the latter takes the place of the former, af¬ 
ter mowing. We are glad to perceive that Mr. C. does 
not endorse the absurdity of having one half the ear, or 
one half the stems from a root chess and the other 
wheat; we hope his good sense will lead to the aban¬ 
donment of the other part of the error. 
THE BARBERRY. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker— Having read with 
much satisfaction in the Cultivator for August, your an¬ 
swer to inquiries from Skaneateles, with respect to the 
effects of the barberry bush on Avheat and other grain, 
I am induced to give you some account of what has ta¬ 
ken place in this'vicinity on this subject. Some ten or 
tweive years past, there was for some years in succes¬ 
sion a failure of the wheat crop by blight; and many 
farmerp near this village were led to believe the 
barberry bushes in the gardens in our place were the 
cause of this failure. They therefore, with the consent 
of the owners, destroyed many, and as they supposed, 
all of those bushes, although there were many left un¬ 
touched in the neighborhood, and the seasons being more 
favorable, or from some other cause, they usually had 
good wheat; and they imagined they had eradicated 
the evil. But last season there was a great deficiency 
LETTER FROM N. CRAWFORD. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker— The Cultivator fur¬ 
nishes much interest and amusement, and may bind us 
more to our homestead, instead of “kill and runaway.” 
I wish sincerely a premium was offered for the best 
method of keeping up a farm of 100 bales growth, by 
manuring from animals, plowing in green crops, and 
other practical means. I hope some of the seedsmen 
will send before spring the China tree corn and the Ro¬ 
han potato ; but above all, we need a grass for hay. 
The clover, Lucerne, and all other grasses, have failed, 
and thence the expense and loss on the cultivator’s 
hands. 
In this number, Mr. Hulett’s remarks on wheat turn¬ 
ing to chess, (here called cheat,) recalls to my recollec¬ 
tion a phenomenon that occurred some years past near 
me, and confirmed me in the opinion that such a change 
was clear and palpable. Mr. Marshall had sown down 
five acres of wheat on a thin silicious soil that would 
not likely yield a harvest of more than eight or ten bush¬ 
els to the acre. The wheat grew apace, and for fear it 
should head before it was safe from frosts in April, 
(common to early wheat here,) as well as to benefit his 
lambs, he turned some ten or twenty sheep thereon. 
After the frosty season was past, grazing was forbid. 
Vegetation resumed its vigor, the heads protruded, but 
to the astonished owner, they were chess ! I went into 
and examined the field, and the difference was between 
the heads as great as between wheat and oats. Such 
was the degeneration of the original grain, that I be¬ 
lieved a majority of the heads bore the baseness of the 
degeneration, and not half the straw bore wheat. It is 
common here, to believe geese and sheep have some¬ 
thing deleterious from their grazing, and the crop never 
thrives well after them. The detection of chess in 
the glumes of wheat, is a new idea to me, and such as 
would have escaped any less acute observers; but in 
Mr. Marshall’s case the whole of the stalks bore the de¬ 
generated grain. I do not remember of seeing one stalk 
bearing wheat and another chess from the original grain; 
but where one head was wheat, those heads that origi- 
ginated from that grain, bore wheat. An account Avas 
published in the American Farmer, and never seemed 
to be controverted. But we will make some experi¬ 
ments to convince its unbelievers, or to disabuse us from 
the error. If we can only learn from you the best kind 
of seed we can use to make us hay, with its preference 
of soil, manuring, management, &c. &c. From March 
until July, it is the worst county for dairies in Christen¬ 
dom. The wheat crop is a fair one; oats, a full one, 
and maize better than any reared these half dozen 
years. The rains are showering incessantly, and the 
fodder in danger of rotting before the sun dries it for 
the barn. I remain yours, 
N. CRAWFORD. 
NOTE BY THE EDITORS. 
We think the recollection of two facts will do much 
towards solving the above case of Mr. C. In the first 
place, chess does not vegetate as quickly as wheat, thus 
giving wheat when the seeds are sown together, an ad¬ 
vantage not lost during the whole growth, unless some 
accident happens to the wheat. Thus when wheat is 
thick and good, the chess is proportionably feeble, and 
vice versa. In the second place, chess is a more hardy 
plant than wheat, and when once rooted, suffers less 
from injuries of freezing or feeding, than the wheat 
plant. Thus when the wheat was fed off, the vigorous 
nature of the chess gave the plants the ascendancy 
which they afterwards maintained. As there was 
doubtless chess in the seed sown, there is no wonder 
that when the wheat was fed off, which had kept down 
the chess, that the latter should have become the princi¬ 
pal crop. A familiar example will illustrate our views 
on the subject. In our fields we have timothy and or¬ 
chard grass sown together. Some parts in meadow are 
mown twice a year ; and so much quicker and more vi¬ 
gorously does the orchard grass shoot up after mowing, 
in the wheat crop by reason of blast, and this excited 
anew the feelings and prejudices against tire barberry as 
the cause. At the meeting of the Agricultural Society 
last April, a number of respectable farmers attended, to 
call up this question; and it was there stated as a tact, 
that neither winter or summer wheat, rye, barley, or 
oats, could be raised in the vicinity of the barberries 
without suffering blight. The meeting therefore appoint¬ 
ed three respectable farmers as a committee to efiect, 
with the consent of the owners, the destruction of ail 
those bushes in the neighborhood. At the meeting, be¬ 
ing unable to arrive at the same conclusion, I opposed 
their opinions and the resolutions, for I knew that suf¬ 
ficient barberries had been growing in this village to 
produce the same effect as at other times, if they were 
the cause; and besides, the blight was not local, but ge¬ 
neral in the country where there were no barberries 
near; furthermore myself and others had raised good 
wheat within seventy or eighty rods of those bushes, 
while they pretended to suffer by their influence from 
one to four miles distance from them. After leaving 
the meeting, I examined the Genesee Farmer, and I 
found in voi. 3, page 124, a communication signed D. 
T., and in page 276, one signed Barberries, and also 
vol. 4 page 157, signed D. T. The arguments and facts 
in these communications fully convinced me that the 
opinions respecting the injurious effects of the barberry 
originated in ignorance and incredulity, and were sup¬ 
ported by tradition, rather than truth or fact. This 
brought me to the conclusion to do as I did, in taking up 
one of my barberries of eight years growth, and set it 
out in the center of my field of summer wheat of the 
Tea kind. When the committee called on me, I read 
the above communications cited in the Genesee Farmer, 
but it did not appear to produce the same effect on their 
minds as it had on mine. I stated to them that I had 
transplanted one of my barberries into my wheat field, 
for the purpose of ascertaining the fact whether they 
were injurious or not to the wheat and other crops, and 
that they might destroy the rest of my barberries in my 
yard, on this condition that if I by this experiment con¬ 
vinced them and the public that their effects were not 
what they supposed, then they must pay me five dollars 
a piece for each bush destroyed ; but if myself and oth¬ 
ers were convinced that they were as injurious as they 
had stated, in that case they were to pay nothing. 
Their reply was, that this was fair, and they would see 
what others said ; since which, I have not heard from 
them, supposing they were waiting the result of the ex¬ 
periment. On my wheat ripening, it proved a good crop 
of plump wheat, and no Avay injured by barberry in any 
part; the heads of wheat which shot up in the top and 
among the branches, some of Avhich rested or lay reclin¬ 
ed on the leaves of the bushes, were equally plump 
and good as any in the field. The bush was green and 
thrifty. Some of the branches or limbs had groAvn ten 
or twelve inches; there Avas a sprinkling of oats in the 
Avheat, some within five feet of the barberry, as plump 
and good as ever I saAv. There was an acre of barley 
in the same field, tAvelve or fifteen rods distant, as good 
and plump as any I eA r er had. My neighbor’s field of 
Avinter wheat, only twenty-five rods distant, not at all 
affected or injured, but plump and good. On the 
31st of July last, I put a notice in each of the papers 
published in this place, requesting all Avho wished to see 
and judge for themselves, to call and see the efiect that 
the barberry bushes had on wheat, as I had set one in 
my Avheat for the purpose of satisfying myself and oth¬ 
ers of the fact, Avhether they had a tendency to blast 
Avheat or not. But you, gentlemen, may be surprised 
that not one individual who believed in the injurious ef¬ 
fects of the barberry, nor evrnn one of the committee 
whose special appointment one Avould have supposed 
Avould induce them to embrace every opportunity to 
ascertain all the circumstances and facts in the case, for 
their own and other’s information,—I say not one of 
those took the trouble to visit the field, though many of 
them were within ninety or a hundred rods of it, once 
or tAvice a week all this season ; but the above facts 
have convinced me and many others that barberry bush¬ 
es are no more injurious to Avheat, or any other grains, 
than the currant, raspberry, or any other shrub or bush. 
Yours, with much respect, 
WARREN HE COX. 
Skaneateles, August 28, 1840. 
CULTURE OF THE STRAWBERRY. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker—I n my last I promised 
to give you my plan of cultNating the strawberry, which 
having succeeded for seven or eight years, producing a full 
supply of fruit Avith much less labor, is,I conceive, worthy 
of being made public. The duration of a bed cultivat¬ 
ed after my plan, is also a matter of great consequence. 
I have never grown any of the choicest Amrieties ex¬ 
cept Keene’s seedling, nor haA r e produced fruit so large 
as I have seen figured or described, but as to the amount 
produced on a given space, I think I can compete with 
the most fortunate or skilful. 
For soil I choose that between the extremes of dry 
and moist, a little gravelly I prefer, which I prepare by 
mixing Avell rotted leaves, rotten Avood and cow yard 
manure in about equal quantities, which I have well 
mixed Avith the soil, by spading or ploAving in deep, if 
Avith the ploAV, some tAVO or three times. I then level 
the ground, but do not raise it above the walks, so that 
it Avill receive and retain all the Avater Avhich falls upon 
it. Thus prepared, I proceed Avith my plantation, ei¬ 
ther in autumn or spring. The former is preferable, pro¬ 
vided the weather is favorable for transplanting in Au¬ 
gust or September, so that the young plants can take 
root sufficient to endure the Avinter. In planting I ar 
range my beds about six feet wide, putting in the plants 
about a foot asunder each way. At or near the ap¬ 
proach of winter, I give a slight covering of tan bark, 
say the first year, the second of wet or rotting leaves, 
and the third of some light mold or Avell rotted manure, 
and so on alternately. The tan or leaves are best the 
first year, as either of them better protect the plants. 
If the plantation Avas made in autumn, by the next July 
or August the Avliole surface should be well covered 
with tire vines, which will spring up through the top 
dressing Avithout difficulty ; at which time I pass through 
the plantation Avith a spade, cutting through, say length¬ 
wise about one spit wide, and turning under the plants, 
then leaving about the same Avidth, and so on alternate¬ 
ly through the Avhole bed. Top dress as above for the 
Avinter, and next spring as soon as the frost is out and 
the ground sufficiently dry to leave the earth or soil 
light and melloAV, I cut through the bed cross-wise Avith 
the spade in the same manner as before. If the plan¬ 
tation Avas made in the spring, the first spading should 
be performed the next spring, and so on semi-annually 
from year to year. In an old bed I take care to turn 
under the old plants, so as always to keep up a succes¬ 
sion of ucav and vigorous plants—I never disturb the 
manures, and do not know but the best time to perform 
the second spading of the season would be immediately 
after gathering the fruit, so as to give the runners a 
light open soil to take root in. From the success I have 
met Avith by this process, I am inclined to think that a 
bed or plantation will last tAventy years, or perhaps 
even a century—I had a bed seven years old, in a gar¬ 
den I abandoned, without any care last spring or even 
last year after the March Avorking, which produced its 
usual quantity of fruit this season. 
During the blooming season, unless in Avet Aveather, 
I always give a slight watering from a pot Avith a rose 
every evening to set the fruit. This must never be 
omitted if fruit be an object. 
Another circumstance must not be overlooked, that 
you have bearing or fertile plants. A little observation 
or skill on the part of the cultivator will enable him to 
distinguish the barren from the fertile plants, from the 
large showy flowers, Avith long stamens, red or black 
anthers of the former, while the latter are almost desti¬ 
tute of stamens or anthers and the petals of the flowers 
are very small. It is said to be necessary to plant both 
kinds together in order to success. Of the truth of this 
I have some doubts, but I have not experimented suffi¬ 
ciently on the matter to determine. 
As to the produce, I believe, Avithout difficulty by my 
plan of culture I can grow one hundred and sixty bushels 
of this delicious fruit to the acre, per annum, or one 
bushel to every square rod. Indeed, I have by actual 
measurement greatly exceeded this. 
I. DILLE. 
HESSIAN FLY. 
Our Avheat in this country has been greatly injured by 
this destructive insect. Indeed from 50 acres I shall 
not have 200 bushels of Avheat. Its depredations, con¬ 
trary to all former experience, were committed in the 
spring, on late sowiyxnd spring wheat. I think you Avill 
do the public a service by publishing Avhat may be 
known of the habits of this destructive pest, and give 
us the most approved methods of avoiding its ravages. 
I have noticed that it preyed least or Avas less injurious 
on rich lands. 
I may however remark, that notAvithstanding the ruin 
of many crops, we have an abundance, nay a large sur¬ 
plus of Avheat in this country. 
Newark, Ohio, Aug. 25, 1840. I. DILLE. 
Will some of your correspondents inform me through 
the Cultivator, whether they have tried budding the 
plumb, peach, apricot or cherry on the Avild cherry, Pru- 
nus Virginiana, and with Avhat success! 
