THE CULTIVATOR. 
n 
The Sugar Beet. 
We make the following extracts from a communication by 
Mr. P. Diehl, New Oxford, Pa., in reply to Mr. Guthrie’s re¬ 
marks on the Sugar Beet. Mr. D. says : 
“In this neighborhood, persons feeding the beet to their cows, 
readily procured two cents per pound more for their butter, 
man their neighbors, not using the beet, can for theirs. My 
hogs are wintered solely upon beets and kitchen slop, and I as¬ 
sure you, gentlemen, I have never yet heard them ‘ squealing for 
more after being filled with them;’ nor do I know of any one 
who has better conditioned hogs than myself. I have also fat¬ 
tened solely upon sugar beets, beeves, which, when sold, were 
ronounced by the butchers to have been the best they had 
illed for five years preceding that time. I am at present feed¬ 
ing a lot of cattle with beets, which are absolutely in better 
condition than a lot purchased at the same time by a neighbor, 
and fed high upon corn. 
1 ‘So much on feeding: let us now contrast the probable amount 
of profit to the farmer, per acre, from a crop of beets, with that 
from a crop of corn. Allowing, then, the average crop of beets 
to the acre to be 1,000 bushels, which is a moderate crop: it 
will be perceived that that quantity will fatten eleven head of 
steers in ninety days, at one bushel per day. And allowing the 
average crop of corn to be 50 bushels per acre, which, in all 
conscience, is high enough, it will be found to fatten only one 
and a half head in the same amount of time, feeding at the usu¬ 
al fate of one and a half pecks per day; leaving a balance in fa¬ 
vor of beets, fractions aside, of about 800 per cent. 
“ Here, then, is a mass of demonstrative evidence, amply suf¬ 
ficient to convince any man not otherwise biased by prejudice 
or bigotry, that the sugar beet meritoriously, is entitled to hold 
a high place in the agriculturist’s regard; and I appeal to every 
lover of science, nay, I appeal to Mr. G. himself, to say, whe¬ 
ther it becomes any one to attack a science so prematurely, as 
he has done, in any of its departments or ramifications ; a sci¬ 
ence, too, that so loudly calls for every feeling and every 
thought the philanthropist can bestow upon it. The following 
table and statement, taken from the “Farmer and Gardener,” 
will show the amount of beets that can be raised from an acre 
of ground, and the number of cows that they will sustain for 
five months: 
erage w’ght 
Product of an 
Product 
No. of cows which 
may be fed at a bu. 
of beets. 
acre in lbs. 
in bus. 
a day, 5 months. 
3 lbs. 
65,380 
1,039 
7 
4 “ 
87,120 
1,452 
9 
S “ 
108,900 
1,845 
12 
6 “ 
130,680 
2,178 
14 
7 “ 
152,460 
2,541 
16 
“Now, we would respectfully ask, if these averages are not 
low enough ; and if they be so, and we think they are, we would 
ask if an acre of ground could be put in any thing else that 
would yield so much solid and nutritious food as sugar beets? 
We unhesitatingly say so, and defy contradiction. And it is 
greatly in favor of beets, that horses as well as cattle feed up¬ 
on them, not only with avidity, but with decided advantage to 
health and condition. Why, then, should farmers hesitate 
with respect to the propriety of this culture. Let them, if they 
choose, not go largely into the growth; begin on a small scale, 
say half an acre or a whole one, and we will risk the asser¬ 
tion, that they will never omit to raise them again, ■provided 
they do the root justice in its culture, for their is no food which 
caii be given to a cow that constitutes so much towards in¬ 
creasing the quantity and quality, both of milk and butter.” 
Effiulberry Hedges, "STellow Hcocust, Hkc. 
[We think the following communication valuable, as it re¬ 
lates to a subject of much interest at the West, the formation 
of fences, and shows in a clear light what energy, directed by 
skill and intelligence, can do to remedy the want of fences, or 
of timber in a western prairie. There will be no difficulty in 
the management of the Mulberry hedges; as they will only re¬ 
quire pruning and trimming as those made of thorn or other 
trees. It may be necessary, however, to be careful, until the 
fence is compact and close, to be cautious in stripping the foli¬ 
age from the leading shoots, or such as are required for the 
closeness or stability of the hedge. In planting an orchard for 
feeding animals, nearly the same fruit, is wanted that would be 
preferred for a family; that is, fruit rich and of fine quality, 
and in succession as long as wanted. The difference between 
sweet and sour apples when ripe as food for animals is not as 
great as some have supposed, but unripe sour apples are unfit 
for any animal. The Early Harvest, Sweet Bough, Strawberry, 
Fall Pippin, Baldwin, Roxbury Russet, and Tallman’s Sweet¬ 
ing, are all good apples. We prefer the Sweet Bough to any 
apple we have tried for late summer and autumn feeding. The 
tree is a good bearer, the fruit rich, comes early, and will last 
until winter. For the winter feeding of animals, apples that 
will keep, will, of course, be selected. Our friend has chosen 
the proper course on the subject of chess, and while we invite 
the believers in transmutation to look at this case, we hope we 
shall hear further the result of his experiment.] 
Messrs. Editors— Five years ago, I emigrated to the Far 
West, and after spending the summer in Illinois, purchased 
a fractional quarter of 175 acres of government land in the 
county of Knox. The August following moved on it; the next 
spring enclosed it with a rail fence. My land is prairie, and 
situated two and a half miles from the nearest timber I have 
drawn my building and fencing timber above three miles. 
I have now, however, nearly three hundred rods of the white 
mulberry in hedge rows, of one and two years growth, em¬ 
bracing probably above eight thousand trees, all of which have 
been produced in two years from a few hundred seedlings. My 
hedges have been cut off at or near the ground, some once, oth¬ 
ers twice. The mulberry grows very rapidly on our prairies. 
I have the second years’ growth from cuttings grown from the 
ground, that measure seven feet in height. 
I wish to inquire through the Cultivator, the best mode to 
cultivate them, having in view both the raising of silk and the 
making of live fence. Also some of the best varieties of the ap¬ 
ple to cultivate for the feeding of swine and neat stock. 
I am cultivating the yellow locust for timber. I plant the 
seed in a nursery near a dwelling, to prevent the destruction of 
the young plant by the prairie hen. In the summer of 1839, they 
entirely destroyed five acres for me, planted in the field. I 
transplant the seedlings of one year’s growth in rows, four 
by six feet, and cultivate the first season with the plow, after 
the western manner of cultivating corn. They make a growth 
the first season after transplanting, from five to nine feet, and 
send out such a multitude of branches that it is with difficulty 
a man can ride through the widest rows in the the fall on 
horseback. They will beer transplanting from the time the 
frost is out of the ground until the buds have expanded; not 
one in two thousand will fail. They may be propagated by cut¬ 
tings, and by cutting the roots into pieces of an inch or two in 
length, and planted the same as the seed, only cover deeper; 
the seed should never be covered more than half to three- 
fourths of an inch. I lost the seed and planting of two acres 
last season by covering a little over an inch. I replanted, and 
took particular pains to cover less than three-fourths—same 
seed and preparation, and scarcely a hill failed. 
I have the whole work of the Genesee Farmer, and can truly 
say I would not part with it for more than its first cost. I find 
it a valuable book of reference, and many an evening I have 
spent pleasantly in its perusal. I have probably read all that 
has been written on the subject of the transmutation of wheat 
into chess, but I always disbelieved the doctrine, and as I had 
commenced on a farm new and clean, and none had ever grown 
within three miles, I resolved I would begin the raising of 
wheat on a small scale, and sow clean seed. I accordingly 
purchased one bushel, and it was called pretty clean seed 
wheat. I picked it over by hand, and found about three pints of 
chess, which I carefully burned. On harvesting my first crop, 
I found only one stool of chess, and I thought I had done my 
work pretty effectually that I found no more. The second crop, 
from the heading of the wheat to the cleaning it for market, 
with close and careful examination, I found none. I have the 
third crop on the ground, and if that, or the same wheat pro¬ 
duces chess on my farm, I will inform you. 
Last season I received from the East a few small Rohan po¬ 
tatoes, not to exceed one sixteenth of a bushel; planted them 
one eye in a hill; the potatoes were large and fine, and mea¬ 
sured a little over twenty-five bushels. I have annually grown 
the carrot, wurtzel and ruta baga; the two former I have har¬ 
vested at the rate of more than one thousand bushels per acre 
—ruta baga, from five to eight hundred. The carrot and wurt¬ 
zel suffer the least from drouth, and I think are the most pro¬ 
fitable crops. I think they are all superior to dry corn for 
milch cows and other stock. I have wintered hogs with them 
to good advantage. The common hogs of the country are of 
the Landpike and Alligator breeds, and their crosses ; I think, 
they must soon give way for the noble Berkshire, as some fine 
specimens of that breed have been brought from Albany to this 
county. L. R., Jr. 
Henderson , Knox co., Illinois , 3<J mo. 10th , 1841. 
Wheat and Plaster. 
Messrs. Editors— In answer to the subscriber from Gorham, 
respecting plaster sown in spring causing more rust in wheat, I 
would say, I have raised a good quantity of wheat here for the 
last nineteen years; have sown clover and plaster plentifully; 
but the last few years have abandoned the use of plaster on the 
wheat, unless the spring was very dry and the wheat backward, 
which is seldom the case here. I am satisfied that plaster has 
a tendency to rust wheat; so will any thing else that gives a 
larger growth of straw. Wheat, with a large growth of straw, 
is always later in ripening than that with a shorter straw ; and 
late wheat is always more or less rusted. I have no difficulty 
in getting plenty of clover by plastering- the next spring after 
sowing; but the best of the wheat land here is getting too much 
clover, barn-yard manure, and plaster; it is getting too rich for 
wheat, at least a great many farms are so; we get more straw 
than profitable. It costs a great deal to harvest, draw in and 
thrash, &c. and not so much more wheat as when we had lighter 
crops of straw. On new land the growth of straw is less, the 
wheat plump, and no rust, when the old fields, with great bur¬ 
thens of straw, will not produce more wheat. 
I am using my barn-yard manure for meadows now, and am 
going to reduce my wheat land for a time. Now for wheat turning 
chess. I am surprised that the question gets so many advo¬ 
cates ; but I suppose they are as great simpletons as I was 
some fifteen years ago. My land was very foul when I first got 
it, and plenty of chess amongst other things ; and although I 
sowed clean seed, I got sometimes seven or eight bushels of 
chess for every 100 bushels of wheat, and thought I was cer¬ 
tain the wheat became chess; however, by always sowing clean 
seed, I saw the chess gradually diminish. I gave my fallows 
additional plowings and harrowings, and got my seed clean, 
without a kernel of chess, and the chess disappeared entirely. 
I have now nearly 2,000 bushels of wheat, and lam certain there 
is not a gill of chess in the whole; indeed, I don’t know if there 
is a single seed. I have examined almost every threshing, and 
could find none. Now, I think this might satisfy any person, 
that wheat does not turn to chess. 
Yours, &c. JOHN JOHNSTON. 
The best way I have found to clean seed wheat of chess, is to 
take out the riddles and sieve, or screen, out of the fanning- 
mill, put in a board in place of the screen, a little shorter at the 
back end than the screen, say one inch; then take off the rod 
that shakes the riddles; let one man pour the wheat in the 
hopper slowly, another turning fast enough to blow away the 
chess; every seed can be blown out in this way. Small and light 
wheat will also blowout; but it can be cleaned over in the 
common way, and made fit for market. J. J. 
Fayette , near Geneva , Ontario co., N. Y., May 13, 1841. 
Objections to Mew Things. 
It was noted, in the Cultivator of February or March last, that 
my statement of the cure of dysentery and diarrhoea, &c. by 
homooepathic medicines, was received, but could not be pub¬ 
lished, lest it might lead to controversy; that nothing should 
be admitted into the Cultivator, not strictly agricultural. As 
farmers were pleased with everything relating to the health of 
their farm stock, with new modes of cure for their lambs and 
pigs, I supposed they might be as readily pleased, and certain¬ 
ly as much interested in the cure of diseases in their children. 
My imagination was, that the novelty was the great objection. 
I made no attack on any profession, and could expect no angry 
reply from any source. More than one of the readers of the 
Cultivator have asked what it was that was rejected, and de¬ 
sired to be informed. 
Members of the learned profession, I know, are apt to startle 
at every thing new, except flattery in their profession, as much 
as farmers are, to be advised to new improvements in their 
profession or calling. 
But the subject was new, and for that cause opposed! To 
oppose any thing for that cause, does not appear to me to be 
wise; for all things are new to the human mind, when first 
presented to it. 
The faculties of all animals in the scale of being below man, 
are given at birth, and they know their several wants and du¬ 
ties intuitively. Not so with man. The brain of man is not 
fully developed at birth, as it is of the inferior animals, but is 
progressive. All his wants and duties and improvements are 
to be learned, and to be acquired by tuition and experience. 
This, no doubt, is because the faculties bestowed on him are 
intellectual, and infinite in capacity. If this last expression 
appears too strong, I ask, who has discovered and marked the 
bounds of human knowledge, in moral or physical science? 
Who has learnt all that man is capable of learning, that no 
more can be learnt by him? Can any one say that he knows 
all things? The most learned and profound man can, with 
propriety, say that he is only at the threshold of human learn¬ 
ing. Nor is his knowledge limited to this sphere. When he, 
his spirit, leaves this temporal body, it must become a citizen 
of a more celestial abode ; and freed from cumbersome tempo¬ 
ralities, possesses an enlarged capacity for improvement in 
spiritual knowledge. It will progress in improvements, as it 
moves from sphere to sphere, and must continue to improve, 
ad infinitum, before it can reach the heaven of heavens, to its 
God. The gift, his faculties, being wonderful and great, his 
duties and labors must be great also, for cultivation and im¬ 
provement, to enjoy the blessings of the gift. It is founded al¬ 
so in wisdom and necessity; for, without exercise of both 
body and mind, man would become or remain a mere brute of 
the forest and of the plain. Let himnot then neglect anything 
because it is new to him, for his whole life is to be labor. 
A profound and wise man will rather give most heed to things 
new. If objection had been applied to the internal improve¬ 
119 
ments of our country, we should now be wallowing through 
the mud, and over the rough hills, at a slow pace, instead of 
making the rough smooth, and riding upon railways ; and ? we 
should also be loitering in bays, rivers, and oceans, waiting 
for winds, instead of flying on the water by steam, as if on the 
wings of the wind, with saving of time and with certainty m 
travel, and transporting the cpnveniences of life. 
Are all these improvements in moral and physical science to 
be rejected because they are of recent discovery ? On that 
principle, we should have rejected the evidences of Christianity* 
In conversation with a Jew, not long since, I said to him, our 
religion and your’s are from the same source. We believe in 
the same God, and in the same Moses, his prophet, as you do. 
We walk together, hear and believe all the prophets, till we ar¬ 
rive at the result of their prophesies, as foretold by Moses, who 
said, “ The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet lrom 
the midst of thee, like unto me, unto him shall ye hearken. 
And is there not perfect accordance between the prophesy ana 
the evidence in Jesus Christ? Why then should w e fall out by 
the way, or why do you stop by the way, while we go ahead on 
evidence? He calmly replied, “We must respect the religion 
of our fathers.” Objection to things because they are new ! Is 
man thus endowed with this wonderful capacity lor going ahead, 
to be limited by ignorance or obstinacy? 
The history of the Eastern Continent furnishes evidence, that 
when some of the tribes of i«.ien plunder and enslave all whom 
they meet weaker than themselves; that when their martial 
music and movements are heard by their weaker neighboring 
tribes, they sling their bag of rice over their shoulders, lend 
their hands to the wife and children, and flee to the wilderness, 
to seek shelter and safety among hyenas and tigers, from the 
face of their fellow-men. Not so with brutes of the same spe¬ 
cies. What a shocking and hideous picture of the condition of 
him who was made in the image of God! What a boon was 
Christianity to man in such a state, teaching him to love God 
with all his heart, and his neighbor as himself. And this pre¬ 
cept would be rejected on the principle of novelty. Christ was 
objected to, because his doctrine was new; and yet we see 
that all the improvements of man, in his present boasted and 
enlightened state, are indebted to the new doctrine of Christ. 
Will the improvements in moral and physical science be re¬ 
jected by the readers of the Cultivator, because they are new? 
Does not the Cultivator advise the agriculturists to cultivate 
their farms, by adopting the new mode of those who have suc¬ 
cessfully practiced the new methods ? 
Most respectfully, DAVID TOMLINSON. 
Schenectady, February 11, 1841. 
Black Rust on Plum Trees. 
UNSUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT. 
In a former volume of the Cultivator, I noticed a recom¬ 
mendation of sulphur as a remedy to drive caterpillars from 
trees. I concluded that if it would have this effect upon in¬ 
sects in the larva or caterpillar state, it might also act upon 
the insects in the same state in the black knots or excrecscen- 
ces on plum trees, called the black rust. This excrescence 
or fungus, is caused by an insect which lays its eggs on the 
limbs of the tree. The punctures made in the bark by the 
insect, poison the tree, and a warty excrescence follows, which 
becomes the nidus of numerous insects. The eggs hatch into 
little maggots, which are the insects in the form of larvae. They 
feed upon the soft exudations of the tree, and having attain¬ 
ed their growth, are transformed without leaving the black 
knots into the state of chrysalis, (or torpid state.) They re¬ 
main therein until their transformation into the imago, or per¬ 
fect insect, when, in May or June, they emerge from the 
knots, take wing and repeat the operation of depositing their 
eggs. 
The insects, I have seen emerging from the rusty excres¬ 
cences on my plum trees, are in shape like the wasp, but quite 
small, or a little larger than a musqueto. I believe it to be a 
species of Ichneumon, one of the destructive tribes which I 
have not succeeded in capturing. 
The experiment on the plum trees, disordered by the black 
rust, was made with sulphur, in the following manner, and 
although unsuccessful, may lead to the application of other 
remedies. 
In the spring of 1840, all the black knots or rust on a num¬ 
ber of plum trees, were cut off, except where they were on 
large limbs or the body of the tree, and these were shaved off 
with a knife, and rubbed with sulphur. Holes were also bor¬ 
ed in the trees about two inches deep, inclining downwards, 
and then filled with sulphur. In the autumn after the leaves 
had fallen, I found the trees nearly as full of these fungus 
knots as they were before. This spring (1841) the operation 
of taking them off, has been repeated as far as practicable, 
and the trees manured, in the hope of exterminating the in¬ 
sects and curing the disease. This has spread to my green 
gage trees, and I have noticed a wild cherry tree on my neigh¬ 
bor’s land greatly disfigured by the black rust. 
Richmond. 
The Cut Worm. 
Messes. Editoes —It was stated as a fact in the Genesee 
Farmer of 1838, that the army worm, in its destructive pro¬ 
gress, committed no depredations on the clover; and the ob¬ 
servance of this fact gave rise to the suggestion that farmers 
would do well to raise, each year, a crop of clover, as a re¬ 
source, when other grasses should be destroyed by the worm. 
I know not what relationship or resemblance may exist be¬ 
tween the army worm and the cut worm, but a considerable 
acquaintance with the latter has resulted in the belief that 
the cut worm does not feed on clover; at least I have seen no 
evidence of its doing so. 
Every person who has paid any attention to the natural 
history of the insect tribes, has been struck with the unerr¬ 
ing instinct which enables and directs the parent insect to 
deposit its eggs precisely in the situation where the proper 
food will be found at hand, and in readiness for its young. 
The natural food of the cut worm appears to be the roots 
and tender shoots of the timothy, red top and .Tune grass. I 
have never seen the cut worm except near where some one 
or more of these grasses were growing. In addition to their 
presence, it seems also requisite that the soil should be so 
loose that the parent insect can bore a sufficient depth to 
reach a suitable place of deposit for her eggs, and that the 
worm may move from place to place just beneath the surface, 
or else burrow in the soil, to escape the force of the sun’s 
rays, when the ends are answered, which may have brought 
it to the surface. Neither of these purposes could be effected 
in firm and compact greensward. 
I have seen considerable damage done, by the cut worm 
to cornfields planted on greensward which had been turned 
up soon after the frost was out of the ground in the spring, 
yet this was where the sward had not become firm and com¬ 
pact ; but the greatest supply of the worm, and amount of 
