■XH£

Massachusetts Agricultural

REPOSITORY and JOURNAL.

NUMBER IV' VOLUME VII. .^

ADAI^S

CONTENTS.

Editorial Remaikf, by John Lowell, one
of the Editors 3iS

Dr. T. W. Harris of Milton, upon the
Natuial History of the Salt-Marsh
Caterpillar 322

Some Notice of Thomas Andrew Knight,
E<3q. President of the Horticuhural
Society of London. His experiments
and present to this Society . . . 331

Pastel, or Woad, and its culture . " . 342

Letter from the Rev. Jesse Townsend to
Benjamin Shurtleff ...... 34fl

Extracts from Evelyn's Sylva . , . 350

The state of the Season 353

The mode of making Cider adopted by
the religiojjs society at Canterbury,
New Hampshire, commonly called
Shakers . • 355

Reflections on the Importance of steep-
ing Seecls in various fructifying li-
quids^ which has been the subject of
much discussion ....... 362

On raising the Oak from the acorn, and
the best mode of doing it .... 36^7

On the mode of raising the Oak "from

Hunter's Notes en Evelyn's Sylva." 36S
Professor Cogswell's Donation of a va-
luable Herbarium to the Visitors of the
Massachusetts Professorship of Na-'

tural History 371

On Mildew .......... 374

The Carolina potato, or Sweet potato . 381
N^ova Scotia Provincial Agricultural So- ^
ciety 383^

AGRICtTLTURAL INTELLIGEITCB '^''

Ebva Medica - . ....;'
Caledonian Horticultural Society
Professor Van Mops of Brussels
The sweet potatoe (Convolvul
\ phenomenon in airafting .
Receipt for destroying Cate

by the society of Chri

Shakers, at Canterbury,
On the cultivation of the I

purpose of producing op-
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MASSACHUSETTS
AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL.

Vol. VII.J JUiN'E, 1823. [No. IV.

EDITORIAL REMARKS, BY JOHN LOWELL, ONE OF THE
EDITORS.

The History of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society—-
The recent attacks upon its management — General views
on this subject.

One of the editors, is induced to avow his agency in these
remarks, because he would not connmit his colleagues, and
because he entertains no sentinrjents on this, or an} other
subject, which he feels the snnailest desire to conceal. The
Massachusetts Agricultural Society bus been charged with
ineflficiency, it has been accused of arrogating to itself mer-
its which belong exclusively to the Society in Berkshire,
it "has been attacked from another quarter for adopting bad
regulations as to its premiums at the annual Cattle Show, and
by both classes of fault finders, it has been stigmatized as
a set of " Gentlemen Farmers'''' publishing unfair accounts
of experiments, or making matiure, and breeduig tattle in
their libraries — all these sarcasms fall pointless — they do
not excite a feeling of irritation but of regret, that in a cause,
in which of all others, one might hope strif*; coui<J never
enter, a generous noble cause, of advancing the best in-
terests of our common country, such feelings should be
indulged and avowed. The Massachusetts Agricultural So-
ciety, its members and its trustees, have never claimed any
exclusive or peculiar merit. They have endeavoured to pro»
Vol. VII. 41

314 EDITORIAL REMARKS, BY J. LOWELL.

mote the interests of agriculture which they believed one
of the most and indeed the most important branch of human
industry. Its annual products compared with all others, are at
least as fifty to one. It was in a wretched state in 1792
when this society was incorporated, perhaps never lGwer«
On recurring to the list of original members it will be found
to embrace persons in all parts of Massachusetts and Mainey
at least seven eighths of whom were chosen from a^ new// ur-
«/ counties. It will be found also to embrace a large num-
ber of the most venerable and honourable names then in
Massachusetts. I need only mention John Adams, James
Bowdoin, Samuel Adams, Fisher Ames, George Cabot,
John Brooks, Francis Dana, Rev. Dr. Dean, the author of
the New-England Farmer, Lieut. Governor Gushing, Dr.
Cutler the Botanist, Dr. Dexter, Hon. Samuel Dexter, hi»
son Samuel Dexter, jr. Justin Ely, Dwight Foster, Hon,
Elbridge Gerry late Governor, and Hon. Nathaniel Gor-
hani former President of Congress, Christopher Gore, Will-
iam Heath, John Hancock, the very popular patriot and
Governor, General Lincoln, Levi Lincoln, late Lieut Gov-
ernor, Hon. George Leonard, Theodore Lyman, Jonathan
Mason, Samuel Phillips formerly President of the Senate,
and Lieut. Governor, Hon. Timothy Pickering, Hon. Thom-
as Russell, first President of the Society, and greatest bene-
factor, Hon. James SuUivan, late Governor of the State,
David Sears, Hon. Increase Sumner, late Governor of this
State, Judge Sedgwick, Judge Sewall, General Shepherd,
Thompson I. Skinner, Judge Simeon Strong, Hon. Cotton
Tufts, Israel Thorndike, Henry Van Schaack of Pittsfield,
Hon. Joseph B. Varnum, Hon. James Warren, of Plymouth,
and a much greater number. Need I say, that the founders
of this extensive Society entertained liberal views, that it
embraced without distinction of parties, a large, I might
almost say an infinitely great proportion of all that Massa-
chusetts then possessed of talent, intelligence, influence and
virtue ? Has this Society in any one instance departed

EDITORIAL REMARKS, BY J. LOWELL. 315

from its original purity and principle ? Has it suffered that
worst of ail scourges, party spirit, to enter, even for a mo-
ment, its threshold ? We defy any man, (for it has no ene-
mies, and therefore we shall not confine the challenge to
them.) we defy any man to point out a case in which it has
permitted this deplorable feeling to enter into its measures.
Singly devoted to the interests of agriculture, it has viewed
with delight the confidence of all parties in its integrity
and impartiality. We need not say that its published
communications have been as frequently from one party
as from another. The only remaining question is whether
they have fairly fulfilled the public expectations. In the
first place it may be remarked, that they made a most libe-
ral subscription to a common fund, which now amounts to
thirteen hundred dollars a year. It will be found that this
whole fund was principally raised by donations from opulent
men. Mr. Russell beiug the largest contributor, Mr. Gore
the second, and Mr. Bowdoin the third. The fund has
been increased to its present amount by the care, intelli-
gence and zeal of the Treasurers of the Society, by the dis-
interested conduct of the trustees who have never expended
one cent for their own advantage or entertainment, but
have husbanded the funds as if they were their own. Now we
confidently appeal to our liberal friends, and associates in
the common cause in the distant counties, whether the
opulent part of the Society should be reproached for their
efforts which treasured up a fund to be employed whenever
the state of intelligence in the country, and the progress
of society should demand it ? If it be asked whether the so-
ciety did much in its infancy, we answer readily and
frankly, no. But with still more confidence we add that it
was not their fault. The institution was ahead of the age
and of the intelligence of the state, and of public spirit.
Its two first volumes will shew that the trustees were not
remiss. Their queries distributed all over the state prove
their zeal, their intelligence, their intimate knowledge of

316 EDITORIAL REMARKS, BY J. LOWELL.

the real wants of agriculture. No society in Europe ox
America ever issued a more valuable set of queries, and
no society could at this day improve them except by some
trifling additions derived from new discoveries. But neither
Europe nor America were prepared at that time for the
improvements and experiments which have since taken
place. It is praise enough that, the Massachusetts Agricul-
tural Society was the third in order of time, framed, esta-
blished, and endowed to promote the cause of Agriculture, (as
we believe) in any part of the world and that it never lost sight
of its object, and was always ready to encourage, and reward
all attempts to improve any one branch of agriculture and
to give publicity to any ingenious suggestions for the pro-
motion of this art. Is there any solid reason for encouraging
a distinction between practical and theoretical farmers ?
Or if it pleases our witty friends, gentlemen farmers ? The
last expression, however, in such a country as ours, is in-
vidious ; it tends to excite prejudices. It looks, as if the .
theoretical farmers claimed to be above the practical ones. It
leads to distrust, and to the propagation of prejudices against
the truth. We shall consider this question mor6 fully. A
southern planter, like Washington, or Jefferson, or Madi-
son, or Taylor of Caroline, the famous author of Arator, has
no other dependence, we will suppose, and it is generally
the case, but his land and his labourers. He never touches
the plough personally, but upon its products, his fortune de-
pends. He is educated as a farmer, he has no other em-
ployment, unless when called into public service. Can it be
pretended, that as he directs all the operations of his own
farm, changes them according to his experience, and his con-
stantly increasing information from books and practice, that
he is not as good a judge of practical farming, as a New-
England farmer who conducts his own plough ? Have these
southern planters who never personally labour, shewn any
defect of skill ? Have they not varied their cultivation, in-
troduced not only new modes of culture, but new plants

EDITORIAL REMARKS, BY J. LOWELL. 317

which have doubled the productions of the United States ?
In my early days, rice and indigo were almost the exclusive
productions of South Carohna. We have seen the culture
of cotton substituted, and exports to the amount of forty
millions of dollars take the place of articles which did not
yield perhaps ten millions. Would merely practical la-
bouring farmers have been so likely to make these specula-
tive changes ? We think not. Let us proceed to New
England. What natural obstacles should prevent President
Adams, or Col. Pickering, or Mr. Gore, or Mr. Lyman, or
Mr. Quincy, or Mr. Brooks, or Mr. Parsons, or the late
Lieut. Governor Lincoln, or his son, from comprehending
the principles of agriculture, or carefully and accurately
weighing the facts which resulted from their experiments ?
I will grant, that as they may not personally labour, and
may not as carefully superintend their labourers, they may
not make as great profits as those who do, but they are as
capable of keeping exact accounts of the comparative pro-
fits of one crop or another, to say the least. They can test
as w^ll as the best practical farmer the advantages of one
mode of cultivation when compared with another. They
can perceive the effects of different manures and of diffe-
rent crops. They can tell whether their cattle are or are
not most economically supplied by pasturage or soiling.
They can decide whether by cultivating corn only, or car-
rots, potatoes, Swedish turnips, and mangel wurtzel, they
can have a greater surplus of hay, and support more stock.
All these points, the theoretical farmer can decide as well
as the others unless it be assumed that they are incapable
of computing the lowest sums in arithmetic. But we do
not mean to rest this question on this ground only. We
assert, and mean to prove, that almost all the improvements
of the agricultural art were the effects of the skill and in-
dustry of theoretical farmers, and that even the most famil-
iar implements of husbandry now in so common use that
our farmers believe that they always existed in their pre-

318 EDITORIAL REMARKS, BY J. LOWELL.

sent state have been improved by the effects of theoreticai
men. The plough of the Antient Ronnans was a machine
as different from ours as possible and would excite the rid-
icule of the most ignorant farmer. Even the French farm-
ers at this day have a most unwieldy plough, and their oxen
draw this rude implement by their horns only. They have
not yet learned the value of our rake. Their hoes are
most clumsy and inconvenient. Within three years a light
hoe with four steeled prongs has been introduced with us
for digging potatoes, which is decidedly superior to the
common one. Ploughs have undergone great changes and
improvements chiefly by the inventions of theoretical men.
The addition of the regulating wheel to the breaking up
plough is found to be of great value. The progress of all
these discoveries is slow, and nothing contributes to retard it,
so much, as these occasional sneers at Theoretical Farmers.
Gentlemen Farmers (if this term so unkind suits our friends
better) are the Pioneers in agriculture in the same manner
as mechanics in their workshops have been the pioneers
in manufactures, and it would be as absurd to laugh at the
barber, who introduced the Spinning Jenny in Great Brit-
ain which gave the first impulse to cotton manufactures,
or at the American artist who invented the cotton gin, or
at Fulton who first applied successfuUy^the steam engine to
navigation, on the ground, that the two first were not
practical manufacturers and the last not a practical naviga-
tor, as to contend, that President Jefferson's hill side plough
was of no value, because he never turned over a furrow
in his life.

Who was Olivier de Serres the father of French Agricul-
ture, or Evelyn the venerated author of the English Sylva,
but theoretical farmers ? Who was Duhamel the author of
the best treatise on Fruits, and who contributed more than any
other man to the present state of perfection of orchards,
and of the finer fruits, but a theoretical man ? Who has
done the most in the present age to enlarge our knowledge

EDITORIAL REMARKS, BY J. LOWELL* 319

of this branch of agriculture and horticulture ? Thon)a3
Andrew Knight, of Downfon Castle, near Ludlow, who has
added more new varieties to our fruits than any man living.
We shall shew in the course of the present number that
his zeal for the promotion of horticulture has been liberally
extended to this country.

But it has been intimated that this central society had
arrogated to itself merits, to which it was not entitled ; that
it had been tardy to do justice to the great and merito-
rious exertions of the Berkshire Society. This is unkind 5
we have always been prompt to acknowledge the early, ef-
ficient and intelligent efforts of that society. We have ad-
mitted that they were the first to give a spring to agricul-
tural efforts by introducing the British and French system of
public shows of cattle and manufactures. Still too much must
not be claimed on this score. It was not an original thought.
Many of us had visited the European shows, and the sub-
ject of introducing them had been discussed, and there can
be no doubt, that long ere this, they would have been in
full operation from the successful effect of European exam-
ple. This is not said with a wish to diminish the merit of
Mr. Watson, Mr. Gold, Mr. Melville, and Mr. Mackay,
and the " other Gentlemen" Farmers of Berkshire. We
know and acknowledge that they have done every thing in
their power to proniote an enlightened and improved course
of agriculture, and surely they may be contented with this
merit, without wishing to deprive other societies of their
humble share in this common cause.

We most earnestly hope never again to see any invidious
comparisons. It is much more easy to find fault, than it is
to discover and propagate useful improvements. We are
all novices, much more behind the state of cultivation in
the smallest state of Europe than our pride will admit.
Either of the small Italian states, at least on the plains of
Lombardy, or any district of the Netherlands could teach
our best farmer that he knew but little of this important

320 EDITORIAL REMARKS, BY J. LOWELL.

art. Let us all then be modest in our conscious ignorance
and defects.

We have a few remarks to make as to the matter and
manner of this journal. No men can be more sensible
than we are of its imperfections. How can it be more re-
spectable, when the whole state is so deficient in agricultu-
ral knowledge ? Till within a few years, there were no
books to inform us what were the modern improvements
in more thickly settled and cultivated countries. Our whole
library is still extremely meagre. Yet we are reproached
with introducing articles which are above the capacity of
common farmers. If it be intended as an intimation that
we devote too large a proportion of this work to philoso-
phical agriculture, we deny the fact ; we always give the
preference to homebred, practical essays and experiments.
But we are not ready to admit that the introduction of ra-
tional and scientific speculations, such as those of Kirwan
and Davy is inexpedient, Massachusetts has scarcely a
town which does not furnish educated men. Knowledge must
be first communicated to them, and from them it will in-
evitably reach their less informed neighbours. We have
devoted many pages to horticulture, to the best mode of
raising vegetables and fruits for the table, and if we wish
to rise one grade above mere subsistence, we must continue
so to do. We shall devote a considerable portion of our
journal to horticulture, orchards, and fruits. Massachu-
setts has fourteen large towns containing a population of
one hundred thousand souls. When men are thus collect-
ed in great masses they will require the innocent luxuries
of the table, and there are none more so than vegetables
and fruits. To supply this population of one hundred thou-
sand souls, fifty thousand at least must be employed. Thus
nearly one third of the state are interested in acquiring hor-
ticultural information, in being taught to manage their gar-
dens. Would you always continue in your present state of
ignorance on these subjects ? Shall it be said that from

EDITORIAL REMARKS BY J. LOWELL. 321

June to September in our scorching summers, a traveller
may traverse Massachusetts from Boston to Albany, and not
be able to procure a plate of fruit, except wild strawberries,
blackberries, and whortleberries, unless from the hospitali-
ty of private gentlemen ? It is painful to reflect, that
every cottager in Flanders, Germany, Holland, and Eng-
land, is better supplied with summer fruits than our most
opulent farmers.

This almost utter neglect of cultivating summer and win-
ter fruits, materially injures the health of our farmers. How
mortifying to see the finest climate for the cultivation of
the apple, so undervalued, that many of our farmers are
obliged to slice up their summer fruit, and suspend it in the
front of their houses to dry, in order that they may have a
comparatively insipid and tasteless provision for winter!
Yet such is too often, I may say too generally, the case.

The greatest benefit, however, which our farmers would
derive from an attention to gardening, would be the acqui-
sition of habits of care and neatness, which would be trans-
ferred to their farms.

If each farmer would devote two acres to a garden, and
to finer fruits, he would be compelled to be more careful
in trimming his trees, in sowing his seeds, in keeping them
free from weeds. The habits thus formed would extend
throughout his estate. We see this effect in farmers near
the great towns ; they learn to be their own grafters, and
pruners, and their care of their general culture keeps pace
with their progress in gardening.

But perhaps it will be replied, we cannot afford the
time ; it will be too expensive. What ! cannot our farmers
afford as much time as the common labourers of other coun-
tries who work from sunrise to sunset for from thirty to forty
cents per day ? No, this is not the real difficulty. It is,
that the ease of getting an ample support in this country
relaxes our exertions. But the progress of manufactures an«l

Vol. VII. 42

322 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE

population will soon bring about other habits, and we hope
within a few years to see nurseries of the cherry, and the
peach and the pear, as well as of the apple, in all country
towns, — though we think, not only that the last is far the
most important, but that it is with that, our internal improve-
ments must commence. Till every farmer can lay up his
ten barrels of excellent winter apples for his own use, we
shall not expect much progress in other branches of gar-
dening.

DR. T. W. HARRIS OF MILTON, UPON THE NATURAL HIS-
TORY OF THE SALT-MARSH CATERPILLAR.

In the present state of agriculture, hay has become an
important product to the farmer in this vicinity. From the
high price and the increased demand for the imported and
cultivated grasses, the indigenous and natural growth of the
soil must rise in value; and of this perhaps none is more
valuable, on the seaboard, than that of the salt-meadows.

But various causes have contributed to disappoint our
hopes in the crop of salt-hay, and among those, the most ap-
parently unavoidable are the ravages of insects. Of these,
the caterpillars and grasshoppers have become the most for-
midable, by the great extent and the annual increase of their
devastations. Meadows, where they have foraged, are en-
tirely stripped of their covering ; every green blade disap-
pears before them ; — what the caterpillars have left being
devoured by the grasshoppers.

The object of this paper is to attempt to elucidate the
natural history of the former of these insects, with the hope
that it may lead to some sure method of exterminating them,
or of limiting their ravages to a shorter period.

Caterpillars were observed, upon the salt-marshes, bor-
dering Charles' river, near Cambridge, some ten or twelve

SALT-MARSH CATERPILLAR. SJS

years ago ; since which time they have gradually multiplied
and extended over the contiguous marshes. They were
once by a high tide and strong wind driven upon Boston-
neck, near to Roxbury line, where they laid in " winrows,"
apparently dead ; but after the storm had abated they were
resuscitated by the heat of the sun, and commenced their
depredations anew, overrunning gardens in that vicinity and
destroying every green leaf in their path. Thence, I pre-
sume, they migrated to the eastern side of the neck, and
have followed the meadows as far as Quincy. To what dis-
tance they have spread on the north of Charles' river, I have
yet to learn. They are also found on the marshes in King-
ston ; but probably orignated from a different source from
those in the environs of Boston.

The salt-marsh caterpillars are produced from eggs, laid
by moths in the middle of June, which are hatched in the
air, in seven or eight days afterwards. These eggs are nearly
round, less than a grain of mustard, and about eight hundred
in number from one female. The caterpillars are small and
feeble at first, eating only the most tender part of the blade
of grass ; but rapidly increase in growth, and, in seven weeks
or fifty days,* attain their full size, having repeatedly cast
their skins. Individuals, at this period average one and three
quarters of an inch in length. While growing they change
the colour of their hair very remarkably ; — being nearly of
a mouse colour when small, and of a brownish hue when
fully grown. Of these, at maturity, there are two shades ;
some being of a dun colour, and others much darker.!

The body of all true caterpillers is divided into twelve
segments besides the head.

Each segment, in this insect, is covered with twelve yel-
lowish tubercles, arranged, rather irregularly, six upon each
side : from these proceed the hairs, giving the predominant

* They continue in the feeding state about as long as the apple-tvee cater-
pillar, which is produced by the Phaloena Neustria of Linne.
t The dark coloured larva is represented in the drawing.

324 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE

colour. The tubercles appear to be analogous in function
to the bulbs of the hair in the human subject : they are, in
truth, but common bulbs, from which tufts of hairs grow and
are nourished, in the same way as each single hair grows and
is nourished from its appropriate bulb. Between the third
and fourth tubercle, on each side of the median* line, is a
stigma or spiracle, of which there are eighteen, or two in
every segment of the body, except the second, third, and last.
The spiracles are the organs of respiration, and are the same,
in number, in all the true caterpillars.

The colour of the body, divtsted of the hair, is yellow,
shaded at the sides with black ; and there is a blackish line
extending along the top of the back. The spiracles are white
and very distinct.

The hair proceeding from the three uppermost tubercles,
on each side of a segment is almost black, as well as that
from all the four first segments of the body. That from the
tubercles at the sides is of a much lighter shade. On the two
last segments of the body the hair is much longer than the
rest.

This caterpillar, like most others, has eight eyes, four upon
each side of the head. These are not to be distinguished
without the aid of a microscope. They are situated just
above those white feelers, so plainly seen attached to the
upper lip. The eyes are here arranged in a semicircle,
whose convex side is directed anteriorly.

The jaws are two, strong and corneous, and their opera-
tion, in eating, may be distinctly heard as well as seen.

It has sixteen feet ; — six anterior and horny, and ten pos-
terior and fleshy. These enable it to run with considerable
celerity, as we may see, when the insect is at its full size ; at
which period it commences the wandering state, and leaves

* I have taken the liberty to employ this phrase, which is a technical one
in Anatomy and Physiology, foy that line which divides the animal into two
equal and symmetrical halves, and I would indicate by it a dark line running
upon the top of the back, the whole length of the body of this insect.

SALT-MARSH CATERPILLAR. 325

the meadows in search of a place of security for forming its
cocoon.

- These caterpillars are endued with a great degree of vita-
lity ; for long immersion in water doCsS not destroy life.
Being often exposed to that element, they seem provided
with the power of enduring its approaches. They feed twice
in the day ; about ten o'clock in the morning, and four in the
afternoon. If overtaken by the tide while feeding, they
mount to the top of the grass ; and then, if obliged to relin-
quish their hold, contracting themselves into a circular form,
they commit themselves to the water. On this they float
and are carried to the superior parts or borders of the marsh.
There they are left, with the wash of the sea, in heaps, but
alive, and in a short time ready to recommence their depre-
dations upon the meadows. But when not engaged in feed-
ing they conceal themselves at the roots of the grass, where
they are equally secure from the effects of the water, even
though covered by it. In this way also they pass the night.
The hair, upon their bodies, appears to possess a repelliijg
power, which secures the spiracles from the admission or
access of the water; for,, were this to be the case, the insect
would be drowned. We should suppose that the tide, on
receding, would sweep away many of these uisects ; but this
is not the case : for in consequence of the irregularity of our
shores, and of the power, which these caterpillars have of
remaining, uninjured, on the surface of the water, for a long
time, they generally gain some place of lodgment and safety.
Their most favourite food is the ' Onion- grass,'' which is
very succulent;* but they are not fastidious, and eat with
avidity ' Fox'' and ' Bottom- grass,'' and even ' Thaivh? and
' Sedge.* Of the ' Black- grass''] they are not so fond, proba-
bly because it ripens sooner than the others, and is found

* It is so full of juice as to be with difficulty dried.

t Triglochin maritimum, L, sometimes called the sea arrow grass. This
is considered by Mr. Lowell as the most valuable species.

326 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE

nearer the upland, and thus, before it is reached, it becomes
too dry to furnish the juices by which they are nourished.

By the first of August, generally, these insects have attain-
ed their greatest size. They now become very voracious,
and continue eating all the day and night, without intermis-
sion. Soon they leave the meadows, aggregated in great
numbers, and commence the wandering state, or ' begin to
run,' as is the phrase, devouring every thing in their progress.
Corn fields, gardens, and even the coarse and rank produce
of road-sides afford them temporary nourishment, until they
have found a place of security from the tide and weather,
and concealment from their enemies of the animal creation^
A stone-wall, a wood-pile, fencing stuff, and even hay-mows
and stacks are the resorts of these caterpillars, where they
intend to take up their winter quarters, and construct their
cocoons. I have heard of their being dug up, in vast quanti-
ties, from the ground upon the edge of a salt-marsh ; but, in
this instance, it is probable that, being prevented by ditches in
their attempts to escape from the marshes, they were prompt-
ted by instinct to take refuge deep in the bank.

The cocoons are formed of silk interwoven with the hairs
of their bodies, and lined with a silky lamina of a dense tex-
ture. These cocoons retain the colours peculiar to the cater-
pillar ; those being brown, which are fabricated by the dark
larva, and the others much lighter coloured. If we examine
the recent cocoon, we shall find the caterpillar within it en-
tirely destitute of hair, and much contracted. In a few days
it casts its slough, and becomes a chrysalis, of a dark brown
colour, and about three quarters of an inch long.* In this
state it passes the winter, and, within the first and twentieth
of June, the moth emerges from its chrysalis and cocoon, and
flies towards the meadows ; where, after the hymenaeal rites
are celebrated, and the eggs deposited, it dies.

* This is their average length ; but some are longer and larger, as those re-
presented by figures 2 and 3.

SALT-MARSH CATERPILLAR. 327

The moth is the perfect state of the insect. There are two
varieties, as to colour, corresponding with the caterpillars
from which they are produced. From the dark caterpillar
and brown cocoon proceeds a moth with ash-coloured wings ;
and, from the lighter coloured larva and cocoon, is disclosed
a moth whose upper wings are white, as are also the under
wings in some individuals. These colours do not designate
the difference of sex : for though the upper wings' of the
male are invariably white, those of the female are not as in-
variably ash-coloured ; but this difference or variety of the
femf le will be more distinctly described below. I would also
mention that the male, and the light-coloured variety of the
female, both proceed from caterpillars and cocoons of the
same colour.

The male moth will be first described.

Head and thorax white; eyes black; antennae black, and
doubly pectinated. Body orange-coloured, wilh six black
spots on the top of each ring, and a white line between 9
double row of black spots on each side ;* beneath the abdomen
is a single series of four or five small spots : tail white. Up-
per wings white above, orange coloured beneath, spotted
with black upon both surfaces : under wings both above and
beneath orange-coloured, with a few large black spots.
Thighs orange coloured; legs and feet white, spotted or
banded with black.

Female — Head, thorax, tail, both surfaces of the upper and
under wings, under part of the abdomen, and the thighs en-
tirely ash-coloured. The wings are spotted with black.
Upper part of the abdomen as in the male. Antennas doubly
(but slighted) serrated, not pectinated.

Variety of the female — Head, thorax, and tail, white. Up-
per part of the body as in the male. Upper and under wings
white upon both surfaces, and spotted with black. This va-
riety very much resembles the male, when the wings are clos-

* The upper consisting of six, in number and size corresponding with those
on the back, and the lower of 4 or 5 spots, which are smaller than the former.

328 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE

ed, for then the under wings are not to be seen. It is how-
ever easily distinguished from the male by its antennae which
are serrated : and when we examine the under wings, and the
inferior surfaces of the upper wings, and body, we find them
to be destitute of the yellow or orange-colour, peculiar to
those parts of the male.

I would only add to this description, that the moths, of
both sexes, are furnished with a short tongue, separable into
two filaments 5 and have also two scaly palpi, above the mouth.

This insect is closely allied to several others, very common
in Europe, and some of which are also found here ; such as
Borabyx lubricipeda, Bombyx erminea,* &c. These form
one family, and are arranged under the genus Arctia of La-
treille, and Leach. This genus contains those moths, which
have two scaly feelers ; pectinated or ciliated antennae ; a
short membranareous tongue, composed of two, separate fila-
ments ; and trigonate, deflexed wings : the caterpillar having
sixteen feet.

Professor Peck, to whom this moth was shewn, considered
it as a nondescript ; and proposed to call it pseud- erminea,
bastard ermine, from its affinity to the above mentioned Bom-
byx erminea.t I would therefore define the subject of this
memoir.

Arctia (pseud-erminea) alis masculis anticis albis ; posticis
fulvis, utrisque nigro punctatis : tergo fulvo, sex maculis ni-
gris supra notato ; ventre quinquefarie nigro punctate. Foemi-
na variat alarum colore.

Larvae gregatee ; verrucis luteis piliferis.
Pupa folliculata.

Interdum maculam septimam super postrema corporis parte
videmus. Foertnina alis (anticis poaticisque concoloribus) al-
bis vel cinereis, nigro punctatis.

* Arctia lubricipeda. Leach. Arctia Menthastri ?

t Borabyx (Menthastri) alis deflexis albis nigro subpunctatis ; abdominis
dor»o fulvo, nigro punctato ; femoribus anticis luteis.

Abdomen album, quinquefarie nigro punctulatum ; dorsoque fulvo. Anten-
na subtus nigroe. Fabr. Entomolog. Systematica.

SALT-MARSH CATERPILLAR. 329

There are two facts, in the history of these caterpillars,
that should be ascertained. First — the place where the eggs
are deposited ; this I have not as yet been able to discover ;
those eggs, which I obtained, were laid under glass vessels
upon paper. Probably they would be found around the culm
of the grass, or regularly arranged upon the leaf. Secondly
— whether, by bringing home, with the hay to our barns, the
caterpillars when fully grown, we are not liable to introduce
them eventually into our uplands, where they might become
as it were naturalized ; and thereby increase the evils we
already suffer from their devastations. This we have some
reason to fear; since we know that the caterpillar atone
period, (and that sometimes for several days,) feeds iuditier-
ently upon all green herbage. Some observations, made
upon doubtful specimens of the larva and perfect insect, found
occasionally on the uplands, favour this opinion. The pecu-
liarities in the appearances of tht-se specimens may possibly
have arisen from a want of the food most natural to the cater-
pillar. Still both these points are as yet merely matters of
conjecture ; further examination must establish or refute
them.

From observation and experience [ would recommend
the following plan, by which we may lessen the evils that we
suffer from this enemy.

First, to cut the grass early in July ; and secondly, to burn
over the marshes in March. In defence of early mowing, it
may be said, — that it is the only way by which <ve may save
the crop from those meadows where the caterpillars have
multiplied to any extent. The preceding history furnishes
the data, from which to calculate the best time for effecting
this purpose.

We have seen that the caterpillar is hatched about the
twentieth of June, and that its ravages are continued seven
weeks. Jflhen the meadows, in one vicinity, are mowed
about the fourth of July, the caterpillars, being small and fee-
ble, will be deprived of their means of nourishment, and be-

Vol. VII. 43

330 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE

ing unable to wander far, will die, before the crop is gathered
into the barns. By the process of making the hay, most of
the succulent juices are evaporated, and the gras^ becomes so
dry and hard as to resist the efiforts of these little devourers.
Thus we see that the Black-grass, by ripening early, is reject-
ed by them, and the crop is saved.

By the practice of late mowing, where the caterpillars pre-
vail, the crop is diminished, immense numbers of caterpil-
lars and grasshoppers are left to be dispersed upon the up-
lands, to multiply and increase the existing evil ; or are
brought in to perish in our barns and stacks, where they com-
municate a most unpleasant flavour to the hay, rendering it
unpalatable to our stock, and occasioning a wasta of fodder.

Many beneficial effects result from burning over the mar-
shes in March. This has been long practiced in the British
province of New-Brunswick, and is getting into use in this
vicinity, to the manifest improvement of the crops. By it the
stubble or " old fog" is consumed, which becomes more
necessary from early mowing, in the preceding year. By
this means also we may destroy innumerable eggs and larvai
of grasshoppers concealed in the grass* the past autumn, and
which, if matured, would produce a host more formidable than
that of the caterpillars themselves. The roots of the grass are
not injured by burning the stubble ; they are fertilized by the
ashes, and in a short time afterward we shall be gratified by
seeing the grass springing from the blackened surface with in-
creased strength and fresher verdure.

The preceding observations on the history of these insects,
are the result of the inquiries, investigations, and experience
of the writer for several years ; and the practice here recom-
mended is one that was first suggested by necessity, and whose
good effects have been reaped by many.

This little memoir is offered to members of the Massachu-
setts Agricultural Society, with the humble hope that they

* De Geev.

SALT-MARSH CATERPILLAR. 33 i

may derive some profit from what has been a pastime to the
author.

T.W. H.

Milton, 1S22.

EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES.

Fig. 1. The full grown dark caterpillar.

Fig. 2. View of the abdomen of the chrysalis.

Fig. 3. Aside view of the chrysalis.

Fig. 4. The male moth.

Fig. 5. The female.

Fig. 6. The male moth with wings expanded.

Fig. 7. Variety of the female moth with wings expanded.

Fig. 8. Antennae, of the male moth, magnified.

Fig. 9. Antennae, of the female moth, magnified.

i^OME NOTICE OF THOMAS ANDREW KNIGHT, ESQ. PRESIDEiN'T
OF THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. HIS EXPERI-
MENTS AND PRESENT TO THIS SOCIETY.

[By the Corresponding Secretary.]

If any apology could be necessary for the brief and imper-
fect notice which we are about to take of one of the most
distinguished cultivators of the age, of a man who has done
as much to enlarge the boundaries of theoretical agriculture,
and horticulture, as any man living, while he has at the same
time done more than any man with whom we are acquainted
to advance that science practically^ it will be found in the
kind expressions of his regard for our country^ and his gene-
rous exertions to make us partakers of the improvements he
has actually effected in his ozon. To those who may be dis-
posed to consider horticulture as less interesting and less
within the province of this society, we would observe (at the
hazard of repeating and reinforcing the remarks we made in

332 SOME NOTICE OF T. A. KNIGHT, ESQ-.

first article) that it is precisely the branch of agricultural in-
dustry which in our country needs the most attention. It is
the one in which we are most deplorably deficient. So long
as we were surrounded with Indian neighbours, and our crops
were so precarious that our only anxiety was to procure
bread corn sufficient for subsistence, it was natural, that we
should be indifl'erent to the rich profusion of vegetables and
fruits, which nature has provided for our luxurious enjoy-
ment. In this particular, we can without blushing, compare
ourselves with the European nations at a period not far dis-
tant ; and when we learn that the water-cress was the only
saliad for the royal table in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
we may not be S'.irprised( at the scanty supply of our own
tables, fifty years since. But we are past that age, and we see
no reason, why we should not have the finest melons of Persia
whu h we can grow in the open air, while a Russian Prince
Tjuill f-njoy them in spite of nature, by expensive hot-hous-
es heated by steam. We feel only a sentiment of humilia-
tion, when we reilect, that countries which the sun never
heats, produce the most luxurious fruits, while our sun wastes
its powers in many parts of our country on a rich and pro-
ductive soil, which is applied, in most cases, to the raising
of the coarse vegetables, which our Indian predecessors
bequeathed to us. In this remark, we refer only to vegetables
for the table, not to our invaluable staple articles.

Much has undoubtedly been done in the vicinity of our
great towns, and horticulture has within our memory made a
progress equal to our growth and improvement, but much
reiE\ains to be done even here, and the inhabitants of the
country at large may be considered as to horticulture, in a state
of nature, excepting always some liberal, and spirited indi-
viduals who have made horticulture their study. After the
provision for the support of life, come our comforts and
rational luxuries, and if these can be obtained, without
neglecting the more substantia! and important articles, it is
our interest to procure them. This is our apology for in-
troducing the character, discoveries, and exertions of Mr.

SOME NOTICE OF T. A. KNIGHT, ESQ. 333

Knight. He hap devoted his life to the investigation of the
phyf ioiogy of plants, and it has been his rare merit, to submit
_his th<iories to the best test^ that of experience. He no
sooner settled a principle than he undertook to shew its truth
by actual experiment, and to prove its importance, by apply-
ing it lo the practical amelioration of horticulture. He early
announced, that individual varieties of plants have their limited
age; that although by culture, and in favourable circumstances,
they may survive that age, they generally after that period
decJirie and become weak, and of course unprofitable. With
respect to the potatoe, he ascertained with as much precision
as the nature of such a subject will admit, that the specific
varieties do not Jast in perfection more than fourteen years.
No observing man in any country could doubt, as to the tem-
porary duration of the varieties of this vegetable, however
he might question the accuracy of the precise limils assigned
by Mr. Knight. There is not a single variety of the pota-
toe now cultivated with us with which we were familiar thirty
years since; and within twenty years, we have known several
sorts which were invaluable, gradually run out ; and this too,
not from any want of attention, but from the impossibility of
raising them. We will mention two sorts, as examples, the
round cranberry potatoe, better than any now in market, a
great bearer, excellent in the spring after other potatoes
become flaccid and watery. We continued to raise them, till
they would not produce double the amount of the seed put in.
They are now extinct. Another was a blue potatoe, with
white spots — a delicious variety, brought from England
direct, and also from Connecticut. For the last four years,
it has become extinct. Some persons are deceived by appear-
ances. We have always white potatoes, and they think tiiem
the same, but the varieties are infinite, and are constantly
changing. The long reds, called the River Plate potatoes,
have essentially changed theircharacter, and ten years hence
we shall no longer see that very valuable variety. So far our
experience fully supports (he theory of Mr. Knight.

Mr. Knight, if not the first to suggest the mode in which

334 SOME NOTICE OF T. A. KNIGHT, ESQ.

the sap circulates in vegetables, was, we are persuaded, the
first who proved it to the satisfaction not only of men of sci-
ence, but of the most incredulous and ignorant. Some of
his early experiments were made on plants whose parts are
transparent. He took, we believe, the Balsamine, or " Touch
me not." He watered it with a coloured fluid. He saw
that the fluid passed up in the central parts of the plant, made
its way into the leaves and having coloured tbera, it return-
ed by the bark which was the last affected. For the infor-
mation of those who have not attended to the structure of
plants, it may be remarked, that they consist of an external
covering which is generally very thin, called the Cortex ; of a
softer substance, which is usually confounded with the other,
called Liber; of a white portion, called by botanists,
Alburnum, and commonly known as " sap wood ;" and the
Heart-wood, which in more durable trees is usually much
the most dense and soHd. Mr. Knight maintained that the
sap ascended in the Alburnum and descended in the bark,
or between the bark and the Alburnum, where it made its
deposit of new wood. This theory was not without its prac-
tical value. It explained the reasons of the fact of the
destruction of trees by decortication or a too great removal
of the hark, if accompanied with such wounds in the Alburnum
as to prevent the formatio7i of new bark. It was known
before, that you might cut off" half the top and half the roots
of a tree and it would still flourish, but if you should make
a wound of one inch wide through the bark, and into the
Alburnum, the tree inevitably perished. His theory led to
various experiments, founded upon its undoubted truth. Mr,
Williams of Great Britain applied it to the early maturation
or ripening of grapes, by taking off" the bark to the extent of
a quarter of an inch in width ; it was found that the sap was
impeded in its descent, the parts above became larger, the fruit
swelled and ripened earlier and was more large and fine.
This experiment was repeated in this country by the writer of
this article, and its success was so perfect, that nothing could

SOME NOTICE OP T. A. KNIGHT, ES(i. 335

be said against the theory by those who were eye witnesses
of4ts extraordinary effects. Another consequence followed
from this discovery of Mr. Knight. If fruits can be hasten-
ed to maturity, and enlarged and improved by partial and
prudent and judicious decortication, why, it was asked, may it
not be applied to the bringing trees earlier into bearing, than
by the ordinary process of nature ? This it was said would
necessarily be the effect of detaining the sap preternaturally
in the branches, and thus forcing the plant to produce blos-
som buds instead of leaf or branch buds. It was before well
known to gardeners, that any thing which checked the growth
of a fruit tree, hastened the production of fruit. It was
reserved for Mr. Knight to shew the causes, and to submit
the whole process to rules as certain as are known in any
other branch of natural science. In all, we are stopped at
certain points, when we rashly venture to penetrate the great
secrets of nature, but this is no reason why we should not
search as far as we can find intelligible explanations and
facts.

Perhaps it would be satisfactory to our readers to have
experiments at home stated to them, in support of Mr.
Knight's theories, and we trust that due credit will be given
to our statement ot actual experiments, especially as nothing
would give us more pleasure than to afford any cultivator
the most perfect satisfaction as to the accuracy of these state-
ments, if he will do us the honour to call and examine the
subjects of our experiments.

On two orange-trees from St. Michael's, which had never
borne fruit, though we had had them many years, we practised
decortication, taking off a ring of the bark of half an inch in
width. In the following spring, this year, the gardener ex-
pressed to me his surprize, that those limbs were literally
loaded with blossoms. He had not been in the secret. We
pointed out to him the decortication or ringing, or as we say,
the "girdling," and it was found, that while every other part
of the tree was without blossoms, those which were operated

336 SOME NOTICE OF T. A. KNIGHT, ESQ.

Upon \9eve far too greatly covered Wxih them. In this case we
committed a mistake. The orange-tree puts forth only once
in a year ordinafiJy in our chmate, or under favourable cir-
cumstances, twice. Ringing or girdling should only be exe-
cuted when the sap is in the greatest possible degree of ac-
tion. These limbs are not healthy, and we fear will not hold
their fruit, but the experiment shewed the principle in its
clearest light. The general rule is, to girdle when the tree
is in its aiost rapid state of growth, to make the decortication
or ring larger or smaller according to the vigour of the plant,
but so little in all cases : ? to enable the tree to close the
wound during the same season. We made a similar experi-
ment on a flowering plant, th« beautiful Passiflora Alata, and
we threw it by this process into flower, at a season in which it
never flowers in the ordinary course of nature, that is, in the
month of August. Its usual time of flowering with us, is
October and April.

Btit we proceed to experiments outof the green house, with-
in the reach of a// cultivators. We tried this plan on 20 young
pear trees, on one, two and three branches — trees, which
have been grafted from 10 to 12 years, without giving
fruit. The spectacle on so extensive an experiment, is re-
ally interesting and instructive, as shewing the power of hu-
man art over nature, A single branch in a tree is at this hour,
when we are writing,absolutely snowy white with flowers,while
every other branch on the same tree is as barren, and un-
prolifick, as it had been every preceding spring, when it had
blighted our hopes. We sported very much in ourexperiments.
On some trees, we girdled one, and on others 2 to 5 branches,
but the experiment is so perfect, that before you reach the
tree, you can decide precisely which were and which were
not girdled. The same experiment was made on plums, with
equal success.

Let us here, however, check any disposition which may
have been excited in favour of this mode of hastening early
bearing, by saying, that Mr. Knight, from whose theory the

SOME NOTICE OP T. A. KNIGHT, ESQ. 337

experiments have been derived, is opposed to it on sl general
scale. He thinks it will shorten the longevity of the trees
subjected to it ; that it is adverse to the course of nature, and
is onij justifiable when you wish to be certain, whether ihe
trees you have bought or grafted are really what you suppo'
sed they were, or when you have new seedling fruits, to ena-
ble you to ascertain some years earlier their qualities, in or-
der to decide, whether you should reject them or not. I do
not carry my apprehensions so far (I say it with great diffi-
dence) as this learned cultivator. The effect of judicious
girdhng is nearly the same with graftings that produces a
similar interruption of the sap, a callous is formed between
the original stock and the graft, and yet we see the branches
continue productive, and enjoy exceiient health. No doubt
great discretion and prudence should be exercised in the ap-
plication of it. Mr. Knight has adopted other modes of has-
tening the early production of fruit on young trees. Some he
raises in pots and boxes, others he bends down either to an
horizontal, or even to an anti-perpendicular form, if we nay
be allowed a novel expression. The sap is thus impeded in
its course, and Mr. Knight has shewn, that the principle of
gravitation is as operative in the fluids of vegetable life, as in
others. The effects are nearly the same as those of girdling,
producing earlier bearing.

But these are but a part of Mr. Knight's labours and servi-
ces. Following up the Linnasan theory of the sexual system
of plants, (or to speak in language better adapted to all clat^s-
es of readers,) proceeding upon the well established fact, that
certain parts of the flower, called Anthers, produce a dust
called Pollen, which is indispensable to the fertilization of the
germ or fruit, a fact kno*vn to be true, before Linnaeas exist-
ed, but which never received perfect confidence, till he de-
monstrated it. Mr. Kniglit has devoted 35 years of his life
to the praclical application of this theory, which he has not
only dernon?trated by hundreds of experiments, but he may
be said to have created many new and valuable varieties of

Vol. VII. 44

338 SOME NOTICE OF T, A KNIiBHT, ESQ.

fruits hitherto unknown. He has obtained new varieties of
the pear, the apple, the grape, the plum, and the strawberry.
He has demonstrated, that we can correct the defects of one
varJet}' of fruit by another, by introducing the farina of a near
for example, which has too mucti austerity or acidity, into the
flower of another pear, which has too much sweetness, too
insipid a sweet, you may give to the new product a taste aiid
flavour, which may be perfectly agreeable. So it has been
ascertained by Mr. Knight, that by the same process, a fruit
which is defective in vigour, whix^Ji bears with great reluc-
tance a cold climate, may, by intermixing it, or coupling it
with another tree of the same species of a hardy character,
acquire the vigorous constitution of one of its parents, and
still retain the excellent qualities of the other parent. There
is, indeed, no end to the changes which have been produced
by Mr. Knight and others, not in fruits, but in flowers, by this
process. We are aware, that this statement, to those who are
ignorant of liis exertions and success, may seem to be extrava-
gant ; but we can affirm, that he has done more to improve
horticulture than any person of whom we, in this western world,
have any knowledge.

These rerrearks were intended as an introduction to a notice
of the efforts which Mr. Krjight lias generously made to com-
municate to America some of his improved fruits. In 18*22,
I had o<casion to write to Mr. Knight to procu;e the last
numbers of the Kortirnltural Transactions, for the College ;
he replied to my letter in the most friendly manner, appear-
ed to be highly gratified with opening an intercourse with
our country, expressed his strong attachment to it, his disgust
at the libels on our country in some of the presses of Great-
Britain, and his intention to send to us the best new fruits
which the late improvements had introduced ; declaring at the
same time, that though !)e should conftde them to my care, it
was under the full belief and expectation, that I should dissemi-
nate them as extensively as possible. 1 need not say, that he
could not have given me a charge more agreeable ; and that with-

SOME NOTICE OP T. A. KNIGHT, ESQ. 33&

out the smallest regard to personal interest, I shall circulate as
rapidiy as possible, by buds and scions, every variety of fruit
he may send. I shall consider myself steward for the pub-
lic— but 1 ousht to remark, that as he sends but one indi-
vidual specime!!, the progress must be slow, and that I must
exorcise a discretion in g'ving scions and buds to such persons
as will be most like to take good care of thom ; but I shall do
it in ail cases on the expresscoudition, that the same freedom
oi x'irculation shall be practfsed by a'l.

I shall close this article by inserting Mr. Knights last letter
to me, accompanying certain fiuit trees sent this spring —

<■' Downtfon Castle, Feb. I5th 1823.

" John Lowell, Esq.

" Dear Sir, — I have this day sent to Messrs. Thornely, of
Liverpool, to be forwarded to you, a box containing trees
and grafts of ten new varieties of pears, which here ripen in
succession from October to May, and which I conclude in your
warmersummer climate will ripen in succession — 1 could liave
sent a larger number of varieties, but those sent are the best
and the most productive, and inferior varieties that would
ripen at the same seasons, I did not think worth sending.
Each tree has a label and is also ninnbered besides, and I will
now give you a concise description of each variety. I have
also sent grafts of each variety from bearing trees, that you
may certainly have each variety.

No. 1. Cassiomont — a large pear, yellow upon one side
and red upon the other, ripens in October.

No. 2. Tillington — This is described in the Horticultural
Transactions. It is perfectly melting or rather perfectly beur-
ree, and very rich, sprang from a seed of the autumn bfrgamot,
— and the pollen of the Jargonelle, and its form is precisely
such as you would expect from such a mixture. It is ripe in
November."

[iN. B. by the Corresponding Secretary.] — (This example
will shi^w our cultivators the process of Mr. Kcight and the
great changes produced by it. He removed from the flowers

340 SOME NOTFCE OF T. A. KNIGHT, ESQ.

of the autumn Bergamot all the anthers. He impregnated
the germ with the pollen of the Jargonelle. He look the
seeds of the fruit, thus obtained, sowed them, and produced a
new pear J hav'yn^ a mixed form, between thatof the Jargonelle,
which is long and eminently pear shaped — and that of the
aulumn Bergamot, which is flattened, and rather apple shap-
ed— and it ripens near!)' two months later than either of its
parents. Being a new seedling, it will have strength and
vigour and endure many years. Mr. Knight computes the
longevity of a new variety of pear at more than 150 years.
We may then form some judgment of the value of such an ac-
quisition, when we know and have perceived for many years
the gradual deterioration of the St. Germain, St. Michaels,
Chauiiiontelle, &c.)

"No. 3. Urbaniste — A large and nearly globular pear —
colour yellowish green— the flavour of rose water. Season,
November.

" No. 4. Beurre Knox — Large, pear shaped, yellow. Sea-
son, November and December, an excellent pear.

"No. 5. Marie Louise — Middle sized — colour, pale yel-
low. Season November and December, a most excellent
variety.

"No. 6. Napoleon — Somewhat smaller than the Marie
Louise, exceedingly melting and juicy. Season November
and December.

No. 7. Florelle — Middle size and pear shaped, colour
bright red, nearly scarlet, with minute dark points, a most
beautiful and excellent variety. Season November.

"No. 8. Colmar d' Hyver — Shape varying from nearly
globular to pear shaped, colour yellowish green. Season
January — a melting pear of first rate excellence and very
productive.

" No. 9. Passe Colmar — Large and pear shaped, but very
broad towards the eye. An exceedingly fine melting pear,
which by being kept in different temperatures, may here be
brought to table in perfection from the beginning of January

SOME NOTICE OF T. A. KNIGHT, ESQ. 341

to the middle or end of April. This variety is productive to
a fault. I am generally obliged to take ofl' 9 lOths of the
fruit.

"No, 10. Hardenpont de Printems* — A large pale green
pear with rather a t-ou^h skin. It ripens here (in ED^'and)
ID the end of April or beginning of May — and its flt?h at that
period nearly resembles thai of the Brown Beurre in Au-
tumn. It is a very productive variety, and in your chmate
will, I believe prove the most valuable variety of all.

"No. 1 l.Gilliflowerapple-Gro/lfs only sent — Form angular
flesh perfumed and remarkably yellow. It is in perfection
in winter and spring. It would afford in a warmer climate
a most excellent cider.

"No. 12. Sweeney Nonpareil Apple— A very large variety
of the Nonpareil, very excellent ripened on a south wall, or
in a very warm season, and good situation, but loo late for
our climate. I believe it would suit yours. It is entirely
new.

"No. 13. Black Eagle Cherry.

" No. 14. Elton Cherry.

"No. 15. Waterloo Cherry.

All these cherries are new varieties produced by Mr.
Knight — they have been described in the hoitu ultural trans-
actions and coloured plates of them given — they have ail of
them valuable properties.

It should be recollected, that Mr. Knight often fails in his
numerous experiments, arid il is only the excellent new varie-
ties which he presents to the public.

"No. 16. Downton Cherry — It is a white or pale red
cherry with white flesh, and it is believed will prove an ex-
cellent variety.

No, 17, Cooes Golden drop plum — A fine variety from
the original stock.

* So named I have observed from Monsr. Hardenpont of Mons in Brahant.
who raised it as a seedling. It is christened by tlit; Freiifh GardnuMs Bourre
Ranee, but the English cultivators give credit to its creator, or raiser. -Cor.A'ec

342 SOME NOTICE Of T. A. KNIGHT, BSQ,.

No. 18. A very large new plum of a green colour, which
promises well.

Mr. Knight added also two hundred Downton Strawberry
plants ; a new variety, but they perished in the passage.

The trees were admirably packed, and although they start-
ed more than could have been desired on the passage, yet
there is no doubt we shall save every variety except perhaps
one or two of the cherries — but had they all perished, our
feelings towards Mr. Knight would not have been affected.
His good intentions — his kindness towards our country, his
philanthropy, would not have been the less. Unsolicited, he
has bestowed upon us, what is of no small value, independent
of the excellent intention. One new, and excellent variety
of fruit is a great gain. How much have the St. Germain
and St. Michaels Pear contributed to the pleasures of our
tables ? Who would not be pleased to have ten new and excel-
lent varieties of peaLrs,m the prime of youth, to supply the place
of these, which we must soon lose ? We trust we shall find
~^ome apologists for the zeal with which this article is written.
There is something so kind, in this intercommunication be-
tween cultivators of different countries ; it seems to be such
a forgetting of the old circumstances of separation, that one
cannot but be pleased with it.

PASTEL, OR WOAD, AND ITS CULTURE.

We insert with great pleasure, the following communica-
tions on the culture of Woad, (Isatis Tinctori?), and General
Df-arborn will permit us to express our sense of the obligation,
which the public are under to him, for his continued efforts
to introduce the cultivation of this plant, now bo important

PASTEL OR WOAD, AND ITS CULTURE. 343

->

to our manufactures. During the late war, General Dear-
born nnade some interesting experiments on a small scale, to
prove the practicability of raising this important dje-stufF in
the United States. Though his experiments were not exten-
sive, thej were entirely satisfactory. He did more. He
compiled and wrote, and published at his own expence, a
treatise on the culture of this plant, which contains all the in-
formation necessary for a cultivator of it. The peace came ;
with it, low prices ; and the subject lost a portion of its inter-
est. But great changes have been wrought during the last
seven years, and the culture of woad has again become a sub-
ject of deep interest. The fact, that an extensive manufac-
turer, like Mr. Crowninshield, has found it for his interest to
cultivate this plant, and has proved its value practically, seems
to set the question at rest. We invite our cultivators gener-
ally, to read with attention these communications, to procure
Mr. Dearborn's work on Woad, and to make some moderate
experiments upon this article.

Mr. Dearborn^s letter to Mr. Lozvell, April 9, 1823.
Dear Sir, — I inclose a letter from Richard Crowninshield,
Esq. on the cultivation of woad, which, if you think proper,
please to cause to be inserted in the Agricultural Journal. It
is the largest experiment that has been made in this section
of the country. It shews that our manufacturers can raise
this valuable article for the dyeing vat, at little expense, and
with great ease.

With great respect, your most humble servant,

H. A. S. Dearborn.

Extract of a letter from Richard Crozoninshield, Esq. of Dan-

vers, to Brigadier General Dearborn,, dated March 29, 1823.

" I planted about 5 acres with 9 bushels of woad seed, in

1822, some of which seeds you was so obliging as to present

to me. The remainder was procured from Connecticut.

New-York, and some were of my own raising in !821, from

/

344 PASTEL OR WOAD, AND ITS CULTURE.

sepdis received from Dr. Nichols, in 1818. There was no
difference in the plants raised from these several parcels of
seed. The soil was light, drj, and sandy. The land was
broken up in the spring of the same year. The sods were
resnoved, and the land crop ploughed, harrowed, and furrow-
ed out 2i feet between the furrows. About 40 cords of good
compost manure, (consisting of horse dung, cow dung, and
pig manure, mixed with about one fourth part of its bulk of
bog turf, which had been in heaps about 2 years, with some
ashes, lime, &c.) were spreaii on the land and ploughed in as
for Indian corn ; the furrows were slightly earthed. The
quantity of seed 2 bushels to the acre. They were sown
rather thickly in the furrows, in order that in gathering them,
there might be a full handful of plants to crop at the same
time. The seed was lightly covered. It was all sown be-
fore the 20th of May. It grew well, but required 3 or 6 men
to keep down the weeds in July. It was all picked or twist-
ed off quite to the ground. It was then again cleared of
weeds, and in 14 days the new leaves were from 9 to 14 in-
ches long in rich spots. The second crop was gathered from
the 151h to the 20fh of August, and produced about 4 tons of
green leaves, about one ton less than the first crop. The
dry weather prevented a third crop from being taken. Some
leaves were however taken in October, 5 inches long, but I
preferred to let them generally remain to protect the plant
ngainstihe frost, having the last winter lost an acreof woad, and
an acre of teazels, by frost. The loss in woad was much less
than in the teazels ; the plants which I lost of the latter would
have sufficed for 4 acres, and have produced much money,
being worth from 50 cents to 75 cents for every hundred
plants. All the woad plants are now alive, (that is, on the
29th of March, !823.) and have grown half an inch. I have
also many thousand? of teazel plants in good order.

" The expense of cultivating woad is about equal to that
of cultivating onions, and 10 men will crop an acre in a day.

" There is something remarkable in the woad plant. Some

PASTEL OR WOAD, AND ITS CULTURE, 345

roots which produced seeds last year, sprouted again from
every joint Hke cabbage sprouts. They are now again sprout-
ing from under the snow, the leaves are green, and may again
be cropped this spring, I shall have a great quantity of seed
to dispose of at ^1,30 per bushel. I paid 2 dollars. There
are but few men in America who understand perfectly the
preparation of woad for the dyer. Our farmers, should it
become the policy of the nation to raise and manufacture all
our own woollen goods, equal to the national consumption,
will probably find it for their interest to raise 'ivoad, and de-
liver it green or dry, (as may be most convenient for them)
at regularly established mills, exclusively devoted, as in Eng-
land, to this article. Inclosed you have an article from the
New-York Statesman on woad."

The article referred to from New- York, is interesting, and
is, therefore, here inserted.

N. B. Gen. Dearborn has still a few copies of his work at
the command of persons disposed to cultivate the woad.

AMERICAN MANUFACTURES.

Extract of a letter from Cincinnati, Ohio, to the editors of the
Statesman,

" Having seen several communications in your valuable pa-
per, respecting the art of dyeing and the cultivation of the
woad plant, by whicli it seems that manufacturers in your part
of the country are doubtful, whether woad can be produced
in the United States, in the same perfection as in England, I
have thought proper to state, for their information, that in
1821,1 planted two acres, and found the produce to be at
least one fourth more in quantity, having cut seven crops du-
ring the season. In England, I never knew more than /re.
Its strength, as a mordant, exceeded the English at least one
third, containing three times the colouring matter I have ev-
er found in any woad, after an experience of forty years, in
an extensive trade in England,

I herewith forward to you some patterns of wool, dyed

Vol. VII. 4.5

346 PASTEL OR WOAD, AND ITS CULTURE.

with this woad, and regret 1 had not preserved some colour-
ed with woad only, by which artists acquainted with the sub-
ject, would know its superior qualities. I have always ob-
served in England, that our woad plant produces more in
quantity and better in quality, in a warm season ; and 1 at-
tribute its great perfection here to the same cause.

Your manufacturers of woollens cannot fully succeed unit!
they become well acquainted vi'ith this useful plant, as no
good blue, black, green, or purple colour can be produced
without it. All other modes are imperfect, expensive, and
mischievous. Having made this country my home, I shali
take pleasure in communicating this knowledge, to any one
that may need it, for a moderate compensation. Wy-iltai di-
rections may be given for growing and preparing vroad, with-
out any chance of error ; but to use it properly, requires con-
siderable attention and good instructions.

1 suppose it may be produced for three or four cents per
pound — perhaps for something less. I have sold some of
mine at Baltimore, this season, for 12 1-2 cents, by which
you will perceive there is great profit in its cultivation. In
my opinion no substitute for woad will be found worthy of
attention, although it seems your friend Hopson thinks he has
discovered one, which will answer the purposes both of woad
and indigo. Your correspondent will confer a favour on me,
by giving a description of the wild indigo plant, as he terms
it. I will investigate its properties, and communicate the
result to him.

Your correspondent who has written on the scarlet dye,
appears to be acquainted with only a part of the theory of
that art, as two essential ingredients are not mentioned, one
of which 1 have seen since my arrival in this country. Your
friend is also in an error in supposing he can render colour
more brilliant by using steam. I have made use of steam in
dying for nearly thirty years, and am well acquainted with
its advantages and disadvantages. It is a cheap and expedi-
tious mode : but it cannot be used for tine colours, such a?:

PiSiSTEL OR WOAD, AND ITS CULTURE, 347

Saxon blue, green, pink, crimson, scarlet, orange, yellow,
and all other delicate colours, but at the expense of their
beauty.

All dyers should know, that when bright colours are want-
ed, the tirst step to be taken is to clear the water of all mi-
neral and animal substances. This is all that is necessary to
prepare the liquor for any bright colour ; but if raw water be
added, or steam suffered to flow into the vessel, the beauty
of the colour will be destroyed, in proportion to the quantity
admitted."

The letter, from which the foregoing is an extract, adds a
number of other particulars, connected with the subject of
manufactures. It states, among other things, that large quan-
tities of Fullers' Earth are said to be found on the banks of
the Wabash ; but after diligent search, none, in a pure state,
has yet been discovered in the vicinity of Cincinnati. Our
correspondent has put to us the following questions, to which
we hope some one will furnish satisfactory answers, as we
are unable to do it ourselves :

1. What quantity of woad would be consumed annually, in
the vicinity of New- York and Philadelphia, estimating one
pound of woad to five pounds of wool, dyed of a dark blue ?

2. Would the manufacturers give a reasonable compensa-
tion to be instructed in the art of dyeing generally ?

3. Whether it would answer any good purpose, for a per-
son who understands the manufacture of woad and its vari-
ous applications in the art of dyeing, to establish himself in
this part of the country ?

It is proper to remark, that we are wholly unacquainted
with the writer of this letter ; nor have we a sufficientknow-
ledge of some of the topics embraced in his communication,
to judge of the accuracy of his remarks. Hopson will be able
to speak for himself, where his correctness is questioned.

The beautiful specimens of colouring, accompanying the
letter, may be seen at this oflice, where the name and address
of the gentleman who forwarded them may be obtained.

348 LETTER FROM REV. JESSE TOWNSEND.

[The following extract of a letter from a clergyman in Illinois was sent to us
by Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff, together with samples of the seeds of the two
plants described. If for no other reason, our respect for Dr. Shurtleff,
whose exertions as an agriculturalist merit the gratitude of the friends of
agriculture, would have induced us to publish the letter. The seeds reach-
ed us too late for cultivation last year. We shall give them a fair trial
this season. We are not very sanguine on the subject. A plant, which
may succeed well in Illinois, may be of little value with us. For example ;
the Illinois or Pecan nut, (JuglansOlivse-formis), so frequent at our tables,
will barely exist in our climate. Its shoots are annually destroyed, and it
is ascertained by our own experiments of seventeen years patient duration,
that it will never be a fruit-bearing tree with us. We cannot, therefore,
calculate, that an Illinois plant will of course be successful in New England.
Besides, though a substitute for chocolate or coffee may be very well ai the
remote prairies of that state, it may be of little v^lue to us. But they may
succeed, and perhaps prove as valuable as millet, which seems at present to
be acquiring favour. They may prove valuable as green-fodder. We shall
try them this year and render a faithful account of their growth and pro-
perties. Dr. Kilham of Wenham has, we believe, the oldest Pecan or Illi-
nois nut trees in the state. We should be glad to be informed whether he
or any cultivator in the Middle States has succeeded in producing ripe nuts
from this tree.l

Gopy of a letter from the Rev. Jesse Townsend to Benjamin
Shurtleff, Townsend Prairie, Montgomery County, Illinois,
April 20th, 1 822.

RESPECTED SIR.

£ ROM the representations which my friend Mr. Tillson has
given me of your disposition to encourage the agricultural
interest of the United States, and from an inclination on my
part, to co-operate with you in the promotion of these in-
terests, I take the freedom although a stranger to present to
you by the bearer, a small quantity of the Holms Bicolor,
or Broom Chocolate, also some of the Orka Coffee, and
just a small specimen of cotton, which I raised last season on
my plantation.

The Holcus Bicolor resembles in its growth and stalk the
broom corn, and is very productive. It is, when rightly pre-
pared, equally good and nutritious as the best of choco'ate
and affords a very healhful substitute. The way in which

LETTER FROM REV. JESSE TOWNSEND. 349

my family prepare it for use, is to grind the seed in a coffee-
mill, merely cracking it, then put about three gills into about
six or eight quarts of boiling water, with milk and sugar, and
boil all together, about fiv« or six minutes, when it is fit for
use. Some however, have the seed ground in a grist-mill
and after sifting out the bran, mix with the flour a small
quantity of butter, and then boil the same with milk and
sugar, according to our method of preparation and give this
method of preparation the preference. I believe we may
easily raise sixty bushels of this grain on an acre, upon our
rich Prairie, and that it may do very well on good ground at
the North. It ripens about the same time with Indian corn.
It ought to be planted at the usual timeof corn planting, in hills
about three feet apart, and about six or eight seeds in a hill.

I wish you to make trial of this grain, and if it succeeds
well to introduce it to public notice in your vicinity.

The Orka is to be planted in drills about three feet apart,
and the seeds six inches from each other in the drills, and
will need to be hoed two or three times.

The main stalk, with small branching limbs, rises about
four or five feet. The grain is produced in pods about two
inches long. As soon as these begin to open, the method to
harvest them is to gather the pods, as they open, with the
hand, and lay them to dry thoroughly in tlie sun, when they
will be fit to shell out, and to begin to use the grain. The
preparation for the table is the same as tha! in the common
coffee, I Orka and ^ common coffee may be used together to
good advantage. If Orka is used alone, a greater quantity is
necessary than in the use of the common coffee, and it pos-
sesses all the exhilarating and nutritious properties of the
common coffee. From what I have experienced, in the cul
tivation of this excellent grain, it is my belief that 2000 lbs.
can easily be obtained from an acre of our well cultivated
prairie land ; and I am in the belief it may be cultivated to
good advantage in your country.

If an experiment should prove successful, you will confe.
a favour on your fellow-citizens by giving it publicity.

SSO EXTRACTS FROM EVELYxV's SYLVA.

EXTRACTS FROM EVELYN'S SYLVA,

Evert man of agricultural reading must have heard of
Evelyn, the father of English agriculture — the great propa-
gator of plantations of forest trees. He flourished during
the civil wars — I say flourished, because though persecuted,
and in hazard, he raised up a name, which will be immortal
in that country, and ought to be venerated in every other.
His misfortunes laid the foundation of his glory, by forcing
him to philosophick studies. Historians, biographers and
cultivators have united in admittingvthat te his writings chiefly,
are the English nation indebted for those fine plantations of
the most valuable trees, which form at once its finest orna-
ment— its strength — and its best riches. The civil wars
had nearly destroyed their natural forests. The country was
almost as destitute of fine oaks, as old Massachusetts is at this
day. He created by bis zeal, his eloquence, his fine philoso-
phical spirit, a taste for planting. Many an ancient family
whose finances were reduced, found themselves again restor-
ed to opulence by the provident exertions of those, whom
Evelyn inspired with a passion for planting trees. Who can
think of Evelyn, or Olivier de Serres, the great French culti-
vator, without interest ? Who can contrast their achievements
with those of the most successful conquerors, without feehng
a decided preference for them ?

We shall take as a specimen, Evelyn's reasons for preferring
planting the seed, where the tree is to grow, to transplanta-
tion. " It has been, says Evelyn, stiffly controverted by
some, whether it were better to raise trees for timber and the
like uses from their seeds and first rudiments, or to transplant
such as we find have either raised themselves from seeds, or
sprung from mother roots. Now that to produce immediate-
ly of the seed is the better way, these reasons seem to evince.

"First, because they take soonest. Secondly, because
they make the straigbfesland most uniform shoots. Thirdly,
because they will neither require staking, nor watering, which

EXTRACTS PROM EVELYN's SYLVA, 35!

are two considerable articles, and lastly, for that all trans-
planting (though it much improves yVi«f trees) unless they are
taken up the first year or two is a considerable impediment to
the growth o( forest trees ^ and though it be true that divers
of those which are found in woods, especially eakhngs (or
young oaks) young beeches, ash, and some others spring from
self-sozvn seeds, yet being for the most part dropped, and
disseminated among half rotten sticks, musty leaves, and per-
plexities of the mother roots, they grow scraggy, and being
overdripped (that is too much subject to the drippings from
the trees which shade them) become squalid and apt to gath-
er moss.

" Which checks their growth and makes their bodies pine."

Vir. Georgicks, Lib. 11.

" Nor can their roots expand and spread themselves as
they would.do, if they were sown, or had been planted in a
more open, free, and ingenuous soil. And that this is so, I
do affirm upon experience^ that an acorn sown by hand in a
nursery, or ground where it may be free from these incum-
brances, shall in two or three years, outstrip a plant of twice
that age which has either been eelj'-sozun, or removed, unless
it fortune (happen) to have been scattered into a more na-
tural, penetrable, and better qualified place; but this dispro-
portion is yet injiniielij more remarkable in the Pine and
"Walnut trees, where the nut set in the ground, does usually
overtake a tree of ten years growth, which was planted at the
same time ; and this is a secret so generally misrepresented
by most of those, who have treated of these sorts of trees that
I could not suffer it to pass over without a particular reinark,^^-

Such were the opinions of the venerable Evelyn, express-
ed to be sure in the quaint language of his age in the middle
of the 17th century, and it is certainly no mean piaise to say,
that all succeeding cultivators have agreed to the truth and jus-
tice of his opinions. No policy can be so bad as that of dig-
ging up the weak and sickly plants of the forest to form the
ground work of new plantations. It was not Evelijji'a idea.

35^2 EXTRACTS FROM EVELYN's SYLVA*

that forest trees should not be raised in nurseries, and thence
transplanted to the plantation where they are to yrow. He
expresslj refers to nurseries, and excepts from his interdiction
of transplantation, trees of from 2 to 3 years old.

Those of us who have been employed in the work of plant-
ing forest trees, (on a scale miserably small we admit, and yet
so important, that ifevery man in the state who owned a farm,
had planted as many, we should have a rich supply of trees)
very well know, how wise Evelyn was. We had no nurseries
from which we could draw our supplies. We were obliged
to resort to seedlings of the forest, but we can affirm, that we
owe our success entirely to his hints. Trees of 2 or 3 years
old ; of two or three feet high, have far out stripped those of
ten years old, and which were removed at ten feet heighth.
Matty of the latter perished or became sickly, but of the
former which were so small, that we could raise and set them
wi(h our thumb and forefinger, we can shew plants of 17 years
growth, which are 30 feet in heighth, and would almost furnish
joist, and some few of them small timber for building. Nothing
can be more pernicious to successful planting, than the greedy
desire to have great plants at once. The city of Boston ha*
always been possessed with this rage for planting great trees,
aiid they have lost more by this coarse than would have
made the Common a noble grove. Their trees have perished
by hundreds, and we can look around and see many of our
neighbours who have committed the same faults. But our
object, in introducing this topic, is far more interesting. It is
to shew, how much we have promised, and how little we have
effected. One of the earliest cares of the Massachusetts Agri-
cultural Society, was to encourage plantations of forest trees.
They offered rewards for it ; we believe only tzoo premiums
were ever claimed, and those were by Col. Robert Dodge,
an Essex farmer, and by Moses BuHen, Esq. of Medfield. We
should be glad to hear of the success of those experiments at
this day. If 30 years since, when hard wood was sold in Bos-
ton at f2 dollars per cord, it was thought an interesting object

THE STATE OF THE SEASON. 353

to encourage planting, what must it be now, when wood
is worth 6 dollars per cord ? The Legislature required of
all the agricultural societies, that the> should offer premiums
for nezo plantations of forest trees. Has there been one claim
for a premiunti since ? We fear not. We want some " Evelyn"
to rouse our attention to the subject. How many waste pas-
ture grounds are there, which do not give 2 per cent on their
value, which might be made in 15 or 20 years to produce
double their present value by timber ? Laud within 30 miles
of Boston, valuable only as pasture is now worth only from 10
15 dollars per acre, and in 20 years if well and judiciously
planted, the wood alone would produce from 30 to 40 dollars.
Let our farmers think on this subject.

THE STATE OF THE SEASON.

[From the Daily Advertiser.]

Mr. Hale — 1 have for so many years given some account
of the progress of vegetation, that I find my friends, in town
and country, look for it. It is perhaps of as much use as
diaries of the weather and common thermometrical state-
ments. In some short remarks, which I sent you early in
this month, I observed, that though the season was exactly
one month behind the last, in the beginning of April, yet like
the Siberian summer, it had advanced so rapidly, that on the
first of May, it had caught even the precocity of the last sea-
son. After that communication, long continued cold easter-
ly and northerly winds set in. On the 6th of May ice was
made in the country, sufficient to bear a child of 10 years of
age, and all the appearances of the progress of vegetation
ceased. The buds half started from their winter protection,
remained for fourteen days nearly quiescent — yet the season
has advanced within a few days, and has acquired an average
Vol. VII. 46

354 THE STATE OP THE SEASON.

rate of forwardness. Rains have been most abundant'— springs
which had been deficient for two years are amply supplied —
the grass is well set, and the season promises abundantly as to
all the fruits except apples. The shew of pear blossoms
never was exceeded — the country is literally white with them.
The appHes will of course be less numerous, owing to the ex-
traordinary efforts of the trees, last year — yet there will be an
ample quantity, and while less loss will be sustained by the
cultivator, the consumer will feel no failure in the supply.
If apples may be a little dearer, the more important article
of hay will probably be cheaper. It will be impracticable to
give a schedule of the progress of the various seasons with-
out repetition — yet f«w persons preserve the statements of
former years, and it is not possible to give a correct view with-
out comparing many years. This will enable the curious to
make useful remarks — and it will convince all, that however
different the weather, and the progress of vegetation, we have
a superintending Providence above us all, who regulates a//
seasons in mercy, and compensates by the heat, or moisture
at one moment, all that may be deficient in another, ,

The statements are made from the same tree or plant — Ih
the same exposure, and situation, ^nd therefore not liable to
the variations, which would appear from transient observa-
tions of passengers, or travellers.

The Cherry — its first opening.

In 1813,

May 10

In 1815,

May 10

In 1816,

May 6*

In 1817,

May 6

In 1818,

May 17

In 1819,

May 6

In 1820,

May 2

In 1821,

May 9

In 18^i2,

May 1

In 1823,

May 7

The Pear-

-its first opening,

In 1813,t

May 20

In 1815,

May 20

In 1816,J

IVlay 12

In 1817,

May 7

* This was the most disastrously colrl year afterwards.

t Cherries opened this year on the 10th of May, but cold winds kept back the
pears to the 20th,
J This was an exceedingly cold season afterwards.

In 1819,

May 17

In 1821,

May 13

In 1823,

May 13

In 1815,

May 25

In 1817,

May 12

In 1819,

May 19

In 1821,

May 13

In 1823,

May 19

THE STATE OF THE SEASON. 355

In 1818,* May 24

In 1820, May 9

In 1822, May 4

The Apple — its first opening,
In 1813, May 23

In 1816, May 18

In 1818, May 25

In 1820, May 11

In 1822, May 9

I will add the Lilac the ornament of our Election day.
In 1817, May 19 In 1818, May 27

In 1819, May 25 In 1820, May 20

In 1821, May 20 In 1822, May 12

In 1823, May 22

Thus it will be seen, that the present season is about an
average one in point of forwardness, while it is far above the
average in its verdure and promise.

N. B. — There is some danger, that seeds of squashes and
other tender plants committed to the ground early in May,
have rotted and will require re-planting. It is, we know, the
fact in some places. A ROXBURY FARMER.

Roxbury, May 22, 1823.

THE MODE OF MAKING CIDER ADOPTED BY THE RELIGIOUS
SOCIETY AT CANTERBURY, NEW-HAMPSHIRE, COMMONLY
QALLED SHAKERS.

[It is with great pleasure we insert this article, not only
on account of its intrinsic merits, which are great, it having
all the clearness, precision, and simplicity which you would
expect from men so well skilled, and who make the best ci-
der (it is said) in New-England, and who, in every thing they

* ThiB season deserves notice, for though so late it was a fine one.

356 MODE OF MAKING CIDER.

undertake are eminently successful ; but because it gives us
an opportunity of speaking of the admirable example set by
this description of persons in all that relates to agriculture,
horticulture, and manufactures. With their peculiar tenets
and ceremonies, an agricultural work has no concern ; but it
is its province to recommend excellent examples of neatness
in cultivation, and in care, and caution, and fidelity in manu-
facturing articles important to the farmer. It will not be
questioned, that the Shakers have set a most praise-worthy
example-^-not of industry, sobViety, and neatness merely, but
of exactitude. They undertake nothing in which they do not
succeed better than their neighbours ; and the secret of their
success will be found to consist in their system of order, and
the thorough and effectual manner in which every thing is
performed. It is highly probable, that this sect (should it
continue to maintain its ground) will finally furnish the states
in which they live, with the best and purest seeds, with the
neatest and most faithfully manufactured implements. We
hope, that other sects of christians will shew, that there is
nothing peculiar in the opinions of the Shakers, which should
produce of necessity these happy and honourable results, but
that they will all strive to " have every thing performed de-
cently and in order." We hope to be able to reply to the
queries of the Shakers, as to the manufacture of woad, or ra-
ther its preparation from the leaf, for the immediate use of
the dyer. They will be pleased with the letters on that sub-
ject, of Gen. Dearborn and Mr. Crowninshield.] — Ed.

To John Prince, Esq. Treasurer of the Massachusetts ^Agricul-
tural Society. Canterbury, March 24, 1823.
Much respected friend Prince,
I recently received your very liberal and worthy favour of
th" ^2'2d ult. for which I feel a grateful acknowledgment, and
hope to make you some compensation whenever you call on
us again. We were very glad to hear of your safe return
home.

MODE OF MAKING CIDER. 357

You left with us one agricultural No. viz. No. 3, vol. 7, I
fear through mistake, which (if so) we will rectify atournext
interview.

The Agricultural Numbers which we now have, including
those you sent us, are the following : viz. Nos. 2, 3, and 4,
of vol. 3, and Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4, of vol. 4, and No. 2, of
vol. 5, and Nos. 2, 3, and 4, of vol. 6, and Nos. 2 and 3, of
vol. 7.

The No. containing Gen. Dearborn's letter on woad, we
have had ; but our clothier having cultivated this plant the
last season with success, is now in quest of information how
to manufacture and prepare it for use. He has respect to a
treatise to which the General's letter refers.

As to experiments and improvements to communicate to
the Agricultural Society, be assured we feel much indebted
to you, and also to Esq. John L. Sullivan, for your liberali-
ty, and should be willing to communicate any thing in our
power, that would be beneficial to mankind ; but as our minds
are not so intent on natural and external things as on an in-
terest in Christ, and as our agriculutural pursuits and im-
provements are so small and simple, we consider ourselves
inadequate to say much on that subject.

However, there are two or three small improvements we
shall mention for your consideration, having been under our
experience for some years ; and which we find to be benefit'
cial to us, and from which, if you and others can derive the
eame benefit, we shall feel ourselves amply rewarded forgiv'»
ing the following hints,

Ist. The process in making and refining cider in order to
have it good and wholesome, is so simple, (though important)
that many people entirely overlook if, supposing the mystery
so deep, as to be entirely out of their reach : and others, per-
haps, tenacious of the customs of their forefathers, shut their
eyes and ears to any improvement, however propitious to
their interest and comfort ; such will probably be contented
to smack over their ill-flavoured and unwholesome beveragq
through life.

358 MODE OF MAKING CIDER.

Now, friend Prince, if we should explain what we know re-
specting the management of cider, some people would laugh,
and say they did that and a great deal more : and I suspect
they do, and add many more ingredients, such as water, po-
mace, and rotten fruit ; and perhaps something more from
fowls, beasts, and vermin, none of which makes the cider any
better.

We shall not hesitate to give it as our decided opinion,
that cool climates are much more favourable to cider than
warm. However, what greatly contributes to the goodness
and delicacy of cider, is the cleanliness of the casks which
contain it. In fine, all utensils used in making cider, should
be kept clean, and not suffered to get sour through the whole
process ; even the press should be frequently rinsed down,
during the time of making cider, to prevent sourness or a
change in the cider.

To clean casks which have been used for cider, we take
them from the cellar as soon as convenient after the cider is
out, (reserving the lees for stilling) and rinse each clean, first
with a pailfull of scalding water, then with cold, leaving the
casks with the bungs down for a day or two, or till dry. Then
we bung them tight, and return them to the cellar, or some
convenient place (not too dry) for their reception. Previous
to filling these casks with cider the ensuing season, we scald
and rinse them again, as above. Foul musly casks ought to
be committed to the fire. Hogsheads or large casks are the
best for cider, especially those that have recently been used
for rum or other spirit.

Apples that drop early we make into cider for stilling, it
being unfit for table use ; the spirit of which, together with
that of the lees, we return back to our store cider at the time
of racking, which is generally about the first of January. Ci-
der made of apples before they are fully ripe, we deem unfit
for drinking : and even when ripe, if they are made into ci-
der during warm weather so as to produce a sudden and ra-
pid fermentation, the cider will unavoidably be hard and un-

MODE OP MAKING CIDER. 359

pleasant. The fact is, the slower cider is in fermenting, the
better it will be at any age : consequently the later in the
season it is made, and the cooler the weather (if the business
can be conveniently performed) the better; especially for
long keeping. However, this is a cold work for the fingers,
unless pressed in a rack, which is the best method.

About the first of November we think a suitable season, if
the weather be dry, to gather and put under cover apples for
Store cider. After lying in this situation till mellow, (not rot-
ten) we commence grinding.

Doubtless good cider for early use, or perhaps for the first
year's d; inking, may be made previous to this time ; but cool
serene weather should be chosen for the business.

The grinding trough should be spacious enough to contain
a cheese, in order to admit the pomace (if the weather be
cool) to lie over one night before pressing. This method
contributes much, both to the colour and quantity of the ci-
der.

In the morning press it out gradually, and put it up into
the casks through straw, or rather a coarse sieve, fitted and
placed within the tunnel : after which, we convey it imme-
diately to a cool cellar, leaving out the bungs till the fermen-
tation chiefly subsides, which niay be ascertained by the froth
settling back at the bung-hole. We then drive m the bungs
tight, leaving a small spigot vent a while longer, if need re-
quire, to check the pressure, which must finally be made air
tight.

About the first of January, we rack it off free from the lees
into clean casks. Those that have been recently used for
spirit are to be preferred. But otherwise ; having drawn off
one cask, we turn out the lees, scald and rinse the cask as
above; add three or four pails full of cider; then burn in the
cask, a match of brimstone attached by a hook, to the end of
a large wire fixed in the small end of a long tapering bung
fitting any hole. When the match is burnt out, take off the
remnant ; apply the bung again, and shake the cask in order

360 MODE OF MAKING eiDER.

to impregnate the cider with the fume. Add more cider and
burn another match. Then add from one to three gallons
of spirit (obtained from the lees as above) to oite hogshead ;
fill up the cask with cider, and bung it down airtight, and let
it remain till it becomes of mature age.

C'der managed in this way will keep pleasant for years.
We would not be understood to suggest a notion, that good
cider cannot be obtained without the addition of spirit; es-
pecially for immediate use, or the first year's drinking; but
the contrary. Yet spirit will give it a new and vigorous bo-
dy, and insure its preservation.

To make matches for stumming casks, take strips of linen
or cotton rags about 1 1-2 inch wide, and 3 or 4 inches long,
dip the end of each in melted brimstone, to the extent of one
inch.

2d. Another improvement, though very simple, we shall
recommend, as having been highly beneficial to us for some
years ; that is, the preservation of vines, and other plants,
from the depredations of bugs and insects, by means of wood-
en boxes. These boxes are made of thin boards, about one
foot square, and 4 or 5 inches deep ; covered with thin,
loose-woven cloth, either of cotton, hemp, or linen, quite as
thin as a coarse meal sieve. The cloth should be oiled over
with linseed oil. The boxes are placed and kept over the
hills till the vines become of sufficient growth and strength to
bid defiance to the depredations of those devouring insects.
This is the cheapest, best, and finally the only effectual me-
thod that we have ever found to preserve our vines from de-
struction.

These boxes with careful usage will probably last for the
term of 15 or 20 years. They should be put under cover
when they are not in use ; and it would be well to repeat the
oiling of the cloth tops once in 4 or 5 years with train oil.

3d. Another thing having been under our experience for
many years, we find to be very beneficial to us in our joint
situation ; that is, it saves considerable manual strength and

MODE OF Making cider. 361

hard labour, viz. the taking ofFhay from the load and placing
it on the mow by a horse, with what we call grabs or hooks,
fixed to a tackle, which is suspended to the ridge pole or raft-
er of the barn, nearly over the centre of the mow ; and to the
rope of which (passing under a truck) a horse is hitched and
ridden by a small boy directly forward through the yard.
We frequently take off a ton of hay at four or five draughts,
each of which being suspended by a rope, is, by two hands
easily swung, as the rope slacks, to any part of the mow.
The rope is held by the loadman, while the horse turns about
and commences his trip towards the load. However, we
could not recommend this method to farmers who cut hay on
a small scale, or where but few hands are employed.

At any rate, we should rather prefer the location of a barn
(when practicable) on the side of an hill, so as to facilitate a
passage over a floor across the beams. This method we have
proved, and find it an excellent plan. I presume one man
in this situation, will get off more hay in the same time, and
with less fatigue, than four would in the ordinary way.

4th. And lastly ; we have a machine (moved by water) for
thrashing and cleaning grain ; which we can, with confidence,
recommend to great farmers. This machine will thrash and
winnow unusually clean, at least 100 bushels per day: it has
done 16 bushels per hour. Thus it not only saves much
time and hard labour, but also enables us to secure our grain
from vermin and other waste, immediately after harvesting.
Although (as we understand) some sagacious speculator has
copied a model, or nearly a model, from our machine, and
obtained a patent for the same, as having been his own inven-
tion ; yet we think we are fully able to prove our right of
claim to the invention, it being the result of our own mental
researches.

We never saw nor heard of any thing sin^ilar, previous to
our biiildinff the above mentioned machine for our own use, in
the summer of the year 1819 ; to the benefit of which, we make

you and every other man freely welcome, having never in-
Vol. VII. 47

362 STEEPING SEEDS.

tended to make other people tributary to our avarice, by se^
curing a patent for this, or any thing else, that might be of
service to mankind. However, as we have not room here
to give a plan, nor even a minute description of this machine,
you will please to call and see it the first opportunity, and
judge for yourself of its utility.

Although water may justly be considered by far the best
power of motion, yet I presume this machine may be so con-
structed as to operate by horses. The cost, exclusive of a
building to contain the grain, is probably about ^100.
I am, with due respect, your friend,

FRANCIS WANKLEY.

P. S, One of your former numbers speaks much in favour
of florin grass ; if you think it to be profitable, we should like
to procure some means for propagating it ; also a small pa-
per of Mangel Wurtzel seed.

REFLECTIONS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF STEEPING SEEDS IN
VARIOUS FRUCTIFYING LIQUIDS, WHICH HAS BEEN THE
SUBJECT OF MUCH DISCUSSION.

[Editors.]

Men have been always prone to devise, and adopt some
ready and mysterious way of hastening perfection in all the
arts. There is no one of them, that has not at times boast-
ed its philosopher's stone — some expeditious mode of dispens-
ing with what Providence has made indispensible to the
attainmeiit of all good in this world, viz. constant, unremitted,
intelligent exertion. However futile and ridiculous these
endeavours may have been in other arts and sciences, (and
they are in this age of true philosophy regarded, as they
ought always to have been, as the chimeras of enthusiasts,)
in the art or science of agriculture, they are eminently

steepiUg seeds. 3.63

preposterous and abfeurd. There is in this art, no easy and
compendious road to success. The faithful division of the
soil by repeated and incessant labour, the application of pro-
per manures or composts to enrich it ; to impart to each
particular species of soil, the elements in which it is found
to be deficient — these are the great secrets, and the only
secrets, of successful cultivation. While we were young pro-
ficients in this science, we read with wonder, not unmixed
with incredulity, the surprising effects of steeping seeds in
various liquors, impregnated with substances, which a vain
philosophy always more satisfied with novelty than with truth,
had decided to be the best food for plants. As we have
grown older, we have found, that the most rational physiolo-
gists are not yet agreed as to what is the proper food of
plants. They have contented themselves with simple facts,
that some plants prefer one species of soil or manure, and
others prefer a very different one. And they have endea-
voured, as far as possible, to give to each plant the kind of
.soil and manure in which, and by which, it is found to flourish
best.

The supposition, that so small a seed as that of wheat, or
Indian corn can imbibe from being steeped for twenty-four
hours in any liquor, however fructifying or' favourable, a
degree of force, which can enable it to withstand the effects
of an uncongenial soil, or to produce more abundantly even
in a congenial one, savours too strongly of mystery to be
readily adopted by any rational mind. We are not disposed
to deny any influence whatever to such experiments ; but we
think it must be very hmited, and that it has been grossly
over estimated. It would be indeed strange, if there were
not some quackery in this art, as in all others, and while we
have at least one hundred medicines, which will cure every
disease to which man is subject, (though no visible diminu-
tion of disease has been as yet produced by any or all of
them,) agriculture should not also have its universal panacea,
competent to eradicate all disease, and to produce the highest

364 STEEPING SEEDS.

possible state of vegetable health. It is with no small plea-
sure, that we are able to state, that Evelyn, the Bacon of
philosophical agriculture, had a thorough disbelief in this
short hand mode of producing luxuriant and prolific vege-
tation. In speaking of the soils in which forest trees flourish,
he gives this sly rebuke to the believers in fructifying steeps.
" Rather, therefore, we would take notice how many great
wits and ingenious persons, who have leisure and faculty,
are in pain for the improvement of their heaths and barren
hills, cold and starving places, which causes them to be
despaired of and neglected, whilst they flatter their hopes
and vain expectations with fructifying . liquors / chymical
menstruums, and such vast conceptions — at the same time,
that one may shew them as heathy and hopeless grounds and
barren hills as any in England, thai do now bear, or lately
have borne, woods, groves, and copses which yield the owner
more wealth than the richest and most opulent wheat lands.'*
There is a strong vein of sarcasm and truth in these
remarks, and they had their effect in covering England with
valuable and beautiful forests and groves, as we now find it.
It may be of some practical use to add the experience of the
writer of this article. He planted some hills which consist-
ed entirely of sand or gravel, and which would not furnish
vegetables for the support of a single cow for six weeks in a
year. It was represented to him by his neighbours that trees
would not grow upon them. It seemed, indeed, to be a hope-
less undertaking. Still he persevered, and the wood now
growing at the end of fifteen years would pay, if cut down
and sold to the bakers, for a sum equal to the price of the
land ; he believes, to double that price. But the most im-
portant remarks on this subject were made in a note by the
editor of Evelyn's Sylva, Alexander Hunter, the author of
the " Georgical Essays," a man of rare merit, philanthropy,
and good sense. He goes at large into the question of the
value and importance o( steeping seeds, placing the question,
as we believe, on its true and rational ground.

STEEPING SEEDS. 365

" The steeping of seeds," he remarks, " in proliiick liquors,
is not of modern invention. The Romans, who were good
husbandmen, have left us several receipts for steeping grain,
in order to increase the powers of vegetation. In England,
France, Italy, and in all countries where agriculture is
attended to, we see a variety of liquors recommended for
the same purpose. Good nourishment has ever been ob-
served to add strength and vigour to all vegetables. Hence
it was natural to suppose, that by filling the vessels of the
grain with nourishing liquors, the germ with its roots would
be invigorated. How far this is founded on just principles
remains now to be examined. For my part," says Mr. Hun-
ter, " I am not an advocate for steeps. All my experiments
demonstrate that they have no inherent virtue. 1 have
more than once sown the same seed, steeped, and unsteeped,
and though all other circumstances were minutely alike, yet
I could never observe the least difference in the growth of
the crops. / confess that when the light seeds are skimmed
off, as i(i the operation of brining, (or steeping in water satu-
rated with salt, which is heavier than common water) the
crop will be improved and diseases prevented, but these ad-
vantages proceed from the goodness of the grain sov;n, and
not from any prolifick virtue of the steep. 1 am happy in
not being singular in my objection to steeps. Many philo-
sophical farmers have been induced to quit their prejudices,
and are now convinced, from their own trials, that there is
no dependence on prolifick liquors, though ever so well re-
commended. Some people have been hardy enough to
persuade themselves, that the tillering of wheat, (its dispo-
sition to spread and send up many shoots from a single
kernel) may be so much increased by invigorating the grain
(by steeps) that only one half of the seed will be required.
Duhamel, one of the most accurate of experimental hus-
bandmen, and a most excellent philosopher, speaks in the
strongest terms against the practice of steeping, so far as it
supposes an impregnation of vegetative particles. 1 shall not

366 STEEPING SEEDS.

here repeal his experiments. I shall only observe, that they
are such as any farmer may make ; they are plain and con-
clusive. Good seed, when sown upon land in good tilth,
will always produce a plentiful crop. The best grain im-
pregnated to the full with the most approved steep and sown
upon land indifferently prepared, will forever disappoint the
hopes of the farmer. I do not presume to condemn the
practice in positive terms because my own experiments are
against it. Other experiments may be opposed to mine. 1
shall therefore, rest the whole upon a description of what
happens to grain, after it has been committed to the earth.
The subject is curious, and the discussion of it not very diffi-
cult. A grain of wheat contains within two capsules, a con-
siderable share of flour, which, when melted down by the
watery juices of the earth, constitutes the nourishment of the
tender plant, until its roots are grown sufficiently large to
absorb their oion food. Here is evidently a store-house of
nutriment, and of course the plumpest grains are the most
eligible for seed. From repeated experiments, I am con-
vinced that the plumpest seeds are always preferable to the
small ones. I have sprouted every kind of grain in a variety
of steeps, and can assure the farmer that the root and germ
never appeared so vigorous as when sprouted in simple ele-
mentary water — an argument that the seed requires no assist-
ance. The same steep when applied in quantity to the soil
will undoubtedly invigorate the roots, and nourish the plant;
but in that case it operates like other manures, and loses the
idea of a steep. As nitre, and sea-salt, and lime, are gene-
rally added to steeps, I have constantly observed that their
application rendered the radicle and germ sickly and yel-
low-— a plaip proof, that they were unnaturally used at that
season. Did the farina of the seed need any additional
particles, it might be supposed that broth made of the flesh of
animals would be most agreeable. [Probably founded on the
fact that animal manure is the most powerful. Editors,']
" To be satisfied of that, I sprouted some grains in beef

RAISING THE OAK. 367

broth, and an equal number in sinaple water. They were
afterwards sown, but I could perceive no difference in the
crop. As no invigorating, or fructifying liquor had ever stood
the test of fair experiment, we may venture to lay it down
as an established truth, that plump seed, clear of weeds, and
land well prepared to receive it, will seldom disappoint the
hopes of the farmer."

We are not prepared to express a decided opinion in
favour of Mr. Hunter's suggestions, though they derive great
weight from the support of two such men as Duhamel and
Evelyn.

There is one consideration which Mr. Hunter has cer-
tainly not pressed as far as he might have done. The bulk
of the seed is so extremely small compared with the roots
and top of any plant, (Indian corn, for example, whose root
and tops probably contain from 200 to 500 times as much
matter as the seed,) that it is incredible, that any productive
virtue (be it ever so great) could materially affect the growth
of a plant, which daily requires so much food. We thought
the article ingenious, and we give it the preference, be-
cause it is in opposition to long a established opinion, found-
ed in mystery.

ON RAISING THE OAK FROM THE ACORN, AND THE BEST

MODE OF DOING IT.

[By the Editors.]

It is very extraordinary, that, notwithstanding the Massachu-
setts Agricultural Society has for thirty years offered great
premiums for the culture of the oak in plantations, and espe-
cially since the legislature enjoined it upon the several agri-
cultural societies throughout the state to offer premiums for
the raising of forest trees, but two claims should have been
made. We can only account for it on one of the following
grounds, either that the premium has not attracted the attcn-

368 -" RAISING THE OAK.

tion of our farmers, or that they have not sufficient spirit and
enterprise, or that they are averse from any new culture,
however important and reasonable. We shall take the arti-
cle of White Oaks, which were selected by our society, as
being the most valuable timber of the Northern Slates.

The premium offered in 1822, for one acre planted with
white oaks, and found to be in the best state in September
182S, (that is at eighteen months old.) was 100 dollars per
acre. The average price of good land throughout the state
does not exceed twenty dollars per acre. The expense of
raising seedlings of eighteen months old would not exceed
twenty dollars more, if the following account be correct ;
indeed we believe it would not exceed ten dollars, as we can
see no reason why the expense of planting an acre of acorns
should exceed the expense of planting an acre of corn.
There would be left then of clear profit to the raiser of an
acre of oaks a profit of sixty dollars at least for two years
culture, and as is remarked in the following article, a crop
of grain may be raised at the same time sufficient to pay the
whole expense. Have we no man in the state who is spirited
enough to set the example, and carry away the honour and
profit? The acre of oaks will afterwards be his, and there is
no mode in which he could employ his land to so great
advantage. It will not surely be said, that our farmers can-
not spare any of their land, when our great error consists
in holding more than we can, or do cultivate well.

Onjhe mode of raising the oak ^^ from Hunter"* s Kotes on

Eve/yn''s Si/lva.^^

" Having the ground properly prepared, (by breaking it
up and reducing it to a fine tilth, either by potatoes or
repeated ploughings) and having a sufficient quantity of
acorns, all gathered from the most vigorous, healthy, and
thriving trees, proceed to the setting them in the following
manner. In the month of February or March [but in this
country we say from experience, the months of November or

RAISING THE OAK. 369

December if the latter month be open) let lines be drawn
across the ground for the rows, at the distance of four feet
from each other ; but if thi- be thought too great an interval,
the rows may be made three feet, in which case the acorns
must be put down at a greater distance from each other.
Then having slicks properly rounded to make the holes,
(a common dibble) plant the acorns in the rows at ten inches
asunder. Let them be put down about two inches below
the surface, and see that the earth be properly closed upon
them to prevent mice or crows from injuring the seed. In
some places it is customary to sow the acorns after the
plough in furrows, but where the ground happens to be stiff,
great care should be taken not to cover the seed with too
thick a furrow.

'* The first year after planting the acorns, the weeds must
be kept down by hoeing and hand-weeding, and this must be
done early in the spring before the weeds get so strong as to
hide the tender plants, which would occasion many of them
to be destroyed in cleaning. It is also the cheapest, as well
as neatest husbandry, to take weeds down, before they grow
too large ; for though the ground may require an additional
hoeing in spring, yet the weeds being hoed down whejn
young, a man may hoe over a great quantity of ground in a
day. Weeds cut in their tender state immediately die.
Whereas, when they are old and strong, they frequently
grow again, especially if rain falls soon after, they perfect
their seeds in a short time, and thereby injure the whole
plantation.

" The second year of their growth the common plough
may be made use of, to cultivate and keep the ground clean,
[or potatoes might be raised between the rows if proper care
be taken not to trample on the plants. Editors.]

As these acorns sometimes fail, the author proposes a
nursery in the same field to supply the deficiencies.

"Having then given directions for the raising of wood,
I proceed," says the author, " to their future management.

Vol. VII. 48

370 RAtSlNG THE OAK.

And first, the rows being four feet asunder, and the plants
two feet apart in the rows, they may stand in this m*nner
for twelve or fourteen years, when every second plant may
be taken out and sold for hoops or poles. After every
second plant is taken away, let the roots of those takea
away be grabbed up to give the remaining plants more room
freely to extend their roots. The plants being now fouF
feet apart each way, they will require no nf)ore thinuinf: for
seven or eight years, thai is, tii! they are twenty years old^
when the healthiest and most thriving trees must be rvtHiked
to stand for timber, and the others cut down for poles, and,
their roots left to produce future underwood.

" The oak will grow and thrive on almost any soil, i^f pro-
perly planted, though it cannoJ be supposed that their suc-
cess will be equal in all places. A rich, deep, ioam} soil is
what oaks most delight in, though they will grow exceed-
ingly well in cla}s of all kinds, and in sandi/ soils, in which
last, the^nes^ grained timber is produced.^''

The author then proceeds to inquire, which of the differ-
ent modes of raising oaks produces the best timber, from the
acorn, the seed-bed, or the nursery. Mr. Evelyn decides in.
favour of planting the acorn, and Mr. Hunter adas, that
whoever will look at the woods which were soian, and com-
pare them with those which were planted from nurseries,
will not hesitate a moment to declare in favour of Evelyn's
opinion.

What are the obstacles to our following this excellent
example of the great farmers of England, in the age, in
which our ancestors emigrated ? Is it because we are too
impatient, and unwiliitig to await so tardy a return? Yet
there are constant pleasures in the annual growth of our
forests, they seem to be the work of our own hands, at least
of our own providence and care ; they are subject to fewer
hazards, and their protit is certainly greater than that of any
other employment of capital on land, or is this aversion to
planting the effect of an hereditary prejudice against trees f

PROFESSOR Cogswell's DONATION. 371

Our ancestors found their extirpation, their greatest labour
and do we continue to feel their prejudice, when woodland
is far the most valuable, and must constantly increase in its
comparative value ?

PROFESSOR COGSWELI/S DONATION OF A VALUABLE HERBA-
RIUM TO THE VISITORS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS PROFES-
SORSHIP OF NATURAL HISTORY.

It is not, perhaps, generally known, that the Trustees of
the iVlassachusetts Societ) (or promoting agriculture, are al-
so, with the President of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, the President of Harvard University, and the Pre-
sident of the Massachusetts Medical Society, the Visitors of
the Massachusetts Professorship of Natural History, and, of
course, of the Botanick Garden.

Every thing niteresting to that establishment ought, there-
fore, to find a conspicuous place in <Ais journal.

It is not necessary at this day, to urge the importance of
botanical knowledge, and its necessary connexion with agri-
culture. The liberal exertions of the government of the
United States under the ad.ninistrations of Jeflersou, Madi-
son, and Monroe, to promote the knowledge of the vegeta-
ble productions of the extensive countries over which we
claim jurisdiction ; their employment of scientifick men to
explore these regions with views to the promotion of the sci-
ence of natural history ; the honourable progress made in
that science, which was scarcely known in the United States
40 years since, by the successive labours of Cutler, Muhlen-
berg, Peck, Cleaveland, Elliot, Silliman, Say, Bigelow, Nut-
tal, Torrey, and maiiy others, render any remarks in its fa-
vour unnecessary and inexpedient.

We may, however, assume some praise for Massachusetts,
for its exertions, both public and private, in founding a bo-

372 PROFESSOR Cogswell's donation,

tanick school ; and what is a rare praise in the United States,
in preserving what it had founded. The Botanick Garden
at Cambridge, is the only surviving one in the United States.
The opulent and extensive and liberal State of New-York,
after paying ^80,000 for Dr. Kosark's garden, is said to have
suffered it to pass into decay, while Massachusetts, without
any extensive grant, has by a moderate annual encourage-
ment, wisely fostered an institution nobly endowed by private
benefactions. We trust the rulers of the vState, seeing the
interest taken in this science, will now do more ; and as a
State of the first importance, place the garden at Cambridge,
on a footing at least with that at Liverpool, created and sus-
tained by a single city of Great-Britain.

Professor Cogswell is entitled to great praise for the devo-
tion of his time, his thoughts, and his property, while abroad,
to the acquisition of the means of advancing the science of
natural history in his native country. Had he retained for
his own use, his valuable collections, he would still have been
a benefactor ; for every citizen who collects a library or a
cabinet of minerals, or a herbarium, renders essential services
to his country, but when he presents these fruits of his zeal
and exertions to the publick, they are still more his debtors,
and the least they can do, is publicly to acknowledge their
sense of obligation. In this case, 1 personally know, that the
object of our notice would gladly have been spared this pub-
lic tribute ; but private delicacy must yield to public duty,
and superior public interests. J. L.

Cambridge^ April 12, 1823.
Dear Sir, — When 1 was in Switzerland, I procured a large
Herbarium of the plants of that country, which 1 look upon
as too valuable to be shut up in the private cabinet of an in-
dividual, especially of an individual, whose other occupations
afford him but little time for the study of Botany. 1 have
determined, therefore, to present it to the Massachusetts Pro-
fessorship of Natural History, beUeving that il will there be

fROPESSOR Cogswell's donation. 373

in better hands than in any other in the country. 1 must beg
you to offer it to the Visitors of the Professorship in my
name. It contains 3172 specimens of dried plants of central
Europe, all of which, 1 believe, are in perfect preservation ;
of these, 55 5 are Lichens still attached to the substances on
which they grew. The Herbarium is put up in volumes like
that, which accompanies this note, of which there are twelve,
beside a distinct one for the Cereales. The Lichens are in
a cabinet by themselves, in a different form. The plants
were collected partly by myself, and partly by Mr. Sevinge,
of Bern, who pressed and prepared the whole. This gentle-
man is constantly employed by Mr. De Candolle, for this
purpose, and consequently must be capable and accurate.
The Herbarium was examined by Mr. De Candolle, and ma-
ny of the plants verified by him ; he considered it very per-
fect of its kind. Dr. Bigelow examined it also, and was of
the same opinion ; and so was Mr. Nuttall, as far as he could
judge on a slight inspection. It is arranged according to the
natural order, and the catalogue is made to correspond. I
send a volume of the Herbarium and the catalogue, that the
gentlemen may see the state in which it is, and its extent.
Should the Board of Visitors do me the honor to accept this
Herbarium, you will please inform me into whose hands I
shall deliver it.

With great respect, I am my dear sir,

Your friend and servant,

JOS. G. COGSWELL.

Benj. Guild, Esq. Secretary of the Board of Visitors of
Mass. Prof. J^at. Hist.

The Visitors accepted this donation, and presented to Mr.
Cogswell their thanks in behalf of the publick.

374 ON MILbEW.

ON MILDEW.

There is no evil to which the farmer of the Northern States
is subject more injurious than mildew — none, which ho is
more intere^sted in seeing overcome. It is that principally
which prevents his raising his own wheat, and as the first
step, towards discovering a remedy, is the ascertainment of
the cause of the evil, and ils nature, the farmer is of course
interested in learning what mildew proceeds from, and what
it is. Much mystery has hung over this question, and oppo-
site opinions have been entertained respecting it, but we
trust that philosophical, and indeed all reading farmers will
be pleased by perusing the following article from the pen o(
the well known, and respected Mr. Knight, of whom we have
spoken before.
Oh the prevention of Mildew in particular cases. By Thomas

Andrew Knight, Esq. F, R. S. dp-c. (^c. Presidetit of the

London Horticultural Society, read in 1813 and printed

in 1818.

" The little pamphlet upon the rust, or mildew of wheat,
for which the publick are indebted to the patriotick exer-
tions of the venerable president of the Royal Society (the
late Sir Joseph Banks) affords much evidence in proof, that
this disease originates in a minute species of parasitical
fungus, which is propagated, like other plants, by seeds,
and the evidence adduced would, I think, be sufficient to
remove every doubt on the subj^^ct, were the means ascer-
tained, by which the seeds of this species of fungus are con-
veyed from the wheat plants of one season to those of the
succeeding year. This, however, has not yet been done ;
and therefore some perso.-is still retain an opinion that the
Mildew of wheat consists only of preter-natural processes,
which spring from a diseased action of the power of life in
the plants themselves.

" An hypothesis, which differs little from this, has been pub-

ON MILDEW. §75

lished in the present year* respecting the dry rot, or Boletus
lacrymans, of Tirnberi It is contended that the different
kinds of fungus, which appear upon decaying tinriber of dif-
ferent species, are produced by the remaining powers of life
in the sap of the unseasoned wood ; and that the same kind of
Jiving organizable matter, which, whilst its powers remained
perfect, would have generated an oak branch, will, when
debilitated give existence to a species of fungus. But if this
power exists, and becomes capable, during its rapid declen-
sion of deviating so widely from its original mode of action,
the species of fungus it would produce, might be expected
to become successively more feeble and diminutive : whereas
the most robust and gigantic of the whole genus, the Boletus
squamosus springs from wood, when that is in the last stage
of deca), and the best known, and the most valuable species
to mankind, of this tribe of plants, the common mushroom
[from which catchup is made, and which in Europe is a lux-
ury of the table] appears as obviously to spring from horse
dung under favourable circumstances, as any species of the
same tribe appears to spring from decomposing wood, with-
out the presence of seeds.! Yet it can scarcely be contend-
ed, that any vital power, capable of arranging the delicate
organization of a mushroom, can exist in horse dung; and
the admission of such power would surely lead to the most
extravagant conclusions. For if a mass of horse dung can
generate a mushroom, it can scarcely be denied that a mass
of animal matter, an old cheese, may generate a mite, and if
the organs of a mite can thus be formed, there could be little
difficulty in believing (hat a larger mass of decomposing mat-
ter would generate an Elephant or a man.

" The hypothesis, therefore, which supposes the various

* Quarterly Review.

t Mr. Knight refers here to the small and large mushroom, which are found
growing out of decaying timber, and are known by botanists by the name? of
Boletus lacrymans, and Boletus squamosus. All persons of any obseivatioB
must have perceived these mushrooms on decaying timber. Editors,

376 ON MILDEW.

species of fungus to spring from seeds, appears to me much
the less objectionable ; and, if the minute bodies, which are
supposed to be the seeds, be really such, it will not be diffi-
cult to shew that these are sufficiently numerous to account,
to a great exteat for the ubiquity [the universal presence] of
the plants they are supposed to produce, particularly as such
apparent seeds, owing to their excessive lightness, are capa-
ble of being dispersed every where by winds.

" A few years ago I raised some mushrooms under glass
with the intention of coUeeting, and subsequently raising from
the seeds they might produce; and 1 then endeavoured to
ascertain the number which would be afforded by a single
fructification ; for a mushroom appears to be nothing more
than a fructification of the plant, though it is generally spo-
ken of as the plant itself. I placed thin plates of talc, [isin-
glas vulgarly called with us] under a very large mushroom,
at the period when the msnute globular bodies which are
supposed to be the seeds, first began to be disengaged from
its gills ; and I endeavoured to count the number which fell
during each successive hour, within the narrow field of a
very powerful lens. The labour to my eyes was, however,
so severe, that I was unable to count with any considerable
degree of accuracy ; but the number which fell from a single
mushroom, within the succeeding ninety-six hours, exceeded
upon the lowest calculation that I could make, hoo hundred
and ffty millions. I endeavoured to raise mushrooms from
these seeds, but I failed to obtain any decisive results ; for
though I readily procured mushroom spawn by mixing such
seeds with unfermented horse dung, I also obtained them in
equal abundance in some instances where I had not intro-
duced any seeds.

" Immense as the number of seeds produced by a single
mushroom appears, it probably is not much greater than that
which a single plant of mildewed wheat would afford ; and,
according to this calculation, a single acre of mildewed wheat
would afford seeds sufficient to communicate disease to every

ON RllLDEW. ' 317

acre of wheat in the British empire, under circumstances fa-
vourable to the growth of the fungus ; [Mr. Knight proceeds
throughout on the behef of the doctrine advanced by Sir Jo-
seph Banks, that the mildew is a plant of the class which bota-
nists call fungus] and I have never seen a single acre of wheat
since the publication of Sir Joseph Banks's pamphlet so free
from mildew^ but that it would have afforded seeds enough
amply to supply the adjoining hundred acres. There is also
reason to believe that the barberry tree (or shrub) cohimu-
nicates this disease to wheat, and I have also observed a
similar, apparent parasitical plant on the couch grass, in the
hedges of coin tields.*

"Neither the mildero o( wheat nor any other kind, can
however, I think, be communicated directly from the leaves
and stems of one plant to those of another ; very numerous
attempts made by myseif to succeed in experiments of this
kind, having, I believe, proved abortive ; though I once fan-
cied that 1 had succeeded in two or three instances. I am,
therefore, much inclined to believe that the parasitical fun-
gus, which occasions every disease of this kind, enters the
plant in the first instance 63/ the roots, though it may proba-
bly be transferred by ihe graft, and probably by the bud,
from one fruit tree to another; and if the seeds be capable
like those of many other plants, of remaining sound a con-
siderable time beneath the soil, or in other situations, till
circumstances, which are favourable to their growth, occur,
the abundant appearances of mildew, or mushrooms, may

* We witnessed three years since the most unequivocal proofs of the effects
ef the barberry on surrounding plants of winter rye. Several days before the
mildew was seen on any other parts of the field, it appeared in extensive and
destructive influence around a barberry bush. We called the attention of
Dr. Bigelovv to the fact, which could not be questioned. There was, how-
ever, some doubts on his mind whether the fungus on one and the other was
identically the same. But the fact cannot be questioned, that it first appeared
in the vicinity of the barberry, and thence gradually and rapidly spread in
diverging lines over the Avhole field. The barberry is constantly afl'ecte<S.
with this disease, and at an early season before it blossoms. Editors.

Vol. VIT. 49

ON MILDEW.

be accounted for without supposing them to be generated
whoHy b} the bodies from which they spring.

" i sha!! not trespass on the time of the Horticultural Society
by dwelling longer upon the primary causes of the various
diseases, which are comprehended under the name of
mildew; but shall proceed to the immediate object of the
present memoir, which is to point out the means by which
the injurious elFects of the common white mildew may be
in particular cases, prevented.

" The secondary, and immediate causes of this disease have
long appeared to me to be the want of a sufficient supply of
moisture from the soil, with excess of humidity in the air,
particularly if the plants be exposed to a temperature belov*-
that to which they have been accustomed. If damp and
cold weather in July succeed that which is warm and bright,
without sufficient rain to moisten the ground to some depth,
the wheat crop is generally injured by mildew. I suspect,
tha- in such cases, an injurious absorption of moisture by the
leaves and stems of the wheat plants takes place ; and I have
proved, that under similar circumstaiice much water will be
absorbed by the leaves of trees, and carried downwards
through their alburnous substance ; though it is certainly
through this substance that the sap rises' under other cir-
cumstances. i{ a branch be taken from a tree when its
leaves are mature, and one leaf be kept constantly wet,
that leaf will absorb moisture, and supply another leaf be-
low it upon the branch, even though all communication
between them through the bark be intersected ; and if a
a similar absorption takes places in the straws of wheat or
the stems of other plants, and a retrograde motion of the
fluid!^ be produced, I conceive that the ascent of the true
sap, or organizable matter, into the seed vessels, must be re-
larded, and that it may become the food of the parasitical
plants, which ihen only may grow luxuriant and injurious.

" Tiiis view of the subject, whether true or talse, led me
to the following method of cultivating the pea, late in an-

ON MILDEW. . 379

tumn, by which my table has been as abundantly supplied
during the months of September and October as in June
or July, and my plants have been as nearly free from 7nil-
dew.

[7^0 enable those who have not attempted to cul-
tivate late pease to understand Mr. Knight, we would re-
mark, that both in Europe and America, the pea sowed
for an autumnal crop is generally, we might say, almost
universally subject to mildew, so that we cannot enjoy
this delicious green vegetable, for more than two months
in the year.]

" The ground is dug in the usual way, and the spaces
which will be occupied by the future rows are well soak-
ed with water; the mould upon each side is then collect-
ed so as to form ridges seven or eight inches above the
previous level of the ground, and then are well wateied.
After which, the seeds are sowed in single rows along (he
tops of the ridges. The plants very soon appear above
the surface, and grow with much vigour owing to the great
depth of the soil and abundant moisture. Water is given
rather profusely once a week, or nine days, even if the
weather proves showery. Under this mode of management
the plants will remain perfectly green and luxuriant till the
young blossoms and the seed vessels are destroyed by frost,
and their produce will retain its proper flavour which is
always taken away by mildew. The pea which 1 have
planted for autumnal crops is. a very large kind, of which
the seeds are much shrivelled, and which grows very high.
It is now very common in the shops of London, and my
name has been, I believe, generally attached to it. [It is
well known by us by the same name, and is an excellent
late variety,] I prefer this variety, because it is more
sweet than any other, and retains its flavour better late in
autumn. It is my custom to sow some of it every ten
days, and I rarely ever fail of having my table supplied
till the end of October.

380 ON MILDEW.

" The mildew of the peach and other fruit trees probably
originates in the same causes as the mildew of the pea,
and may be prevented by similar means. When the roots
which penetrate most deeply into the soil, and are conse-
quently best adapted to supply the tree in summer with
moisture, are destroyed by a noxious subsoil, or by excess
of moisture during winter, I have observed the mildew
upon many varieties of the peach to become a very for-
midable enemy. Where, on the contrary, a deep and fer-
tile loam permits the roots to extend to their proper depth ;
and vehere the situation is not low as to be much infested
with fogs, I have found little of this disease ; and in a forc-
ing house (for prematurely ripening fruit) I have found it
equally easy by appropriate management to introduce or
prevent the appearance of it. W^hen I have kept the mould
\ery dry, and the air in the house damp and unchanged,
the plants have soon become mildewed ; but when the
mould has been regularly, and rather abundantly wateredj^
not a vestige of the disease has appeared.

" It must be confessed, that it is not easy to account, at
first view, for the appearance of this disease under some
of the preceding and various other circumstances, if it be
prodficed by a parasitical plant which propagates by seeds,
but -rill we ever see of mildew is simply its fructification.
The plant itself, if it be one, is wholly concealed from our
senses : it may consequently be transferred from one plant to
another by the giaft or bud, and never become visible, till
the health of the tree be effected by other causes.

" 1 could state some cases which are very favourable to this
opinion, for this disease appears readily to be communicated
by a graft to another tree, when that grows in the same soil,
and in simitar externa! circumstances.

"The different species of minute insects, which feed upon
the bodies of our domestic cattle are scarcely ever seen, and
are never injurious so long as the larger animals retain their
health and vigour; but when these become reduced by fa-

THE CAROLINA POTATO. 381

mine, or disease, the insects multiply with enormous rapi-
dity, and though at first, they are only symptomatic of dis-
ease, they are ultimately become the chief and primary
cause of its continuance. The reciprocal operation of the
larger plant (on which the mildew feeds) and the mildew
upon each other may possibly be somewhat similar.

" I offer the preceding opinions merely as conjectures ; the
hypothesis I have chosen has led me to the successful treat-
ment of the disease in particular cases; aiid it may in the
same way lead to others, and I therefore venture to submit it
to the Horticultural Society without being very confident of
its truth. If however the countless millions of apparently
organized bodies, which are generated by the different spe-
cies of fungus, be not seeds, nature appears to wander widely
from its ordinary path ; for amidst all its boundless profusion
and exuberance, it does not ever, in other cases, appear to
labour whollv in vain."

So far Mr. Knight instructs, or at least attempts to instruct
us. No person can read his remark? without admiring his
philosophical caution and modesty, and yet it is obvious,
that he concurs with his predecessor, Sir Joseph Banks, in
considering mildew as a plant — an organized being endued
with vegetable life. How far the admitted discovery of this
fact may eventually lead to the extinction, or at least the dir
minution of this vegetable scourge, time only can decide, but
we cannot think our readers will believe their time ill spent
|n perusing these ingenious suggestions.

THE CAROLINA POTATO, OR SWEET POTATO.

T HIS plant is not a potato, though there is a vulgar opi-
nion, that the common potato transplanted to southern regions

382 THE CAROLINA POTATO*

becomes sweet, and that the sweet potato on being carried
to northern climes degenerates into the common po'ato.
The common potato is what the botanists have named a So-
lanum. It is not a running plant. Its native country is
probably the high lands of South America — ^a cold region.
It delights in cold seasons, and a moist soil, and it is a fact,
tbat it is drier and more mealy, when raised in such soils,
than in dry ones. The best potatoes known are raised ifl
the wet, flat and almost overflown grounds of Lancashire in
England ; and in Ireland, so famous for its moisture and ver-
dure, as to have received the appellation of the Emerald
Isle. It flourishes admirably in the fogs of Nova Scotia and
the lower parts of the state of Maine. The sweet potato
has no title to be called the Carolina potato. It is an exo-
tic, or foreign plant with them. It is a native of tropical re-
gions; has been gradually introduced northerly, like the
Lima or Saba, commonly pronounced. Civet bean. The
sweet potato is not a solanum, but a convolvulus; has all the
habits of the tribe of the convolvulus ; it is a running or
creeping plant. It never flowers in our country. It is very
;liardy — is capable of bearing more frost than the common
potatoe, but in wet seasons it is watery and less sweet. It
may prove my great zeal, and somewhat theoretical turn,
to recommend agam the culture of this vegetable in Mas-
sachusetts, but four years experience gives me some right
to speak of it practically,

I recommend its culture on the following grounds.

First. It will grow and succeed here under ordinary cul-
ture.

Secondly. It is very prolific, making as good returns as
the common potato.

Thirdly, it is preferred by man, bearing usually a price
three times as great with us as the common potato.

Fourthly. It is preferred by all animals of whatever
description. Cows and pigs eat it greedily, and even dung-
hill fowls will attack and consume it in a raw state.

NOVA SCOTIA PROVINCIAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 383

It will produce about 300 bushels to the acre. I have
never failed to raise it with success. The only impediment
to its culture is the difficulty of preserving the small tubes
or roots; but as soon as it is known that there will be a
demand for them, our market will be regularly supplied
from New Jersey, where it has been long naturalized. It
can be as easily raised, as cabbages. This I undertake to
affirm. J. LOWi:.LL.

I would not be supposed to recommend this article ex-
cept for the culture of the southern and eastern parts of
the State, nor even there, except as a cheap luxury.

JSfOVA SCOTIA PROVINCIAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

W E received a pamphlet from John Young, Esq. Secre-
tary of the abovenamed Society, which contains much inter-
esting matter ; but from some accident, it reached us so late
as not to afford time to make such extracts from it, and to
take such notice of it, as we should have been disposed to
do. Perhaps there is no district of Europe or America in
which a more fervent and zealous spirit in favour of an im-
proved course of agriculture has been awakened, than in
Nova Scotia. If we were to attribute this, in a very consi-
derable degree, to the industry, zeal and talents of Mr.
Young, we should be borne out, in the opinion, by the gene-
ral testimony of the inhabitants of that province. The New
England Agricultural Journal, a publication of great merit,
has made copious extracts from this pamphlet, which renders
our unavoidable omission less important. We cannot how-
ever omit the introduction of a very singular historical fact
stated by the Attorney General of that Province in a very
animated speech made at a ineeting of the Provincial Agri-

384 WOTA SCOTIA PROVINCIAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY^*

cultural Society. One object of the speaker was to recom='
mend the culture of grain, in preference to raising cattle.

" There cannot be a greater folly (lor reasons previously
assigned, said the Attorney General,) than rearing so many
cattle and neglecting the plough. This has not always been
the case in Nova Scotia ; for he had been lately turning his
attention to the ancient recor*ds of the Province as preserved
in the public offices ; with a view to collect any facts illus-
trative of our agriculture. When the English took posses-
sion of this country, there might be 40,000 souls in it, and
the plough was the support of this population. He found
that an ennbargo was imposed to prevent the exportation of
'ioheat and pease to the neighbouring state of Massachusetts,
Although this may appear strange to some, who have been
crying both long and loudly, that we could not raise our own
bread, he could assure them it was a positive fact. What
was the consequence of this embargo, thus laid on the agri-
cultural produce of Nova Scotia? Why, the State of Massa-
chusetts takes the alarm, and sets forth a strong remonstrance
and complaint, that their supplies were cut of. On this, his
Majesty's council, taking their case into consideration, and
willing to give them all the relief m their power, grants them
a licence of three months for the exportation of wheat and
pease. Tliis plain fact, which occurred in 1752, is suffi-
cient evidence to put down all sort of opposition, and shut
the mouths of those croakers who have annoyed us so long."
The learned gentleman then proceeds to state by what
means, the French, who were then the only settlers, were
enabled to do this. We are not prepared to say what this
does or does not prove, as to the capability of Nova Scotia
to raise its own bread stuffs. It is undoubtedly a very strong
fact. We cite it, as an historical curiosity merely, and it is
surely a very great one.

The same learned law officer, at an adjourned meeting
made another speech, principally against the culture o{ In-
dian com in that Province, and we entirely concur with

NOVA SCOTIA PROVINCIAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 383

him in the impolicy of attempting it. It is a precarious
crop in some seasons in some parts of the state of iVIaine;
but the learned speaker was entirely misinformed as to the
praciice of the United States, when he said — "Corn, (mean-
ing Indian corn) was very fashionable in America ; (mean-
ing the United Siates) because their sterile and burnt up-
lands were fit for nothing else." Now it is precisely our
sterile and burnt uplands upon which judicious farmers
never atternpi to raise Indian corn. To that invaluable plant
we generally devote our richest and best soils. On our
sterde ar.d burnt uplands we raise rye, and barley occa-
sionally, but never Indian corn unless a n)aH has no other
lands on which he can raise it.

The learned gentleman stated another fact which the ex-
perience of JNew England farmers certamly does not support.
" 'J'ake quantities," he says, '' of Indian meal, and of oats,
and mix them with water in separate troughs, and you would
find that all the pigs would run to the oatmeal and eat it up en-
tirely before they would touch the other." I'he inferior ani-
mals, as well as man, are creatures of habit-, and it is possible
that the Spanish swine who are fed on acorns and beech-nuts
from infancy, would reject Indian corn if thrown down to
them, though we doubt it, because instinct is very strong
and very correct, and we believe that an English race-horse
brought up on oats, would not disdain a manger of Indian
corn, but this fact may be relied upon, that roe. who feed onr
various domestic animals on every variety of grain, always
find them prefer the Indian corn, and fatten best upon it.
We had indeed thought, that Baron Humboldt's opinion in
favour of Indian corn, supported by that of Arthur Yoimg,
had set that question at rest. Countries which are so favour-
ed with heat, and a dry atmosphere, as to be adapted to the
culture of Indian corn, can never be persuaded that any
other grain is preferable. For Scotland and Nova Scotia,
undoubtedly any farinaceous vege(a)<!e is better than Indian
cor:. We should not of course think it necessary to make

Vol. vn. 50

386 AGRICULTURAL INTELLfGENCE.

anj remarks on the suggestion that oatmeal was a heartier
food for man than Indian nneal, or the reasons assigned by
the Atton.ey General that '' the former was more nutritious,
that labourers fed on Indian bread require five or six diets
per day, while a sturdy, resohite Scotchman at any sort of
work would o\jitdo forty of them."

Allowing for the natural hyperbolical expressions of a
man who is warmed with his subject, we may be permitted
to r»^mark, that a Massachusetts farmer, whose bread consists
pri/)cipally of Indian meal, would at mowing, ploughing, hoe-
ing, or any other agricultural labour, except digging peat,
compete single handed wi'h any labourer, whom either the
highlands, or lowlands of Scotland ever produced. We do
not say this in a spirit of rivalry, or with any feelings that
are not entirely kind, but merely for the love ofcorrectness.
Agriculture, like all other arts and sciences can only be pro-
moted, by precise statements o( facts. And while necessity,
the state of climate and seasons render oatmeal the unavoid-
able food, and the most economical food in Nova Scotia,
as the Iceland moss is in that country, and fish in Lapland,
there can be no use in denying the nutritious quality of In-
dian corn in countries, which are so favoured as to be capa-
ble of producing it. Editors,

AGRICULTURAL INTELLIGENCE.

J4MES Ombrosi, Esq. consul of the United States at Flo-
rence, has sent to the Massachusetts Agricultural Society,
through William Little, Esq. of Boston, a few pounds of
a grass seed, which he rails Erba Medica, and which he sayj
is cut in Tuscany five or six times a year, and is there con-
sidered particularly nutritious food for cows or horses. It is
chopped up, or in some other way, mixed with hay for
cattle. Mr. 'Ombrosi and Mr. Little will be pleased to

AGRfCUIiTURAL INTELLIGENCE. S87

accept the thanks of the society for their attention. The
.seed app'iars to us to be that of some species of Tnfohum,
evidently not the broad leaved clover of Flanders, which is
on the whole considered the best by European cultivators.

The Flanders clover, however, in our seed stores, is sadly
mixed with other varieties, and sometinsts other species of clo-
ver. The seeds of the Trifolium officinale, or melilot, or yel-
low Trefoil, are intermixed to so great an extent, that some
fields which we have sown with red clover seed, bought as such
in the shops, are now of a yellow colour from tht prevalence
of the melilot. The worst of it is, thit it is an increasing
evil. Ten years since the melilot, or yellow clover, was so
uncommon, that we examined it as a botanical novelty.

The Caledonian Horticultural Society in 1817, sent a
deputation into the Low Countries and France to ascertain
what improvements had been made in Horticulture or Gar-
dening, during the twenty years in which intercourse had
been cut off between Scotland and the Continent by that
scourge and disgrace of human nature, war. It was a most
praiseworthy example, and the reports of that committee
have been published this year, 182 3, in an octavo volume
full of interesting matter in relation to Gardening, to fruits,
and orchards. We shall only have time and room for the
insertion of some short articles.

At Bruges in Flanders, proverbially the seat of the most
improved agriculture, the committee on the 1 2th of August,
make the following remarks : " In the course of our evening
walk, we were attracted by a novel appearance in husbandry,
the labours of the seed time and harvest seeaiing here to be
united and contemporaneous. We entered a fitie field of
luxuriant rye, part of which rema>ned nncul, but a large, pro-
portion had been cut down this morning (August. 12th.)

388 AGRICULTURAL INTELLrGENCE.

The crop had been carried aside ; well rotted dung had been
prett) liberally laid ou the stubble ; the Flemish plough was
now at work ; and to compiele this picture of industry,
and expedition, a nian was actually engaged in sowing tur-
nips on the saoie portions of the ploughed fields from which
the rje crop had been reaped in the morning." This exam-
ple ought not to be lost upon us. Our sun is nouch more
powerful, and our vegetation more rapid than in Flanders.
We know that some farmers do raise their second crops with
us ; but may we not carry this system much farther ? We
certainly can do it, by limitifig the extent of our cultivated
grounds, and bestowing greater labour on the quantity we do
cultivate.

PROFESSOR VAN MONS OF BRUSSELS.

The Caledonian committee above mentioned, visited the
nurseries of this active and intelligent horticulturist. He
is Professor of Chemistry at Loiivain, but has turned his
attention very extensively to the improvement of fruits, prin-
cipailj on the plan of Mr. Knight, by raising new varieties.
Of new varieties of seedling pears, raised chiefly by himself,
and Monsieur Duquesne, of Mens, he considers that his col-
lection contains about 800 ; being asked hy the committee
whether he meant that they were all good, he replied, that
there were that number worth} of preservation. We must,
however, put down a considerable portion of these as favourites
from paternal regard, for we do not find that the London
Horticultural Society to whom he has sent his best samples
have as yet admitted more than half a dozen into the cata-
logue of good fruits. Still his zeal is worthy of great praise.
Our old fruits are running out, they are subject to constantly
increasing diseases. They must have been all Jirst obtained
by seedlings, and when a good variety was thus procured, it

AftRICULTURAL INTELLIGENCE. 3139

>

was propas;ated by grafts. Thus it has been with our Seckle
-P«^ar, the only know ti excellent pear ever produced in Ihe
United States. \t is now in every good garden. But the
present age is not content with raising one good sort in a
century. It is the fashion to try the powers of nature, and
the next generation will see not only a greater variety, but
probably enjoy nnuch better kinds than any age which has
gone before them.

The sweet potatoe (Convolvulus Batatas) has been of late
introduced into culture at Paris, and sent to that market for
sale, and has been strongly recommended by Mons. Leheur
in a memoir on that subject. Neither the soil, nor climate
of Paris is half as well calculated for this plant, as those of
the vicinity of Boston. All the counties of the Old Colony,
part of Middlesex, and some of the warm spots in Hampshire
are excellently adapted to it. In Worcester and Berkshire it
would probably not succeed, except in some favoured spots;
but if the horticulturists of Paris have waited 200 )pars since
they were introduced into Spain, it is not surprising that we
have so recently brought them into experiment.

A PHENOMENON IN GRAFTING.

At Brussels, the Committee of the Caledonian Horticul-
tural Society witnessed one of the most extraordinary ex-
periments in grafting; that, of inserting an entire tree, on the
stump of another. A neighbour, having in the spring
season cut down an apple tree, about fiffeen feet high, which
professor Van Mons considered a desirable kind, and a good
healthy tree, he immediately selected a stock of similar di-

39Q AOR£Cl3!LTURAL INTELLIGENCE.

inehsions, and cutting it off near the ground, placed on it hj
the mode o( p>:g grafting, the foster tree ; supported the tree
by stakes ; and excluded the air from the place of junction,
by plastering it with clay, and afterwards heaping earth round
it. The experiment succeeded perfectly ; the tree becoming
in the course of the second season nearly as vigorous as
ever.

Now though we would not recommend this experiment,
because it must be very precarious, and seldom useful, yet as
being one of the highest triumphs of the horticultural art, we
thought it worthy of a place in this Journal. The first thought
of transferring from one tree to another a different species of
fruit by a naked wooden stem, was undoubtedly bold and
happy ; but an attempt to transfer a.whole tree in this manner,
is certainly original.

By peg grafting, it must be understood, that mode of graft-
ing which can only be practiced on trees of exactly the same
circumference, the barks of which respectively will come into
perfect contract. A hole is made in the stock, of an inch or /
more in depth, and the inserted tree or scion, is pared away
so as to fit exactly the hole so made. The surfaces of the
bark of each are then cut off smoothly, so as that the bark of
the inserted tree will fit exactly all round with that of the
stock. It is indispensable, that the liber and alburnum, that
is the inner bark and the white wood of each tree, should exact-
ly meet. The experiment was more curious than useful, but
as a fact in natural history, it is deserving of notice. FVw
men would probably succeed in the attempt, but that it can
be done in any case, almost staggers our faith ; yet the au-
thority is very respectable. — Ed.

RECEIPT FOR DESTROYING CATERPILLARS, USED BY THE SO-
CIETY OF CHRISTIANS CALLED SHAKERS, AT CANTERBURY,
K. H.

" Take equal parts of spirits of turpentine, and train oil ;
apply them by means of a swab fixed on a pole, commence

AttRICULTURAL INTGLLIGVNCK. 391

the operation in the sjpring, (we suppose on the first appear-
ance of nests) when these devouring insects begin to appear,
and repeat the operation once a week, till the trees are in blow,
and very few will escape with their lives."

Signed F. W. the head of the Family.

We must express our admiration of this receipt, not be-
cause of its novelty, for either of the ingredients would be
quite sufficient to kill the insects, as will common soap suds
from every Monday's wash most thoroughly, without train
oil or spirits of turpetitine ; but we admire it, as a specimen
of the practice and industry of these citizens. If our farmers
would only follow that part of the receipt, which requires a
ioeekly attention, for three successive weeks, it is immaterial
whether they use spirits of turpentine or train oil, or soap suds,
or the brush, proposed by Col. Pickering, the evil would be
cured at any rate. The great difficulty is the neglect to do
any thing, till after the Caterpillars have covered the trees with
nests. Then the labours of the sluggard commence, and one
tree, (let his receipt be ever so perfect and powerful) will
cost as much time and labour as ten trees would have requir-
ed three weeks sooner. If our farmers would only adopt that
portion of the receipt, which requires a weekly attack on this
enemy, the evil would soon cease, and in ten years we should
scarce see a caterpillar in the country. By this course con-
tinually pursued, we have so much reduced the labour, that
we have not one fourth part of the number we had three year*
ago. — [Ed.

QN THE CULTIVATION OF THE POPPY FOR THE PURPOSE OF
PRODUCING OPIUM.

We shall, on this topic, introduce an extract from a new
Massachusetts Scientific Journal, entitled " The Boston Jour-
nal of Philosophy and the Arts." Not in any degree interfer

392 ^AGRICULTURAL INTELLIGENCE.

ing with that of Professor Silliman, the Journal in question
is lUiended to introduce to the American public, those arti-
cles in foreign publications devoted to Philosophy and the
Arts, which may be thought most useful. We meet this
stranger with ths most hearty, and cordial welcome. Every
one who reads much, knows that it is impossible in the pre-
sent state of our country, that the European scientific jour-
nals can all of them, or indeed any of them be republished
here. The) cannot be imported without enormous expense,
owing to the inexplicable policy of laying heavy duties on all
works, without discriminating those which must have a
limited circulation, from those which are read by the great
mass. This work is intended to give us a selection from the
European publications of those articles which are peculiarly
interesting to us, and adapted to our condition and progress.
The Journal is under the management of Dr. J. W. Web-
ster, Dr. John Ware, and Mr. Daniel Treadwell, and we
cannot have a better pledge of sound discretion which will
be exercised in the selections, than the well merited reputa-
tion of its joint editors. We most earnestly hope that it
will receive that encouragement, which the very attempt
deserves, and which is due to the spirited efforts of these
scholars, and without which, no scientific exertions can be
long successful.

We now shall introduce the notice as to the raising of the
Poppy in the cold, ungenial climate of England.

" Messrs. Cowley and Staines of Winslow, Buckingham-
shire, have cultivated poppies for opium, with such success,
as to induce the belief, that this branch of agriculture is of
national importance, and worthy of support. In the year
1821 they procured 60 lbs. of solid opium, equal to the best
Turkey opium, (quere ?) from rather less than four acres and
an half of ground. The seed was sown in February, came
up in March, and after proper hoeing, setting out, &c., the
opium gathering commenced at the latter end of July. The
criterion for gathering the opium was, when the poppies hav-

AGRICULTURAL INTELLIGENCE. 393

ins, lost their petals were covered with a bluish white mould.
[With great deference, we should say, that the directions
would have been more clear, if they had stated the size of
the capsules or seed vessels when the gathering began.]
They are then scariiied, [or scratched with a pin or knife,
Ed.] and the head left till the juice is coagulated, about two
hours, when it is removed, and new incisions made. Opium
is produced until the third and fourth incisions, *=and in some
instances till the tenth. Ninety-seven pounds were procur-
ed at an expense of (one hundred and fort}-five dollars) and
this being dried in the sun, yielded above sixty pounds of
opium. The heads of the poppies were then allowe$3 to dry,
and were thrashed, and the seeds, it was expected, as they
weighed thirteen hundred pounds, would produce seventy-
one gallons of oil. The oil cake was given to cattle and
pigs, with great advantage."

REMARKS.

If the cultivation of the Poppy for opium can be consi-
dered as an object of national importance in Great Britain,
it seems to be certain that it must be so here. Our cHmate
is much better adapted to this plant. Sown in May, its cap-
sules are fit to use in July. They are larger and tiner than
in England. The variety from which the Turkey opium is
obtained is the large single white poppy. The capsules are
of the size of a large pigeon's egg. When they have obtain-
ed their greatest size, the capsule is to be slit with a pin, or
sharp penknife ; from the wound issues a milky kind of juice
which in two hours thickens, and should then be collected
and afterwards dried in the sun. In raising it on a great
scale, the poppies should be sown in rows or beds, so as to
permit thccoilecters of the opium to pass between them.

We have no expectation that such extensive experiments
will be made in our country, but many curious persons may
be disposed to raise a quarter of an acre each. The re-
marks which have been made are the result of personal ob-
servation by J. L. — one of the Edilors.

Vol. VIJ. 51

394 PREMltMS.

CATTLE SHOW, EXHIBITION OF MANUFACTURES, PLOUGHING
MATCH, AND PUBLIC SALE OF ANIMALS AND MANUFAC-
TUPtES, AT BRIGHTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ON WEDNESDAY
AND THURSDAY, THE 15th AND 16th OF OCTOBER, 1823. TO
COMMENCE AT NINE O'CLOCK A.M. ON EACH DAY.

1 HE Trustees of the Massachusetts Society for the Promo-
tion of Agriculture, encouraged by the patronage of the Le-
gislature of this State, intend to offer in Premiums, not only
the sum granted by the Government for that purpose, but
also the whole amount of the income of their own funds.
They, therefore, announce to the public, their wish to have
a Cattle Show, and Exhibition of Manufactures, &c. &:c. at
Brighton^ on Wednesday and Thursday', the l5th and 16th of
October, 1823 ; and they offer the following Premiums :

FOR STOCK.

For the Best Bull, raised in Massachusetts, above one

year old - - - - - - $^0

For the next best do. do. ... 20

For the next best do. do. - - - - 10

For the best Bull Calf, from 6 to 12 months old - 15

For the next best do. do. - - - - 10

For the next best do. do. - - . 5

For the best Cow, not less than three years old - 30
For the next best do. do. - - - - 20

For the next best do. do. - - - - 13

For the best Heifer, from one to three years old, with

or without calf - - - - - 15

For the next best do. do. - - . . 10

For the next best do. do. - - - - 7

For the best Ox, fitted for slaughter, regard to be had

to the mode and expense of fatting - - 30

For the next best do. do. - - - - 25

For the next best do. do. - - - -15

For the best pair of Working Oxen - - 30

For the next best do. do. - - - - 25

For the next best do. do. - - - 20

For the next best do, do. - - - - 15

PREMIUMS. 3%

For the next best do. do. - - - f)W

For the best pair of Spajed Heifers, not less than one

year old - - - - - 25

For the best Spayed Sows, not less than four in num-
ber, and not less than five months old - - 20
The claimant to be entitled to either of these two last
premiums, must state„in writing, the mode of operation and
treatment, in a manner satisfactory to the Trustees.
For the best Merino Wethers, not less tlian six in

number, having respect to form and fleece - 15

For the next best do. do. do. . - - 8

For the best Native Wethers, not less than sis in num-
ber do. - - - - - 10
For the next best do. do. do. - - 5
For the best Merino Ram, do. - - - 15
For the next best do. - - - - 10
For the best Merino Ewes, not less than five in num-
ber, do. - - - - - 20
For the next best do. do. do. - - - 10
For the best Boar, not exceeding two years old - 12
For the next best do. do. - - - 8
For the next best do. do. - - - - 5
For the best Sow - - - - 12
For the next best do. - - - - 8
For the next best do. - - - - 5
For the best Pigs, not less than two in number, nor

less than four months old, nor more than eight 10

For the next best do. do. - - - 5

None of the above animals will be entitled to premiums,
unless they are wholli/ bred in the State of Massachusetts.
For the best Rarn which shall be imported into this
State, after this advertisement, and before the 15th
of October next, of the improved Leicester breed
-of long wooUed sheep - - - - 75

or a gold medal of that value, at the option of the
importer.

396 i-REMIUMS.

For the next best do. do. - - - HO

For the best Ewe, of the same breed, imported uiv'
der the same terms, and for the like superior quali
ties - - - - - - 60

For the next best do. do. - - - - 40

To the person who shall import into this Slate, from
Europe, a male and female Goat, of the pure Cash-
mere breed - - - - - 100

The persons claiming these premiums to engage to keep
the imported animals within the State,

No animal, for which to any owner one premium shall
have been awarded^ shall be considered a subject for any
future premium of the Society, except it be for an entirely
distinct premium, and for qualities different from those for
wiiich the former premium was awarded.

Any of the above Stock, when raised and still owned
at the time of t!ie exhibition, by the person who raised
them, will entitle the claimant to an allowance of ten per
cent, in addition. But Sheep, to be entitled to any of the
above premiums, must be raised by the person entering
them.

FOR AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS.

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity of
Indian Corn on an acre, not less tlian seventy bushels '^3%

To the person who shall make the most satisfactory ex-
periment, to ascertain the best mode of raising Indian
Corn, whether in hills or rows, not less than half an
acre being employed in each mode, in the same tield,
the quantity and quality both of land and manure to
be equal and uniform in each mode; all to receive
a cultivation requisite to produce a good crop - 2©

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity of
Vegetables, grain, peas ai)d beans excepted, for win-
ter consumption, of the stock of his own farm, and
not for sale, in proportion to the size of the farm and
stock kept, having regard to the respective value of
faid vegetables as food, stating the expense of raising

PREMIUMS. 397

the same, and Ihe best mode of preserving the same
through the winter - - - - 30

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity of
winter Wheat on an acre - - - - 20

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity of
spring Wheat on an acre - - - - 20

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity of
Barley on an acre, not less than forty-five bushels 20

To the person who shall raise the greatest crop of Mil-
let on an acre, cut and cured for hay, the claimant
giving evidence of the time of sowing, the quantity of
seed sown, and the quantity of hay produced - 20

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity of
Carrots on an acre, not less than six hundred bushels 20

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity of
Potatoes on an acre, not less than tive hundred bush-
els, - . . - . - - - 20

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity of
common Beets on an acre, not less than six hundred
bushels, - - - - - - 2Q

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity of
Parsnips on an acre, not less than four hundred bush-
els, - - - . - - 26

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity of
Mangel Wurtzel on an acre, not less than six hun-
dred bushels, - - - - - 20

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity of
Ruta Baga on an acre, not less than six hundred bush-
els, - - - - - - - 20

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity of
Turnips on an acre, not less than six hundred bushels, 20

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity of
common Turnips, after any other crop in the same
season, being not less than four hundred and fjfty
bushels, - - - - - - 20

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity of
common turnips, after any other crop in the same sea-

39& PREMIUMS.

son, being not less than four hundred and fifty bush-
els, - - - - - - 20

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity of
Onions on an acre, not less than six hundred bush-
els, - - - - - - 20

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity of
Cabbages on an acre, not less than 25 tons weight,
free from earth when weighed, - - - 20

To the person who shall give satisfactory evidence on
' Soiling Cattle,' not less than six in number, and
through the whole season, together with a particular
account of the food given, and how cultivated, - 30

To the person who shall make the experiment of turn-
ing in green crops as a manure, on a tract not less
than one acre, and prove its utility and cheapness,
giving a particular account of the process and its re-
sult - - - - - - 30

To the person who shall, by actual experiment, prove
the best season and modes of laying down lands to
grass, whether spring, summer or fall seeding be
preferable, and with or without grain on different
soils - - - - - - 30

To the person who shall raise the greatest quanity of
dry Peas on an acre, not less than thirty bushels, - 20

To the person who shall raise the greatest quantity
of dry Beans on an acre, not less than thirty bushels, 20

To the person Who shall give proof of having produc-
ed the largest quantity of dressed Flax, raised on
half an acre, not less than two hundred and fifty
pounds - - - - - - 20

To the person who shall take up in the season, on
his own farm, the greatest quantity of good Honey,
and shall at the same time exhibit superior skill in
the management of Bees, - - - 10

For the best Cheese, 7iot less than one year old, and
not less in quantity than one hundred pounds, - 10

For the next best do. do. - . - . .5

PREMIUMS. 399

For the best CheeSe less than one year old, - - 10
For the next best do. do. - - - - 5

To the person who shall prove to the satisfaction of
the Trustees, that his mode of rearing, feeding and
fattening neat cattle is best, - - - 20

For the next best Butter, not less than fifty pounds, 15
For the next best do. do. - - . . lo

For the next best do. do. - - - - 7

For the next best do. do. - - - - ^

For the greatest quantity of Butter and Cheese, made
between the 15th of May, and the 1st of October,
from not less than four Cows, the quality of the But-
ter and Cheese, and the number of Cows to be tak-
en into consideration, and specimens to be exhibited
at the Show, of not less than twenty pounds of each,
and the mode of feeding, if any thing besides pasture
was used, - - - - - 20

To the person who shall prove by satisfactory experi-
ments, to the satisfaction of the Trustees, the utility
and comparative value of the cobs of Indian Corn,
when used with or withe ut the grain itself, ground
or broken, - - - - r 20

For the best specimen of Cider, not less than one bar-
rel, made in 1822, manufactured by the person who
shall exhibit the same, and from apples grown on
his own farm - - - - - 20

For the second best barrel, - - - - 15

[These premiums will be continued in future years. Per-
sons claiming them must state, in writing, their process of
making and managing their Cider, and the kind of apples
used.]

For the best specimen of Currant Wine, not less than
one gallon, exhibited by any person who shall have
made not less than 30 gallons in the same season in
which that which shall be exhibited was made, (a
statement to be given, in writing, of the process of
making the same,) - - - - 10

400 PREMIUMS.

For the next best do. do. - - - - 5

To entitle himself to either of the Premiuras for Grain
or Vegetable crops, the person claiming, must cultivate a
tract of at least one acre in one piece, with the plant or
production for which he claims a premium, and must state,
in writing, under oath of the owner, and of one other per-
son, (accompanied by a certificate of the measurement of
the land by some sworn surveyor,) the following particulars :

1. The state and quality of the spring of 1823.

2. The product and general state of cultivation and quan-
tity of manure employed on it the year preceding.

3. The quantity of manure used the present season.

4. The quantity of seed used, and if Potatoes, the sort.

5. The time and manner of sowing, weeding, and harvest-
ing the crop, and the amount of product, ascertained by
actual measurement, after the whole produce for which a
premium is claimed, is harvested, and the entire expense
of cultivation.'

And in relation to all vegetables, except Potatoes, On-
ions, and common Turnips, the fair average weight of at
least twenty bushels must be attested ; and if there be hay
scales in the town in which raised, not less than three
average cart loads must be weighed.

The claim under this head, together with the evidences
of the actual product, must be delivered, free of expense,
to Benjamin Guild, Esq. in Boston, Assistant Recording
Secretary of this Society, on or before the first day of De-
cember next — the Trustees not intending to decide upon
claims under the head of Agricultural Esperiments, until
their meeting in December.

FOR INVENTIONS.

To the person who shall use the Drill Plough, or Ma-
chine, and apply it most successfully to the cultivation
of any small Grains or Seeds, on a scale not less than
one acre, . - . . . . ^20

To the person who shall invent the best machine for
pulverizing and grinding Plaster to the fineness of

PREMIUMS.

401

twenty-five bnshels per ton, and which shall require
no more power than a pair of oxen or horse, to turn
out two tons per day, and so portable that it can be
removed from one farm to another without inconve-
nience, - .... . 30
To the person who shall produce, at the Show, any oth-
er Agricultaral Implement, of his own invention, which
shall, in the opinion of the trustees, deserve a reward,
a premium not exceeding twenty dollars, according to
the value of the article exhibited, - - - 20
In all cases proofs must be given of the work done by the
Machine, before it is exhibited ; and of its having been used
and approved by some practical farmer. Persons who have
taken out Patents for their inventions, are not thereby exclu-
ded from claiming any of the above premiums.

FOR FOREST TREES.

For the best plantation of White Oak Trees, not less
than one acre, nor fewer than one thousand trees per
acre, to be raised from the acorn, and which trees shall
be in the best thriving state, on the first of September,
1823, - . • - - $100

For the best plantations of White Ash, and of Larch
Trees, each of not less than one acre, nor fewer than
one thousand trees per acre, to be raised from the
seeds, and which trees shall be in the best thriving
state, on the first of September, 1823, - - 50

For the best Live Hedge made of either the White or
Cockspur Thorn, planted in 1820, not less than one
hundred rods, and which shall be in the best state in
1823, ..... 50

To the person who shall have planted out on his farm,
since the spring of 1815, the greatest number of Apple
Trees, not less than one hundred in number, and who -
shall exhibit to the trustees, at the Show in 1827, satis-
factor} evidence of his having managed them with
care and skill, - - - - 50

Vol. Vil. 52

402 PREMIUMS.

FOB DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES.

To the person or corporation who shall produce the best

specimen of fine Broadcloth, not less than 1 5-8 yards.

wide, exclusive of the list, forty yards in quantity, and

dyed in the wool, - - - - $'29

For the second best do, do. do. - - - 15

For the best superfine Cassimere, not less than 3-4 yard

wide, nor less than forty yards in quantity, 12

For the second best do- do. do. . - - . 8
For the best superfine Sattinet, 3-4 yard wide, not less

than 50 yards ... . _ - 8

For the second best do, do. do. - - - Sf

For the best Sole Leather, not less than five sides, 10

For the second best do, do. . - - 5

For the best dressed Calve Skins, not less than twelve

in number - - - - - 10

For the second best do. do. ' " " ^

FOR HOUSEHOLD MANUFACTURES.

For the best Woollen Cloth, 3-4 yard wide, not less than

twenty yards in quantity, - - - ^12

For the second best do. do. , - - g
For the best double milled Kersey, 3-4 yard wide, not

less than twenty yards in quantity, - - - 12

For the second best do. do. 8

For the best Coating, 3-4 yard wide, not less than 20

yards in quantity, ... - . 8

For the second best do. do. - - - - Ct
For the best Flannel, 7-8 yard wide, not less than 45

yards in quantity, - - - - 10

For the second best do. do. - - - - - 7
For the best yard wide Carpeting, not less than 30 yards

in quantity, - - - - - 15

For the second best do. dp. - - - 7
For the best 5-8 yard wide Stair Carpeting, not less than

30 yards in quantity, - - - - 10

For the second best do. do. - ... 7

PREMIUMS. 4Q3

For the best pair of Blankets, not less thin 8-4 wide and

10-4 long, ... - - 6

For the second best do. do. ... 4

For the best Woollen Knit Hose, not less than 12 pair
in number, - - - - - 5

For the second best do. do. ... - 3

For the best Worsted Hose, not less than 12 pair in num-
ber, - - - - - - 5

For the second best do. do. - - - 3

For the best Men's Haif Hose, (woollen) not less than

12 pair in number, ... - - 4

For the second best do. do. . - - 2

For Vue best Tvl en's Woollen Gloves, not less than 12

pair in number, _ . . - 5

For the second best do. do. ... 3

For the best Linen Diaper, 5-8 yard wide, not less than

•SO yards in quantity, ... 5

For the second best do. do. . - - 3

For the best yard wide Diaper, (for table linen) not less

than 30 yards in quantity, - - - 10

For the second best do. do. ... 5

For the best specimen of Sewing Silk, raised and spun
in this State, of good fast colours, not less than one
pound, - - - - - . . 5

For the second best do. do. - - - 3

For the best Linen Cloth (for shirting or sheeting) one

yard wide, and twenty-five yards long, - - 8

For the second best do. do. . , . 4

To the person who shall produce the best specimen of
any Cotton fabrics in private families, not less than
five pieces, - - - - - 20

All the above Manufactures, (except when of Cotton) must
be of the growth and manufacture of the State of Massacliu-
setts. And all Manufactures, when presented, must have a
private mark, and any public or known m.ul: must be com-
pletely concealed, so as not to be seen, or known by the

404 PREMIUMS,

Committee, nor must the Proprietors be present when they
are examined ; in default of either of these requisitions, the
articles will not be deemed entitled to consideration or pre-
mium.

Animals, Manufactures, or Articles, may be offered for pre-
mium at Brighton, notwithstanding they may have received
a premium from a County Agricultural Society.

It is understood, that whenever merely from a want of com-
petition, any of the claimants may be considered entitled to
the premium, under a literal construction, yet if, in the opin-
ion of ihe Judges, the object so olBTered is not deserving of any
reward, the Judges shall have a right to reject such claims.
Persons to whom premiums shall be awarded, may, at their
option, have an article of Plate, with suitable inscriptions, in
lieu of money. Premiums will be paid within ten days after
they shall be awarded.

That in any case in which a pecuniary premium is offered,
the Trustees may, having regard to the circumstances of the
competitor, award either one of the Society's gold or silver
medals in lieu of the pecuniary premium annexed to "the
several articles.

That if any competitor for any of the Society's premiums
shall be discovered to have used any disingenuous measures,
by which the objects of the society have been defeated, such
person shall not only forfeit the premium which may have
been awarded to him, but be rendered incapable of being
ever after a competitor for any of the Society's premiums.

All premiums not demanded within six moriths after they
shall have been awarded, shall be deemed as having been
generously given to aid the funds of the Society.

PLOUGHING MATCH.

On the second day of the Cattle Show, viz. the 16th day
of October, Premiums will be given to the owners and plough-
men of the three Ploughs, drawn by two yoke of oxen, and to
the three Ploughs drawn by one yoke oxen, which shall be
adjudged, by a competent Committee, to have performed the

PREMIUMS. 40S

hest work with least expence of labor, not exceeding half an
acre to each plough. Notice will be given in the public
Papers, at least six weeks before said day, that a piece of
ground has been provided for twenty ploughs — ten double
and ten single teams ; and that entries may be made of the
names of the competitors until the morning of the 16th. Pre-
ference will be given to those who enter first; but if, on call-
ing the list at the hour appointed, precisely, those tirst nam-
ed do not appear, the next in order will be preferred. There
will be two Committees, of three persons each — one to be
the judges of the ploughing by the double teams, the other of
the ploughing by the single teams — the latter to have assign-
ed to them a part of the field distinct from that of the double
teams.

Premiums as follows, (being the same for the double and
sintle teams.)

First Plough gl5 Second Plough ^10 Third Plough $6
Ploughman 8 Ploughman 5 Ploughman 3

Driver 4 Driver 3 Driver 2

In each case, if there be no Driver, both sums to be award-
ed to the Ploughman.

The persons intending to contend for these Prizes, must
give notice, in writing, to S. W. Pomeroy, or Gorham Par-
sons. Esq'rs of Brighton. The competitors will also be con-
sidered as agreeing to follow such rules and regulations as
may be adopted by the Committee on the subject. The
ploughs to be ready to start at 9 o'clock, A. M.

The result of the last Ploughing Matches at Brighton, and
the satisfaction expressed by so many of their agricultural bre-
thren, will induce the Society to continue these premiums an-
nually, in connexion with the Cattle Show, as an efficacious
means for exciting emulation and improvement in the use
and construction of the most important instrument of agricul-
turp.

Persons intending to offer any species of Stock for premi-
ums, are requested to give notice thereof, either by letter

406 pRtiMttrU^.

(post paid) istating the at-ticle, or to make personal appliCa«
tioD to Jonathan Winship, at Brigktm^ on 6t before the
14th daj of Octobet", and requstijig him to ehtfer siich noticdt
Of apphcation, so that tickets ma) be ready at 9 o'clock on the
I5thi No person will be considered as ai competitor who
shall not have given such notice, or made such appilcatioh
for entry, on or before the time above specified.

All articles of manufuctures and inventions, must be enter-
ed and deposited in the Society's Rooms on Monday, the tSlh
of October, and will be examined by the Committees on
Tuesday, the 14th, the day before the Cattle Show ; and no
person but the Trustees shall be admitted to examine them
before the Show, The articles so exhibited, must be left till
after the Show, for the satisfaction of the public.

The applicants will be held to a rigid compliance with this
rule relative to entries, as well as to the other rules pre-
scribed.

The examination of every species of stock, (except work-
ing oxen) will take place on the 16th ; and the trial of Work-
ing Oxen, and Ploughing Match, on the 16th of October.

The Trustees also propose to appropriate, on the second
day of the Cattle Show, their Pens for the public sale of any
Animals, that have been offered for premium, and also of any
others, that are considered by them, as possessing fine quali-
ties ; and their Halls for the public sale of Manufactures.
Both sales to take place at half past eleven o'clock, precise-
ly. And for all Animals or Manufactures, that are intend-
ed to be sold, notice must be given to the Secretary, be-
fore 10 o'clock of the 16th. Auctioneers will be provided
by the Trustees.

By order of the Trustees,

R. SULLIVAN,^

J. PRINCE, \ Committee.

G. PARSONS, [

E, H. DERBY, /

January, 1823.

Massachusetts Agricultural

REPOSITORY and JOURNAL.

VOLUME VII,

C«NDUCTEp BY THE TRUSTEES OP THE MASSACHTISETTS AGRICULTURAL

SOCIETY.

BOSTON :

PUBLISHED BY WELLS AND LILLY.

1823

Index to the viith volume.

Address of Rev. Henry Colman .... Page 1

Agricultural Intelligence ...... 96

Agricultural Journal of the Massachusetts Society, and the manner in

which it has been conducted — and its rules .... 113

Agricultural Intelligence . ..... 191

Address of Col. Pickering to the Massachusetts Agricultural Society . 213
Agricultural Journal of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, its de-
fence against some recent attacks .... 313

American Manufactures ...... 345

Burnham, Daniel, on the culture of Indian Corn . . . 274
Barley — account of an experiment of raising it . . . 305
Baker's, John, description of the mode of spaying Sows . . 308
Cogswell, Professor, donation of Herbarium to Massachusetts Profes-
sorship of Natural History ...... 371

Colman's, Rev. Henry, address before the Massachusetts Agricultural

Society in 1822 ....... 1

Cattle Show at Brighton in 1821, and the several reports of the Com-
mittees . . . . . . . .17

Caterpillar, destructive to the Salt marshes — Natural history of 322

" Nat. Hist, of 322

" receipt for destroying . . . . . 390

Carrots, account of their culture . . . . .72

Cows, the best mode of Vifinter keeping .... 163

Comparison of various seasons, as to their earliness . . i . 127

Cattle Show at Brighton in 1822, and the several reports thereon . 238

Carrots and Swedish turnips, the culture of . . . 281

Cattle, the best mode of raising and fattening them . . . 294

Crowninshield, Richard, Esq. on the Culture of Woad . . 343

Cider, mode of making ....... 355

Dey, Anthony Esq., of New York, his remarks on the culture of flax,

and his machine for preparing it for use .... 61

Dwitiel, John, of Salem, his mode of cultivating a piece of land which

was unusually productive ...... 167

Same, his culture of potatoes ...... 170

Deane's New England Farmer — a new edition . . . 192

Dearborn's, H. A. S. Esq. letter inclosing Mr. Crowninshield's on Woad 343

Extracts from Evelyn's Sylva ...... 350

Evelyn on steeping Seeds . . . . . • 364

Editorial remarks by J. Lowell ...... 313

Flax, its culture and its best mode of preparation for use, by a new

machine of Mr. Dey ...... 61

Forest trees, their growth and sundry important facts concerning them.

By Hon. Mr. Welles ....... 90

Fruit trees, some hints as to their treatment by a Norfolk Gardener 160
Felling of timber, the proper time of doing it with reference to is dura-
bility, by the Hon. T. Pickering ..... 181

Grafting, a phenomenon in . . . . . . 309

Green crops, manuring with, by turning them in, by S. W. Pomeroy,

Ksq. ..... 174

Vol. VIT. a^

408

INDEX.

Grasses, some valuable remarks on their respective loss in divuis, tv

the Hon. Mr. Welles . . . . . . ;109

Harrif, Dr. T. W. Nat. Hist. Salt marsh caterpillar' . * . .322
Herbarium, Professor Cogswell's presentation of to Massachiiscns Pro-
fessorship of JSialaral History . . . . . 371

History of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, fee. * . . 313
Husbandman and housewife, a practical n;,.l useful treatise, some no-

tica of .... ^ _ 192

Hull, William Esq., on the culture of carrots ... 72
The same writer — on irrigation or watering land . . .78

The same — on Swedish turnips ..... 75

Holcomb, Rev. Reuben, on the management of the silk worm and the

production of silk ....... 88

Horticultural communications ...... 136

Hull, William Esq., on tlie culture of carrots — a second article . 281

The same writer on the culture of Indian corn . . . . 285

The same — on the same subject generally . . . . 291

How, Nathan, on the culture of Indian corn .... 305

Harris, Dr. T. W., Natural history of the salt-marsh caterpillar . 322
Holeus bicolor or chocolate plant, &;c. by Rev. Mr. Townsend . . 348

Hunter, Alexander, on steeping seeds . . . . 3G5

" " on raising oaks from the acorn . . • 367

Irrigation, its advantages, by Wni. Hull .... 78

Indian corn, its culture, by various persons, see pages 271. 274. 278.

285. 291. 303. 305. 30G

Indian corn, a dwarf species, lately discovered . . . 153

Indian corn, its culture, by S. Wright, jun. . . . 166

.^ackson, William, on the culture of spring wheat . . . 307

Kale, sea, or crambe maritime, culture of . . . . 132

Knight, T. A. Esq., notice of . . . . . .331

" " letter from to J. Lowell . . . 339

Little, Tristram and Henry, remarks on culture of Indian corn . 30.3
Lowell, John, remarks on the manner of conducting the Massachusetts

Agricultural Journal. . . . . .113

" *' editorial remarks, &:c. . . . , 313

" " comparison of the seasons . . , 127. 353

" " remarks on the culture of Sea-Kale and salsafy . 132

'^ *' horticultural communications . . . 136

" " notice of the Larch tree, and its value . . . 155
" " further remarks on the conduct of the Journal of the

Massachusetts Agricultural Society, and defence of it 313
" " notice of Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. President of the

horticultural Society of London . , . 331

" " state of the season ..... 353

" " on steeping seeds ...... 362

" " on raising oaks from the acorn . . . 3G7

" '' on the cultivation of the poppy .... 391

Members of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society in 1822, list of 195

Mildew, prevention of, in particular cases .... 374

Natural history of the salt-marsh caterpillar .... 322

Nova Scotia Provincial Agricultural Society, notice of . . 3S3

Oaks, on raising them from the acorn .... 367

Potato, Carolina, culture of recommended .... 382

Poor's, Benjamin, remarks on the proper season of felling timber for lise 86

Premiums of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society for 1322 . 100

" «' " 1823 . . 394

Prince, John Esq., hjs remarks on the winter keeping of cows . . 163

" " his account of the general produce of his farm in 1821 168

Pomeroy, S. W. Esq., on manuring land by green crops . . 174

Pickering, Hon. Timothy, remarks on felling timber and the proper

season for so doin? ...... 181

INDEX. 40S

Hckeiiiig's, Hon. Timothy, address to the Massacliusetts Agricultural

Society ••...... 2lli

Pastel, or woad, culture of . . , . . . 342

Foppy, on the cultivation of . , . 1 . . . 391

Ruta baga or Swedish turnips, some remarks on their culture . . 75
Reports of cattle show ...... 17.238

Rice, Asa jun. on the best mode of feeding and fattening cattle . 294

Seeds, steeping of ...... , 362

Season for cutting timber to secure its durability . . .84

Silk worm, the mode of treating it, and producing silk . . 88
Shephard, Thomas Esq^, of Northampton, his mode and success in

raising Indian corn ,*_ ...... 171

Salsafy or oyster planjt, its value ..... 132

Scammell, John C, account of his success in raising Indirai corn . 306

Spaying sows, mode of . . . . . . 308

State of the season ....... 353

Sweet potato, cultivated at Paris ..... 389

Townsend, Rev. Jesse, on some Illinois plants .... 348

Valentine, Joseph, on the culture of Indian corn . . . 271
Welles, Hon. John, on forest trees, their growth, and sundry curious

facts concerning them . . . .90

" " his notices of the loss on various kinds of grasses

in drying ..... 309

Wright, Samuel jun. on the culture of Indian corn . . 166

Williams, Payson, on Indian corn ..... 278

Wilkins, Jacob, on raising spring wheat .... 307

" " on raising barley ..... $01

Woad, the culture of ...... 342

" extracts concerning the value of woad to the dyer . . 345,
Winkley, Francis, head of the establishment of Quakers at Canter-
bury, on cider, &c. ...... 355

OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY FOR 1823.
Aaron Dexter, M.D. President.
Samuel W. Pomeroy, Esq. ist Vice-President,
Thomas L. Winthrop, Esq. 2d Vice-President.
John Prince, Esq. Treasurer.
John Lowell, Esq. Corresponding Secretary.
Hon. Richard Sullivan, Recording Secretary.
Benjamin Guild, Esq. .Assistant Recording Secretary.

TRUSTEES.

Hon. P. C. Brooks, S. G. Perkins, Esq.

Hon. John Welles, Gorham Parsons, Esq.

Hoa. Josiah Quincy, E. Hersey Derby, Esq.

BND OE VOLUME VII.

Messrs. WELLS AND LILLY

Have imported ev the London Packet, and by the Jaspbr from Liverpool,
an assortment of the newest english publications j among which arb
the following :—

HISTORY OF ROMAN LITERATURE, from the ear-

liest period to the Augustan Age. 2 vols. Svo. By Jno. Bunlop

MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF MARY QUEEN OF

SCOTS. By .'Miss Benger 2 vols, 8vo. bds.

PEVERIL OF THE PEAKE, 4 Vols. bds.

ROME IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, three

volwmes, elegantly bound, plates, &c. second edition.

DUPIN'S VIEW OF THE HISTORY AND AC-

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^1) Officer. 2 vols bound.

MULLER'S UNIVERSAL HISTORY, 3 vols. 8vo.

cf. lett

THE PRESENT STATE OF ENGLAND, in regard

to Agriculture, Trade and Finance, with a comparison of the prospects of Eng-
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AIKIN'S BRITISH POETS, 8ve. cf. gilt.
CAMPBELL'S SPECIMENS OF BRITISH POETS,

7 vols. 8vo bds.

THE ROYAL KALENDAR, for 1823.

LONDON JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES,

as far as published.

LIFE OF THE REV. ARTHUR 0. LEARY, with

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JARDINE'S OUTLINES OF A PHILOSOPHICAL

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Late Numbers of the EDINBURGH PHILOSOPHY

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MALTE-BRUN'S GEOGRAPHY, as far as published.
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GLADWIN'S PERSIAN MOONSHEE, abridged by

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MOHR'S MINERALOGY, 8vo. bds.

BUTLER'S GENERAL ATLAS of Ancient and Modern

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HAVE m PRESS:

AN INQUIRY INTO THE COMPARATIVE MORAL TENDENCY

OF TRINITARIAN AND UNITARIAN DOCTRINES. By Jared Sparks.

MY MIND AND ITS THOUGHTS ; in Sketches, Fragments and Es-
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*' 111 a Shroud of Thoughts, which were not their Thoughts."
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