94 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
WORK FOR THE MONTH. 
The seeds of the farmer are by this time usually sown 
or planted ; and the labor now is principally such as re¬ 
lates to their after culture. This is at all times impor¬ 
tant, as on it the goodness of the crops are mainly de¬ 
pending. 
W heat .—But.little can be done to promote the growth 
of this grain now, but much may be done to add to its 
value and its quantity. Weeds are sad detractors in both 
these respects ; and the farmer who weeds his wheat 
fields thoroughly, will find his account in doing it. 
Chess, cockle, charlock, red root, and the whole tribe 
of intruders, may be checked, or extirpated in this way. 
Sheep. —Look well to your sheep after washing and 
shearing. We have known a cold storm make bad 
work with a flock of fine wooled sheep, soon after shear¬ 
ing ; and protection is rarely more necessary than at 
such times. Exposure to such storms, if not immedi¬ 
ately fatal, lays the foundation of numerous diseases. 
Keep the bottom of your salt troughs covered with tar, 
and your sheep will rarely be troubled with worms in 
the head. 
Corn. —If your land was deep and friable, and pro¬ 
perly fitted for corn, there is little advantage in hilling 
it. It is sometimes said corn requires hilling to support 
it. Nature disproves this argument by the stiff, bracing 
roots thrown out by this plant, at the time they are 
wanted, and for this very purpose. On wet lands, plant¬ 
ing on ridges and hilling may be advisable, but such 
lands should never be chosen for corn. If wet, drain 
thoroughly in the first place. Allow no weeds to grow 
in your corn, and do not fear to stir the surface in dry 
weather. Every weed absorbs nutriment enough to 
make a good ear of corn, and if any remain after the 
plow cannot be used, pull them up, or cut them with the 
hoe. 
Potatoes. —Some have recommended that after the 
last hoeing of this root, a coating of straw be spread 
over the plants and between the rows. This will check 
weeds, keep the ground moist, and add to the crop. If 
potatoes are hilled, it should be with one broad and fiat, 
and the same remark will apply to those made around 
corn. 
Rut a Baga. —This is an excellent crop, and if not 
quite as certain and valuable here as in Britain, it is 
one which ought not to be neglected by any farmer. 
Here, where we have no bone dust to give the turneps 
a start, a little fine well rotted manure put under or in 
the drills will aid them much. The most critical peri¬ 
od is before the formation of the rough leaf; afterwards 
all they require, is clean culture, and proper thinning. 
If you have not a quantity of carrots or sugar beets in 
the ground, do not neglect the ruta baga. The proper 
time of sowing here, is from the tenth to the twentieth 
of June. The average crop may be estimated at five or 
six hundred bushels per acre. 
Weeds. —Wage an unceasing warfare with weeds in 
every form. They are continually increasing on most 
farms, and new ones are yearly added to the catalogue 
of nuisances. It is not too much to say that in many 
cases, the annual profits of a farm are diminished from 
one-third to one-half by this cause alone. Thorough 
fallowing in the English method is the best remedy for 
the thistle; cutting Johnswort, and applying plaster to 
invigorate the other grasses will check, if not destroy 
this weed ; the annuals, such as wild mustard, cockle, 
steinkrout, &c., must be pulled by hand carefully before 
ripening their seeds ; and the elder, life everlasting, and 
others, must be cut up by the roots. 
Plum Blight. —Examine your plum and Morello 
cherry trees very carefully this summer, and if you dis¬ 
cover on any branches those unsightly swellings or black 
excrescences that are a sure precursor of the ruin of the 
tree, if left to progress undisturbed, cut off the limb at 
once and burn it. It is distressing to the lover of these 
fine fruits, to witness the destruction going on in these 
trees, without an effort, or scarce one, to save them. 
Attention will preserve trees, and it seems nothing else 
will. 
Pear Blight. —This disease, doubtless caused by an 
insect, may be detected by the drying up of the leaves 
on a branch, and as soon as noticed, the branch should 
be separated at once, and the infected part burned. If 
left on the tree, it will in most cases spread in a little 
time over the whole, and cause death. It is better to 
cut the branch a considerable distance below where the 
bark appears affected, so as to be sure of eradicating 
the evil. 
Summer Fallows. —If the fields you are intending m 
sow with wheat in the autumn, be infested with weeds, 
or the sward be tough, you had better commence your 
fallow as early in the season as possible. There is no 
danger of making the land too clean, or the soil too fine ; 
and each plowing should go a little deeper than the pre¬ 
ceding. 
Manures. —It is not a good plan to apply manures 
directly to the grain crop. It is better to give them to 
corn and roots ; and have these followed by spring 
grains, and grass seeds with clover, which, after being 
mown or pastured, (the last is best,) may be followed 
by wheat. Applied directly, they give too much straw, 
while the berry is inferior. Corn and roots require all 
the forcing they can receive from manures. If put on 
wheat, manures should be made into compost, by being 
placed in alternate layers in heaps, with turf, lime, 
swamp mud, or other substances, that in the process of 
decomposition, will retain the active or soluble parts of 
the stable manures, and which are too frequently lost 
to the farmer. 
The Garden. —The farmer’s garden will now require 
care and attention, and will well reward him for both. 
Thin out your onions, carrots, beets, &c. Sow beets 
for fall or winter use. Do not leave too many melon or 
cucumber plants in a hill. It is good to put in plenty 
of seed so as to guard against casualties, but three or 
four of the most vigorous and healthy stems only should 
be allowed to remain for fruit, the rest to be pulled up. 
Kidney beans planted in June, will sometimes bear pro¬ 
fusely and are always welcome. 
Watering Plants. —Heat and moisture are indis¬ 
pensable to the growth of plants ; and a drouth in June 
frequently has a most injurious effect. Garden plants 
may be much aided by watering. A rose nose watering 
pot should be used, and rain water is always to be pre¬ 
ferred. If well or spring water is used, it should be 
kept in a tub or other vessel exposed to the sun and air 
for a day or two before using. 
Strawberries. —After giving their strawberry beds 
a thorough clipping and cleaning, some at this time co¬ 
ver the spaces between the rows with long straw, which 
not only keeps the ground more moist, but prevenis the 
large stems of fruit from becoming dirty by contact with 
the earth. The strawberry is a delicious, easily culti¬ 
vated fruit, and if you have not a bed of them, don’t for¬ 
get next September or October, to provide a supply of 
the best kinds. 
Cabbages. —Transplant cabbages for late fall or win¬ 
ter use. They may sometimes require a little protec¬ 
tion, if the sun is hot and the sky cloudless ; but usual¬ 
ly, if well set, and the earth not shaken off in removing, 
they will suffer but little. Early cabbages are frequent¬ 
ly attacked by a small white worm that preys on the 
stem in the ground. Judge Buel found that hot water, 
while it did not injure the cabbages, freed them from 
the worm effectually. 
Agricultural Statistics. 
We give below, a table embracing the wheat, corn, 
and other grain, and the potatoes grown in the United 
States in the year 1839, according to the returns made 
by the Marshals, with the exception of North Carolina, 
Kentucky, Florida and Wisconsin. We hope hereafter 
to give full returns of all the items of agricultural and 
manufacturing industry in the country, believing that 
such statistics will be welcome to a large part of our 
readers. Of the amount of other grain than wheat, in 
the table, more than 300 millions of bushels was corn, 
the remainder, oats, rye, &c. Of the wheat grown in the 
U. S., it will be seen that more than one-sixth—of other 
grains, about one-tenth, and of potatoes, nearly one-third 
were produced in this State. Ohio gives the greatest 
amount of wheat; and from other returns, we have seen 
Tennessee produced the greatest crop of corn. A very 
large part of the immense potato crop of this State, was 
used for making pork, it taking, in this respect, the place 
of corn in the western and southern States. Can it be 
wondered at that the fiscal affairs, and general condi¬ 
tion of the State of Ohio, should be prosperous, when it 
is known that that State last year sold nearly ten mil¬ 
lion bushels of wheat; while its resources in every oth¬ 
er kind of produce are most ample. In the present ta¬ 
ble, the immense importance of the cultivated crops is 
seen at once ; the aggregate of the domestic animals, 
manufactures and crops other than those intended for 
food, will, when collected, exhibit an amount truly enor¬ 
mous. It is not, perhaps, too much to estimate the to¬ 
tal value of the products of this country in a single year, 
at twelve hundred millions of dollars. Truly, this is a 
vast empire; one, the resources of which are unlimit¬ 
ed, and one in which plenty and competence are always 
the attendants of forethought, honesty and industry. 
States. 
Bushels of 
Wheat. 
Bushels of 
oth’r grain 
Bushels of 
Potatoes. 
Popula- 
• tion. 
Maine, . 
New Hampshire,- 
Vermont, . 
Massachusetts, •• 
Rhode Island,•••• 
Connecticut, •••• 
New York,. 
New Jersey, . 
Pennsylvania, ••• 
Delaware, . 
Maryland,. 
Virginia,. 
848,166 
442,954 
642,963 
158,923 
3,0S8 
86,980 
11,853,907 
774,023 
13,029,756 
215,165 
3,511,443 
10,066,809 
2,630,996 
3,084,854 
4,051,818 
3,604,082 
697,408 
3,995,175 
39,540,501 
9,922,044 
40,198,521 
3,0S6,705 
12,772,280 
50,054,336 
10,392,380 
6,234,901 
8,206,784 
5,385,662 
904,773 
3,414,227 
30,058,000 
2,074,118 
8,626,925 
200,712 
1,058,919 
2,S73,447 
501,793 
284,574 
291,948 
737,699 
108,839 
310,015 
2,428,921 
373,306 
1,724,022 
78,085 
469,232 
1,239,797 
753,110 
594,398 
*677,197 
J777,397 
1,519,467 
829.210 
351^176 
f569,645 
375,651 
381,102 
683,314 
474,404 
211,706 
95,642 
64,207 
30,752 
43,068 
43,712 
South Carolina, •• 
Georgia,. 
705,925 
1,732,956 
16,236,512 
18,703,310 
2,697,713 
1,184,386 
■Y Llil G Lli y ^ ******* 
Ohio . 
Tennessee, . 
Louisiana, . 
Alabama,. 
Mississippi, . 
Missouri, . 
Indiana,. 
Illinois, . 
Michigan, . 
Arkansas,. 
16,214,260 
4,547,372 
105 
746,106 
196,476 
946,077 
4,154,256 
2,740,380 
2,189,263 
112,200 
48,797,112 
49,545,443 
6,622,398 
16,146,577 
13,669,940 
13,840,190 
34,086,645 
28,354,932 
6,152,273 
4,084,712 
6,600.586 
2,373^034 
845,935 
1,560,700 
1,538,628 
684,492 
1,548,190 
1,956,887 
2,051,339 
290,S87 
VY IbCUIlblllj 
Iowa Territory, •• 
Dist. Columbia, •• 
Total, . 
157,747 
12,147 
1,559,230 
60,717 
234,060 
12,035 
66,089,947 
419,776,871 
102,459,926 
17,100,572 
* Returns from nine counties wanting, seven of which con¬ 
tained in 1830, 55,881. 
f Returns from five counties not included. Four of the five 
counties contain, according to the marshals returns, 85,701. 
t Returns from Carter county wanting. 
The amount of population in seven counties of Georgia in 
1830, and that of four counties of Alabama, mentioned in this 
note, are included in the sum total. . 1 
Diseases of the Silk Worm. 
It is known to most of those who take an interest in 
the silk culture, that in many places, particularly at 
the south and west, the hopes of the grower were whol¬ 
ly destroyed by the attacks of a disease which sooner 
or later proved fatal to most of the worms. Air. G. B. 
Smith, Editor of the Silk Journal at Baltimore, has an¬ 
nounced to the public, that by a comparison of the dis¬ 
ease, and the condition of the worms, with one descri¬ 
bed and figured in a new French work on the Silk worm, 
he has discovered that the disease so fatal here last 
summer, was the one well known and dreaded in Eu¬ 
rope as the La Muscadine, and which destroys annual¬ 
ly where no preventive measures are used, not far from 
50 per cent of the worms. The preventive and the re¬ 
medy for this disease is “ air slaked lime sifted through 
a fine sieve on the worms, three times a week if heal¬ 
thy, and once a day if diseased, in the morning before 
the first feeding, and after cleaning the hurdles. The 
quantity of lime sifted on the worms may be sufficient 
to whiten the worms and leaves well, and it should be 
commenced wffen the worms are half grown, say twelve 
to fifteen days old. This remedy has, during (he past 
two years, enabled those persons in France who used it, 
to save and obtain cocoons from 97 per cent of all the 
worms hatched.” 
This annunciation and discovery, particularly of a re¬ 
medy, we consider a very important one. Although 
Mr. Smith has not alluded to the fact, this disease con¬ 
stitutes a striking instance of what is called animal dry 
rot; that is, where death occurs in consequence of the 
spread of a parasitic fungus, which like other funguses 
is contagious, and wherever it appears, spreads with as¬ 
tonishing rapidity. The following extract from an Eu¬ 
ropean publication will show its nature, and perhaps 
furnish a clue to the reason of the efficiency of lime as 
a remedy: 
“A common instance of animal dry rot, is found in the dis¬ 
ease of silk worms called La Muscadine. Silk worms of all 
ages are liable occasionally to become sickly and die, soon af¬ 
ter'death becoming stiff, and acquiring such a degree of firm¬ 
ness, as to be readily broken. They then throw out from their 
surfaces a sort of white efflorescence, which is the fructification 
of the fungus called Botrytis Bassiana, their inside being filled 
with the thallus of the same plant. If some healthy worms 
are placed beneath a bell glass, along with a small portion of 
a worm killed by the Botrytis, they soon catch the disease, ex¬ 
hibit the same symptoms as those already mentioned, and even¬ 
tually perish. If healthy crysalis are inoculated by the intro- 
duction below their shell, of a little of the Botrytis matter up- 
fin the point of a needle, they also sicken and die.” 
The Season. 
That our readers may compare the present with 
some past ones, and thus judge of their agricultural 
prospects, we give the temperature, &c. of the first five 
months in each, for a few past ones. 
Month. 1838. 1839. 1840, 1841. 
January,. 33 25 19 28 
February,. 14 32 35 24 
March,. 40 35 37 36 
April,. 39 54 49 44 
May,. 57 61 64 
It will be seen that the average temperature of the 
first months of the present season is much lower than 
before, (the time noted here being two o’clock,) while 
at nine o’clock, the difference appears still greater. 
There has been an unusual number of cloudy days, with 
frequent rains and snows, the whole combining to pro¬ 
duce one of the most backward seasons known in ma¬ 
ny years. We have not as yet (May 15,) seen a single 
fruit tree in blossom, and the buds have hardly began 
to put forth. It is clear there is this year to be no 
spring, but we are to pass from the snows of winter to 
the heats of summer. The season has been a very se¬ 
vere one for animals, as in many parts of the Norihern 
States there has been sleighing for six months, and we 
still hear that in the present month snow has fallen to 
the depth of 18 or 20 inches in northern New-York and 
Vermont. Fodder for cattle has in consequence advan- 
ced to unprecedented prices, is extremely scarce, and 
many animals have perished. The journals from Ver¬ 
mont, New Hampshire, Maine, and the northern coun¬ 
ties of this Stale, as well as private letters, assure us 
the distress has been, and still is great, as there is as 
yet little or no grass. We have had much N. E. wind, 
and this has been invariably accompanied with bad 
weather, sleet and snow, preventing labor, and giving 
a gloomy aspect to every thing. The immense quanti¬ 
ties of drift ice encountered in the Atlantic for a month 
or two past in uncommonly low latitudes, will in part 
account for our N. E. storms and cold, and indeed up 
to this time, a change of the wind to the N. or N. E. 
brings with it an icy atmosphere clearly indicative of its 
origin. So wet has been the season, that on many 
farms, a plow has not yet been started, nor a seed sown. 
The chimney swallow has however, appeared to-day, 
and it is to lie hoped it will be the harbinger, as it usu¬ 
ally is, of a clearer sky, and breezes from the sunny 
south. One of the worst results, is the immense amount 
of work it throws upon the husbandman at once, pro¬ 
ducing a haste in getting in the crops which is nece'ssa- 
rily unfavorable to their being done in the best manner. 
There is no reason, however, for despondency. Seed 
time and harvest are certain and careful after culture 
will in a great measure supply the loss of time to the 
farmer. Winter wheat, so far as we are able to learn, 
presents an appearance quite equal to the usual average 
of the country ; and if the season forbids the culture of 
one crop to the desired extent, the farmer must supply 
the deficiency by another. [ Otisco , May 15.] 
