UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES J / AMERICAN HUSBANDRY A SERIES OF ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURB. COMPILED PRINCIPALLY FROM "THE CULTIVATOR" ANB "THB OENESEE FARMER." WITH ADDITIONS, BY WILLIS GAYLORD AND LUTHER TUCKER. IN TWO VOLUMKS. VOL. II. TfEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS. 1864. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, by Hart'Er & Brothers, In the Clerk's Office of the Soutnern District of New York, (X. , ^ C ONTENTS THE SECOND VOLUME. CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL NOTICES OF AGRICULTURE. Origin and Necessity of Agriculture. — Ancient Method of Till- ing the Soil. — Greek and Roman Agriculture. — Early Eng lish Agriculture. — Improvements in Stock and Farming Pro- cesses.— Modern Agriculture .... Page 7 CHAPTER n. COMPARATIVE AGRICULTURE OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. Importance of Agriculture to the Country. — Adaptation of Eng- lish Agriculture to the United States. — Necessary Variations. — Difference of Climate. — Its effect on our Agriculture . 22 CHAPTER in. STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. Its depressed Condition. — Rate of Production.— Causes of its depressed Condition. — Means of Improving our Husbandry 36 CHAPTER IV. COMPOSITION OF SOILS AND THEIR ACTION. Arable Soils. — Proper Proportions. — Productiveness. — Tenaen- cy to Deteriorate. — Necessity of Manures. — Value of a Rota- tion in Cropping. — Reasons for the Practice . . .45 '^ir>V7H 17 CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. PLOUGHS AND PLOUGHING. Ancient Ploughs.— Modern Ploughs— Ploughing. — Depth to which Roots of Plants Penetrate — Subsoil Ploughs — Fall Ploughing.— Deep or Shallow Ploughing . . Page 60 CHAPTER VI. WHEAT. Natural History of en the labourer works for another rather than himself; consequently, the prejudices that so seriously retard agricultural improvements cannot exist here. The investigations that attended the failure of TuU's system placed the doctrine of rotation and the necessity of manures on a foundation not to be shaken. Davy had shown the nutritive powers of plants relatively and positively; and the analysis of soils, now systematically undertaken, served to explain why some were fertile and others the re- verse. It is true, much on these and similar points remains for science to perform ; yet ivhen it is rec- oliected how very limited the time his been since 18 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. science has been considered at all applicable to ag- riculture, it is matter of gratulation that so much has already been accomplished. The field-culture of the potato began not far from 1750, and probably has increased the means of human subsistence in a greater degree, wherever it can be cultivated, than any other single plant. Spring wheat did not come into extensive use as a crop in England until about the commencement of the present century. It has operated advantageously on lands not suitable to faU or winter wheat, and of that, as well as of barley and oats, several varieties, superior in quality and more productive than the old, have been originated. Draining, which may be said to date from about 1760, has become an important aid to agriculture, and by its skilful application millions of acres, com- paratively worthless, have been made very valuable and productive. All soils kept constantly wet, or liable to stagnant water, will always be cold and poor. By draining off this "water and allowing the free access of atmospheric influences, aided by mo- ving the soil with the plough, it soon becomes less heavy and cold, and immediately becomes fertile and productive. The use of lime in agriculture has been attributed to Pringle ; but, although he may deserve the credit of first publicly caUing the atten- tion of the agricultural public to it as a manure, its value for soils had been understood for centuries, as the ancient writings we have alluded to most con- vincingly prove. Its use in England has continued to increase, and it now forms one of the most im- portant items in a course of renovating and amelio- rating the soil in that kingdom. Coming, as the first colonists of the United States did, direct from the British Isles, and the intercourse with that country having continued, with only two slight interruptions, until the present time, it would follow, as a matter of course, that our modes of thinking and acting should be, in a great degree, HISTORICAL NOTICES OF AGRICULTURE. 19 fashioned by those of the fatherland. This is easi- ly observable in our literature and our laws, and not less strikingly so in our agriculture. With some few modifications, then, such as may be traced to climate, or the different social conditions of the two countries, the agriculture of the United States may be said to resemble that of England very closely. The circumstances in which the American farmer finds himself placed, has forced him to adopt meth- ods of farming at variance with those of older and more densely-peopled countries, and often at vari- ance with the opinions of those most deeply skilled in the theory of agriculture. In Great Britain and other European countries, land is dear and labour is cheap ; as a matter of course, the farmer of the old country is led, by a regard to his own interest, to make the most of his land, while in this country there is the same inducement to make the most of what labour can be commanded. This leads to an extension of farms and of cultivation, which forms a striking contrast to the lim.ited farms and high culture of the English or Flemish farmer; and though, by being carried too far, it forms an evil of no trifling magnitude, it is one which must gradual- ly correct itself as population becomes more dense, the West generally settled, and the temptations to emigration from that source lessened by the action of these causes. The geographical and meteorological condition of the United States, as compared with that of Great Britain, has not been without a decided influence in modifying the character of our agriculture. Tliia country embraces, owing to its geographical posi- tion, a range of climate and production greater than the whole of Europe. While we can grow to any imaginable extent the cereal graminae of the North, our southern limits stretch into the tropical climate so far as to give us the two great productions of cotton and sugar, articles beyond the range of Eu- 20 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. ropean culture. In addition to this, the ])ecuhar constitution of our climate, the intense heat and dryness of our summer months, enables us to grow over the whole extent of our countrjA that invalua- ble plant, the Indian corn, which can be grown in perfection in but a small part of Europe, and in a large part of it, including the British islands, not at all. The heat and dryness of our summer months, however, while they give us our corn, are not with- out their disadvantages in some other respects ; and, as they render other cultivated crops liable at times to suffer with drought, they will probably have the effectof circumscribing the turnip-culture among us, and, from the experiments which have been made, would seem to forbid the existence of line- fences or hedges, at least from the same plants that con- stitute the numerous and beautiful ones of Great Britain. "While our grains and grasses have been derived from abroad, our domestic animals have originated from the same source. Our horses, cattle, sheep, and swine are of European pai-entage, uniting and blending all the known varieties of each race in in- extricable confusion. As theirs have improved, so have ours, though perhaps in a less degree ; but the continual importation of animals from England to this country has at least given us representatives of every variety of her breeds, and of every shade ot blood she can boast. The astonishing improve- ment made in breeding cattle in England, and which have already been alluded to, have not been without their influence on our enterprising farmers, and great numbers of the choicest animals that country could boast have found their way to our country. The btjautiful Short Horns and Devons, the Leicesters and South Downs, the Cheshire and the Berkshire pigs, have all beon largely imported, and are already exercising a vast influence on the general character of our animals. Ohio and Kentucky have done much HISTORICAL NOTICES OF AGRICULTURE. 21 in the way of cattle and horses ; Pennsylvania and New- York have given their attention to cattle and swine ; and New- England to all, as pasture has been more an object with her than grain ; and the feeding of animals has long constituted a prominent part of her industry. But perhaps there is no one animal which has exercised a great rr influence on the pro- ductive interests of the country than the fine-wool- ed or Merino sheep, which, within the last twenty years, has spread to such an extent as almost to have superseded the old breeds of coarse-wooled animals in the states. Fifty years since, the Merino was unknown in the country ; at the present time there are not less than ten or twelve millions of these animals, of all grades, in the possession of our farmers, and the growing of fine wool is an impor- tant item in the business of the United States. Great Britain has made many unsuccessful eflTorts to intro- duce these fine-wooled sheep of Spanish origin for the use of her manufactories, but appears to have abandoned the project, and attends to the improve- ment of the hardier, long-wooled sheep, as giving a greater weight of wool and of flesh than the finer varieties. In summing up, in few words, the most important points of advantage in the modern agriculture over the old methods, and for many of which we are in- debted to the application of science to tilling the soil, we may mention, 1st. The knowledge and means of analyzing soils, determining their constituents, and what is required to constitute them fertile. 2d. Vastly improved methods of preparing and using mineral, animal, and vegetable manures. 3d. The mtroduction of drill husbandry and horse-hoeing in stead of cultivation by hand. 4th. The field-culti- vation of roots, by which a far greater amount of food can be grown on a given quantity of land than in any other way. 5th. The substitution of root or green crops for a naked fallow ; thus giving roots 22 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. the first application of manures, nnd making the ground clean by the crop and the hoe. 6th. The improvement of animals iiy skilful crossing and se- lection, the scientific application of these principles belonging exclusively to the moderns. 7th. The originating new and valuable varieties of vegetables, by crosses or as seedlings, many of which, among the roots, fruits, and grains, have superseded in cul- tivation the original stocks from which they sprung. 8lh. The invention of many new labour-saving ma- chines, and the improvement of most others used in agriculture. In this respect the processes of agri- culture in use at present are far superior to those of the ancients, adding both ease and facility of execu- tion to many farming operations formerly of the most tedious and toilsome kind. Eds.] CHAPTER II. COMPARATIVE AGRICULTURE OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. Importance of Agriculture to the Country. — Adaptation of Eng- lish Agriculture to the United States. — Necessary Variations. — Difference of Climate. — Its effect on our Agriculture. Agriculture, a subject always of surpassing in- terest to the United States, as constituting her great source of real wealth, and furnishing employment to more than two thirds of her inhabitants, has late- ly, from a conjunction of peculiar causes, been in- vested with a paramount importance, but not more so than, in our opinion, is strictly its due. Agricul- ture is tlie art of arts ; or, rather, it is a science to which all others are in a degree subservient. Chymistry adds to its resources and directs its ad- vances ; printing records its progress, and scatters AGRICULTURE OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 23 the knowledge gained by experience ; while health and labour, sound minds in sound bodies, foUow in its train, and constitute the durable substratum on which the towering columns of liberty and the world's hope are reared. There is little danger that an employment furnishing the human race with food and clothing, wliich is the great source of competence and of wealth, should be spoken of too highly or too intently pursued ; there is little room for fear that its operations will be too extended, or that too much light will be furnished by the labours of the scientific or experimental. On the contrary, the present state of things among us proves incon- testably that the fault in this country is the other way ; that with the hardiest and most enterprising population on the globe, and a soil unequalled in fertility, we have been so idle, or such improvident cultivators as to be compelled to depend on other nations for bread. Politics, and trade, and the mys- teries of banking, and the haste to be rich, and spec ulations in stocks and western lands, have employed thousands, we might say millions, who would have been more honourably, and, it seems likely to turn out, more profitably employed in following the plough, or wielding the hoe or the axe. The question has been not unfrequently asked, How far are farmers in the United Stales justified in folloiving the example and practices of British Agricul- turists ? This question assumes an importance it would not otherwise possess, were it not a fact that we look with great interest to the results of agricul- ture in that country; that most of our standard ag- ricultural works are from that side of the Atlantic ; that the wealth and resources of England are such as to render that island a great theatre of experi- ments ; and that the arts and the sciences which can be' brought to bear on the cultivation of the soil, are far more extensively diffused and better under- stood there than here. Having the same Anglo- 24 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. Saxon descent, the influence of England is felt in every department of our social condition ; in our re- ligion, literature, and laws ; and, perhaps, is as po- tent as anywhere in the usages and practices that belong to the cultivation of the earth. In our im- plements used on the farm, we copy from English models ; in improving our breeds of horses, sheep, and cattle, we look to stock imported from England ; in our horticulture and floriculture we follow the ex- ample of English planters and gardeners ; and in our farming operations, in culture, and in the selection of grains, the influence of that country is paramount. It is necessary, then, to inquire how far we may safely follow such an example, and in what respects "we ought to deviate; or when it becomes necessary to do so. To determine this question correctly, it is neces- sary to take into consideration the position of the two countries, so far as regards climate, soil, and population, and their influence on plants and the prices of labour. In general, it mav be laid down as a correct position, that the diflferencf between the soils of the two countries is not of a kind to render any diff'erence of culture important. The analysis of soils effected by Sir Humphrey Davy, the geolog- ical structure of the British inlands, and the exten- sive and minute reports made on the soils in the ag- ricultural surveys of the several counties, show that there is no essential difference between the compo- sition of the greater part of the British soils and ours. Peat and bog soil alone is found more extensively diffused than with us ; but this has little influence on the general progress or course of agriculture. Two or three facts, which should cause every one to pause and reflect, meet us in the beginning of our inquiries. One of these is, that, with a population of ten millions engaged in agriculture, we are not iille to, or, rather, do not provide bread for fourteen millions ; and another is, that Great Britain, v ith an AGRICULTURE OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 25 agricultural population of five or six inillions, pro- duces enougii for eighteen millions of inhabitants, besides sending us over a million or two of bushels to keep us from starving.* What is the cause of this difference is an important inquiry; and we may farther be permitted to ask, how it happens that the productiveness of cultivated land in England is con- stantly increasing ; while here, it is an undeniable fact, that, as a whole, its fertility is retrograding] We have selected England as a point of comparison, because her agriculture, though not as perfect in some things as that of Holland or Belgium, is more familiar to us ; and, from the nature of the climate and soil, presents more instances in which we might profit by a comparison. Of the two and a half mill- ions of bushels of grain imported from abroad, though we have had cargoes from almost every nation of Europe, still the greatest quantity has been sent from England ; while at the present moment there is not an article of human subsistence which we could find a market for in that country. They would be glad of raw materials, silk, wool, or cotton for their manufacturers; but of bread and meat they have not only enough for themselves, but abundance to spare. It must be remembered, however, that the agri- culture of England is confined to a single object, the production of food. Her five millions have nothing to do with foreign markets ; they produce no article of such consequence to them, that grain, when com- pared with it, becomes of secondary importance ; * This is strongly put, and may lead to a wrong conclusion. That this country has, wiihin the last three years, imported breadstiiffs from England, is true ; though, in every such in- stance, it is believed to have been foreign grain bonded in that couniry. Such, however, is not the ordinary course of things. England has little, if any, grain beyond her own wants, in the most favourable seasons : the United Stales always produce morr than they require for home consumption, exrep' m the mvst u»- favourable seasons. II.— c 26 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. their time and skill are employed in providing food for home consumption — for tliemselves and the na- tion. In this country, on the contrary, nearly one third of the individuals employed in tilling the soil do nothing, comparatively, in providing a supply of food. It is their business to furnish an article to sell, not to eat ; and, instead of providing for others, they do not even produce bread for themselves. We shall be understood, of course, as alluding to the ne- groes of the South, where cotton is the great object of the planter, who relies for his bread on purchases from the free agriculture of the North and West. A recollection of this fact will show that the food- producing power of the two nations is not so widely different as the first view would indicate ; still the disparity in the amount of produce, compared with the respective number of labourers, is such as to demonstrate that causes worthy of investigation are actively at work. From the statements of some recent writers on British statistics, it appears that the advance of that country in agriculture has been equal to her progress in manufactures. In 1755, the population of Great Britain was estimated at seven millions and a half; it is now 17 millions and a half. In 1760, the amount of all kinds of grain grown in the island was about 170 millions of bushels. In 1835, the quantity was estimated at 340 millions of bushels. That the great mass of the people in that country are much better fed and clothed than they were 80 years since, does not admit of a question ; and the present value of the bread and meat consumed in England has been esti- mated by British writers of authority at 700 millions of dollars. Yet Georgia, Virginia, "Missouri, or Illi- nois contain as many square miles as England, and New- York does not fall much below ; still present appearances would indicate that it will be a long time before five millions of agriculturists in any or all of these states will supply 17 millions with bread. AGRICULTURE OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 27 Naturally the soil of England is not superior, if it is equal to ours ; the cause of its superior productive- ness, then, is clearly to be traced to an improved state of agriculture. If we can ascertain, therefore, in what these improvements consist, we shall prob- ably gain some hints which may be of essential ser- vice to us. To the increased quantities of manure prepared, and the skill shown in its application; to the rota- tion of crops, and the general substitution of wheat for the coarser grains ; to the introduction of root- culture, and the use of lime and bone-dust, may most of the great productiveness of English lands be ascribed. It is true, some five or six millions of acres, once lying waste and in commons, have been enclosed, and add their product to the sum total ; still the very fact that these wastes have been ren- dered fertile, proves the superior skill of the present race of British agriculturists over those of former days. There can be no doubt that the quantity of manure made and used on farms in Great Britain is more than double the amount made fifty years since, and probably exceeds in about the same ratio the usual application in this country. In every form, long or rotted, in compost or with lime, all that can be used as manure, is so applied ; and, with the exception of Holland, in no country has the science of manuring made such rapid progress as in England. Lime is used in quantities that would astonish an American farmer, and its good effects are perceptible for a great length of time. But the manure which is most relied upon for the production of root-crops, and which, of course, acts a most important part in the English course, is bone-dust, or bones reduced to a powder by breaking and grinding. In this matter of manures, which constitutes the very foundation of all good farming, we are yet in our infancy. If we can manage to get out our straw" on our lands. 28 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. we imagine we have done much ; the idea of making manure by collecting perishing or putrifying matter into masses, or yarding cattle or sheep for this pur- pose, seems scarcely to have been dreamed of by us. Lime can be had in most sections of our country in abundance, yet, with the exception of a few German settlers in Pennsylvania, few have attempted its use as a dressing for the soil ; and as for bone-dust, there are multitudes among our farmers who, we suspect, never heard of the article. Here, then, is an impor- tant point of difference between our farming and that of England, and on which we must receive lessons from them, or continue to exchange our dollars for their wheat. We can, and we must, pay more attention to providing and applying manures. The rotation of crops, a necessary result of the extension of the turnip culture, is another of the causes which has placed the agriculture of England .'o much in advance of ours. It was formerly the ■ustom to allow land intended for mowing, or, in- ' If ed, for pasture, to remain undisturbed for years ; the impression prevailing, that, if broken up, it would never again become as valuable for these purposes as before. Enlightened practice, however, showed the incorrectness of this opinion, and lands which had remained in turf for five hundred years or more, were submitted to the plough with the most bene- ficial results. Roots, wheat, and grass succeeded each other, and the products of the country were, within a few years, nearly doubled. The same prej- udice respecting meadow-lands is not yet entirely extinguished in this country ; though proofs, which cannot be gainsaid, of the propriety of occasion- ally ploughing them, has in many instances forced conviction on the farmer, and led to a more philo- sophical and rational mode of culture. Several years since, it was asserted in the Edin- burgh Review that the introduction of turnip-farm- ing in England had added more than sixty milliona AGRICULTURE OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 29 to her products annually. Their culture has shice rapidly extended ; and the regenerating influence they exert on the soil, and the immense addition to the given products of any district created by them, has excited the attention of every section of that country. To the turnip may be traced the great improvements made in raising cattle and sheep in Britain, as the vast amount of food thus produced from an acre enables the cultivator to enlarge his flocks or herds to any desirable extent, and, by rapid or comparative feeding, to exhibit their several qual- ities. The discovery of a silver-mine, rich as Po- tosi, would to England have been poverty itself compared with the wealth flowing in upon the king- dom from that single root, the ruta-baga ; and the beneficial effects upon the comfort and happiness of the people are immeasurably greater than could re- sult from any such discover}". In this country we have hardly begun to appreciate the value of the root-crop. Public-spirited and intelligent farmers have endeavoured to bring the subject to the notice of their fellow-tillers of the soil, but deep-rooted prejudices, and a dread of innovation, have in most instances made the effort up-hill work, and, as yet, productive of comparatively little eff'ect. Still the ice has been broken ; an impression — a favourable one, we believe — has been made on public sentiment ; and when we remember that a long series of years was necessary to place the root-culture on a firm foundation in England, we see no reason to despair of a like triumph over incorrect notions and the production of similar benefits here. Population, by justifying, or, rather, compelling English farmers to adopt peculiar systems of farm- ing, may be said to create a wider diff'erence be- tween the agriculture of the two countries than any arising from the soil. Owing to what may be term- ed an immense surplus population, the price of la- bour is reduced to the lowest possible rate at which 30 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. a bare subsistence can be procured : and, in conse- quence of this, many methods of farming are there adopted, which could not, at the prices of labour and agricultural products, be otherwise than ruinous here. For instance, weeding wheat and other kinds of grain is a very common practice there ; and multitudes of women and children earn their bread for a consid- erable part of the season in this manner. It is clear that this operation cannot be introduced among our farmers, though its effects in keeping the soil clean, and in increasing the amount of the crop, must be evident. Another consequence, too, of the cheap- ness of labour, is, that many operations are perform- ed by hand, and at a far greater expense of time, which are accomplished by the aid of implements here, and in one fourth of the time. But it is to climate that the principal points of dif- ference in the agriculture of the two countries must be traced-; and this is what should be kept most dis- tinctly in view when comparisons between English agriculture and our own are instituted. England, though in the latitude, and most of it north of Que- bec, has a milder climate than our Middle States ; and this fact should not be lost sight of in adapting the agriculture of that country to this. In the Uni- ted States (we speak particularly now of the North- ern and Middle states, as it is these that are more influenced by English agriculture than the South), the summers are much hotter and the winters much ("older than in England : hence some plants that re- qiiire a great degree of heat will succeed better here than there ; while many plants will bear the winters of England in the open air, that perish when exposed without protection to the intense cold of our winter months. A great number of thermometrical obser- vations show that the average temperature of the three months of January, Februarv, and March in England is about 37o, 42°, and 47oj and that of the three months of June, July, and August about 63°, AGRICULTURE OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 31 660, and 65°. The average difference between the highest and the lowest temperature per month will not exceed more than six or eight degrees, those sudden and extreme changes to which our climate is subject being unknown there. In the valley of the Genesee, near Lake Ontario, the average for the three winter months gives about 24^, 26^, and 36°, and for the three summer months, 71^, 73^, and 72°; The mean average of several years is 49^, and the range of the thermometer about 100^. In this coun- try we have changes of from 30^ to 403 in twenty- four hours : there the greatest rarely exceeds six or eight. There, also, the thermometer seldom de- scends but a few degrees below the freezing point . while here it is below for weeks or months togeth er. Indeed, it is probable that, in the colder parts of the United States, the thermometer falls below zero as often as it does in England below 32°. This statement will show that there must be a material difference between the agricultural opera- tions proper to two countries so situated, as far as those operations can be affected by chmate. To give a single instance : Indian com, it is ascertained, cannot be grown in any country where the thermom- eter for more than one month is not above 70° ; and that in a temperature of 75° or 80° it arrives at its greatest perfection. This is the reason Avhy, not- withstanding all the efforts made to introduce corn into Great Britain, it has proved a complete failure. It is not killed with the frost there as here : but the degree of heat will not bring it to maturity during the summer months. ^Ir. Cobbett was confident he should succeed, and did srrow some tolerable crops of early Canadian ; but. like some trees which flour- i.sh and mature their seeds here, but will not ripen in England, the corn would not in all cases mature so as to vegetate, and, in spite of his boastings, he was compelled to abandon the culture. On the con- trary, wheat is a crop that requires a lower temper- 32 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. ature than. maize, and is not adapted to a hot, dry cUmate. Great Britain is therefore one of the best wheat countries on the globe, and perhaps produces, in proportion to the land in tillage, a greater amount than any other. The low temperature and moist climate of England is found to agree with this plant perfectly. Scotland is too cold ; but no part of the island is too hot, as is the case with a considerable portion of our Southern states. To this difference of climate must be attributed the difficulty we have found in the United States in growing hedges from such shrubs or trees as are used in Kngland for this purpose. From witnessing their excellent effect and beautiful appearance there, it was perfectly natural that we should adopt the same plants for the same object here ; but, after the repeated and persevering efforts of fifty years, it may be questioned whether there are five miles of tolerable hedge, from imported varieties of thorn or holly plants, in the United States. The difference between tlie moist, temperate, and equable climate of England, and the hot, dry, variable climate of this country, seems to have been overlooked ; when a rec- ollection of this fact would have convinced" any one acquainted with the physiology of plants that our seasons must be fatal to English hedges. Whether there are any of our native plants that will supply this desideratum, remains to be seen. The worst effect which our variable climate and intense cold have on our agriculture, when compared with that of England, is their influence on our wheat-crop. Such a thing as winter-killed wheat is scarcely known in that country ; while in many parts of this, especially where clay predominates, wheat in all winters is more or less liable to injury, and in some years has more than two thirds perish- ed. The heaving out of the roQts of wheat and clo- ver plants by the expansion of frost, and which is here the most fatal in the spring of the year, when AGRlilULTURE OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 33 the surface thaws by day and freezes by night, is something which agriculturists in that country are rarely called to guard against, and which, of course, never enters into their calculations in the prepara- tion of their soil. Here it is advisable, in all cases, to guard against the evil by such a system of plough- ing and manuring as shall most eftectually obviate the danger arising from this source. In reading or adopting the modes of English farm- ers in the preparation and application of manure, the influence of climate should not be forgotten. If any- thing has been established by agricultural chymistry, it is, that all manure loses in value exactly in pro- portion as the fermentation and decomposition goes on in the open air, by which most of the volatile and finer parts of the manure are lost to plants. In a high temperature, such as that of our summers, yard or stable manure will ferment rapidly ; and if left, as it generally is, exposed to the rain and sun, its value and efficiency are much diminished. If piled in large masses, as is practised by some farmers, and then allowed to stand through the summer, a custom followed to some extent in England, it must be re- membered that fermentation and decomposition go on here with a rapidity unknown there, a fact de- pending on the greater heat of our summers ; and hence the increased necessity of guarding against the loss of the fertilizing gases thus liberated. The proper place for the decomposition of manure is be- neath the surface of the earth ; but where it is de- sirable, as it sometimes may be, to keep it over the summer for fall application, the manure should be piled in layers alternating with earth (and if this is partially combined with lime, so much the better), which vvill absorb the volatile salts and parts thrown off by decomposition and fermentation, which in our climate must rapidly take place, and the quantity and quality of the manure will be greatly increased over what it would be if left to ferment in the yard, 34 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. or where it is simply heaped up without any cover- ing of earth. It appears, then, that in things relating to the soil alone, its preparation or amelioration, the application of animal or mineral manures, and the artificial ar- rangement of crops, American farmers may with safety copy the example of the British farmers, and derive important advantage from the perusal of Eng- lish works on agriculture. So they in general may, in all things relating to the preservation of crops from insects or diseases, such as the grub, cutworm, blight, mildew, wheatworm, &c., as these are com- mon to both countries, and the balance of experience is altogether in favour of Europe. In everything re- lating to wheat, they are entitled to a hearing above all otlier men, as in no country is the culture of that valuable grain carried on so successfully ; and this is owing, in a great measure, to the skill and science that have been brought to bear on the pro- duction of that crop. In raising cattle, and the com- mon and improved breeds of middhng fine-wooled sheep, English farmers are exceeded by none ; and on all these topics they may be considered as quali- fied to instruct us. Fine-wooled sheep, however, notwithstanding the pains taken with them, have never succeeded in England. The imported Meri- nos from Spain and Saxony have deteriorated and wasted away ; and their place with the English farmer are supplied by the hardier and heavier Lei- cester and South Down. The immense quantities of fine wools used in the English factories are im- ported from Germany, France, and Spain ; and hence, in the management and growth of the fine- wooled breeds of sheep, we have little to learn from them. There is no doubt that the production of fine wool is at the present moment far better understood in the Northern states than in Great Britain ; and there are more Saxon and Merino sheep in Vermont and New-Hampshire than in the throe kingdoms. AGRICULTURE OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 35 But it is mainly on those points of agriculture, where cheapness of labour and the influences of climate can be brought to bear, that wc find British agriculture to cease from affording suitable models for us, and are thrown on our own resources of ob- servation and comparison. Because corn cannot be grown in England, this is no reason why the farfn- ers of the United States should not plant it ; and, on the other hand, because the whin and the holly make a durable- and beautiful fence in England, this fur- nishes no conclusive proof that the same results will ensue in our country. English farmers use little or no precaution against the winter-killing of wheat, or the destruction of roads by frost ; but here such pre- cautions are essentially necessary, and based on reasons respecting which the English farmer knows nothing from experience, and therefore must be illy qualified to instruct. To the above causes of the advance of English agriculture, and which in themselves afford sufficient reasons why they can sell us bread, must be added the encouragement afforded by the British govern- ment to all agricultural- enterprises, and the laudable spirit which is created and fostered by agricultural publications among the great landholders and the tillers of the soil. In almost every district are year- ly or semi-yearly fairs and cattle-shows ; where the finest cattle and the most valuable sheep are exhib- ited, and their excellences made known to the pub- lic ; where farmers meet and exchange opinions on the best methods of culture, and discuss the im- provements of the age ; and where they learn their own importance in the scale of society, gradually lose their prejudices, and acquire habits of thinking and reflection that lead to emulation in farming, and eventually teach them to respect themselves. We come, then, to the conclusion, that if we would make progress in farming — if we would avail our- selves of tiie advantages which the God of nature 36 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. > has bestowed upon us in such profusion — in short, if we would be truly independent, not only in name but in reality, we must profit by the experience of others ; and from the improvements made in foreign countries, select such as are adapted to our soil, chmate, and liabits. It is high time that we ask ourselves the question in earnest, whether we are to become tributary to foreign nations for the neces- saries of life "? whether, with the finest soils, the most varied climates, the most unliiiiited sources of production, we are still to be dependant on the boun- ty, caprice, or self-interest of others "? in fine, we should consider which is the most honourable im- portation for such a nation as ours — knowledge or bread. CHAPTER III. BTATE OF AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. Its Depressed Condition. — Rate of Production.— Causes of its Depressed Condition. — Means of improving our Husbandry. That the agriculture of the United States does not, to use a commercial phrase, rank with that of the most favoured nations, is perhaps generally ad- mitted ; that it might, with proper care, be made to do so, does not admit of controversy ; and it may be well to inquire into some of the causes that lead to this state of things. With one of the most fertile countries by nature on the face of the globe, we do not, in the amount of our products, equal that of countries far less favoured, but which, by superior skill in cultivation, have attained a fertility unknown among us. As examples of this, -we may name England, Belgium, and a portion of Germany; in AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATKS. 37 which the average crop per acre is "much greater than in the United States, if we except, perhaps, some lew of the best cultivated districts. In order to determine what should be, it is SDme- times useful to ascertam what actually is. Esti- mates have been made at different times of the total of agricultural products in this country. Such esti- mates, however, have no pretensions to exactness ; they are merely approximations to the precise quan- tity : still, as similar estimates are made in other countries, they may afford the means of compari- son, as showing the proportion of production to the population. Tne year 1H38 was, on the whole, a favourable one for the farmer; and the crops un- doubtedly, in the aggregate, exceeded those of any previous year. If we estimate the wheat grown in the country tViat year at sixty millions of bushels, the corn at one hundred miUions, and the oats at one hundred and fifty millions, we shall not proba- bly be far from the truth. Barley does not rank high in amount as a cultivated crop, though the quantity produced is annually increasing. The wheat is principally grown in the country north of the Potomac and Ohio, and south of the great lakes. The corn is produced chiefly in the South, and in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi. Oats are culti- vated in all sections, except in the extreme South ; and are everywhere the principal food of horses, while they are given to cattle, sheep, and swine to a considerable extent. The average crop of wheat, on the whole, cannot be estimated per acre at more than eighteen bushels ; corn at thirty-five bushels ; oats at the same ; and barley at about twenty bush- els. This rate will, of course, vary greatly in differ- ent sections. In the states north of the Ohio, the average of corn would perhaps equal or exceed fiftj bushels to the acre, while in the states south of the Potomac it has been estimated as Iom' as fifteer, bushels per acre. The difference in ine Ci,nf.r crops 31()??8 38 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. in the several sectioiiS of our country would be leiss •. but still it is considerable. That these average productions might be greatly increased, does not admit of a question ; that the in- terests of agriculture demand that such should be the, case, is equally clear. By attention to the se- lection of seed and the preparation of the soil, an addition of ten per cent, to these averages might be easily made ; experience shows that such is the fact ; and a multitude of individual instances might be adduced to prove that this has already been done by skilful and intelligent farmers. The causes which, in our opinion, have tended more tlian any others to depress agriculture, and prevent its receiving the attention it demands, as well as to reduce the profits which should reward the labourer, are the following. First, a want of respect in the agricultural interest for their own profession. There is a feeling in certain portions of the community (principally among those who have done nothing to increase tlie productive capital of the country themselves, and who may be termed the drones of the social compact), that personal la- bour is disgraceful, and that the cultivator of the soil is little better than a slave. Strange as it may seem, this feeling may be said to be promoted and perpetuated by the conduct of farmers themselves. There are too many men among us — men who have good farms, and who might employ their sons upon them, with the certainty that honourable compe- tence would be the result — who prefer to see them exposed to the fluctuations and uncertainties of mer- cantile life, or involved in the temptations and per- plexities of professional life, rather than honest, high-minded, intelligent cultivators of the soil. For this evil, and it is a serious one, the remedy ia with the farmer. His sons should be well educated; hut they should be taught to feel, what in fact is the case, that in the actual dignity and usefulness of AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 39 their profession, the farmer has few equals and no superior. The second cause of the depressed state of agri- culture in the United States is the inattention of farmers in selecting the best breeds of animals for their yards, and the best seeds for planting. In these two respects there is the greatest room for improvement ; and the necessity of entering at once upon a course of reform cannot be too earnestly pressed upon our cultivators. Experience has shown, that animals can be formed, in the hands of the scientific breeder, to meet the wants or remedy the defects of any existing race. Whether it be beauty of form, weight of carcass, aptitude to fatten, or all these combined in cattle ; or the same quali- ties, with or without wool, in sheep; Bakewell, Cully, Berry, and EUman "have shown that domestic animals, in the hands of the farmer who understands the principles of breeding, are as clay in the hands of the potter, to be moulded and transformed at will. The records of Smithfield market (the most decisive evidence that can-be produced) prove that the aver- age weight of cattle and sheep has increased one third within less than half a century. Not less ben- eficial have been the results which have ensued from attention to improved or new varieties of seeds. The most valuable kinds of wheat, barley, oats, and other grain in Europe, and of maize or Indian com in this country, have been the result of careful se- lection and long-continued cultivation. Col. Le Conteur, of the Isle of Jersey, who has paid more attention to wheat, and instituted a greater number of experiments in regard to the plant than any other man living, having devoted about twenty years, and ample means, to the pursuit, states, " that the only chances of having pure sorts is to raise them from single grains or single ears ; and that the improve- ments he had made in this way had amply rewarded his labour, as tho produce of his crops had been in- 40 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. creased from an average of about twenty- three to twenty-five bushels an acre to about thirty-four ; and that, since he has raised wheat from single ears or carefully selected sorts, he has increased his crops to between forty and fifty bushels an acre." Many of the best known kinds of wheat, barley, and oats now grown in Europe (and some of them have been successfully introduced into this country), have been produced from single ears or heads of grain, select- ed by observing men for some valuable qualities they appeared to possess. Such was the origin of the White Kent and Whittingham wheat ; the Chev- alier, Annat, and Stains barley; and the Potato, Hopetown, and Dun oat. In this country, we need only refer to the justly celebrated Baden corn, which, by persevering selection, has from four ears been brought to produce ten on a stalk ; and where the climate and soil are most favourable, as in the West- ern States, has added at least 50 per cent, to the productiveness of the corn-crop. This is a field of improvement in which every farmer may be a la- bourer, and with the happiest results. To improve his seeds requires no extra capital ; a little care and attention to the qualities of his growing and ripened crops is all that is requisite ; and, whether he avail himself of the opportunity for improvement or not, no good farmer can avoid having the feasibility of so doing repeatedly forced upon his observation, by the difference in the size and productiveness of in- dividual plants. Another and third cause of the low state of ag- riculture is the too general want of knowlelere among farmers of the scientific principles which govern it. That every farmer should be a thorough chymist, and be able to explain all the laws that govern matter, and, in so doing, trace to their source the elements of vegetable and animal nutrition, is not what is to be expected ; and so with the kindred sciences of botany and entomology. Still he should AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 41 be able> and with very little attention may be able, to go through a sutficiently accurate analysis of soils, and be familiar with many of the minute, as well as the more important changes that matter un- dergoes ill its transformation from inert atoms to organized life. Constantly among plants, and com- pelled to be familiar with insects, some of both of which he numbers among his worst enemies, he is in part a botanist and entomologist by necessity ; and, were his observations properly directed, there is nothing to prevent, but much to make farmers the most successful discoverers in these sciences. Works which would give a proper course to his in- quiries may be found at almost every bookstore ; and it is not too much to hope, that volumes will be found in every common school and district library, to awaken inquiry and direct observers in the suc- cessful pursuit of these and other sciences.* We think that blame may be attached, in a greater or less degree, to most of the agricultural publications and periodicals of the day, in not devoting more of their pages to the discussion and elucidation of these topics. It may perhaps be said, that but lit- tle is yet known with certainty on these subjects ; that chymical analysis, vegetable physiology, and the development of the laws that govern the nutri- tion of plants and animals, are all as yet in their in- fancy : still it cannot but be useful to have what ac- tually is known spread before the public ; and even if much that is supposed to be certain should here- after prove merely theoretical, useful observations will be elicited, and truth the more readily establish- * In the second series of Harpers' School District Library are emhraced the following important works relating to agricul- ture: Fanners' Instructer. in two vols., by Judge Buel ; a Treatise on Agriciikure and Horticulture, by Gen. Armstrong; Chaptal's Chymistry applied to Agriculture, with the most val- uable part of Davy on the same subject ; and a volume entitled Food lor .Man. giving a particular account of the most useful and important grains, roots, fruits, &c. II.— D 42 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. ed. Agriculture is strictly a science, and should be confjidered as such. The principles that govern and control matter are many of them already understood ; and no one has any pretensions to the title of a thorough farmer who is not able to apply such as are known to his course of practice in the field. Many men express surprise at the well-known fact, that the most skilful and successful farmers we have in the country are men who have been bred to other pursuits, and never had the management of a farm till they purchased one for themselves, and assumed the business of the farmer without any previous ex- perience. We think there is nothing surprising in this result. These men brought to the business of agriculture that fund of knowledge they had already acquired, and which, unfettered by long-established modes and habits, they were at liberty to apply di- rectly to their new pursuit. They had no deep- rooted prejudices in favour of unscientific methods of cultivation to shake off — methods which too many farmers venerate, simply because they were follow- ed by their fathers ; and hence they were prepared to adopt the best courses, and to follow the paths that scientific research has demonstrated must lead to success. Another, and, we are inclined to think, more ac- tive cause in retarding the progress of agriculture in this country than any we have mentioned, is to be found in the too great diffusion of agricultural capital and labour ; or, in other words, we cultivate too much land to do it well. The desire of great farms is a striking trait of American farmers. As fast as they acquire capital, they spend it in purchas- ing more land. When there is no longer any ad- joining theirs to be purchased, they go to the wide West, and expend their hundreds or thousands in buying prairie sections, or " corner lots" in some of the future cities promised in that broad region. They may be making money by this process ; they AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 43 may be acquiring wealth for their children to differ about ; but, nine times out of ten, their system of ag- riculture is barbarous, their method of living scan- dalous, and their farms the very reverse of neatness and order. We cannot expect that a man who does this will spend his capital in beautifying and putting his farm in order ; in planting, and draining, and re- pairing, when such expenditures will not repay him more than seven per cent., whereas by purchasing more, or new lands, there is a probability that 30 or 50 may be realized. It requires too great an effort of self-denial to see our neighbours enlarging their domains to the size of a German principality, and to be content with some two or four hundred acres. We have, as a body of farmers, yet to learn that the products of a small farm, in proportion to the capi- tal invested, are usually greater than those of large farms. We have yet to acquire a taste for small, neat, well-finished, and well-furnished houses, in preference to the enormous " shingle palaces" which we take such a delight in erecting ; and when shall we learn that a few acres, well- fenced, kept clean of weeds, and growing richer and more productive every year, are better than many acres with the fences rotted or thrown down, the fields and crops choked with weeds, and the soil, from the wretched course of cultivation, annually deteriorating in value and productiveness 1 It is a very poor plan in farm- ers to wear out and impoverish what land they have because they can buy more ; better raise a few acres to the height of fertility, place it in perfect order, and then, if there is any surplus capital, after at- tending to the moral and intellectual wants of the family, it may be profitably expended in more lands, to be gradually brought to the same state. Such are some of the most prominent causes that, in our estimation, have contributed to place agricul- ture where it now is : not as bad, it is true, as it was some twenty-five years since, but still very far from 44 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. what it might be, and what it would be if farmers would awake to their true interests. We cannot blame the Germjtn peasant or the Russian serf for sending to us their surplus grain : they would never do it if we supplied the market with that produced at home, as we easily might. It is useless to com- plain of Legislatures, because they do not attend to the wishes of farmers in establishing agricultural schools and societies. The remedy for thesfe things Ls in our own hands. To shut out foreign grain, we must supply the country with our own ; and we shall find it far better to export than to import. If our legislative servants misunderstand or disregard our wishes, farmers have only to make it known that ihey are emphaticalhj the people, and their voices will be heard and obeyed. More than any other class, farmers hold their destiny in their own hands; they should carefully study the causes of the changes that come over their business, or which permanent- ly depress it, and, thus understanding them, they will be able to prevent or avoid such results. There is no more certain criterion by which to judge of the state of any people, physically and intellectually, than the condition of their farms, and the taste dis- played in their buildings and gardens, and in their public improvements. COMPOSITION OP SOILS AND THEIR ACTION. 45 CHAPTER IV. COMPOSITION OF SOILS AND THEIR ACTION. • Arable Soils. — Proper Proportions. — Productiveness. — Tenden- cy to Deteriorate. — Necessity of Manures. — Value of a Rota tion in Cropping. — Reasons for the Practice. A. KNOWLEDGE of the earths that enter into the composition of, and which most essentially modify the soil he cultivates, is necessary to every farmer ; as such knowledge greatly facilitates its proper man- agement, in the crop to be raised, the manure to be appliedf and the time of its application. Fortunate- ly for the farmer, the kinds of earth that form the best soils for cultivation are few in number, three being sufficient for every valuable object, and more being frequently found injurious rather than benefi- cial to the purposes of the agriculturist. These three earths are silcx, which is the basis of all sand, and is found pure in rock crystal ; lime, which is the basis of all the limestone rocks, marbles, and gypsum, and is found nearly pure in Iceland spar and primitive marble ; and alumme, which is the base of ail clayey soils and the great variety of clay rocks, and is found nearly pure in the best speci- mens of the alum of commerce. Of these three substances, soils devoted to agri- culture are nearly always formed, though they exist in very different proportions, and are always more "'~^or less mingled with decomposed animal or vegeta- ble matter. Vegetation will indeed take place in any one of these substances, if water and the prop- er degree of warmth be present, but it will be very feeble and inefficient. On the contrary, when com- bined in proper proportions, and the necess iry quan- 45 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. tity of decayed animal or vegetable matter is pres ent, the growth of plants will be vigorous, and their perfection, if not obstructed by other causes, certam. To ascertain the proper proportion of silica, lime, and alumina that must be united to form the best soils, chymists have very naturally resorted to an analysis of the earths of those countries and those particular places rtiost celebrated for the quantity and quality of their products. These examinations have been made by different individuals ; but the general results agree so nearly as to inspire much greater confidence in their accuracy than if they were dis- cordant and contradictory. To show the composi- tion of some of the best arable soils, the quantity of sand, lime, and clay, as well as the nature of the other substances combined in such lands, we have selected some instances of analysis from the best authorities on the subject.* Bergmann found that one of the most fertile soils in Sweden contained in 100 parts : Coarse Silex . 30 parts. I Alumina . .14 parts. Silica . . 26 " I Carbonate of Lime 30 " In a specimen analyzed by Giobert of Turin, these three earths were in the following proportions : Silica 77 to 79 parts. Alumina 9 — 14 " Lime 5 — 12 " An excellent soil for wheat in the county of Mid- dlesex, England, gave the following proportions of these principal earths, finely divided : Carbonate of Lime 28 parts. Silica 32 " Alumina 28 " Animal and Vegetable matter . . . 11 " Count Chaptal analyzed a very fertile alluvion on the Loire, 375 miles from its source, and found it composed of * See Chaptal's Chymistry applied to Agriculture, p. 116, Harpers' edition. COMPOSITION OF SOILS AJND THEIR ACTION. 47 Silicious gravel . 32 parts. | Carbonate of Lime 19 parts. Calcareous gravel II " | Alumina . . 21 " Silica . . . 10 " I Vegetable remains 7 " A specimen of soil from Touraine, celebrated for the production of hemp, gave of Coarse gravel . 49 parts. I Silica . . 17 parts. Carbonate of Lime 25 '* ' Alumina . . 16 " In nearly all cultivated soils in good tilth, the quantity of animal and vegetable matter is nearly the same, or about one tenth of the whole. These examples, and a great number of examinations of soil by Davy, Bergmann, and Chaptal, show about the same result, and exhibit conclusively the propor- tions in which these three principal earths, lime, clay, anfl sand, should be mixed, in order to produce the best soils for cultivation. Where this is well under- stood, a following out of the principles here laid down in bringing the soil, by a proper mixture of these earths, to a right proportion, will ensure a qual- ity of soil of the best and most valuable kind. If either of these earths exist in too great proportions, the land will be comparatively poor, and its power of vegetation diminished. For instance, if land is found to contain too much calcareous matter (a very rare fault, however, by- the-way), the difficulty is to be remedied most ef- fectually by an application of argillaceous or clayey marl, a substance principally composed of clay and sand. Land which contains too much silex will be benefited by the application of calcareous marl, or marl composed of lime, clay, and sand ; while soils in which clay predominates need the addition of sand and gravel ; if calcareous gravel or sand, so much the better. In soils where but one of these earths is present, there can be little or no vegetation, and their fertility increases exactly in proportion to their proper mixture. In an arable soil it is necessary, whatever may be its constituents, that it should not be too fine. In 48 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. the language of Chaptal, good soils " have a constant tendency to become pulverized, and at length, bj' frequent tilling, by the action of salts, manures, and frosts, they are reduced to so fine a powder as to cease to be productive. Rain falling upon ground in this impalpable state renders it perfect mud, which, when exposed to heat, becomes so hard that the air cannot penetrate it, nor the tender fibres of plants force their wayinto it ;" and Davy has ob- served, that all soils composed of nineteen twenti- eths of impalpable matter are completely barren. Barnyard manure will correct this state of things only for a short time ; the complete remedy is the application of sand and gravel, which restores it to fertility. * Soils are the most liable to become dry and hard in which alumina predominates ; and as a consider- able part of Western New- York is based on clay slate, which, when uncovered to the air, and exposed to the action of rain and frost, speedily falls to pow- der, of which the base is alumina, there is a con- tinual tendency in such soils to decrease in fertility, a tendency which the application of manure alone is not able to counteract. Here the remedy is plain, and the addition of a proper quantity of sand would be an effectual barrier to consolidation. It is on ac- count of this tendency in aluminous soils to consol- idate that we so frequently hear farmers who culti- vate lands inclining to clay, complain that their wheat freezes out much more than it formerly did. Lands in which silicious or calcareous matter abounds rarely suffer in this way ; as, where these substances exist, sand and gravel are in sufficient quantities to prevent consolidation. If such soils suffer, it is from the want of alumina, which leaves them too porous to retain moisture or to receive the full benefit of manures. Where earth is composed of clay and fine sand, if the former amounts to one half or more, it is fit for COMPOSITIOV OF SOILS AND THEIR ACTION. 49 brick or earthenware, but not for cultivation ; and wliere the alumina amounts to forty parts in a hun- dred, it has the effect of rendering the soil so steril as to be unfit for agriculture. A great variety of experiments were made by Tillet of Paris, in the formation of artificial soils, and he found that the alumina, if it greatly exceeded the other ingredients, had a very unfavourable eflfect. The most fertile mixture produced was composed of sand or silica 46 parts, alumina 16 parts, and carbonate of lime 37 parts. It would be reasonable to expect that these three earths, so essential to the productiveness of soils, should enter largely into the formation of vegetables grown upon them. That such is the fact has been abundantly proved by the experiments of Bergmann and Ruckert ; and, what is more curious still, these substances are found, with few exceptions, in about the same proportions in which they exist in the best natural soils. In the analysis of different plants and seeds by these chymists, it was found that 100 parts of ashes, obtained from the following substances, well leached, and, consequently, freed from all their soils and soluble matter, yielded in Ashes of wheat . " oats " barley . " rye " potatoes " red clover These facts in relation to soils and their produc- tions are of great consequence to the farmer ; and, if borne in mind, would not only greatly assist the purchaser of farms in making good selections, but also materially aid the cultivator in ameliorating and improving such lands as are already subjected to culture. Nothing, scarcely, is more easy than to ascertain whether sand, or clay, or lime preponder- ates in a soil : and whether the circumstances of II.— E Silica, Lime, and Alumina. 48 37 15 68 26 6 69 16 15 63 21 16 4 66 30 37 33 30 50 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. strata and position are such that the increase of diminution of one or the other may be confidently expected from the effects of time or the process of cultivation. The analysis of soils has hitherto made little progress in this country, and farmers, in general, know little of the soils they cultivate, and of the reasons why some are fertile and the others steril, when in general appearance they are much the same. We think we are justified in expecting nmch in this part of chymical agriculture from the con- templated survey of the state, as it is one which can scarcely fail to claim the attention of the scien- tific men to whom this survey is confided. The farmer cannot too thoroughly understand the nature of the soil he cultivates, and any measures which shall facilitate the acquisition of the desired knowl- edge should be hailed with general satisfaction. TENDENCY OF SOILS TO DETERIORATE. The natural, the inevitable tendency of all culti- vation is deterioration of the soil. The richest and most fertile soils contain but a certain proportion of matter fit for the purposes of vegetation, and every crop taken from them sensibly lessens this quantity. The result, therefore, must be, that con- tinual cropping will reduce the best soils to barren- ness, until, where circumstances admit, nature, by her gradual method of repairing wrongs, again im- parts a degree of fertility. It is, however, possible to counteract tliis tendency to sterility in soils ; to prevent the exhaustion of the qualities necessary to support vegetable life ; and the difference between good and bad farming, or proper and improper culti- vation, may be determined mainly by a reference to this single result. In this country we can hardly form a correct idea from anything around us of the frightful barrenness to wliich fertile soils may be reduced by impropei COMPOSITION OF SOILS AND THEIR ACTION. 51 management. Cultivation is here so young, that, had it been of the worst description, it would scarce- ly have been possible so soon to exhaust the treas- ures that have for centuries been accumulating in our soils. Still there are examples in the United States where soils have nearly reached that point from which a restoration to fertihty is impractica- ble. Soils of a silicious nature, or that are inclining to sand, are the most easily and quickly reduced. Of this the southeast part of Massachusetts, and parts of the Southern States at the present time, and parts of Long Island as they were some thirty years ago, furnish striking proof. When cultivated without regard to consequences, the nutritive part of such soils is quickly exhausted ; the little vegeta- tion produced is not sufficient to prevent the burning effect of the sun ; the roots of the grasses are una- ble to fix and bind the soil ; it becomes loose and floating ; plants root themselves with more and more difficulty ; and at last, what was once a fertile plain becomes a sandy waste, where cultivation is impos- sible. It is in the Old World that this process of deterio- ration may be the most clearly traced. To renovate seems to have formed no part of the ancient profes- sion of agriculture. In all the writings of antiquity, there is scarcely a hint that manuring, or improving cultivated lands in any way, was practised to any extent. Now and then, where nature had set the example of imparting fertility by the annual over- flow of rivers, man seemed inclined so far to imitate her works, and irrigation for ameliorating land was frequently adopted. But this was about the extent of ancient attempts at improved cultivation, and the result has been such as might confidently have been predicted. The regions of the East, that, two or three thousand years since, were as the Garden of Eden for beauty and fertility, have gradually become steri] and worthless ; and tracts of country that once 52 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. supported a thriving and industrious population l«iYe, from the action of the causes above alluded to, be- come deserts, in which the solitary camel can scaice find a shadow of vegetation to supply his easily-sat- isfied wants. Mesopotamia, parts of Syria and Palestine, Edoni, and parts of Arabia Felix, many parts of the north of Africa, and no inconsiderable portion of Asia Minor, have thus been rendered hopelessly barren. The finest of wheat can now no longer be grown on the plains where once the reaper filled his arms with the yellow sheaves. They were ceaselessly cropped until the soil was so exhausted that the unaided efl!brts of nature were unable to restore fertility, and the result is perpet- ual barrenness. To counteract this tendency to sterility is the business of the farmer; and on the possibility of doing this rests the whole system of improved agri- culture. Science has here come to the aid of the cultivator of the soil, and, by revealing the agents and promoters of fertility, has greatly assisted and simplified the processes, without which all would be still doubtful and uncertain. The action of manures has been ascertained ; the value and activity of the various salts formed by the decomposition of ani- mal and vegetable matter in part determined ; the aid which the mineral earths aflTord to vegetation has been carefully examined ; and those combina- tions of soil the best calculated to induce fertility have been accurately investigated. It has been shown, that to take from the soil without making corresponding returns is suicidal policy ; and that, if this point is properly attended to, land can be cropped without danger of deterioration. Manure, then, is the sheet-anchor of the farmer. It is to this source of fertility he must look for the renovation of the soil and the means of continued productiveness. And it is on manures produced from his own fields, from his herds and his flocks, COMPOSITION OF SOILS AND THEIR ACTION. 53 from decayed vegetable and animal matter, that he must depend for this result. These are the true fertihzing ingredients ; and, though other agents may be useful in exciting them to action, these must be considered as constituting the food of plants, as the cause of growth and nutrition. The application of the exciting mineral manures, such as lime and gyp- sum, is productive of the happiest effects, for the reason assigned above ; yet they are not so abso- lutely essential to the improvement of the soil as those of a vegetable or animal origin. Matter which has once lived, which has already taken the forms of organized existence, more readily assumes again the forms of organic life, and is more easily assimi- lated by the organs of plants than that which has never undergone such a change. It is the office of the vegetable to take the crude atoms of matter as they exist in the soil, and prepare them for the sup- port of vegetable life ; and when this has once been done, though a partial decomposition may have been effected, a renewal of the process is comparatively •easy and certain. In connexion with the preparation and application of manures, the next most important step which modern agriculture has taken to prevent a deterio- ration of the soil is rotation in crops. Judiciously conducted, the result is certain ; exhausted lands are restored, and the profits of the agriculturist greatly increased. It Avas formerly the custom to let lands adapted to grass remain for that purpose alone ; while those suitable for the plough were annually subjected to its use until exhaustion forbid. They were then left to the restoring processes of nature. There were, at the beginning of this century, lands in the farming sections of England which it was w^ell known had lain in grass for five hundred years; and there were other tracts which had been as con- stantly submitted to the plough, or, at least, as often as the soil promised to repay the expense of cultiva- 54 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. tion. This plan has been abandoned ; a more en- lightened system of agriculture has succeeded ; and agricultural products have in consequence been more than doubled. The course of rotation is, in- deed, variable in different districts, both in Europe and in this country, but it is founded on the same great principle — that diflerent plants take up differ- ent ingredients from the same soil and from differ- ent depths, and that a new plant will flourish in a soil where one of the same kind, previously cultiva- ted, could not succeed at all. Thus in England, in Holland and Belgium, in some parts of Germany and France, and, in some few instances, in this country, a regular course of cropping, suited to the soil, has been adopted with the happiest effect. This course, which varies from three to six years, accord- ing to circumstances, embraces roots, grains, and grasses ; and, taken in connexion with thorough manuring, which this system enables the farmer to practise, it not only improves the quantity and value of each kind of crop, but deepens, enriches, and fer- tilizes the soil. Manure and the rotation of crops . are, then, the great means to which we must look to preserve our now fertile plains from the fate which has overtaken so large a part of the East ; and they are fortunately both easy of application and entirely within our reach. ROTATION OF CROPS. The necessity of a rotation of crops is founded on a few simple principles, the force of which, and their application, any one may understand. They have been very clearly and concisely stated by Chaptal,* and they are so fundamentally important to a cor- rect course of farming, that they should be imjiress- ed on tiie mind of every tiller of the soil. They will, of course, bear repetition. » See p. 334, el seq., Chaptal's Chymistry applied to Agricul- ture, Harpers' edition. COMPOSITION OF SOILS AND THEIR ACTION. 55 Principle 1. All plants exhaust the soil. " 2. All plants do dot exhaust the soil equally. " 3. Plants of different kinds do not exhaust a soil in the same manner. " 4. All plants do not rest jre to the soil the same quan tity or quality of manure. " 5. All plants do not foul the soil equally. From these established principles, the following are legitimate inferences. First. No soil can nour- ish a long-continued succession of crops without ex- haustion. There would seem to be no exceptions to this, unless the case of river alluvion, such as that of the Genesee Flats, for example, may be consid- ered such. But in this case the annual oveiilowing, either entire or partially, renews the deposite of fertile matter ; or the water, by permeating the soil, divests it of any injurious principles it may have re- ceived from previous crops. The position may therefore be considered sound ; and the man who crops continually, without making corresponding returns to the soil, will experience its truth in the rapid decrease of his crops grown on such land. • Another inference, and the second, is, that while one kind of crop exhausts the soil by drawing most of its nourishment direct from the earth, and returning nothing of consequence to it, other kinds, deriving a large part of their nourishment from the atmosphere, and returning to the earth much vegetable matter, exhaust it scarcely any, if at all. To illustrate this, let us take grains and clover, or grains and roots with large tops, such as the beet, ruta-baga, &c. The cultivation of the Avhite grains, such as wheat, &c., probably wear out land as rapidly as any crop the farmers of the North can cultivate. This, in part, may be attributed to the ripening of the seeds ; but more, we think, to the plants deriving a large part of their nutriment from the earth, and but little from other sources ; while, at the same time, the return they make of vegetable matter is the small- est possible quantity. Clover would seem to obtain 66 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. its nourishment in a different manner; the matter which forms its roots appears to have been elabora- ted in its rich and succulent herbage, and it is on the leaves of plants that the atmosphere produces its greatest effects. The third inference is, that plants which draw their nourishment from the earth, and those that are most influenced by atmospheric causes, should alternate with each other; and that plants that draw their nourishment from the surface should be succeeded by those that seek their food at greater depths. Here is the reason, and a sufficient one it is, why roots should constitute a more important part of the system of American Husbandry. The grains are fibrous-rooted, and spread themselves principally near the surface ; the tap-rooted plants, such as clover, turnips, &.C., go deeper; and while their lux- uriant leaves are employed in aerating their juices, their roots are penetrating the earth beyond the reach of the fibrous class. A fourth inference is, that a succession of plants of the same species, when possible, should be avoided, as continued cultivation has a tendency to increase the enemies of that particular plant, and a rotation or change would tend to prevent such increase. Owing to the sowing of seed without preparation or precaution, the Hessian-fly, in some districts in England and on Long Island, became so numerous as nearly to destroy the wheat-crop. It was, in con- sequence, mostly abandoned for a few years in such places, and the insect, lacking its proper nidus for propagation, soon disappeared. Such has been the case with the pea-bug. This bug had so multiplied in some parts of the western district that the pea was almost Avorthloss, and the culture was generally dis- continued. A few years has elapsed, and they are again coming into use as a field-crop, and the bug is scarcely known, or certainly not to any injurious extent. A brewer at Newbuiyportj in Massachu- COMPOSITION OP SOILS AND THEIR ACTION. 57 setts, a few years since imported some barley from Holland, and some of it was used for seed by farm- ers in the vicinity. It was infested by an insect which spread rapidly, and compelled the farmers to abandon barley as a crop for two or three years. The insect is now extinct, and barley is again culti- vated with success. • A fifth inference is, that crops liable to be infest- ed with peculiar weeds should not be cultivated in succession, but by a rotation should be exposed to a culture that will eradicate them. The culture of corn and roots that require repeated hoeings is found effectual in destroying many weeds that get a foot- hold in grass-lands, and by seeding lands in rotation exhaustion is prevented, and the soil kept clean, in good tilth, and prepared for any valuable crop re- quired to be grown upon it. Pernicious weeds of- tener obtain a foothold with the grains than with any other crop, as these shade the ground but little, and afford a chance for vegetation about their stems which thick-growing or large-leaved plants do not. Farmers find that charlock and redroot are thus dis- seminated in their wheat-fields, and that a rotation of crops is necessary to clear them of these pestif- erous intruders. Another important inducement to a rotation of crops, but one which is often overlooked in consid- ering the matter, is the greater advantages that can be derived from manure where this system is pur- sued than where it is not. Every farmer is aware of the fact that there is a wide difference among cultivated plants as to the effect produced by the ap- plication of manures. Some can scarcely receive too much, or have it furnished too directly. They are gross feeders, and appear to de^'our the elements of nutrition without stint or injury. Corn, and the roots generally, are of this class. Others seem to be more delicate, and are either destroyed outright by too large quantities of unfermeated manures, or 58 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. are excited to such a growth of straw, that the juices intended to form the seed are swallowed up and lost in the mass, and a half-filled, worthless kernel, and lodged, half-rotted straw, is the result. A rotation of crops enables the farmer to shun such disasters. He can apply his fresh manures to crops that re- quire them, and will be decidedly benefited by them ; and when the fermentation is over and the decom- position complete, then the grains which require such manures are sown, and reap the full benefit. There can be no reasonable doubt that much of the efficiency of manure is lost by allowing the decom- position to take place on the surface of the earth or in the barnyard ; and some experiments would seem to show, that the loss in this way of treating manure is precisely equal to the quantity of nutriment af- forded by it to a corn or root crop while it is under- going deconjposition in the earth. Diflerent soils require a different rotation of crops ; and the time required to complete the course main- ly depends on the richness of the soil. The most simple and short alternation of crops has been adopt- ed by many of our farmers — that of wheat and clo- ver alone ; or one by which a wheat-crop is grown every other year. Clover seeds are sown on the wheat, the ground is pastured in the fall, plastered in the spring, fed through the summer, or mown, and then turned under for wheat. Whether this forcing course (for it can be considered as nothing else) will eventually be found the most profitable, we much question : a course admitting of greater variety, and of longer duration, would be in our opinion preferable. Roots or corn manured ; wheat or barley with seeds ; grass or clover, fed or movi'n for two or three years, would perhaps be better on wheat soils where due regard was had to durable excellence of soil as well as present profit. A suitable rotation of crops has a tendency to keep up the increase of cattle and sheep, a part of COMPOSITION OF SOILS AND THEIR ACTION. 59 farming very apt to be neglected where the 'culture of grain is the exclusive object. Perhaps there is no agricultural maxim more true than the Flemish one : No food, no cattle ; no cattle, no manure ; no manure, no grain ; and when it is remembered that without manures there can be no permanent fertili- ty to the soil, the advantage of such a course is not perhaps overstated. Since the experiments of Dombasle, Dutrochet, and Macaire have given some plausibility to the opinion that plants secrete and deposite substances injurious to succeeding crops of the same kind, the attention of foreign agriculturists has been directed to the preventing such succession of the same plant on the same soil as far as practicable. A writer in a late British Farmer's Magazine recommends the following course as suitable on a dry soil, good for wheat, and on which turnips can be fed off by sheep. " 1st. Turnips : on half the land prepared for this crop, sow white and red (common or globe), and on the other half ruta-baga, manured with bone-dust, rape-cake, or dung ; the latter applied in a coarse state, ploughed in and well incorporated with the soil by the last ploughings in preparing the fallow. 2d crop, barley, half Chevalier and half American. 3d crop, seeds, half red clover, with a mixture of rye grass, and half Italian rye grass : manure the young seeds, cut the first crop for hay, and feed the sec- ond. 4th crop, wheat : sow different varieties, such as the Chevalier prolific, ten-rowed prolific, and golden drop. Go through the same course again, except putting on dung where bone-dust and rape- cake was before applied ; ruta-baga where the tur- nips, common and globe, were grown ; changing the Chevalier for A merican barley ; changing the grass- es in the same way ; and substituting another varie- ty of wheat where the former grew. The above is a four-year course, yet the same varieties of grain cannot be grown on the same land oftener than once 60 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. in eight years. It would be good policy to have a few acres in mangold-wurzel on a portion of the fallow land, instead of turnips, to guard against a scarcity of food in the spring ; this root is also very valuable in the lambing season for ewes, as it forces a great quantity of milk." The changing of one variety of wheat for another is, we imagine, of little consequence ; but not so the substitution of the fibrous-rooted for the tap-rooted plants, or barley, wheat, and the grasses in succes- sion. If the doctrine of the deposition of noxious matter be correct, it must have reference more to species than variety, and it should be to change in this respect that the attention should be principally directed. But, whether this doctrine be true or false, the reasons for a rotation of crops are untouched ; and we are confident that no farmer who views his interests in their true light will discard the system, or, for the sake of a dubious present profit, put at hazard the certainty of permanent productiveness in his soils. CHAPTER V. PLOUGHS AND PLOUGHING. Ancient Ploughs.— Modern Ploughs.— Ploughing.— Depth to which Roots of Plants Penetrate. — Subsoil Ploughs. — Fall Ploughing. — Deep or Shallow Ploughing. Perhaps the progress of civilization and the ad- vances of agriculture are more clearly marked by the history of the plough and its improvement than in any other way : certain it is, that the state of ag- riculture in any country can now be ascertained al- PLOUGHS AND PLOUGHING. 61 most at a glance, by surveying the iniplemonts by which its husbandry is carried on. If the ploughs are ill formed, clumsy, and oldfashioned ; if the pro- cesses of farming are conducted on the same prin- ciples, and by the same means and methods which have characterized them for centuries, the fact may speak well for the stability of the habits of a peo- ple, but very little for their intelligence, spirit of in- quiry, or public spirit. It may indeed be asserted, that the history of the plough is the history of ag- riculture, and, as the necessary consequence, of civ- ilization ; in which view this implement of the fann- er assumes an importance in the eyes of many that it would not otherwise possess. Nothing can be more simple than the most an- cient specimens of the plough ; and as, in some parts of the East, a thousand years passes with as little impression on the manners, customs, and imple- ments of the inhabitants as on their temples or their pyramids, or, rather, with much less show of change, we may reasonably suppose that the primitive plough, such as was first used for tilling the ground, may still be found in the East. The earliest figure of the plough may be seen on the images of Osiris, the god of the Egyptians, and it was formed of 'a part of a tree, the principal stem constituting the beam by which it was drawn, while a main branch, cut to the proper length and point, formed the part that moved the ground. To this point was some- times secured a sharp stone or a small plate of iron; and this, drawn by a team of heifers, or an ass and a heifer, and not unfrequently by men, constituted the plough of the ancients. The following is a rep- resentation of one of these ploughs, long before the Exodus, the point shod with stone or iron, and a branch erect for a handle. 62 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. A plough on the same general principles is now used by the Arabs and tlie Moors of North Africa, one of which is figured in Riley's narrative, and of- fers a curious illustration of the unchanging nature of things in the East. Among the implements of agriculture enumerated by Hesiod (900 years before Christ) are ploughs and carts. The plough, from his description, must have been much like the following representation of one used in Egypt, and at a later period in the south of France. It consisted of three parts, the beam, handle, and share. Hesiod directs the beam to be made of oak, and the other parts of elm, and they were fastened with nails. This, it will be seen, is clearly an improvement on the other, both in the convenience of handling PLOUGHS AND FLOUGHING. 63 and as an implement for moving the earth. Its ef- fects, however, could not have been much greater than that produced by the single share or foot of the modern cultivator, and would be useless except on soils partially mellowed by digging. Indeed, all the early ploughs were adapted to a warm climate and sandy soil, where no turf ever formed, nor vegetable fibre or roots bound the earth. No implement has yet been discovered among the ancient tools of the tiller of the soil, which would stand for a moment the power exerted by the modern plough, or break up what we term a greensward. In countries where the grasses formed a turf, the sward was cut and turned by the spade and hand, as is clear from ancient representations of agriculture ; and when once the ground had been broken up, it was kept Hnder a course of cropping until completely exhaust- ed, when another piece was subjected to the same process, and the former left to recruit itself by the slow operation of unassisted nature. To the im- proved plough alone do we owe the modern system of rotation in the cultivation of the soil, a system which has increased the productions of the earth and the means of subsistence a hundred fold. Perhaps in no part of the world that has any pre- tensions to civilization, are the implements of agri- culture and the processes of farming so rude as in some parts of Poland. A traveller in that country says, " We have seen lands ploughed (after their 64 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. manner) by one cow tied by the horns to the trunk of a young fir-tree, one of the roots sharpened and acting as a share, and the other serving the plough- man as a handle." The preceding is a representa- tion of what these wretched peasants in some places call a plough. The straight stick that serves for a yoke is tied to the horns of cows, and the marks in the soil made by this wooden implement are termed ploughing. It is not a httle mortifying, that grain raised on soils cultivated in this manner, and by these half-civilized boors, should have been brought from Dantzic last year* to give bread to us Americans, with our fer- tile soil and improved implements of farming. Such were the ploughs in the infancy of agricul- ture ; and such they still are in all places where im- provement has been shut out, where the mechanical arts are unknown, and where the intellectual condi- tion of the great mass shows they have not as yet advanced beyond the dawn of civilization. The plough of the modern peasant of Italy is but a shade better than that used by the Arab on the plains of Northern Africa ; and the one which serves the boor of Finland and Bothnia is scarcely advanced in mechanical structure beyond that which was used by the " men of Thebes or Memphis." The plough of England and America, in its improved form, is probably the most perfect implement used in the process of agriculture, and there is no one that has done so much to lessen the severity of labour in moving the earth, and rendering it productive of the various vegetables necessary to subsistence. Fig- ures in this case are not necessary, as every farmer knovirs the difference in execution between a good plough and a poor one, and their construction has been reduced to a more complete system than that, perhaps, of any other implement. * 1838-9. PLOUGHS AND PLOUGHING. Gfi The principal varieties of the modem plough are the kinds called the Swing-plough, the Wheel-plough, and the Turn-wrest plough. To the first kind be- long all those in common use in this country and in England. In the latter, the kind called the Scotch plough, improved by Mr. Small, and sometimes call- ed by his name, is the most approved. It is now usually made wholly of iron. Those that have been imported into this country, or made on a similar plan here, have not met with as favourable a recep- tion from our farmers as, from their reputation at home, they would seem to deserve. There are sev- eral ploughs constructed in this country of wood and cast iron, which are preferred as being less weighty and clumsy, quite as easy and good in working, and procured at a much less expense. It must be ad; mittea, however, that too many of the ploughs used in this country are very imperfectly made, and have the leading characteristics of Pindar's razors — of being made to sell. An implement of such essential service to the farmer as the plough should always be well made on scientific principles ; and lightness should, as far as possible, be combined with strength in their construction. The Wheel-plough has been but little used in the United States. It may occasionally be seen on the Dutch and German farms on the rich intervales of the Mohawk. Wheel-ploughs require but little skill on the part of the ploughman, the depth and width of the furrow being adjusted by the wheels ; but they are of necessity heavier, more expensive, easier clogged and put out of order, and require a stronger team than the common plough. They have been introduced into the Western States, and must be in- valuable on the immense river-bottoms and fertile prairies of the West. A traveller in that region as- serts that he has seen a Western farmer at work on his magnificent prairie of hundreds of a^es, riding at his leisure on his two-wheeled plough, drawn by II.— F 66 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. a Strong and beautiful team, and practising Mayer beer's sonnatas on his violin, while, without care or effort on his part, the ploughing Avas done in the very best manner. We confess this mode of riding while ploughing would agree far better with our ideas of comfort than that practised by the peasant on the plains of Rome and Naples, who uses a plough, the head of which is a plank pointed with iron, awk- wardly connected Avith a crooked beam, to which a yoke of wild-looking, half-broken oxen are attached by thongs of rawhide. On this plank the ploughman stands, and, by shifting his position, regulates, in a great degree, the depth to which the earth is moved. Turn-wrest ploughs admit of having the mould- board removed from one side to the other at the end of the furrow, so that the earth may always be thrown one way. They are similar in construction and effect to what we term side-hill ploughs, and which are so valuable in some situations. There are other places, too, in which such a plough oper- ates admirably ; and it is probable much labour would be saved were such ploughs more frequent. One of the most striking differences between ploughing in England and in the United States is in the strength of team required to perform the same labour. Mr. M'CuUough, in his statistical notices of the British Empire, says, " Perhaps the imperfect construction of the majority of the English ploughs, their great weight, and the extensive employment of those with wheels, may be one cause why, in England, a greater number of horses than are neces- sary are employed in them. If we except the coun- ties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex in the south of England, and those of Northumberland, Cumberland, Durham, and Westmoreland in the north, there is none, perhaps, in which more than two horses will not be seen in a plough. In soaie counties, teams of three, four, and. very frequently, five horses, are employed in the tillage of the lightest soils ; and on PLOUGHS AND PLOUGHING. 67 heavy soils a still greater number are sometimes made use of. Thus, in the Vale of Gloucester, sev- en horses may be seen attached to one plough. Not- withstanding this excess of horses, the furrow is seldom above four inches deep on light, and six inch- es on heavy soils, nor is there generally more than three fourths of an acre ploughed in a day. Of course, Avhere there are more than three horses, a driver as well as ploughman is necessary. The horses are almost invariably yoked in line ; so that, when the fields are small, and the turnings consequently nu- merous, most part of the work is done by two, or, rather, by one horse." The Duke of Bedford at- tempted to introduce ploughing with the teams abreast, as practised in this country, and arranged the horses for this purpose with his own hands ; but the ploughman could not, for a long time, be induced to adopt the improvement, preferring to use three, or even five in a string to two or four in pairs. The difference in the amount of products between land thoroughly tilled and that which has only un- dergone an apology for tillage, must, at times, have arrested the attention of the most careless farmer. Land adequately manured, deeply and finely plough- ed, and properly seeded, can alone be relied on as a source of profit to the cultivator ; yet how few are the farms around us where these indispensable re- quisites are carried out to their full and proper ex- tent. The earth is barely skimmed in ploughing; what sailors call a wide birth is given to the stones and stumps ; the seed is put on unequally and spa- ringly, and then the farmer aff"ects to wonder his crop is no better. We do not conduct our business as we know it should be done ; we undertake more than can be performed well ; our manure is not ap- plied to the proper crops ; and in these various ways nearly one half our labour may be said to be lost. The garden is that part of the farm where the ef- fects of thorough ploughing and manuring are the 68 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. most strikingly seen in the increased product and profit for labour bestowed; though even our gardens are too often only the shadows of what they might be, and would be if cultivated properly. The farm- er ploughs his garden deeper and finer than the rest of his premises, and manures it better, scarcely seeming to remember that field-crops require the same depth for the free expansion of their roots, and the same richness of soil to promote their rapid growth. Let a farmer examine the extent and depth to w^hich the roots of corn in a loose and favourable soil will spread, and he will cease to wonder at the failure of a crop where the subsoil, at the depth of three or four inches, has never been stirred by the plough, and over the hardpan of which the tender fibres of the roots vainly wander in search of proper nutriment, and as fruitlessly strive to penetrate. In loamy or sandy soils, the roots of trees have been found to penetrate to the depth of ten or twelve feet ; and the roots of the Canada thistle have been traced six or seven feet below the surface. Wheat, if planted in a mellow, rich soil, will strike its roots three feet downward, and elongate much farther horizontally. The roots of oats have been discov- ered at the distance of eighteen inches from the stem ; and the long, thread-like roots of grass ex- tend still farther. The roots of the onion are so white that in a black mould they can be readily traced, and in a trenched or spaded soil they have been followed to the depth of two feet. The potato throws out roots to the extent of fifteen or twenty iiifhes ; and the tap-rooted plants, turnips, beets, cnrrots, &c., independent of the pei-pendicular root, spread their fibres to a distance which equals, if it does not exceed, that of the potato. It is perfectly atT^urd to expect to succeed with roots of this class, u'iless the ground is so mellow as to allow them to ptnetrate and grow freely ; we have measured a carrot drawn in our garden, smooth and straight. PLOUGHS AND PLOUGHING. 69 which exceeded twenty-six inches in length ; yet the soil, when first applied to the purposes of a gar- den, was far from being deep or penetrable. Land cannot be considered in good tilth, unless by plough- ing the earth it has been mixed with vegetable or animal matter to the depth of ten or twelve inches ; and Judge Powell states, that by manuring and ploughing he has converted shallow, unproductive earth into rich, fertile soils, to the depth of at least fourteen inches. There is a constant tendency in earths to consoli- date (clayey or aluminous ones more than others), which manuring and ploughing will in a great meas- ure prevent ; and loosening the soil in all cases al- lows the roots to sink beyond the reach of droughts, permits them to range freely in search of proper nu- triment, and in the same proportion increases the chance for a profitable crop. The extreme difficulty of rendering tenacious and stiff clays, or what are termed hardpan-soils, fit for cultivationby any of the ordinary methods of plough- ing and nianuring ; and the fact that covered drain- ing in such soils will in most cases cost more than the actual value of the land (since the drains in soils of this class must be made deep and near together in order to be effectual), has induced practical farm- ers in England to endeavour to devise some way of overcoming the evil without the expense of covered draining. It is weU known by those who cultivate stiff" clay or hardpan soils, that such are the first to suiTer from excessive moisture or excessive drought. Their compact nature retains on the surface all the rain that falls upon it until it runs off or is carried off by the slow process of evaporation : thus in wet seasons drowning the plants, while in dry ones, as the absorbing or conducting powers of such soils are always small, the surface-moisture being evapora- ted, the plants are deprived of their proper nutri- ment, and in many cases perish from the difficulty 70 AMERICAN HUSBANDI.f. the roots find in penetrating the earth to a depth sufficient to reach any moisture. It is evident, then, "that if, in such soils, the earth could be moved and broken up to the depth of eigh- teen inches or two feet, without having the unpro- ductive earth brought to the surface, that an oppor- tunity would be furnished for superfluous moisture to drain from the surface, and also for the roots to penetrate to a depth that would ensure their not per- ishing from drought. Manure or sandy marls, which, when spread on the surface of such soils, can only be productive of temporary benefit, would, where the hard substratum was broken up, penetrate deep- er, their eff"ects be longer felt, and, in fact, a new and fertile soil, suitable for the production of any plants, would be gradually formed. Deep-ploughing or trench-ploughing was at first attempted to effect these desirable results. In this process one plough turned over the surface, the fur- row-slice being of the depth of six or eight inches, and of the necessary width. Following immediate- ly after, and in the same furrow, was another plough with a strong team, that broke up in the hard, com- pact ground another and still deeper furrow, throw- ing the earth upon the surface, and thus, in effect, reversing the soil to the depth of twelve or fourteen inches. This mode of ploughing was found to rem- edy, in a great measure, the evils of stagnant water on the surface, and the suffering from drought ; but it produced another serious one, viz., that for a year or two, and until corrected by heavy manuring, the compact soil so turned up was steril and barren, hardly paying the expense of cropping. Unless, therefore, manure could be had in any assignable quantity, trencli or such deep ploughing was found to be inexpedient in soils of this class. It was at last conceived, that a plough which should loosen and pulverize the soil to the depth of eighteen or twenty inches, without bringing the dead PLOUGHS AND PLOUGHING. 71 earth to the surface, would produce the desired ef- fect, and obviate the evils of trench-ploughing. A plough for this purpose was invented in England some six or eight years since, which produced the desired effect on the soil, but which was so costly and clumsy a contrivance (being about fifteen feet in length, weighing not less than four hundred and fifty pounds, all iron, and requiring six or eight horses to work it in a compact soil), that it did not come into general use, though its benefits were incontroverti- ble. Since that period several have been announ- ced, but no one of them seems to have met with general favour. About four years ago, the attention of Sir E. Stracey was directed to the subject, and a plough was contrived by him, which, with some im- provements since added, seems to have left nothing to be desired, so far as the plough is concerned. This plough is thus described, in a letter from the inventor to the editor of the London Farmer's Mag- azine. " I beg to state, that four years since I invent- ed a plough for breaking up the hardpan, as it is call- ed, which lies a few inches from the surface of the greater part of our Norfolk lands, and which is ap- parently composed of gravel cemented by clay, and so hard as even to resist several blows of the pick- axe. I have improved much the construction of the plough from what it was at first. My plough now weighs only one hundred and fifty pounds, and the whole length, from the extreme end of the beam to the extreme end of the handles, is only seven feet : the head of the plough, including the share, is only tv/enty-four inches ; and I can plough easily, with three horses, an acre and a quarter a day, to the depth of eighteen or twenty, or even twenty-four inches. The plough breaks the pan or soil without turning it up : and it is my intention to make use of it for planting trees, instead of trenching the ground for that purpose." In the same Magazine for September last, there is 72 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. A engraving of the plough (see opposite), showing ts construction and mode of operation. That it will answer the end designed we cannot doubt ; and we hope that some enterprising mechanic in this country will manufacture a similar one ; or, judging from the usual results in such cases, an improved article, for the use of American farmers. We know there are large sections of our country where such an implement would be invaluable. We condense from the remarks accompanying the engraving the following account of the benefits ascertained to re- sult from its use. 1st. That, by breaking up the soil to the depth of eighteen inches (if for the purpose of planting trees, twenty-four inches), the tender roots of plants are enabled to descend to a greater depth, and obtain their necessary food from those parts of the subsoil from which no nutriment was formerly derived ; in addition to which, air and moisture having more easy access to the roots of the plants, farther nour- ishment is thereby afforded. 2d. The work done by the subsoil plough far ex- ceeds trenching with the spade, as this plough only loosens and breaks the earth all around, without turning the bottom soil to the top, which in some, if not in most cases, would be injurious to vegetation. Plants in their infancy, like animals, require the best and most nutritious food ; and when the delicate roots have acquired a sufficient degree of strength, they will be enabled, from looseness of the subsoil, freely to extend themselves in search of nutriment. In the mean time, the leaves are carrying on the elaboration of the juices and nutritive matters fur- nished by the roots. The distance that roots will penetrate under favourable circumstances is not gen- erally understood. In O.vfordshire, the roots of some wheat sown in a filled-up gravel-pit were traced nine feet into the ground ; and the Society of Arts in London have a stalk of wheat preserved in a glass case with roots six feet long. PLOUGHS AND PLOUGIIINO. 73 74 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 3d. By this deep tillage the rains will sink into the ground, ;ind afford nioisture to the deep roots of plants during the heats of summer ; the fields, as experience has shown, may be laid down with fur- rows, except, perhaps, in very strong lands, and stagnant surface-water will in most cases be pre- vented. 4th. The deep tilling will enable farmers to raise, as in a garden, carrots, beets, and other tap-rooted plants, for which stiff soils without such ploughing are altogether unsuitable. The carrot and the parsnip, in some cases, are to be preferred to turnips, as af- fording sweeter and more nutritious food for milch cows. 5th. This ploughing is far preferable to trenching, or spading, or any other mode of moving the subsoil yet devised, as it is equally effectual, and may be done at one fourth the expense. Four horses will probably be required for the deep plough the first time of ploughing, and three afterward, without the assistance of the first plough, which, if the soil is very compact, or a gravelly hardpan, will be neces- sary to turn off the upper stratum of soil, as before mentioned. This plough is made of wrought iron, and well braced, as the pressure on the centre of the beam is very great. There is another reason, we think, why subsoil ploughing would be advantageous on the hardpan soils of this country, intended for wheat, which is not noticed above, and which, indeed, would be in- apphcatUe to a large part of England. In that coun- try, with the exception of some parts of Scotlai\d the temperature rarely descends so low as to en- danger the freezing out of wheat in any soil ; while m this country the evil of freezing out is the most formidable one which the cultivator of clay soils has to encounter ; and this evil is constantly increasing on lands of which clay forms the principal ingre- dient, unless some method of counteracting it can be PLOUGHS AND PLOUGHING. /5 devised. For the reasons before given, we think Ihat subsoil ploughing will do this more effectually than any other method. By allowing the surface- water to settle, the clayey part will not become so saturated, and, of course, frosts will have less effect than where the upper soil is nothing but paste. The roots of autumn-sown wheat will penetrate also deeper into the earth, and thus be better prepared to resist the lifting process of the spring frosts. And though soils so ploughed will, in the course of a few years, be again closely settled together, yet each successive breaking of the soil, by admitting the in- troduction of the roots of plants, and the natural sinking of manures applied to the surface, will event- ually convert the whole soil, so stirred into good ar- able land, and give a depth sufficient for any of the ordinary purposes of agriculture. For ourselves, we think the subsoil plough promises greater advan- tages to the occupants of hardpan or tenacious clay soils than any system of culture yet devised for them ; and we shall be pleased to hear that our farmers, where such a plough is needed, have made a trial of its virtues. The question is sometimes asked, whether it is best to plough land in the fall ; and, if answered in the affirmative, the reasons for such a procedure are demanded. We think that fail ploughing is desira- ble in most cases and on most soils, for the follow- ing, among other reasons that miglit be given. ist. It is one of the established principles of phil- osophical agriculture, that the soil derives much of its productive power from the air ; and that chymi- cal changes and combinations are constantly going on, by which fertility is greatly increased. These alterative effects of the atmosphere and these changes of the qualities of the soil are the more act- ive and efficient as nev/ surfaces are exposed to its action. For instance, much greater quantities of carbonic gas will be absorbed by a given surface 76 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. of earth, if that earth is frequently stirred, than if it were allowed to remain undisturbed. Ploughing, by exposing new surfaces to the action of the atmo- sphere, must be productive of essential benefit ; and as fall ploughing generally takes place after crops which have partially exhausted the surface of some of its nutritive and absorbent qualities, its service in aid of spring crops must be very important. 2d. There are always on land more or less grass, weeds, stubble, or other vegetable matters convert- ible into mould by fermentation and decomposition: a process which is greatly aided by their being turn- ed under the surface of the earth. Fall ploughing renders such substances much sooner available in advancing the growth of crops than they would be if left uncovered during the winter, independent of the great loss necessarily sustained by the washing away of the lighter portions, and their dispersion by the winds. 3d. Nothing acts more efficiently on moist soils in promoting vegetation than minute pulverization ; and fall ploughing contributes to this most essential- ly. Lands that, if ploughed only in the spring, will remain in large cakes or lumps, defying the efforts of the farmer to reduce them suitably, will, if plough- ed in the fall, be found loosened in texture and fitted for early operations. Frost is the most efficient disintegrator of the soil with which the agriculturist is acquainted, and he should avail himself of its val- uable labours in all practicable cases. 4th. The earlier the ground can be prepared for the suitable reception of spring crops, such as com, spring wheat, and barley, the better it will be found for the cultivator ; and, in nine cases out of ten, early-sown crops are the heaviest and most pro- ductive. 5t.h. Ploughing land acts more effectually in de- stroying insects than any otlier mode of treatment, and fall ploughing for tliis purpose is preferable to PLOUGHS AND PLOUGHING. 77 any other. Those insects which produce the most mischief to the farmer, such as the fly, cut-woiTn, grub, &c., cannot resist the frost of our winters, if prematurely exposed to its action by a fall plough- ing. The cut-worm, which accumulates in such numbers in old meadows and pastures, is thus de- stroyed, and crops planted on them saved. Fall ploughing has another advantage, in placing the work to be done at a season of the year when the farmer is less driven by his business than at any other time. In the spring, a vast amount of labour is required to be done in a short time, especially on those farms where spring is substituted for winter w^heat ; and every acre ploughed in the fall may be considered as forwarding the spring work one day at least. Besides, as most farmers manage their stock, their teams are much more capable of work in the fall than spring ; the work is done when their horses and oxen are in good heart, and not during the faintness that accompanies the approach of warm weather. It is true, such a condition of working cattle or horses should not exist ; their keeping should be a safeguard against falling away in the winter or weakness in the spring ; but we are too often content to put up with things as they are, rather than make efforts to have them as they should be. On soils very porous (those composed of gravel and sand), in which, for the want of a retentive sub- stratum, manures are apt to sink and their good ef- fects to be lost ; or on lands liable to be washed, as side hills, where the finer particles of the soil are in danger of being carried off by every rain or the melt- ing of the snow, fall ploughing may not be advisa- ble ; but on most others we are confident that its adoption will jje attended with beneficial effects. Lastly. Our summers are so limited in duration, that,, unless the time allotted to vegetation is fully occupied by the growth and ripening of plants, the 78 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. certain failures of crops may be anticipated. Hence the farmer is usually more hurried by his work in the spring than he ought to be, in order to avoid having his crops caught by the early frost. It should be the object of the farmer to have his necessary la- bour as nearly equalized through the season as pos- sible, and thus avoid all pressures at inconvenient times of the year. Experience shows that the farmer, in most cases, has more leisure hours in the fall of the year than at any other time : and he who would work it right should employ this time in ad- ■ vancing his next spring's work (for such fall plough- ing emphatically is), and thus preventing the press- ure of business then usually felt. Mucli having been said of late in relation to deep ploughing, it may not be amiss here to discuss that question. We believe that the nature of the soil and subsoil should determine the depth. A shoal soil, with a clay subsoil, will not admit of being plougned deep ; but any soil composed of loam or sand may, and probably ought to be ploughed much deeper than has been the practice of our farmers. For such sward land seven or eight inches are not too deep. The advantages are numerous. It will afford a better opportunity to cover long and unrot- ted manures, the fermentation of which beneath the sward must be of lasting benefit to the soil. It gives an opportunity to work above the sward with the smaller plough, harrow, and hoe ; is a greater saving of the manure of the sward, which has been esti- mated at twelve tons to the acre ; and, if the lana is to be stocked down immediately to grass without hoeing, it can be done much sooner, with the same degree of smoothness, by means of the harrow and roller : a deeper and looser soil is also created, much to the advantage of succeeding crops, inas- much as the tendency of the manures ploughed in is to rise and pass off by evaporation, and not, as has been supposed, to soak downward. There are some PLOUGHS AND PLOUGHING. 79 disadvantages in ploughing deep. More manure is required for a single crop. The crops will be later in arriving at maturity, which is a serious injury in some instances, to Indian corn particularly, though it is an advantage to many other crops, and especial- ly to wheat, as it will be longer in growing, and, of course, less likely to blast, while it affords a better opportunity for harvesting, in connexion with the farmers' other crops. In deep ploughing, greater strength of team is required to plough the same land. We are, on the whole, decidedly of the opinion that good policy requires us to plough deeper than has been the general custom of our farmers. CHAPTER VI. WHEAT. Natural History of the Plant. — Varieties. — Best Soil for Wheat. — Manures. — Cultivation. — Harvesting. — Diseases. — Preven- tion of Smut. — Insect Enemies. — Conversion of Winter into Spring Wheat. — Italian Wheat. Writers on the natural history of plants have enumerated seven species of this most important of the cereal gramina ; and we present the figures rep- resenting thfe dfferent kinds, as copied from Lou- don's Encyclopedia. They are as follows : (see next page.) Loudon remarks, " that the first, second, fourth, and fifth sorts are by many botanists considered as only varieties, and it is doubtful whether the third and sixth may not be the same ; the seventh has all the marks of a distinct species, but it is very questionable whether, if much cultivated, it would always continue" to produce one row of grains." 80 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. We are inclined to consider the spring, winter, Egyptian, turgid, and Polish wheat as but varieties of one species ; and that the spelt and one-grained wheat are to be considered as separate species. This opinion is rendered more probable from the recently discovered fact, " that the white, red, awned WHEAT. 81 or bearded, and the beardless wheats, change and run into each other in different soils and climates ; and even the Egyptian is known to change to the single-spiked common plant." — {Encyc. Amer.) On the contrary, the spelt and one grained have never been known to change their peculiar characters ; and the spelt in particular, by the nature of its ad- hering husk, appears as distinctly marked as rice or barley. Adapted to all the temperate countries and all the elevated regions of the torrid parts of the globe — possessing the greatest quantity of nutritive matter to be found in any vegetable or animal substance — affording a substance by nature superior to anything else for the composition of bread — if these qualities can entitle any single plant to the preference and cultivation of man, that preference must belong to wheat. Through the whole of Europe, except the extreme north, in China, Asia Minor, Syria, Persia, the north and south of Africa, and almost the whole of North and South America, wheat is grown to a greater or less extent, nothing but extreme heat or extreme cold opposing effectual barriers to its culti- vation. The most permanent varieties of cultivated wheat are the red and white berried, and the spring wheat, the berry of which is usually red. " Winter wheat sown in the spring will ripen in the following sum- mer, though the produce of succeeding generations of spring-sown wheat is found to ripen better." — {Encyc. Amer.) We have doubts, however, as to the entire correctness of this statement ; as in several experiments which have fallen under our knowl- edge, winter wheat sown in the spring did not come to maturity. To ensure its ripening the first season, it appears necessary that germination should be commenced previous to sowing, as the period, if sown as spring wheat usually is. does not seem long enough for winter wheat to perfect the process of II.— a 82 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. growth and maturing. The remark that succeeding generations of spring-sown wheat ripen better, ia important, and should be kept in mind by all who have attempted the growth of winter wheat as spring wheat. Loudon says, " In the cultivation of spring-sown winter wheat, it is of importance to use the products of spring-sown grain as seed, as the crop of such grain ripens about a fortnight earlier than when the produce of the same wheat, winter- sown, is employed as spring seed." By thus short- ening the period required for its growth, in the course of a few generations spring wheat is pro- duced ; and when the original winter wheat is of a good variety, the spring wheat will possess the same qualities. If, as we are confident might be done, the white flint could be converted into a spring wheat, retaining its present flouring qualities, an incalcula- ble benefit would result to the country. The different varieties of wheat have a constant tendency to change or deteriorate, owing to bad seed, improper soils, and crosses with other and, perhaps, inferior varieties. But this tendency can be counteracted by choosing the best wheat, and that grown on soils the most congenial to the plant, for seed ; and in this way any desirable variety may be kept good for any length of time. Within a few years, several new varieties (the result of careful cultivation), possessing superior qualities, have been introduced into England and this country. Varie- ties may be increased to any extent in the following manner: Select from a field of wheat a root or a simple spike that possesses the qualities of straw, berry, colour, weight, time of ripening, &c., desired. From the ear or ears thus selected, choose the best sized and proportioned kernels, and sow them in a soil suitable for wheat, and where the plants will be secure. When the produce of these is ripe, select the best ears and best grains, and continue sowing until a bushel or two of the desired quahty is ob- WHEAT. 83 tained, wliich will be the second or third year. Sometimes excellent varieties are discovered acci- dentally, as the celebrated hedge-wheat of England, the first ear of which was found growing in a hedge in Sussex ; and the swamp or Hint wheat of this country, which originated from a few ears found ia a swamp near Rome in this state. In few things are the chymist in his analysis of soils, and the farmer in the actual tilling the earth, better agreed than in the kinds of soil best adapted to produce wheat. Rich clays, or those in which sand and lime are so blended as to resemble in their constituents marl, when properly combined with vegetable or animal matter, are found to be the best soils for wheat. Next to these, heavy loams, or those in which silicious matter preponderates, but which contain sufficient clay to make them reten- tive, when united with the proper proportions of nu- tritive vegetable or animal matter, are the most productive. One of the best soils for wheat in Eng- land, analyzed by Davy, gave of carbonate of lime 28 parts ; sihca, 32 parts ; clay or alumina, 29 parts ; and animal or vegetable matter, 11 parts. Perhaps one of the surest tests in determining the qualities of a soil for wheat, or its fertility generally, is to as- certain its power of absorbing )noisture. This may be known by drying fineh'-pulverized earth to a tem- perature of 212^, and then exposing it to air satu- rated with moisture ; and that whicli under the same circumstances acquires the most weight in a given time, by the absorption of water from the atmo- sphere, will be found the most fertile soil. Some soils treated in this way will in an hour gain 18 or 20 parts in a thousand ; while others (and these are always barren, or nearly so) will gain in the same time only from two to five parts. Perhaps the most fertile soils in the United States are those based on limestone strata, as the principal part of central Kentucky, and the limestone zone of Western New- 84 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. York ; and these soils are noted for their powers (A absorption. Though the soil covering the rocks may be but a few inches in depth, owing to this quality it rarely fails of proving fertile, and excel- lent for wheat. Experience, however, shows that wheat may be made to grow on most lands, unless the lightest and poorest sands be made an excep- tion ; but on soils not naturally favourable, they must be made fit by preparation and manures. Where soils are too heavy or contain too much clay, calcareous sand or gravel is one of the most efficient alteratives ; and where it is too light and silicious, the combination of marl is equally ef- fectual. In determining the best manure for wheat lands and the manner of its application, agricultural chym- istry has done much for the farmer. In determining the food of plants, it was necessary to discover their constituents ; what they obtained from the air, and what from the earth; what their peculiar qualities were, and how their wants could be best supplied. In analyzing wheat, it was found to contain, in great- er quantities than any other plant used for food, the peculiar principle of gluten, a substance nearly re- sembling some kinds of animal matter ; and, as this was an essential part of all good wheat, it became desirable to ascertain how this food for the wheat- plant could be obtained. It was found by experi- ment, and from the nature of the chymical combina- tions, that gluten was the result of tjfie action of lime on animal matters ; and the natural inference was, that lime and animal manures w^ould be the best for the cultivatian of wheat, and the experience of farm- ers in this case is supported by the united testi- mony of Chaptal, Thaer, Davy, and Grisenwaithe. Limo, by common consent, is considered essentia] to the production of good wheat. Heavy straw may be grown without it by the aid of other ma- nures ; but the berry will be defective, and the flour, WHEAT. 85 owing to the absence of gluten, cannot be made into good bread : it will be heavy and unwholesome. In soils, then, that are by nature destitute of this ingre- dient, it must be supplied ; and the quantity will vary according to the qualities of the lime, and the soil to which it is applied. An essential benefit will be de- rived from the small quantity that can be distributed by rolling seed-wheat in lime ; and no danger need be apprehended if the quantity even reaches 50 or 100 bushels per acre. Lime in the soil is one of the most permanent manures, being inactive, except in its mechanical effect, unless brought in contact with animal or vegetable substances, in a state suited to chymical action and combination. Gypsum, or the union of lime with sulphuric acid, is considered by some a valuable manure or top-dressing for wheat ; but we think, in most cases, the greatest benefit is derived from this substance by its action on clover sown with wheat ; and this application and union of crops is found to be one of the surest methods of renovating or perpetuating the fertility of a soil. In sowing wheat, few or no cases exist in which the seed should not be prepared, and in whicl) there will not be a decided benefit from pickling. Pickling operates favourably in two ways ; it assists the ger- mination, and it prevents smut. All men acquainted with wheat, or who are dealers in the article, will admit the necessity of guarding against smut, as there are comparatively few fields in which it is not to be found more or less ; and, in the least quantity, its pernicious effects are discovered in discolouring the grain, and injuring it for fiour or seed. Stale urine, from its containing considerable quantities of ammonia, may be considered the best article for pickling wheat ; but, where this cannot be had, a strong brine of common salt may be used. The more effectually this brining or pickling is perlbrm- ed, the better it will be for wheat ; and if the process is completed, as it invariably should be, by rolling 86 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. the seed when wet in fresh-slaked lime, little dan- ger is to be apprehended either of smut or of the eggs of insects on the berry. In a late number of the British Farmer's Magazine, a preparation of ar- senic and potash is highly recommended as a pickle for wheat. It may, and undoubtedly would be effi- cacious in the prevention of smut, as the smallness of the seeds of this fungus render them peculiarly liable to be acted upon by mineral poisons ; but the dangerous nature of the substance, and the fact that a harmless substitute is found in lime, will, we think, prevent its general adoption. The quantity of wheat that should be sown on an acre, and the best method of sowing it, are points by no means settled among farmers. As to the first, no definite quantity, we think, can be fixed upon, as this will depend on the quality of the soil, the kind of wheat used, and the mode of sowing. Some wheat tillers or shoots more stems from a root than others ; and a new variety has been advertised in England, so remarkable for this quality that half a bushel is said to be sufficient for an acre of land. This might do if the seeds were placed at proper distances, and all germinated, two conditions rarely or never found united. In England the quantity va- ries from two and a half to four bushels per acre. In tliis country, from one bushel to two bushels are used. We have known an instance the present sea- son, in which 38 bushels were raised from one bush- el sown on one acre. In Europe, and particularly in Britain, drill-sowing was a few years since exten- sively practised, and still is by many of the best farmers, such as Mr. Coke of Holkham, now Earl Leicester. But the practice is declining in districts where it was once generally followed, and the broad- cast system, as used in this country, is taking its place. In a favourable day, an experienced man will sow the seed with sufficient regularity in this way ; and it is the general opinion, sanctioned, it would WHEAT. 87 seem, by experience, that on soils where wheat is liable to be thrown oat by freezing, ploughing in the seed with a slight furrow is preferable to harrowing. The practice called ribbing is recommended in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and we have heard some farmers in this country speak of the plan with ap- probation. The land, after being properly prepared, is thrown into ridges and furrows with the plough, to the depth and at the distances desired ; the wheat is then sown broadcast in the usual manner, and the greater part will, of course, roll into the furrows ; the process is then finished by a light harrowing across the furrows, and the grain will come up la rows with much regularity. This method allows the sun to reach the ground more effectually than in the usual way ; but the comparative advantages of the two modes can only be determined by farther experiment. In this country, when the farmer has committed his seed-wheat to the earth, he usually acts as though he had done his part, and trusts to Provi- dence for the rest. Trusting in Providence is very well; but what is called so is, nine times out of ten, so far as farming is concerned, trusting to chance for a crop ; and we cannot help thinking", that if, in addition to this trust, a little attention was paid to freeing the wheat-crop while growing from the weeds that so numerously infest most of our farms, sensible benefits would result. That hand-weeding the wheat should be carried in this country to the extent that it is in Britain or Holland, •cannot be expected — certainly not in the Northern States : the prices of labour and the habits of our citizens render it impossible. In foreign countries, the greater part of all such light field-labour is per- formed by women ; and a late visiter to Holkham mentions having seen from fifty to one hundred fe- males employed at the same time on the crops. Such an occupation for American females is not de- 88 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. sirable ; their sphere of usefulness is elsewhere ; and we trust the time is distant when such things will be tolerated or become necessary here. But we are of the opinion that the time of men and boys could for a few days be well employed in ridding the fields of stein-krout, and other villanous weeds that so frequently overtop the wheat-plants, and ex- haust the soil of the nutriment intended for them. That on many farms the crops are lessened from a fourth to a fifth, in consequence of imperfect tillage and foulness of the land cropped, does not admit of a doubt ; and if additional labour is necessary to remedy this great evil, let it be employed, or no more land put under the plough than can be properly tilled and cleaned. HARVESTING. Wheat, if harvested too early, will lose in weight very considerably, though the flour produced from it will be of a superior quality. If allowed to stand too long, there is danger of loss from its shelling freely in cutting and carting ; and, though more flour is made, it has not the pure whiteness of that of earlier cut grain. In order to avoid the loss by shrinkage on the one hand and shelling on the oth- er, it becomes of considerable consequence to deter- mine the most advantageous period of cutting wheat. That wheat should be allowed to stand until the berry will be mature, there can be no doubt. After this time, all is unnecessary exposure to danger. The wheat flint is a wheat which, in the field, resists two causes of danger and loss better than any vari- ety with which we are acquanited ; it rarely ger- minates on the stalk while standing, as some other kinds will, in unfavourable vveather ; and, owing to the firmness with which the kernel is embraced by the chaff", the loss by premature sheUing is inconsid- erable. Brown, in his treatise on Rural Economy, an ex- WHEAT. 89 ccllent English publication, says, "It is necessary to discriminate between the ripeness of the straw and the ripeness of the^rain; for in some seasons the straw dries npward ; under which circumstances, a field to the eye may appear completely fit for the sickle, when, in reality, the grain is imperfectly con- soli(tated, and, in fact, not much removed from a milky state:" We have seen wheat cut in this state, and when put immediately in a mow or stack- ed, it can hardly fail of receiving injury. Such grain, though it can receive no benefit from the root by standing, is materially aided in ripening by the action of the air and the sun. Mr. Shirreff, in the Quarterly Journal of August, gives as reasons for cutting wheat before it is dead ripe, that is, when the straw begins to turn, or becomes yellow imme- diately below the ear ; first, an increased quantity of grain, ^eater security from the weather, an im- proved" quahty of straw, and an extension of the harvest season. Secondly, greater security against the eflfects of wind or rain, either as it effects the shelling, discoloration, or germination of the grain. The colour of wheat which has not been cut till it became dead ripe is generally of an opaque, whitish hue ; while that cut before it Was dead ripe is trans- parent and tinged with brown. The latter descrip- tion of wheat bears the highest price in all markets. Where, however, wheat is smutty, it should be al- lowed to stand as long as it can be left with safety, as much of that fungus will be lost in the field, and the remainder will be most easily broken to pieces and blown away in the process of threshing and cleaning. But it may be considered as a general rule, and one which is sanctioned by the practice of the most skilful farmers in this country and abroad, that it is better to cut wheat early than late, and that there is less danger of loss by shrinking than shelling. The time necessary for wheat to remain in the 11.— H 90 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. field after it is cut, before it is put in the barn or stacked, must in a great measure depend on two cir- cumstances : the ripeness o^ the grain when cut, and its freedom from everything green when bound into sheaves. If the grain is perfectly ripe, and the straw thoroughly dried, and the sheaves free from grass or weeds, wheat may be cut, and stacked or housed the same day ; but as these conditions are rarely found united, and nothing is more fatal to the quality of wheat than heating and moulding in the mow or stack, it is usually better to let it be effect- ually cured in the field than to run any risk from premature housing. The best method of securing it from sudden showers or unfavourable weather while in the field, is a question of interest to the farmer. He well knows that if a sheaf of wheal or other grain is once thoroughly soaked, it takes a long while to dry ; and though a slight wetting of the heads or butts of a sheaf will soon pass away by evaporation and exposure to the air, yet wheat in the centre of the sheaf, where the straw is com- pressed by the bands, requires many days of fair weather for its dissipation. Various methods are adopted by farmers to save their grain from wetting. Some lay it in the form of a cross, the heads in the centre, and the whole surmounted with a sheaf so disposed as to throw off any slight showers that may fall. Others place their wheat in shocks, the sheaves two and two standing on their butts, the heads of the sheaves inclined to each other, and the tops covered by two sheaves laid their butts to each other, and the tops spread out so as to shield the standing sheaves as much as possible. Others I)lace their wheat in the same position as the last, with the exception that all of the shock is left stand- ing, and no sheaves are placed over the heads. In fine weather this method is preferable to any other, as the wheat is more exposed to the influence of the air and sun, and is, consequently, sooner fit for the WHEAT. 91 bam. It will even stand through a shower not very severe, in this way, with little injury, if followed by Sun and clear air ; but it is evident that heavy or long-continued rain, by the thorough soaking the sheaves must receive, can scarcely be otherwise than prejudicial to the quality of the wheat ; and it is by getting in wheat before the centre of the sheaf is dry after wetting, that more of it is injured in this country than in any other way. Another, and, per- haps, all things considered, the safest way, is to put up the wheat the day it^is cut ; and, if rain is appre- hended, as fast as it is cut and collected, to place it in stacks containing from eight to ten shocks each, the sheaves built in compactly with their heads to the middle, the butts declining outward, and the stack topped with a sheaf so arranged as to cover the cone of heads, and throw off the rain in every direc- tion. Wheat so put up, and well managed, 'nay stand for weeks without injury, aud wait the pleas- ure of the owner for gathering into the barn ; and the green stuff with which the butts may be filled will be effectually dried, and thus prevented from in- juring the wheat, as it would have done had it been housed before curing. Experience here, however, is the surest guide, as the seasons differ in different places ; and what might be followed in one place with safety, would be ruinous in another. Thus, in nor- thern latitudes, far more care is required than in southern ones ; and while the grain of the north of Europe can with difficulty be saved at all, nothing is more secure from injury by the weather than the harvests of Spain and Italy ; and the same remarks are true, though to a less extent, on this Continent. It should, however, be remembered, that experience, both here and abroad, shows that, while other meth- ods of securing may be safe, stacking in the field, when the stacks are properly put up, is certainly so, and should generally be followed for that reason. 92 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. DISEASES OF WHEAT. The most common diseases of wheat are smut ;ind blight. The first is of two kinds ; in one of which the farina of the be-rry or grain is converted into a black powder, and the husk is more or less covered with the same. This kind of smut is oftener found on oats and barley than wheat, though the latter is not exempt. In the other kind of smut the kernel alone is affected ; the envelope rarely breaks until passed through the machine in threshing, and even then frequently does not injure the quality of the wheat, or seriously affect the price. As mentioned before, brine and quicklime are antidotes to smut in any form ; and a preparation of arsenic and potash has also been lately recommended for the same purpose.* ' [Various experments, or series of them, have been maHe to test ihe efficiency jf the several preparations for seed-wheat, one o, the fullest of which we copy from the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, to which they were communicated by Mr. Don- aldson, of Leicestershire. Experiment No. 1. — Pure wheat sown without any prepara- tion produced 866 sound ears and 2 smutted; in the proportion of 433 sound ears to one of smut. Ex. No. 2. — 400 grains of wheat impregnated with smut- powder, and sown without any preparation, produced 210 sound ears and 463 smutted; proportion, one sound ear to two smut- ted. Ex. No. 3. — 400 grains impregnated with smut, and washed in chamber-ley and limed, produced 700 sound ears and 60 Bmutled ; proportion, IH sound to one smiit. Ex. No 4.— 400 grains impregnated with smut, and washed with chamber ley, produced 500 sound ears and 106 smutted ; proportion, five sound to one smutteil. Ex. No 5—400 grains impregnated with smut, steeped in arsenic and water and limed, produced 600 sound ears and 41 smutted ; proportion, 14 sound to one smutted. Ex. No. 6 —400 grains impregnated with smut, and rubbed with dry arsenic, produced 538 sound ears and 146 smutted; proportion, four sound to one smutted. Ex. No. 7.— 400 grains impregnated with smut, and steeped WHEAT, 93 The latest writers on blight, such as Davy, Banks, Loudon, and Grisenthvvaiie, divide this disease into four varieties : blight from cold and frosty winds ; blight from a sultry and noxious vapour; blight from a want of nourishment ; and blight from the exten- sive propagation of a minute fungus. Blight from cold winds is usually confined to those from the east and northeast, and is felt chiefly in the in vitriol and water and limed, produced 635 sound ears and 40 smutted ; proportion, 16 sound to one smutted. Ex. No. 8. — 400 grains impregnated with smut, and steeped in copperas and water and limed, gave 205 sound ears and 445 smutted ; proportion, one sound to two smutted. Kx. No. 9—600 sound grains from a badly-smutted crop, pickled and sown without any preparation, produced 612 sound ears and 53 smut ones; proportion, 11 J sound to one smut. Ex. No. 10. — 600 sound grains impregnated with chamber-ley and limed, produced 757 sound ears and 16 smutted ; propor- tion, 47 sound to one smutted. Ex No 11. — 200 gr.nins impregnated with smut, and sown without any preparation, produced 67 sound ears and 375 smut- ted ; proportion, one sound to five smutted. Ex. No. 12. — 200 grains impregnated with smut, and pre- pared with chaml)erley and limed, produced 374 sound ears and 43 smutted : proportion, nine sound to one smutted Ex. No 13. — 200 grains impregnated with smut, and steeped in arsenic and water and limed, produced 443 sound ears and 44 smutted ; proportion, 11 sound to one smutted. Ex. No. 14 —200 grains impregnated with smut, and rubbed with dry arsenic, produced 317 sound ears and 43 smutted; pro- portion, eight sound to one smutted. Ex. No. 15. — 200 grains impregnated with smut, and steeped in vitriol and water and limed, produced 430 sound ears and 40 smutted ; proportion, 11 sound to one smutted. Ex. No. 16. — 200 grains impregnated with smut, and steeped in copperas and water and limed, produced 260 sound ears and 190 smutted ; in the proportion of li sound ears to one smutted. These experiments, and they were made by Mr. Donaldson with great care, agree in the main with those instituted by Sin- clair and Marshall, and tho.'ie made by Arthur Young. The very great difference in sowing grain pure and free fiorn the cuntiigion of smut, and that infected, both without preparation, as shown in the first two experiments, is decisive on the point of infection, and should induce every farmer to use his utmost endeavours.to sow none but pure seed. — Eds.] 94 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. spring by its effects on fruit. Blight originating in heat and vapour generally occurs in the summer, when plants have attained their full growth, and when there is no cold weather or wind to produce it. Blight from want of nourishment is found in grain on thin, poor soils, where the plants have been pre- maturely forced into blossom, and the ear ripens or dries before it is filled. Blight from fungus propa- gations is the most common and the most injurious to grain. It generally assumes the appearance of a rusty-looking powder, soiling the fingers or clothes when touched ; and when in sufficient quantity se- riously to injure the crop of grain, it gradually passes into dark patches or lines on the stalk or leaves, eftectually preventing any farther ripening of the straw or grain until dried by cutting and curing. Fields of wheat are injured by rust or blight in the most irregular and capricious manner ; and there is reason to suppose that the cause or causes are not yet perfectly understood. One of the most plausible conjectures, perhaps, is that of Grisenthwaite in his New Theory of Agriculture, viz., that in many cases in which blight attacks grain, it may be for want of the peculiar food requisite for perfecting the grain — it being known that the seeds of plants contain prim- itive principles not found in the rest of the plant. Thus the grain of wheat contains gluten and phos- phate of lime ; and, where these are wanting in the soil (that is, in the manured earth in which tlie plant grows), it will be unable to perfect its fruit, which, of course, becomes more liable to disease. The fun- gus or rust of wheat is called the Uredo linearis; and as a fungus something similar in appearance is found on the common barberry bush, Berberis vuJ^aris, it is a general opinion among farmers that this busb is th« cause of blight in the grain-fields of this vjcinitv * '■*.iis would seem to be entirely an error, as anfiJi'9' * Albany. WHEAT. 95 scopical observation shows the fungus to be totally different in its form and growth from the grain fun- gus, and, therefore, that the one species cannot pro- ceed from the other. Some have supposed that, in- stead of being a fungus, the rust of wheat is merely an exudation of its juices through the ruptured ves- sels of the plant, and that this loss of sap occasions the shrinking of the grain. Considerable observation of the state of grain previously to, and during the appearance of blight, and the microscopical growth and spread of the rust or fungus, have induced us to suppose that in most cases the operation of both these causes, viz., the bursting of the vessels and the spread of the fungus, are present in blight. The rust usually appears first in patches on the leaves ; and it spreads to the stalks of the wheat only when the state of the weather and of the plants is such as to justify the supposi- tion of the exudation of sap. If the stem is partially dried or ripened, the sporules or seed of the fungus seem spread over its surface in the exuded but dried sap, like a reddish or yellow varnish. If the stem is green (as in the case of late-grown or winter-killed grain) at the time of attack, the flow of sap con- tinues through the ruptured vessels, and the spo- rules, finding in this moisture a convenient nidus or place of growth, penetrate the openings with their roots, and assume the linear appearance so charac- teristic of this disease. The rapid propagation of this fungus will not be matter of wonder when it is remembered that it passes through its stage of growth and ripening its seeds in little more than twenty-four hours ; and that, according to Ehren- burg, some species of fungi contain 250,000,000 of seeds. The minute particles that make the smoke of the common pufif-ball are the ripened seeds of that fungus ; and those of the Uredo are so small as to be undistinguishable, except in masses, without the aid of the microscope. If the rupture of the vessels 96 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. of the plant is," as w.e suppose, owing to excessive heat and moisture, by which they are overcharged while the cuticle or skin of the plant is weakened and softened, it does not appear that much can bo done by the efforts of man to prevent the disease. Grain grown on favourable soils properly prepared, and that comes to maturity early, is more likely to escape blight than that grown on unfavourable soils, or than that which, owing to any cause, is late in coming to maturity, since the hot, wet weather of July is likely to find such late wheat in a proper state for the development of th'fe disease. The most probable means of prevention would appear to be, to free the grain from the superabundant moisture that softens the stem at times when the state of the at- mosphere would seem to be favourable to the burst- ing of the vessels by increased circulation, and this may be done by sweeping the fields with a rope drawn by two men over the heads of the grain, the men walking in what are called the clearing up fur- rows to prevent trampling it down. The roots of the wheat-plant ai-e liable to be at- tacked by grubs and worms, the larvee of various beetles : among which, the most destructive are those known to us as the wire-worm, the larvee of the Mater segetis, and the red-headed large white grub, the larvae of the May-bug, cockchaffer, or black bug of summer evenings, Meldontha vulgaris. These sometimes commit serious ravages on the roots of grass, corn, and wheat ; but usually, where found at all, their number is so limited as not to prove very injurious to the crops. Both of these grubs or worms live some years hi the larves state, in which they are most destructive ; and where the ground will admit of very late ploughing, it Avill probably prove the most certain method of destroj'ing them, to expose them in this way to the severe frosts of winter. The perfect insect of most varieties of night-flying beetles, the May beetle particularly, is WHEAT. 97 rery easily attracted by light, and this propensity has been taken advantage of for their destruction m great numbers. When they appear in the summer, it is most commonJy but for a few days, on the even- ing of which, by kindhng large fires of brush, sha- vings, &e., all the bugs of the vicinity will be at- tracted by the light, and perish in the flames. Thousands may be destroyed in this way, and thus new deposites of eggs in the soil be prevented. But the insects that attack the wheat while grow- ing and in the ear, are by far the most formidable enemies of that grain which the farmer is com- pelled to encounter ; and of these, two are the most conspicuous, and have made themselves known and dreaded wherever they have appeared by their frightful ravages, viz., the Hessian-fly, the Tipult tritici of Linn, and Mitchell ; tlie Cecidomia or Ceci— doijiyia destructor of Kirby and vSwainson ; and the wheat-fly, the Cecidomia tritici of the later writers. The Hessian-fly has been known in this country for more than half a century, and has at times destroyed entirely, in many places, the wheat-crop, so as to leave nothing for harvesting. This fly deposites its eggs in the young grain, both in the fall and spring, near the joints of the root, within the leaf. Here the worm is hatched, and preys on the juices of the tender stalk ; and, when they are numerous, the plants turn yellow and die from this abstraction of sap. The larvae remain in the ground over the win- ter, and assume the form of the perfect or winged insect in May, or in season to depdsite their eggs in spring grain. As they undergo two transformations within the year, no effectual method of destroying them has yet been discovered ; though it has lately been said that feeding the plants as close as possi- ble to the ground, if the insect is discovered in the fall, will save the field from their ravages. Sheep are the best for this purpose, as tliey gnaw the plants close, and their feet injure the roots less than other 98 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY animals. A late Pennsylvania journal has assorted that the Hcssian-fly deprives itself of its wings pre- vious to depositing its eggs within the leaf plant. We have observed the habits of this insect with toine care, but have never noticed such a shedding of the wings. We do not deem it incredible, how- ever, as an instance perfectly analogous occurs in the case of the female of the common grasshopper, Gryllus tetligonia, which, as every one may have no- ticed, deprives herself, or is deprived of her wings in such a manner that the mere slumps of them are left, which form no hinderance to the body in penetrating the ground and depositing the eggs. Notwithstanding the supposed origin of the Hessian- fly, it remains uncertain whether the insect was known in Europe at that time, though it has since •become generally known. The wheat-fly, that produces the worm in the ear, and which promises to become the great enemy of the wlieat grower, since, as far as it has spread, it rarely fails of proving fatal to the crop, has but lately appeared among us ; and its habits do not appear to be well understood, even in those sections where it first attracted notice, which was in the vicinity of th^ North River. This fly has been described by difTerent observers as red, green, orange-coloured, yellowish-red, and dark coloured ; and the probabil- ity is, that more than one variety of the same spe- cies act as depredators. We have observed them carefully while in the act of depositing their eggs on spring wheat; and we have detected a similar worm, the product of a similar fly, in ripe berries of the raspberry and blackberry kinds. The fly is in general orange-coloured, with a greenish tinge, which in certain lights gives a rather changeable appearance, and is provided with a retrr.ctile oviposi- tor, which, when not in use, is partially folded under its belly, very much in the manner of that of the common bot-fly of horses. This instrument is used WHEAT. 99 for placing the egg in immediate contact with the berry while in its softest state ; and sometimes the glass will detect three or four of these little. worms playing on a single kernel. Most generally, how- ever, there is not more than one to a berry, though there may be a dozen in the ear. The worm or larva is yellow, and about half an inch in length ; and, if the wheat is threshed immediately after harvest- ing, may, where it exists, usually be found in large numbers in the screen-boxes of the fanning-mill. When it leaves the ear, as it generally does before the wheat is cut, it falls to the ground, which it pen- etrates, and remains in the lan-a state until with the returning year it becomes a perfect insect, and re- news its attack on the blossoming and earing grain. Perhaps no single insect has attracted more notice in this country, or caused more exertion to discover some method of destroying it or preventing its at- tacks, and, we regret to say, thus far with very little success. Much was expected at one time from the application of lime to the ear; but subsequent expe- rience has not justified the hopes at first entertained. Perhaps, in some cases, the fault has been in the lime not being fresh or quick, as it clearly should be when applied ; and perhaps the application was delayed so long that the mischief was already done, and the worm safe from the effects of the lime. Has sprink- ling the ears, when attacked by the fly, with lime- water, ever been tried T We think such an applica- tion, of the proper strength, would be fatal to the egg or the worm, and might be disagreeable to the liy. Fumigating the field with sulphur has been recommended ; and, could it be carried into effect at dusk, when there is a little dew on the grain and the fly the most active, there can scarcely be a doubt of ils good effects. The sulphurous acid that would be thus generated would be fatal to flies, as experience proves it to be to bees and other insects when re- spired. We are inclined to think that, eventually, 100 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. fall ploughing of all lands where the preceding crop has been injured by the worm, will be found the most easy and effectual remedy, by destroying the insect while in the larva state, and thus preventing the appearance of the perfect insect. The same worm that is found in the wheat-head we the last year detected in oats, and it is well known to attaek barley ; so that it may be considered the general enemy of all the cereal gramina, and should be guarded against in all. [The varieties of wheat are very numerous, and the experiments of Le Couteur prove that the num- ber may be easily increased. Some of the varieties that have been introduced into cultivation lately are clearly superior to the old, both in their productive- ness and the quality of their flour. An interesting account of the successful conver sion of a winter wheat into summer wheat may be found in the Genesee Farmer, vol. 9, page 138, and in the Cultivator, vol. 7, page 23. In this case the wheat selected was the flint-wheat, white-berried and beardless ; the product of this, when grown as a spring wheat, is reddish and bearded. That new kinds may be produced to take the place of such varieties as, by carelessness in cultivation or age, become deteriorated, is evident ; and the Uni- ted States should institute experiments in wheat as well as the countries of Europe. The Italian spring wheat has been a great acquisition to this state. The following notice of its introduction is from a letter to the editors from Mr. Hathaway, of Rome, the gentleman who brought it to the notice of the public] BARLEY AND OATS. 101 " I came in possession of the original wheat by accident. An Italian gentleman of Florence, mar- ried against his father's will, was disinherited, and emigrated to America, bringing, among a quantity of other seeds, a tierce of this wheat, as he intended to turn farmer. The wheat did not arrive season- ably for the spring sowing in this place, and was left in a storehouse on the canal. The gentleman con- tracted for a farm in the town of Florence in this county (induced by the name, probably), was no farm- er, made bad^ calculations and worse, experiments, and failed in everything; he soon became reduced, and was about to eat his imported wheat, for which I had advanced him money to pay the transit and charges. I happened to see it, and, being struck with its excellence, told him it must not be so disposed of; procured him other wheat, and took it at its cost in Italy, $2 50 per bushel. I succeeded in getting it into the hands of some of our farmers, though with- out much confidence on their part. But the result was most gratifying ; the wheat actually producing about double the quantity usually grown on an acre, and selling at more than double the price of common spring wheat. From this it has all arisen." CHAPTER VII. BARLEY AND OATS. Varieties of Barley.— Best mode of Culture.— Varieties of Oats. — Suitable Soils. — Good^rops. The increasing attention which is paid to the cul- tivation of barley ; the profits of the crop ; its value as a preparative for wheat ; and the favour which it finds as a substitute for wheat in making bread, are 102 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. entitling it to a high rank among the grains cultiva- ted in this country. According to Loudon, tliore are six species and sub-species of this grain n\ cultivation, besides va- rieties ; but the following figures, copied from his Encyclopaedia of Agriculture, exhibit the most im- portant : Hordeum vulgare, or Spring barley (a), is distin- r^shed by its double row of beards or awns stand- ing erect, and its thin husk, which renders it favour- BARLEY AND OATS. 103 able for malting. This is the sort commonly grown in the southern and eastern districts of both England and Scotland. Hordeum coeleste, or Siberian barley, is a variety of early or Spring barley much grown in the north of Europe, having broader leaves, and reckoned more productive than the other. Hordeum hexastichon (b), Winter barley, or, as it is called in Scotland, square barley, is a variety known by having six rows of grains, large and thick-skin- ned, and for that reason is not considered as favour- able for malting. Barley bigg is a variety of Winter barley, known by its always having six rows of grains, by the grains being small and thick-skinned, and being ear- lier than either the first or last mentioned variety. It is hardy, and chiefly grown in Scotland. Hordeum distichon (c), common or long-eared bar- ley, is known by its long spike or ear flattened trans- versely, and its long awns. It yields well, though some object to it, as, the ears being long and heavy, they think it apt to lodge. Hordeum distichon nudum, or naked barley, is known by the awns falling easily, and, when ripe, almost of themselves from the chaff, so that the ear somewhat resembles wheat, and by some is called wheat-barley. It is spoken highly of in the British Husbandry, as being hardy in growth, strong in the stem, tillering with great vigour, and producing abun- dant crops of fine grain. By some this variety is considered the same as spelt-wheat, which, indeed, it strongly resembles. It is six-rowed. Hordehm Zeocriton (d), sprat or battledore barley, is known by its low stature, coarse straw, short, broad ears, and long awns. It is but little cultivated. New varieties of barley are produced in the same manner as in wheat, by crossing ; and some of the most celebrated kinds, such as the Chevalier, Aii- nat. &c., have originated in this way. 104 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. In this country but two varieties are sown, and these are famiUarly distinguished as the two and the six rowed. They are always sown in the spring, no kind being able to endure the severity of our winters ; or, at least, we know of no variety which has been attempted in the United States as a winter or fall sown grain. The comparative value of the two varieties does not seem to have been fully decided by our farmers, some preferring one kind and some the other. That the two-rowed will make the most flour from a given number of pounds ; that its thin skin renders it more suitable for malt- ing ; and that it is rather less liable to be affected by smut than the six-rowed, seems to be generally conceded ; but its productiveness is much disputed, and, it would seem, with some reason, since the greater length of the ear in the two-rowed will hardly compensate for the greater number of rows in the other variety. So far as we are able to judge, however, from the opinions of experienced farmers, the preference, for the reasons assigned, is becom- ing more decided in favour of the two-rowed. Barley of every variety requires a rich, friable, and mellow soil, which retains a. moderate quantit)'- of moisture, without approaching to what may be denominated wet ; as, for instance, land containing from 50 to 65 per cent, of sand, and the remainder chiefly clay ; though, in situations where the climate is usually moist during the summer, it may be grown where sand is in a larger proportion. It succeeds best in what farmers term a rich, deep loam ; but a soil with too much sand or too much clay will not produce good crops. With the single "exception that it will succeed with less lime than wheat, soils that produce good wheat will also grow barley 'to advantage. It is probable that more barley is grown in the State of New- York than in all the rest of the United States ; and the section in which it is produced in BARLEY AND CaTS. 105 the greatest abundance and perfection is the north- ern slope of Western New- York. The ranges of towns which mark the geological separation of the arg!4laceous and limestone districts have hitherto yielded the greatest quantities of barley ; and in them the culture is still rapidly extending. On this slope it is found that soils on which winter wheat, without extra care in cultivation, is very liable to freeze out in the spring, will produce heavy crops of barley ; and hence clover and barlejt on many farms have taken the place of clover ancTwheat, af- fording about the same profit in the crop, and at a less expense of labour. This is particularly the case in the country extending from the Oneida to the Canandaigua lakes, including a part of Madison, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Yates, and Ontario counties. On what is called the great limestone region of Western New- York, wheat will undoubt- edly be preferred to barley as an article of culture ; and it may be remarked as a general rule, that on all soils where good barley can be grown, the suita- ble application of lime will ensure the success of wheat. Perhaps there is no crop which demands and re- pays thorough working of the soil better than barley. The surface, when fitted for the reception of the seed, can hardly be made too fine ; and the excel- lence of the crop is greatly depending on this point. A crop tliat occupies the ground so short a time as barley, spring wheat, or oats, can hardly be benefit- ed by manure applied directly to them, unless in a thoroughly decomposed state ; and hence it has been found by experience that these crops succeed bet- ter after hoed or root crops to which the manure has been applied, or on turf-lands that have received a top-dressing of manure, aiid been carefully turned over in the fall of the year. The practice, some- what extensively followed, of sowing winter wheat after barley, has led to the application of the manure II.— I 106 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. to the barley-crop ; and perhaps, where hoed cropa cannot precede, this is the preferable way, though there is a great risk of too much straw, and the con- sequent lodging of the barley before ripening. Barley should be sown, in all cases, as soon as the ground is sufficiently dried and warmed to allow the seeds to germinate freely, and to place them beyond the danger of injury from frost. Early frosts are more fatal to barley than to spring Avheat or oats, and more injurious on wet or low lands than on dry or elevate^ones. Particular attention must be paid to the dryness of the soil at the time of sowing, especially if naturally inclined to be wet, as on such soils a wet spring will starve" and destroy the plants. " Steeping the seed for twenty-four hours in soft water will cause the grain to germinate at the same time ; and this, if it is sown at a late period, is of more importance than may be generally imagined, as it is otherwise apt to ripen unequally." — {Brit- Hus.) The finest, heaviest samples of all grains are usually obtained from early-sown fields ; and the difference of weight in barley and oats is from one fifth to one third in favour of early sowing. The smut is the only disease to which barley is subject ; and this is rarely a serious injury, where the crop is grown on favourable soils, and the seed is put in in good order. The worm which has proved so de- structive to wheat in the Eastern counties, has also injured the barley to a considerable extent ; but in Western New- York we have neither seen nor heard of its appearance in this grain. The wire-worm is sometimes very destructive to the crop when young; and some seasons the meadow-rnole, so called, as the grain approaches maturity, makes sad havoc by cutting down the plant to get at the ears — an eftect more often observed when the barley is sown on turf-leys, as these rarely lie so close as not to leave numberless hiding-places for the animal. In sowing barley, ?,s in most other crops, the uni- BARLEY AND OATS. 107 versal experience of English farmers, and the direc- tions of the best works on agriculture, go to estai)- lish the fact, that less seed is i-equired on rich lands than on poor ; and that the quantity of seed used should be increased in proportion to the lateness of the sowing. In European countries, from ten to eighteen pecks per acre are used — sixteen being the Quantity usually recommended : in this country, from two to three bushels to the acre are considered sufficient. The two-rowed requires less than the six-rowed, as it tillers more vigorously ; and, if sown too thick, the plants will be weak and ripen irregu- larly. Both the quantity and quality of the product de- pend on the soil and on the variety of the grain sown. In this country, the average crop may be stated from thirty to thirty-five bushels per acre : in England, the average produce is estimated 'at thirty-two bushels. Middleton says the crop in that country varies from fifteen to seventy-five bushels an acre. The greatest crop we have seen mention- ed in this country was sixty-five bushels per acre, and that was grown on land from which several crops had been taken in succession. In an experi- ment made by the East Lothian Agricultural Socie- ty upon the Chevalier and a common sort of barley, both sown on a light gravelly soil, the produce of each per irhperial acre was, Chevalier, 65 bushels 2 pecks of grain, weighing 56 3-4 lbs. per bushel. Common barley gave 61 bushels 22 pecks of grain, and weighed 54 3-4 lbs. per bushel. Good qualities of the two-rowed ^vill average about 52 or 53 lbs. per bushel ; but the winter or six- rowed varieties will not exceed 43 to 46 lbs. The difference in malting is great ; the experiments of Dr. Smith showing that a Wiuchester quarter* of the several varieties, when malted, would produce the following quantities of proof spirits, viz. * Eight bushels. 1Q8 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. English barley about . . . .21^ gallons. Scotch barley 'i loj " Scotch bigg " ICj " Or that English barley was 11 per cent, superior to Scotch, and full 12 per cent, above Scotch bigg, or winter barley. The value of the several kinds of grain as an ar- ticle of food may be estimated from the following table, the flour being of good household or famil5' quality : Wheat, if weighing 60 lbs., gives flour 48 lbs., bread 64 lbs Rye . . . 54 . . . . 42 . . .56 Barley . . . 48 . , , .374 . .50 Oats . . . 40 . . . . 22i . .30 {Brit. Hits.) The analysis of barley by Sir H. Davy gives, as contained in 100 parts : 79 per cent, of mucilage or starch, 7 " of saccharine matter, 6 " of gluten or albumen. Owing to the deficiency of this latter substance or gluten, barley flour, like that of oats, buckwheat, or potatoes, cannot by itself be made into bread, but is mixed with wheat flour, or eaten in the form of cakes, when it is very wholesome and palatable. Barley is, perhaps, one of the most diflicult grains to secure in good condition ; as, if suffered to stand until the berry is perfectly dry and hard, the head will frequently drop down, owing to the brittleness of the straw ; if cut too early, the grain will shrink and lose in weight ; and as it cannot, when cut in an unripe state, be put into barns or stacks without certain injury by heating, so, in unfavourable weath- er, it is very apt to become of a black colour, and to lose the clear yellowish-white tinge so charac- teristic of good and well-cured barley. The unusu- ally fine state of our atmosphere, and the clear, dry air of our summers, render the proper curing of bar- ley a much less difficult task here than in the moist chmate and under the cloudy skies of Great Britain. BARLEY AND OATS. 109 Before the introduction of threshing machines, barley, though easily threshed by horses or by hand, was with great difficulty prepared for market, owing to the obstacles offered in separating the awn from the kernel ; and, at the present time, in many dis- tricts of England and most parts of the Continent, the hummeling, or freeing the berry from the beard, is one of the most laborious and difficult processes in the culture of barley. Barley is extensively used in the fattening of pork, for which purpose it is admirab'^"^ adapted when pre- pared by steaming or grinding; and, in the districts where it is grown, is an excellen/. substitute for the corn-crop, which for a few years past has been a partial failure. It is also used in large quantities in our breweries, and in too many instances takes the place of rye in the manufacture of whiskey. As a feed for horses it is not generally approved of ; but for fattening cattle, hogs, and poultry, it is highly prized. Before the system of cutting straw, or manger-feeding, was generally adopted in Great Britain, barley-straw, owing perhaps to its being cut earl}', was used as food for cattle in preference to other kinds, as they could eat it uncut more readily than the harder straws. Wheat or oat straw is now preferred, when it is to be converted into chaff or cut fine, for mixing with hay or roots. There are two varieties of barley found in the shops, Pearl and Scotch, both of which are prepared by divesting the kernel of its husk in mills resembling in some degree tlie rice mills of the South ; and in the case oi the pearl barley, the grinding or rubbing is continued until the berry assumes a smooth, round form. Few articles are more nutritious, or better adapted to the stomachs of the weak or valetudinarians. The oat, Avena sativa of the naturalists, is a very useful grain, and better adapted to a northern cli- no AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. mate than any other plant that has been used for bread. It is chiefly confined to the more moist and cool portions of the American and European Con- tinents, being scarcely known in the South of France, Italy, or Spain, in the Southern parts of the United States, or in tropical countries. Of all the cultiva- ied grains, oats are the easiest of culture, and the most certain and prolific in their product. The va- rieties are very numerous, and some of them very distinctly marked ; and, as in the case of wheat, there seems no reason why new varieties may not be produced at pleasure. Mr. Loudon, in his Encyclopaedia, enumerates the principal varieties cultivated in Scotland as follows ; and from his work we have copied the representa- tions of two of these varieties, illustrating the most marked peculiarities of this valuable plant. The white or Common oat (a), in most general culr tivation, and known by its white husk and kernel. The Black oat, known by its black husk, cultivated in England and Scotland on poor soils. BARLEY AND OATS. Ill; The Red oat, known by its brownish-red husk, thinner and more flexible stem, and firmly attacjied grains. It is early, suflers little from winds, makes good meal, and suits .exposed situations and late ch- mates. The Poland oat., known by its thick white husk, awnless chaff, solitary grains, short white kernel, and short, stiff straw. It requires a dry, warm soil, and is very prolific. The black Poland oat is one of the best varieties, and sometimes weighs 50 lbs. per bushel. The Dutch oat has plump, thin-skinned white grains, mostly double, and the large one sometimes awned. It has longer straw than the Poland, but in other respects resembles it. The Potato oat has large, plump, rather thick-skin- ned white grains, double and treble, and with longer straw than either of the last varieties. It is prefer- red to all others in England for land in good cultiva- tion, and bears a higher price in the London market than any other. The Georgian oat is a large-grained, remarkably prolific variety, introduced from Georgia, near the Caspian Sea, Some cultivators on good land prefer it to the potato oat. The Siberian or Tartarian oat (J) is considered by some as a distinct species. The grains are black or brown, thin, and rather small, and turned mostly to one side of the panicle or ear. The straw is large and reedy, but it is usually very productive, and is well calculated for poor soils and exposed situations. A variety called the Winter oat is cultivated in some parts of England. It is sown in October; the plants are luxuriant at Christmas, tillering like wheat ; it is depastured by ewes and lambs all the spring ; the fields are then shut up, and an ample harvest is cut in August. There are many other varieties of oats known, the names of which are derived from some local 112 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. cause, and by selection or systematic impregnation new kinds may be originated at pleasure. Degen- eracy in any variety usually takes place in a limited time, unless care is taken to select the best heads and well-ripened grains for seed. Some English farmers are at the pains to select the best seeds after the grain is threshed. It is found by experience, that of the numerous cultivated varieties, the Potato and Poland are the best selections for lowland, and the red oat for good uplands ; the common or the black oat may be sown on inferior soils, as may also the 'I'artarian. The numerous instances given in the Farmer of the as- tonishing productiveness of the Tartarian, show that it is a variety well adapted to our soils and climate. In the sowing of oats, less regard may be had to soil than with any other grain : the only requisite seems to be that it is not too wet. Tenacious clays or poor gravel, where scarcely any seed-bearing plant will grow, will produce a crop of oats if plough- ed at tlie proper season, and if the seed be of good quality and judiciously put in. " The best oats, both in quantity and quality, are those which succeed grass ; indeed, no kind of grain seems better quali- fied by nature for foraging upon grass-land than oats ; as a full crop is usually obtained in the first instance, and the land left in good order for the succeediug ones." — British Husbandry. In England the time of sovving oats is from Feb- ruary to April ; a proof of the great disparity exist- ing between the climate of this country and that ; since here, oats are sown from the last of April un- til June, very few being usually put in during the month of April. It should always be remembered, however, that early-sown oats, as well as spring wheat and barley, are always heavier and of better quality than late-sown, and, as a general rule, all spring grains should be put into the ground as early as the soil can be prepared for their reception. BARLEV AND OATS. 113 As with other grain, the quantity sown per acre varies much with different agriculturists and in dif- ferent countries. Here, from two and a half to three bushels to an acre are considered amply sufficient : " in England, from four to six bushels are usually sown." — Loudon. A less quantity of potato oats is required to be sown than of other varieties, as they tiller better, and, having no awns, give a greater number of grains to a bushel. Oats require and receive no after-culture, unless it may sometimes be necessary to go ovgjyi,.jfield and pull up such weeds as threaten to ■^fv^yruit.-tiife>^ plant, or prove injurious by seeding to after-cropa!^ There are few of the plants cultivatetras gratn§ so '^ \ oat. The wire-worm sometimes attacks the plant -r . little liable to injury from insects or disease in the ground ; and we have in one oji; two instances detected in the oat the worm that is-^ow proving so injurious to wheat. The disease to which oats are most liable is the smut. This may in general be prevented by sowing seed of good quality, and put- ting it in when the ground is dry and in good tilth. According to Loudon, liming oats or barley, which is so effectual in destroying smut on wheat, is use- less. This may,pe»fe,ps,be owing to the husk, which prevents the immediate contact of the alkali with the kernel. Would not soaking the seed in lime- water obviate this difficulty, and secure the plant against this disease ? The mode of preventing the ravages of the wire-worm practised in Europe, is to plough the land immediately before sowing. If it be in grass, the worm is turned under, and, before it works its way to the surface, the grain is beyond its reach. In this country, late ploughing, by exposing the larvae and eggs of insects to the action of frost, has been found one of the most effectual means for their destruction. The great danger to which late-sown oats are ex- posed, is the being overtaken with frost before the 114- AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. grain is ripe. The result is an inferior light grain, unfit for seed, and of little value for meal. The great iifference of weight between good and poor oats is principally in the meal, as the husk of immature is equal to that of ripe oats. Fortunately, frost-bit- ten oats are easily detected. The Rev. Mr. Farqu- harson observes, in the 19th vol. of the Farmer's Magazine, " that every oat-kernel, Avhen stripped of the husk, will be found to exhibit the appearance of a groove on one side. If the bottom of the groove has a clear, translucent appearance from end to end ; if it is not much shrunk into the substance of the kernel ; and if the kernel splite with difficulty in its direction, then we may pronounce the vital pan of the seed to be safe from the action of frost. If, on the contrary, there is a black speck seen in the groove at the root end of the kernel ; if the groove cuts deep into the kernel, so that it may be split in that direction ; and if, when so split, the blackness, accompanied by a rotten, scaly appearance, is seen extending from end to end at the bottom of the groove, then the vital part, or future plant, may be pronounced as being entirely unfit for seed." Oats are extensively used fo^^man food in Scot- land and some parts of Englafl^ and in some few instances during the past season, oats were so used in this country. Generally, however, they are cul- tivated almost exclusively for horses, there being no grain which agrees with this useful animal so well, or which can be so cheaply furnished. Oats, when cut in a rather green state and well cured, fed out to sheep or calves, without threshing, in small daily quantities, have been highly recommended by some intelligent practical farmers. A mixture of oats and pease sown together, at the rate of two bushels of the former and one of the latter to the acre, has been adopted by some farmers, and are considered preferable to clean oats for feeding. They require grinding, of course, and must be better. BARLEY AND OATS. 1 15 when required for mixing with boiled food for swine, than oats alone. The trouble of harvesting, how- ever, must operate as a drawback on this mode of culture, as the crop is almost invariably lodged ; and as it can neither be raked as pease nor cradled as oats, it must be cut with a scythe, which is usually a tedious and wasteful process. Although oats will succeed on ordinary soils, and with less care than other crops, still good cultiu'e is as well repaid with this as with other grains. The southern tier of counties in New- York have produced some of the largest crops of oats on rec- ord ; and the quantity annually grown in this state is immense. As examples of good crops, we annex two communications from the Genesee Farmer for 1838. In answer to your inquiries, the land that the oats grew upon is gravelly loam ; but very little gravel, however. In 1830, 1 put a small coat of barnyard manure on the land, ploughed, and planted it to corn. The year following I sowed it to oats, and stacked it down, and put on about 1 1-4 bushels of plaster to the acre. The three years next following I used it for pasture. The first year of pasturing I used about 1 1-4 bushels of plaster to the acre. In 1836 I ploughed it shallow, dragged it well, and planted it to corn. I had a great growth of corn, but the early frost very nearly destroyed it. lu the spring fol- lowing I split the hills as usual, and dragged it well. About one third of the lot is quack land (we suppose land infested with quitch%rass), which I ploughed three times after harrowing, the rest but once. I sowed my oats, 2 1-3 bushels to the acre, and har- rowed the quack part well six times, the other part four times. I sowed 1 1-2 bushels of plaster to the acre immediately after the oats were up. One thing I consider very essential in order to keep land in good heart : when I till it, I till it well ; and when I 116 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. use it for pasturing, f do not overstock it with cattle or sheep, in order that my land shail have a good coat of grass left on it in the fall, to keep it warm through the winter, and serve for manure. The oats weighed 35 3-4 lbs. to the bushel. One thing I would mention : every time I ploughed my quack land, I applied the harrow immediately after. Jonah A. Hurlbert. Great Barrington, March, 1838. GREAT CROP OF OATS. In your August number of the Monthly Genesee Farmer, I see that Mr. Jonah A. Hurlbert raised 91 bushels of oats to the acre. This looks well for old Berkshire county ; but, to show our sister State of Massachusetts that the county of Livingston has done a little more, I will give you the product of nine acres of Flats on the Genesee River. Last year I sowed nine acres of Flats with oats, one half of the side of Tartarian oats, and the other half of the common oats, mixed when sowed ; and I took off from these nine acres nine hundred bushels of oats, well cleaned, and all of the first quality, which, you see, is 100 bushels to the acre, and nine bushels to th( acre more than Mr. Hurlbert had. A Livingston County FARMGa. Aug at, 1838. PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 117 CHAPTER VIII. PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING, Effects of Crops — Tendency to Deterioration. — Relative Size of Animals, Male or Female.— Constitutional Ailments, The attention of farmers has of late been turned to the improvement of their stock by the introduc- tion of pure-blooded animals into the country ; and the subject is one which vitally affects their inter- est, and should be well understood by them. The extension of the alternate system of husbandry, while it will not lessen the quantity of grain grown, will afford the means of greatly adding to our stock of cattle, and render apparent the necessity of pay- ing more atlention to the principles upon which breeding can alone be profitably conducted. There are nuiltitudes of farmers practically ac- quainted with raising cattle (and our remarks will equally apply to horses, sheep, &c,), who, unac- quainted with the laws which govern propagation, and the mixing of blood by crossing breeds, know not how to determine the increase or deterioration of pure blood that will result from employing two animals of different breeds. Having a superficial knowledge of such breeds, but unacquainted with tlie principles that determine their origin and con- tribute to their preservation, it is not to be wondered at that mistakes in management should occur that defeat their purposes, and which have, in some cases, the effect of preventing any farther attempts at improvement. Farmers understand that, by coupling a pure-blood Short Horn with a cow of our common or ordinary 118 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. race, the offspring will be half breed; they farther understand, that, by the union of this half-hreed heifer with the same father, or with another pure Short Horn, a progeny three quarters blood will be produced ; but there are many who do not under- stand, or, rather, never have inquired, how it is that they have not pure blood in the third or fourth gen- eration. It is at these points of gradation in breed- ing that interested or dishonest dealers in animals l^egin to take advantage of the ignorance or inatten- tion in farmers to which we have alluded ; and many an animal is palmed off for good blood that a little care or examination would show to have small- pretensions to such a distinction. Pure blood is talked about loudly, when perhaps neither the buyer •lor seller comprehends the real proportion of pure olood existing in the animal. All acknowledge the principle, that from the union of two individuals of different breeds, one pure blood and the other common, half-blooded animals will be the result. From this starting point a scale may be drawn, by which we may determine the degree of pure blood that any generation, however distant, will possess, or the proportional quantity of pure and common blood which flows in the veins of a bull or horse whose progeny is known. Recourse to figures and examples will perhaps make this more plain ; and we shall for this purpose avail ourselves of the tables prepared by Count Montendre for the French sporting paper Le Journal des Haras. We will, for example, take one of Mr. Allen's or Mr. Rotch's beautiful Improved Short Horn bulls, and, as he is of pure blood, we will call him A., ex- pressed in figures by 1. The cow shall be of the common native kind, and called B., and her value in blood 0. The calf produced by the union of these two is characterized by the letter C, and is com- posed half of the father and half of the mother, deci- PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 119 1 4-0 mally expressed thus: = 0.50, or J. C. is a heifer, and is put to another pure Short Horn, when ' , 1-1-0.50 1.50 the calculation will stand thus : , or —^=.75, or three fourths pure blood. We will now proceed to another generation. The progeny is still a heifer put to a pure Short Horn, as before ; and the result 1 -{■ 0.50 175 will be now as follows : 5- — , or -^ = .875 = .7 pure blood. The fourth generation, the same course 1-1-0.875 1.875 being pursued, will stand thus : -^ , or — ^ — = .9375, or }-f. The tenth generation would give, as the reader may work out for liimself, if he pleases, ^0 24 pure blood; and the twentieth generation would possess x^tHfu of pure blood; or, in other words, an animal of the twentieth generation, in ofie million, forty-eight thousand, five hundred and sev- enty-six parts of blood, would have one million, for- ty-eight thousand, five hundred and twenty-five that was pure ; and though, by farther progress, we should approach nearer and nearer the unit that rep- resented the bull, it would never be quite reached. The deficiency would indeed be slight, but the pure blood could never be attained or absolutely repro- duced ; and this fact, though apparently of little con- sequence, is of vast importance to the breeder, and should be always kept in mind. It results from this mathematical demonstration of the eff"ects of crossing in breeding, or breeding from pure and common animals, that every breed brought to a certain state of excellence by a suc- cession of improvements, may sustain itself in this state without having recourse to the pure breed from which it was derived, and in which were its first principles of improvement. All that is necessary in 120 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. breeding is to employ animals of both sexes imitmg the highest qualities of the improved race ; but there are always difficulties attending the conservation of such a race, and, without the greatest care, a dete- rioration from this elevated point will soon be visible. The cause and reason for this tendency to deteri- oration must be sought in the impure blood which necessaril}' exists in everj- deviation from an origi- nal stock. Notwithstanding the value of the cross — although it may approach the pure race to within the minutest shade — still it carries in its blood, de- rived from its mother, an indestructible germe of de- basement ; always ready to develop itself by Uttle and little, under the operation of local influences i always modifying the general economy and consti- tution of the animal, until, at length, by alteration of form, and changes in the quahtieyand disposition of the animal, it is evident that the tj"pe of the male parent is effaced, and a reproduction of that of the mother, with all its characteristics of inferiority, is complete. It is clear, therefore, that though, by extraordina- ry care and attention, an improved breed of animals may be kept at any degree of excellence by select- ing the best animals of the race to propag<^te from, the breeder acts wisely, who occasionally regener- ates his improved stock by crossing it with pure- blood from the original race, without any ignoble mixture or impure stain. The observance of this rule appears to have constituted the secret of the Rev. Henrj' Barry's unequalled success in breeding improved Short Horns ; and a recurrence to it will, we think, be found necessary by ever\- one who is engaged in rearing the best animals of any breed. If a half-breed bull is put to a cow of" the same grade, the character of the progeny would, accord- ing to the mathematical calculations we have made, , , 050-f-050 102 , . . appear to be i = — = 0.50; that is, the PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 121 calf would be of the same blood as the parents, or half and half. B\x[ experience shows that such will not be exactly the case. The tendency to degrada- tion is operative ; and to rate such a progeny at 0.50 would be higher than the actual value. "This result implies no contradiction to the foregoing rules ; on the contrary, this certain lowering of the standard of purity shows that the pure blood is the essential ameliorator, and that it is obliged at once to overcome the positive resistance offered by the inferior blood, and the continual tendency to return to the original native type. It farther proves, that part of its power is annulled by the single fact of its being mingled with blood less rich ; and that by this Its agency is essentially modified, and its efficiency diminished. Local influences are therefore opposed to the success of such a cross ; the inferior blood is probably indigenous to the country, and the consti- tutional tendency is in favour of the lowest standard of blood. It is by applying this course of reasoning to cross- es which have been made between the improved Short Horns imported into this country and our ori- ginal native cattle (the superior grades of which crosses are, by the inexperienced, considered as of about equal value to the thorough-bred animals), that we shall perceive the dif^culty, stated before, of keeping up the purity and value of any created breed by selection from that breed alone. The seeds of degradation are there ; and a degree of vi- gilance, care, and judgment, which but few breeders of cattle can be supposed to possess, is required to prevent the retrograde tendenc5^ The degeneracy may be slow, the good blood in the race ma}'^ retard, but, for the reasons given above, it cannot wholly arrest the progress downward. An occasional, and, perhaps, not unfrequent infusion of the original pure blood can alone do this. Wlien once the work of deterioration has coni- II— K 122 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. menced in a breed of animals, and no recourse is had to the method which is alone effectual in ar- resting its course— the mixture of pure blood — the degradation will proceed with annually increasing rapidity. The best stock of breeding cattle or horses in the country may be irreparably injured bj the slightest accidental mixture of blood in the least degree impure. The same table that demonstrates the improvement of a breed, when proper care is paid to the breeding, will prove the rapidity with which the same breed must deteriorate when left to the agency of degrading causes. Suppose the cat- tle-breeder has a cow that has reached the purity of blood we have given to the twentieth generation, crossed by a bull of no breeding : at the fourth gen- eration there will be only l-16th part of pure blood remaining ; at the tenth, not a thousandth part ; and at the twentieth, not a millionth part. There are many farmers who imagine they have laid the foundation of an improved stock when they have procured a half-breed bull or cow, or perhaps two half breeds to commence with. But these half breeds will not in the next generation produce stock like themselves, no matter how nearly the parents may resemble each other. The progeny will re- semble the remote ancestors on one side or the other, as the original blood happens to predominate ; and, instead of having, as he hoped, a new race of his own, the farmer will find he is possessed of sev- eral races, only resembling each other in the general fact that they get rapidly lower in the scale of ex- cellence in each generation. The reasons for this result have been assigned above. A continual re- currence to pure blood can alone give certainty to improvement. In breeding, somewhat conflicting opinions are entertained as to the relative size of the male and female ; some breeders contending that in all cases the female should be the largest, as affording moro PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING, 123 room for the development and nourishment of the foetus. CHne, Lawrence, Cully, and other celebra- ted names are the advocates of this principle ; and, we think, of its general soundness there can be little doubt. It has, however, found strenuous opponents in England ; and these objections have been urged with much force in an Essay on Cattle, from the pen of an eminent cattle-dealer and breeder, John Weight, of Chesterfield. Mr. W. assumes as the basis of his argument, that the male and female are of equal blood, and of similar qualities in all respects, size excepted ; and here the male is much the smallest, according to the system of Cline and Cully. As a natural result, the progeny will be of a size interme- diate between the two, and, according to Mr. W., in a continually increasing ratio. " For instance, by beginning to breed from a cow, of which the average weight of the herd, taking it to be uniform, is 70 stone,* and from a bull of a herd, of which the aver- age weight is 65 stone, the female produce will be an average of 67 1-2 stone. Observe, it is not the weight of the bull himself, but the average iceight of the race of cows from which the bull is descended, that should be the groundioork of calculation. Again : the heifer- calf, bred as above, will, when old enough, according to this principle, be put to a bull of a herd of cows five stone less on an average, and the next genera- tion will have decreased to 65 stone. So that, in the course of a few generations, the original improved stock will be reduced to such a degree, that little will remain to distinguish it from some herds of small and inferior cattle, except colour and the other characteristics of the species, independent of size." Here the case is stated in the strongest manner, and under circumstances that can scarcely occur in prac- tice ; breeders, therefore, must determine how much weight is to be allowed to the argument. * A stone is fourteen poun'DRY. quoted above recommends in severe cases an oint- ment of the following composition and proportions : Corrosive sublimate . White hellebore, in powder Whale or other oil Hosin Tallow . . . . 8 02. 12 oz. 6 gallons. 2 lbs. 2 lbs. " The sublimate to be reduced to a fine powder, and mixed with a portion of the oil, and also the hellebore. The rosin, tallow, and the remainder of the oil are to be melted together, and the other in- gredients then added and well mixed. Should the ointment appear too thin, the proportion of oil may be diminished and the tallow increased." Before applying any remedies, the diseased parts should be well washed in soap and water, applied with a soft brush ; and, if the wool is started or in the way, it should be at once cut off. Few animals suffer more from rhe attacks of va- rious kinds of flies than the sheep, and none aie less capable of avoiding their annoyance. There is the Estrus ovis, which deposites its eggs in the nostril of the sheep, from which it ascends to the cavities of the head, producing constant irritation, and not unfrequently death. This fly is the most common in the latter part of July or August, and its presence near a flock may be known by the animals instinct- ivelj' placing their noses as near the ground as pos- sible to keep off the enemy, listening to catch the sound of his wings, and darting away, with their noses rubbing the earth, to a distant part of the field, to avoid the pursuit. Rubbing the end of the nose with tar, or spreading salt on tar to be licked off, furnish- es the best preventive against this fly that has yet been discovered. Another fly deposites its eggs around the roots of the horns and about the tail of sheep ; where, if un- molested, they form deep ulcers, and the poor ani- mal runs the r^sk of being devoured alive. Dr. sriEEP AND WOOL. 207 Parry recommends the following ointment to be well rubbed in around the horns and the tail, as if will compel the flies to change their place of attack or leave the animal. Strong mercurial ointment . . ... 1 part. Rosin 1 part. Hog's lard 2 parts. Melt the hog's lard in a convenient vessel, and add the rosin. When these ingredients are well incor- porated, add the ointment (the common unguentum of the shops), and stir the whole till it becomes cold, to prevent the mercury from sinking. The proportion of mercury is too small to have any eft"ect on the animal, but the least particle of it is fatal to any in- sect. Rubbing the head and tail with a composition of tar and train oil has been found to keep off the fly well, but it is not as fatal to eggs already deposited as the above ointment. One word as to washing sheep. In England the common practice is to make them swim some two or three times across a river or pond ; but, where regard is had to the marketable qualities of wool, it is evident that this process must be very insufficient. Here we see them sometimes driven for miles through dusty roads, and over hill and valley, to the washing ; and, if well washed, as may by some pos- sibility happen, by the time they arrive at their pas- tures again the colour of the wool can scarcely be discerned for dirt and dust. Almost every farm fur- nishes means of washing far better than either of these ; a little brook and a large tub or vat are all that is required, and the whole may be placed in or- der in a few hours. In such a tub or vat the sheep may be washed cleaner, and without the danger and fatigue of cariying a wet fleece some two or three miles. A little soap, v/here there are large quanti- ties of oil or yolk in the wool, will greatly assist in cleansing the fleece. After washing, the sheep should have a clean pasture, and the operation of 209 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. shearing should not be performed till the wool is thorougdly dried ; and, if time elapses sufficient to allow tlie fleece to be again saturated with the ani- mal oil, so much the better for the wool. 'J'liere are few of the processes in the manage- ment of sheep more slovenly performed than the one of shearing. The sheep is frequently most ter- ribly mangled, and the surface of the animal, from the tufts and ridges of wool, is as uneven as a new- ploughed held. A gentleman in Columbia county, a few years ago, obtamed leave of some of his neigh- bours, who tiiought their sheep were fretly well sheared, to have his shepherd reshear them as an experiment, and from two to four ounces were taken off at the second clip. Dr. Parry says : " The closer wool is clipped, the better ; and the way to effect this and to save time is to take but a small quantity into the shears. Neatness in shear- ing can only be acquired by practice. The only rules wiiich can be written are, use shears of mod- erate size, and take up very little wool between them." After being sheared, if proper regard is had to the comfort and health of the animal, and the quality of the next year's clip of wool, the following unguent must be well rubbed on every part with a currying brush ; and a little of tiie mercurial ointment may be rubbed around the horns and tail. Train oil or seal oil 4 gallons. Tar \ gallon. Oil of turpentine 1 pint. This composition, well rubbed on, will materially aid in destroying keds and ticks, should there be any on the sheep, will give softness to the wool, and greatly reUeve the animals from the irritating and tormenting attacks of flies. Some diversity of opinion appears to prevail on the subject of shearing lambs among owners of sheop, but our experience is decidedly in favour of SHEEP AND WOOL. 209 the practice, for two reasons. The first is, the profit from the sale of the lamb's wool, which will average from thirty to forty cents per head ; the second rea- son is, it keeps the flock almost entirely free from the great enemy of sheep, the tick ; as, after shear- ing the sheep, if there are any ticks on them, they wiJl take refuge on and torment the lambs ; and the later shearing of these is almost certain to eradicate the whole. Experiments have shown that little, if any, loss of weight is sustained by the succeeding fleece, and the wool is certainly of a better quality, being free from those hairs that abound in the fleeces of most lambs. " Dr. Parry recommends the shearing of fine- wooled lambs about the beginning of August, having found the hog (or yearling) fleeces gTOw finer when the lamb fleeces are removed. There does not ap- pear to be any danger to be apprehended from the operation at that season of the year ; and the wool will have time to grow to a sufficient length for dsr fending the animal from rain, cold, and snow before winter sets in. His recommendation goes no far- ther than to fine-wooled lambs ; but those of other breeds may not probably be hurt, if these do not suf- fer any injury from the operation." If any of the flock at any time exhibit symptoms of disease, they should at once be looked to, and the evils, if possible, ascertained and corrected. The celebrated Saxony flocks of Prussia are at short in- tervals individually examined with regard to their health, the quality of their wool, and their constitu- tional dehcacy or hardiness, and their value gradu- ated accordingly. If sheep are smeared or salved, the lambs are rarely troubled with vermin of any kind ; but where they become infected with ticks, and the owner is averse to shearing, " a solution of white arsenic in water, in the proportion of an ounce to a gallon, or three pounds of arsenic to about fifty gallons of wa- II. — R 210 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. ter, and plunging the lambs into it, taking care that they do not dip their heads or taste the water, will destroy them aii." Arsenic, however, is so danger- ous a poison, and, wherever used, is so liable to pro- duce mischief, that we would recommend an infu- sion of tobacco as being equally effectual, in this country as economical, and in every respect safe and preferable. Few animals better repay care and at- tention than sheep, and no one should think of ma- king the business of wool-growing a profitable one who is unwiUing or unable to spare to them the time necessary for this purpose. The most critical period in the year for the sheep is shown to be the time of shearing. Divested of the dense covering it has so long worn, it is ex- tremely sensitive to all changes of temperature, and feels the effects of heat or cold in a tenfold degree. If turned out where there is no place of shelter, the skin will be burned and excoriated by a hot sun, and a disease of the surface, not unlike the scab in ap- pearance, will be induced. If, on the contrary, as is not unfrequently the case in our variable climate, a cold rain, with the thermometer at the freezing point, succeeds the days chosen for shearing, the sheep, if left unprotected, will suffer greatly from colds, should they escape being actually chilled to death, a result not very uncommon with the finer wooled and thin skinned kinds. A farmer of our ac(Juaintance as- sures us, that last year a sudden change of tempera- ture took place tl;e day he finished shearing his flock ; and, though he had them immediately collect- ed and placed in shelter, some ten or a dozen were unable to stand, and were brought by his men to the sheds, and for some time it was doubtful whether the effects of so great and sudden a chill vvould not be fatal to most of them. His flock is of the best grades of Saxon and Merino ; and though, by great care, all were finally saved, it furnishes a strong SHEEP AND WOOL. 211 proof of the fact already alluded to, that the finer the wool, the more delicate and tender the animal. The general health of sheep, and, consequently, their profit to the owner, is so much influenced by the treatment they receive during our severe win- ters, that a few remarks on the wintering of sheep will not be out of place here. In few kinds of business carried on by the farmer is care more necessary, or skill and attention better rewarded, than in the raising and keeping of sheep. The finer-wooled varieties of this animal — those from which the greatest profit is derived — are pre- cisely the ones which suffer the most from neglect; and the inattention of the owner often subjects him to serious losses, which might, by proper precau- tions, be entirely avoided. Sheep suffer most from maltreatment in the early part of winter ; any injury arising from neglect then being, from the very constitution of the animal, very difficult to remedy afterward. There is a point in the descending scale to which, if sheep are once al- lowed to fall, ail efforts to raise them are usually unavailing. One great cause of the losses sustained in keeping sheep through our winters, is the allowing them to " shirk" for themselves too long in the fall of the year. Scattered over the fields long after the frosts have destroyed everything that is green, and per- haps after the earth is covered with snow, they gather a precarious subsistence, and are rapidly losing the flesh and strength which, with proper treatment, would enable them successfully to com- bat the rigours of winter, and what is termed the faintness of spring. Better collect sheep into their yards as early as the 1st of December, and com- mence their regular feeding, than wait until January before it is done, under the idea that in this way fod- der is saved. There may be, indeed, a partial saving 212 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. of fodder, but far too frequently such saving of fod- der is the death of the sheep. Another thing that occasions great injury to our flocks is the keeping too many together. Observa- tion must have convinced every farmer that a small flock of sheep will, with the same feeding, do much better than a large one, and that fron) Ibrty to sixty is as many as can be advantageously kept together; yet it is nothing uncommon for men who call them- selves good farmers to keep from one hundred and fifty to three hundred in a flock. Another great defect in the common treatment of sheep arises from there not being proper attention paid to the individual health and strength of the ani- mals when flocks are divided into sections. These things should be looked to with great care, since to put a few weak and sickly sheep with a flock of strong, hearty ones, is not only to ensure the loss of the former, but frequently to endanger the safety of the latter by the spread of disease. In such cases, the weak ones, which require the best of the food given to the flock, are obliged to be content with the refuse of the whole, or such as has been rejected or trampled on by the strong ; and the re- sult is as might be expected from such an unskilful mode of management. Every man who keeps sheep should have one de- partment of his flock devoted to his weak or sickly animals ; and, as soon as he discovers one coming under either of these classes, it should be immedi- ately taken and placed where it can receive more attention and better food than is required by those that remain strong. Sheep, when thus put into the hospital, as this division may be termed, should be fed with fine hay, roots cut fine and salted, oats in the sheaf, or an occasional handful of dry com ; and if, every few days, a quantity of pine or hem- lock tops be given them, the eff"ect will be good, aa they furnish a green, and, for any sheep, a healthy change of food. SHEEP AND WOOL. 213 Those who wish to have their wool in fine order, and in such a state as to command the highest prices in the market, will pay particular attention, not only to their sheep having an adequate supply of food, but to the manner in which it is fed to them. Manufacturers dislike to have the wool they use filled with grass and other seed ; and, from the additional labour such wool requires, usually compel the grower to submit to a deduction of some cents per pound. When hay is thrown from a stack or a cowhouse where sheep are about, unless some care is used, this result usually follows ; as the animals are certain to collect under the falling hay, and their wool receives and retains most of the seed scatter- ed at such times. So, too, when fed from the com- mon elevated rack, their wool will be injured by the retention of seed dropped on their necks and backs in drawing out their hay. To avoid this evil and loss, racks should be used the sides of which are perpendicular, and which are so low that the sheep, in getting his food, need not fill his eyes and wool with dust and seed. Several plans for very good racks have been presented in the volumes of the Farmer ; and no one can fail of constructing good ones if he only avoids the errors of making them overhanging and setting them too high. No animal whatever should be fed hay with- out racks, though there are few cases in which their benefit is so decided and apparent as in feeding sheep. Where a number of sheep are kept to- gether, and the hay for them is scattered over the ground in the usual manner, the whole flock will dog the heels of the feeder, and, by the time he has been the rounds, the hay is so dirtied and trampled upon that a large part of it is refused by the sheep and lost. Some farmers maintain that drink and shelter are unnecessary, or that they are, on the whole, disad- vantageous to sheep. This must be a mistake ; for 214 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. on such matters the decisions of instinct may much more safely be relied upon than the mere opinion of any observer ; and it is well known that sheep will always drink when they can find water, and seek a shelter, if it can be had, during high winds or severe storms. It is contrary to the order of na- ture that any animal should suffer injury from being kept comfortable. If the place of shelter is too small or is ill ventilated, sheep are injured by being crowded into such confined limits ; but it is the height of absurdity to suppose that the health of a sheep, and, consequently, the quality of its wool, will not be better where care and comfort are at- tended to than where both are neglected. CHAPTER XIV. CHEESE-MAKING. Comparative Quality of Cheese. — Rennet. — Attention to Tem- perature.— Gloucester and Stilton Cheese. — Products of a Dairy. The greatly increased demand for the products of the dairy ; the comparatively small amount of capi- tal required for a beginning by the small farmer ; the avoiding the expenditure that is necessary where several labourers are employed ; and the increasing conviction that the profits of the dairy, if not as great as those of wheat-growing, are far more sure, have induced many of our farmers to turn their at- tention to this subject, where, with proper manage- ment, they are certain of an abundant reward for their labour. There surely can be no reason why cheese may not be made hi the United States equal CHEESE-MAKING. 215 to any in the world ; yet. as a whole, there can be no doubt that American cheese is far inferior to that made in England, and some parts of Holland, Ger- many, and Italy. The causes of this inferiority must be sought in the defective modes of making practised in our country. We sometimes meet with a cheese equal in quality to any that can be produ- ced in any quarter of the globe ; but that, perhaps, is the only one the dairy that furnished it can show of a similar quality. Such would not be the case if the business of the dairy were carried on upon fixed and correct principles ; as entire uniformity in the flavour and quality of their cheese is a marked char- acteristic of the best foreign dairies. As the result of some observation and experience, we give it as our opinion, that the reason why so much ordinary cheese is made in this country is, that little or no attention is paid to the quality of the rennet ; and the temperature of the milk, being left to chance, is constantly varying from day to day, thus necessari- ly affecting the quality of the curds. It is evident that the rennet must have a great ef- fect in determining the good or bad qualities of cheese ; yet in many, if not most of our dairies, it is prepared in the most careless, not to say slovenly manner. Everything relating to cheese should be kept perfectly clean ; yet rennet is sometimes used, the odour of which is anything but ambrosial ; and it is well if a close inspection does not show living proof that the invitation sent abroad on the tainted air has not been in vain. Some of our dairy-wom- en maintain that the quality or flavour of the ren- net is of no consequence, as anything offensive passes off in the whey ; but this is a great mistake, as is well understood by those w'ho have paid prop- er attention to the preparation of rennet. At the celebrated dairy-farm of Heyward in England, the rennet is prepared by putting two gallons of brine to six calves' stomachs, at least one year old, to which 216 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. is added two or three sliced lemons, and, after standing a few weeks, the liquor is bottled for use. It is not used till two months old ; and, the older it is, the better it is considered. In some dairies, cloves, sage, and other aromatics are added to the rennet with the lemon. A stone jug that will cork tight is best for the preservation of rennet, as the air should be carefully excluded after it is once prepared. To produce uniformity in the quality of cheese, the milk should be of a uniform temperature when the rennet is applied. This, in most cases, is left to chance, the hand of the dairy- woman being the only guide ; whereas a thermometer ought always to be used, and whatever rate is adopted as the standard, the milk of each day should be made to conform to the rule. At the Heyward farm, and in others where double Gloucester is made, the standard is 85°. From that it ranges to 95o, which is the highest ad- missible in the manufacture of cheese, as a greater degree of heat renders the curd too hard and firm. Should the milk, when brought from the cows, and placed in a tub or vat for being converted into curd, be found to have sunk below the proper temperature, a quantity must be warmed sufficient to raise the whole to the desired point. To a neglect of these two things, quality of the rennet and proper temperature of the milk, we be- lieve most of the defects in our cheese are owing ; and, were these difficulties obviated, we have no doubt that many of our dairies would produce cheese of uniformly good quality. Now, in purchasing a lot of cheese, the buyer is pretty certain of getting some that will be first-rate, some that are middling, and some that would choke a dog, so hard and tough are they. We read not long since, in some of the scientific journals, that the Germans had succeeded in converting pine boards into very palatable sixpen- ny loaves ; and had they asserted that the same per- sons had converted a white-oak plank into chsese, CHEESE-MAKING. 217 we should have been equally ready to credit them, as we have ourselves seen some that approximated marvellously near to that wood in outward appear- ance and inward quality, so far as hardness and toughness are concerned. There are but two kinds of English cheese, the manufacture of which could be introduced into our dairies with much prospect of success or remuner- ation ; these are the Gloucester and the Stilton, and in some of our dairies, at present, cheese nearly ap- proaching these in quality is produced. In making both these kinds of cheese, there are some peculiar methods practised which must have a decided effect on the quality, but which have been introduced in full into very few, if in any dairies in this country. The double Gloucester is made from the night and morning milk, the cream being taken from the form- er. Single Gloucester is made entire4y from skim- med milk. In making Gloucester the milk is set at the temperature of 85°. After the rennet is ap- plied, when the curd is hard enough to break up, it is very slowly and gently cut with a three-bladed knife both ways (the blades reaching to the bottom of the tub, and being one inch apart), that the whey may come out as clear or greenish as possible. As the curd settles, some of the whey is dipped oif and the curd again cut up. This operation is repeated until the whey is entirely separated, and no lumps remain in the curd. The curd is now put into the vats or hoops, and pressed down with the hand. The hoops, covered with fine cloth, are put in the press for half an hour, when the curd is taken out, cut into thin slices, and put into a wooden mill, v/hich tears it into pieces not larger than small peas. This process of grinding is preferable to breaking up by hand, as the butter is not forced out, and the curd unites better than when made fine by chopping, as is generally practised in this country. In some in- stances, a second similar breaking up or grinding of 218' AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. the curd is performed ; and, after being made as fine as possible, it is again put into the cloths and hoops, a little hot whey or water being thown on the cloths to harden the outside of the cheese and prevent it from cracking. After being in the press two hours, the cheese is taken out and dry cloths applied ; and the same operation of turning and dry cloths is repeated during the day. A striking peculiarity in the Gloucester cheese is the manner of salting. None is used until after the cheese is made and has been in the press twenty-four hours ; and even then no salt is applied unless the cheese is perfectly closed, since, if there be any crack at the time of salting, it will never close afterward. The process is performed by rubbing the cheese over with finely- powdered salt, after which it is returned to the press. The salting is repeated three times with the single, and four times with the double Gloucester, twenty- four hours being allowed to intervene between each salting. The double Gloucester remains in the press- es five days, and the single four, when they are put on a shelf or floor of the dairy, and turned twice in twenty-four hours. Gloucester cheese is distin- guished for its smooth, close, and waxlike texture, and its very rich and mild flavour. If the curd is salted before being put into the hoops, the salt has the effect of giving a skin to the separate particles it comes in contact with, which prevents them from intimately uniting. It may be pressed together and be good cheese ; but it never becomes a smooth, close mass, like that which is salted after it is made, being always liable to crumble when cut, a prevail- ing.fault with American cheese. The cheese called Stilton is principally made in Leicestershire, near Melton Mowbray, and the adja- cent villages. It is a very rich cheese, rarely used for the table until two years old, when, by becoming partially decayed, blue, and moist, it acquires the particular flavour which causes it to be so highly CHEESE-MAKING. 219 prized by the dealers. The following is the most simple process of making it. To tlie new milk of the cheese-making morning, add the cream of the milk of the preceding evening, together with the ren- net. The separation of the curd must be carefully watched, and, when complete, it must be removed from the whey with as little breaking as possible, placed in a sieve, and remain there until it is of such a consistence as to bear being lifted up and put in a hoop without much pressure. The cheese, as it dries, will shrink. It must therefore be placed from time to time in a tighter hoop, and turned daily, until, by gradual drying, it acquires the proper consistence for keeping. By this process none of the cream is lost, and the curd, not being broken, remains more entire and uniform in its texture. It may not be amiss to remark, that, notwithstanding the high price of the real Stilton, and the estimation in which it is held, the taste for it is rather acquired than natural, few preferring it at first to the Gloucester or other first-rate cheese. Formerly various substances were used to give colour to cheese, some of which were decidedly del- eterious ; but all these have been superseded by an- natto, which is not only perfectly innocent in itself, but produces a better colour than anything else. It is used in various ways. In some dairies it is dis- solved in weak ley and kept bottled for use ; in oth- ers it is rubbed on a plate in the milk until sufficient is introduced ; of course, the quantity used will de- pend on the judgment or taste of the cheese-maker. if the cheese cracks, common red pepper added to the butter used for rubbing them, until it is very strongly impregnated, and applied to the defective places, will have a tendency to prevent flies and bugs from becoming mischievous and producing injury. Many dailies have within a few years introduced the practice of putting into their cheese a small quan- tity of saltpetre, which it is imagined renders it 220 AMERICAN HUSBAWDRY. more tender, while it does not detract from its fla- vour. We have doubts, however, whether the addi- ■ tion of any such ingredients has a real tendency to improve the products of the dairy, and in some in- stances they have proved positively injurious. To make good cheese, it is desirable that the num- ber of cows be sufficient to make a good-sized cheese every day. Where one is made by putting the curd of two days together, it is rarely of the best quality, as the curds are seldom in the same condition of temperature, fermentation, &c. From twelve to twenty cows will make a daily cheese sufficiently large. Experience has shown that the best temperature for setting the cheese or applying the rennet is about that of new milk, or from 85° to 90°. The putting the milk of the night and morning together renders it necessary to heat a part, and this must be done until the temperature of the whole is at the proper point. A thermometer is therefore indispensable in a dairy. Breaking up the curd is performed in different ways in different dairies. Some use a long wooden knife, which, drawn repeatedly through the mass at equal distances and crossways, divides the whole into small pieces or squares, allowing the whey to escape. Others pass their hand to the bottom of the curd, and, lifting it to the surface, break it up in this way, gently squeezing such pieces as remain too large. When broken up, some little time must be allowed for the curd to settle, as it is termed, or separate from the whey. Some use a gentle pres- sure of the hand to hasten the process and consoli- date the curd ; while others occasionally dash in a little hot whey, to make the mass more adhesive. This operation of taking off the whey must be per- formed gently, as well as the process of breaking up, or the whey will be white and thick, and a loss in the weight of the cheese will be the result. CHEESE-MAKING. 221 The salt used about a cheese should be of the finest and best quality, and, though many directions have been given as to the quantity, there is no rule so certain as that of taste in making the application It should always be remembered, however, that too much salt will make the cheese hard, while too lit- tle will allow fermentation, and cause it to become light and to spread. At each turning of the cheese, fine salt must be rubbed on the outside, as it will harden that part and render it less liable to crack. Many of our best dairies have within a few years adopted the practice of swathing their cheese as soon as taken from the press, or putting a strip of cotton cloth round them. This precaution, where the cheese is large and rich, seems mdispenable, and operates most favourably in preventing spreading or cracks, and shutting out mites. The expense is trifling, and the results are of the best kind. What is considered an improvement on this has been made in some dairies. Instead of putting the bandage on after the cheese comes from the press, a cloth en- velope, as large as the interior of the hoop, the bot- tom sewed in, and a similar piece for the top, is pre- pared, and the cheese is pressed into this instead of the ordinary cloths. At turning, the top piece is put on and pressed in, having been first attached to the other parts. In this way the form of the cheese is perfectly retained, cracks are wholly prevented, and all insects are excluded ; while the butter rubbed on the surface acts as favourably as if the cloth were not present. One of the best accounts of a cheese dairy, the process of making, and the amount of products to be found, may be seen on the 85th page of the fourth volume of the Cultivator, by Mr. Smeallie, of Prince- ton. The number of cows was twenty. Cheese-ma- king commenced on the 15th of May and ended on 222 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. the 12th of September, was as follows : The amount of products 20 calves, at $3 each 400 lbs. butter, at 20 cents per lb. 500 lbs. do,, at 28 " 2750 lbs. cheese, at lOi " 112 lbs. whey butter, at 12i " 2000 lbs. of pork, at 81 " Milk and cream for 18 persons Deduct value of hogs and extra feed 80 140 288 75 14 170 30 $722 75 The quantity of butter to each cow was about 47 lbs., of cheese 187 1-2 lbs., and the profits of each, without deducting expenses, $42 55. CHAPTER XV. BUTTER. Various Qualities.— Churning. — Working. — Washing. — Salt- ing.— Dutch Butter.— Packing. — Churning Milk. — Process. — Queries and Replies. Every dealer in butter knows that the most deci- sive test which can be offered of the skill and neat- ness of the housewife or the dairy-woman, is fur- nished by the quality of the article offered by her in the market. If it is firm, rich, marrowy, and of proper consistence throughout ; free from all specks and impurities ; perfectly divested of the milk, and giving out that peculiar fragrance belonging to sweet and" well-made butter, the seller may be set down as one that understands her business, and the produce BUTTER. 223 oi her dairy will always command the first price in the market. On the contrary, if the butter be white, light, and porous ; full of particles of dirt, flies' legs, cows' hairs, and other nameless abominati6ns ; without being freed from the milk, and abounding in particles of the curdled milk from which the cream was taken, then the character of the dairy for neat- ness may be marked as suspicious, and prices must be arranged accordingly. The colour of butter is no infallible test of goodness, though that which is mod- erately yellow, other things being equal, will gener- ally be preferred ; but, where the above-named qual- ities are present, whether the butter be white or yellow, its excellence may be relied on. The qual- ity of butter, however, does not entirely depend on the skill or neatness of the maker : much must he allowed for the kind of pasture or other food allotted to the cows. For pasture, clean turf, mostly composed of white clover, and which has been lj>id down for a number of years, will be found sweeter and better than any other ; and of the roots, carrots will make the best-coloured and best-flavoured butter. No cow, however, kept entirely on roots, will produce as good milk and butter as if fed partly on these and partly on fresh grass or hay. Every dairy-woman is sensible that, to produce the greatest quantity and the best quality of cream, milk should be kept at a moderate temperature ; and that the cream should be taken from the milk be- fore the latter sours ; since, if it is allowed to be- come thick, it is almost impossible to separate the curdled particles that will be skimmed off from the pure cream ; and these, remaining in the butter, seri- ously injure its appearance, and render it unfit to keep. The goodness of the butter depends on the temper- ature of the cream while churning. This point, in most dairies, is not sufficiently attended to ; or, if noticed at all, it is only with reference to the speedy formation of the butter. Cream grows warm from 224 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. churning, the rise of temperature being from four to six degrees, according to the time employed and the state of the cream ; consequently, if the tem- perature is too high at the commencement of the operation, at the close it will be so much increased as to have a pernicious eflect on the quality of the butter. A few years since, by request of the Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland, a series of experi- ments was instituted by Mr. Ballantine, the owner of an extensive dairy, as to the proper temperature of cream for making butter, and the effects of differ- ent temperatures on the quantity and quality of the butter produced. Mr. JBallantine's report, which obtained the premium from the society, may be found in the " Library of Agricultural and Horticul- tural Knowledge," and is probably the best paper on the subject of making butter which has yet ap- peared. From Mr. B.'s experiments, it appears that the thermometrical range at which butter can be obtained extends from 45 to 75 degrees of Fahren- heit. A great number of experiments gave 60 de- grees as the temperature at which the greatest quantity of butter could be produced from a given quantity of cream ; and 55 degrees in the churn just before the butter comes as that which affords the best quality, giving a temperature of 51 to the cream at its introduction into the churn. Repeated churn- ings at this degree of heat " gave butter of the finest quality and colour, the milk being completely separ- ated from the butter, which, when washed and made up into rolls, kept for a fortnight without acquiring either smell or taste." Mr. Ballantine says, " But- ter intended to be sent to the market sweet, should be carefully gathered from the milk with the hand, and the milk squeezed out of it. It should then be put into cold spring-water, and, after being well washed, it should be made up into rolls with wood- en flappers, and put into cold water to become firm ; BUTTER. 225 but it should not be allowed to remain longer than is necessary to pioduce this effect, as the water will hurt both its colour and flavour." The practice of washing butler, as putting the newly-churned article into clear, cold water is called, has, we believe, nev- er prevailed to any considerable extent in the dairies of this country ; whereas, in England, the practice is almost universal. The time it should lie in the water must be determined by the season of the year and the state of the butter, an hour being gen- erally considered sufficient ; and after being, by washing and working, completely freed from the particles of milk and of water, it is salted accord- ing to the taste of the dairy-woman, and carefully put away for use or the market. Judge Buel con- demns the use of water in the manufacture of but- ter, believing that it dissipates much of the fine fla- vour that gives to good butter its high value ; yet in Orange county, where are the best butter-dairies in the state, and probably in the United States, it is a common remark among^the dairj'- women. " Give us cold, hard water, and we will not fail in making good butter.-" We do not think the washing of but- ter has been properly tested in this country, or, at least, the results have not been reported ; and that daiiyman who shall institute a series of experiments with regard to the making of butter in this and oth- er wa3"s, and the effect of washing on its qualities for table use and keeping, and faithfully record and report the same to some of our agricultural jour- nals, will confer a great favour on a large portion of the community. Some experiments made on a small scale by Judge Buel certainly go far to prove the excellence of unwashed butter for keeping ; anc had he, at the same time, put down one or two pot^ of washed butter in the same way, it would have done much towards determining the course to be preferred in its preservation. In salting butter, experience has shown that, if il II.— S 226 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. is intended to be kept any time, an ounce of good fine salt to a pound of butter is tlie proper propor- tion ; but, where it is not intended to be kept, less may be used, according to the taste of the maker. Some persons have recommended, that to a pound of salt should be added four ounces of finely-pulver- ized loaf-sugar. We have tried this metiiod, and found the butter admirable. Dr. Anderson says, " In Ireland (and few countries equal some parts of Ireland in the fine qualities of the butter) the use of salt and saltpetre is recommended, in the proportion of one ounce of fine rock salt and one fifth of an ounce of saltpetre to twenty-eight ounces of butter." None but the finest and purest salt should be used, as every extraneous matter injures its quality, and produces a corresponding eff"ect on the butter. Large quantities of butter are annually imported into England from Holland, and some from the same country has occasionally found its way into this. It is justly celebrated for its superior quality, and its power of resisting decomposition, or not be- ing liable to become rancid. In the Dutch dairies everything is conducted with a system and neatness, from the feeding of the cows to the completion of the butter, worthy of all imitation and praise. That there is anything in the climate or pastures of Hol- land which renders their dairy products superior to those of the rest of Europe or to ours, is not to be supposed : the difterence is clearly in the manipula- tion ; and, were our butter and cheese in general made with as much skill and oere as in Holland, we might successfully compete with the Dutch in the "West Indies and other markets, to which our butter will now barely pay the cost of transportation. Ac- cording to the report df Mr. Mitchell, made to the Highland Society of Scotland, the process in the Dutch dairies is substantially as follows : The milk, when taken from the cow, is poured into large earthen p'tchers, and placed in a vat of cold water. BUTTER. 227 which quickly reduces the temperature. It is then placed on shelves until the cream separates, when it is taken off and put in vessels for churning. In these it is first allowed to become a little sour, and then the churn is half filled with the cream. In llie best dairies, churning is performed daily, the system being so arranged that a supply of cream is constantly in readiness. In winter, a little warm water is added to the cream, to give to it the proper temperature previous to churning ; and in very hot weather it is sometimes submitted to the cold bath to reduce the heat. When taken from the churn, the butter is put in a shallow vessel, and carefully washed with pure cold water, and then worked with a slight sprinkling of fine salt, whether intended for rolls or for barrelling. The butter is considered best when the cows have been at grass about three weeks : it is then delicious ; is made into fanciful forms of animals, pyramids, &c., stuck over with fragi-ant flowers, and sells as high as sixty or sev- enty cents per pound. . When intended for packing, it is worked up twice or thrice a day with soft, fine salt, for three days, in a shallow tub, there be- ing about two pounds of this salt used for fourteen pounds of butter. After this thorough preparatory working, it is hard packed in thin layers into casks made perfectly sweet and clean. The wood prefer- red is oak, smoothed carefully inside. Three or four days before they are used, the casks are filled with sour whey, and this stands until they are emp- tied and cleansed for the packing of the butter. It is clear, from this description, that, independent of the perfect neatness observed in every part of the process, the excellence of the Dutch butter, and the ease with which it is kept in its original sweetness when packed, is owing to the manner in which it is freed from the least particle of buttermilk by the first washing and the subsequent repeated workings, as well as to the perfect incoiporation of the salt by the same process. 228 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. Where the butter is intended for family use, the best way we know of keeping it sweet is to put it down in stone crocks or jars which will hold from thirty to forty pounds. The butter should be packed close and solid, as directed for firkins, leaving a space of one or two inches at the mouth unfilled. Then make a strong brine, carefully boiling and skimming it, and with this fill the jar. Place the jars in a cool, sweet cellar; cover them xiarefuUy and securely to prevent any dirt getting in ; examine them occasionally to see that the butter is covered with brine, and that the brine remains sweet and good. If a scum rises on the brine, turn it off and boil it, putting in salt if necessary, and skimming it until it is perfectly pure, when it may again be pour- ed on the butter. Butter in this way has been kept nearly two years perfectly sweet and good ; indeed, where coolness is desirable, nothing is better adapt- ed to promote it than stone. A few years since, a friend of ours, for an experiment, filled a small fir- kin with butter in June, headed it up tight and threw it into his well, where it remained till November ; and, when taken out, it was as sweet and fresh in taste as when put in. Perhaps, where the means exist of forming a vat in the dairy-house, and of throwing into it a stream of cold spring-water, this method of keeping butter might be advantageously adopted, as the water could not come in contact with the butter, while it would, at the same time, keep it cool and exclude the air. Where the making of butter is the great object of the dairyman, it is necessary to understand working the whole of the milk, as in that way alone can the greatest quantity and best quality of butter be com- bined. The whole of the milk must be churned, or the whole of the butter will not be obtained. This process, we have reason to believe, is very imper- fectly understood, and our object is to lay before our readers such practical information as may be neces- BUTTER. 229 sary to the successful prosecution of the business. To be able to do this effectually, we transmitted a series of queries connected with the making of but- ter from the milk to several who were engaged in the business, particularly to J. B. Gilbert, Esq., of Otsego county, whose success is undoubted, and the productions of whose dairy are considered first-rate in any market. These queries were kindly respond- ed to, and the substance of Mr. Gilbert's paper we have imbodied in connexion with the questions sub- mitted, with occasional notes. Ques. 1st. In making butter from the milk, what churn do you use, and do you churn by hand or by machinery 1 We use a dash churn of the size of a barrel, work- ed by machinery, the propelling power of which is a dog. We find this does the business promptly and eff'ectually, it being desirable that the motion should be equal and sustained. Water, where convenient, might be used with success for turning the machin- ery. Ques. 2d. Do you churn the milk new from the cows, or is it necessary it should be soured before the operation 1 To produce the best butter and the greatest quan- tity, it is indispensably necessary that the milk should be soured. This is generally accomphshed in warm weather without difficulty ; but in cool weather, in the spring and fall, milk will stand so long before the cream rises or the milk sours, that the surface will become mouldy, the cream acquire a bitter and unpleasant taste, and the fine, rich fla- vour of the butter will of course be destroyed. To obviate this difficulty, we are in the habit, at such times, of setting our milk in pans which contain a small quantity of sour milk, a practice which greatly hastens the acidifying process. In extreme warm weather, milk will sometimes sour so soon as to prevent the proper separation of the cream ; in this 230 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. case we find great benefit in adding to each pan of milk from a pint to a quart of cold water, according to the size of the vessel and the temperature of the weather ; and, when it is very cold, we add about the same quantity of water, boiling hot, at the time of straining the milk. If the quantity of milk is so great that it is not convenient to churn the whole when soured, we set it in pans, and, when ready for churning, take off about one third of the whole by skimming. When we treat our milk in this way, we prefer not to have the pans more than half full. When we commence churning, if it froths, as it sometimes will when not sufficiently warm, we add boiling water to the cream until this disposition is checked. It is evident that cream grows warmer by churning, but what is the increase of temperature we have never ascertained. We cannot state pre- cisely the average quantity of milk it will take to make a pound of butter, as experience shows us there is a very great difference in cows as to the quality of their milk, and also in the first and the last of the milk taken from the cow. Quest. '3d. How many cows do you milk, and what is the average quantity of butter produced by them 1 The average number of our cows in 1835 was thirty-five, and the butter sold was 4480 pounds, or about 130 lbs. to a cow. For this, in the fore part of November, we were offered $22 per cwt., deliv- ered on the spot ; but it had been previously con- tracted at a price somewhat less. Quest. 4th. Have you ever practised washing your butter after churning it ? We do this invariably. After we have churned,j and when the butter is sufficiently gathered, we put it into some suitable vessel, and wash it with pure, cold water until the milk is all out of it ; we then salt it, working in the salt thoroughly, and set it in a cool place for 24 hours; after which it is well worked over with a ladle till fit for packing The BUTTER. 23 1 washing should be continued no longer than lo free the butter from the milk ; keeping it in the water for a length of time has a tendency to injure its fla- vour.* Quest. 5th. What kind of salt do you prefer, and what is the average quantity used per pound of but- ter ? We prefer the Liverpool sack-salt to any with which we are acquainted, and use less than an ounce to the pound. When butter comes soft, it requires a greater quantity tJiau in cool weather, as ihe salt in such a case will work out more. In no case, however, do we use an ounce to the pound of butter. We use no saltpetre. f * Since receiving this communication from Mr. Gilbert, we have had tiie pleas\ire of a conversation with A. Wilkins, Esq., now a resident of Onondaga county, but formerly of Orange, and extensively engaged in the making of butter, who fully cor- roborates the opinions advanced by Mr Gilbert as to the advan- tage of washing butter when first churned. In the great butter- dairies of Orange, and they are exceeded by none in the United Slates, there exis:s scarcely a difference of opmion as to the absolute necessity of washing bu ter in order to produce an ar- ticle of the first quality. Pure, cold, hard water is considered i;i the Orange county dairies a sine qua nun, and the idea that such washing injures the fl.Hvour of the butter, as has been maintain- ed by some, is viewed by them as quite ridiculous. In the Or- ange dairies, the practice of souring the milk is universally practised ; and, in the language of Mr. Wilkins, " milk should jn all cases become sour, and, if convenient, thick, before churn- ing." t We are convinced that the excellence of butter depends much on the quality of the salt used. In Western New. York, most of the butter is salted with the common Onondaga salt made by boiling, and which, though sutficiently pure for all ordinary pur- poses, is not entirely free from substances that are improper where perfect purity is required. It is, besides, too coarse in the g.rain to be adapted to salting.butter; the finer the salt is for this purpose, the belter, and it is this which renders the Liver- pool sack salt preferable to ours. There can be no doubt that the Onondaga salt made by evaporation, and ground fine, any quantity of which may be readily obtained at Syracuse, and, we presume, in most of our villages, is fully equal for butter or cheese to the best imported salt, and we trust its use will soon 232 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. Quest. 6th. What is your method of packing and preparing butter for preservation or sn'lr ] We pack our butter in firkins made of wtiite-oak heart-stuff", well iiooped with round walnut Loops, and holding about ninety pounds each. We soak them thoroughly in brine previous to using, and put in a trifle of saltpetre. The same brine, with a lit- tle renewing, will answer for soaking five or six fir- kins. When the butter has been worked sufficient- ly, we immediately pack it in a firkin as hard as pos- sible, and the sooner the firkin is filled the better. As soon as the firkin is full, we put a clean white cloth over the butter, and cover the cloth with about three fourths of an inch of common fine salt, packed hard. The firkin is then covered with a thin, flat stone, which remains until the butter is taken to nmrket. This method of packing, and keeping in a clean, cool cellar, we have found perfectly satisfac- tory.* Quest. Ith. What cows do you prefer for the dairy? So far as our experience extends, for butter we become general. It may be remarked, that a less quantity of salt is used by Mr. Gilbert than by most dealers in the article, or than has been recommended by foreign writers on the subject of butter-making. * The method of packing preferred by Mr. Gilbert, and in which he has been very successful, differs from the ordinary practice chiefly in covering the butter in the firkin with the cloth and the fine, closely-packed salt instead of brine. As the great object is to keep the butter cool and to exclude the air, either method, if well conducted, will be sufficient ; but we think the chance would be in favour of the salt, especially when aided by the stone, a most efficient agent in reducing the tem- jjerature, and for that purpose far prelerable to the head of the firkin or a piece of board. The heart of the oak is undoubtedly one of the best unprepared wo9ds that can be used for firkins; but as all such woods contain more or less of the pyroligneous acid, which has a pernicious effect, as far as it extends, m de- composing the salt of the butter and impartjng a disagreeable flavour, it is evident that the process of boiling the staves for a few hours, by which the acid would be extracted, would be a decided improvement in their manufacture. BUTTER. 233 should prefer select cows of the native breeds, al- though on this topic we are able to speak from little more than information, and the appearance of the few specimens of imported stock around us.* ♦ Mr. Gilbert admits that his acquaintance with the improved breeds of cattle is very limited, and possibly those that have fallen under his notice were not the kinds that produce the best milkers. He is not alone, however, in his opinion that cow^s may be selected from our native breeds preferable as milkers to a large majority of those imported. From our own information and observation, it would seem that the best and most abundant milkers of what is called our native breeds are tinged more or less with imported blood, principally the Devon, which has been more diffused through the country than any other. Certainly the best cows for milking which have fallen under our notice have been of this class, as was demonstrated by their fine skins' and their rich red colour. A correspondent of the Gene.see Farmer, who lives near Philadelphia, speaks of his dairy, which is somewhat select and extensive, as not averaging more than too lbs. to a cow. This he ascertained from a long series of re- corded results. Mr. Gilbert's cows, which were not select, av- eraged 130 pounds for the season ; and other instances have been given which reached from ICO to 190 lbs. A friend of ours, the last season, from a small dairy of six cows, sold 1 1 cwt of cheese and 600 lbs. of butter, besides having an ample supply for his family. Few are aware of the difference in cows in the richness of their milk, and, consequently, in the amount of but- ter they will produce ; hence, while some will reach 200 pounds in the season, or ten months, others will give scarcely one half that quantity. Of the few cows we milked the last season, we found from careful experiment that, while some would make their pound or more a day for a week, there were others which did not average more than eight or ten ounces. The profits of making butter from the milk of a dairy will therefore mainly depend on the goodness of the cows employed ; and this point, while it is entirely overlooked by the great mass of dairymen, may easily be settled by actual and decisive experiment. 234 AMERICAN flUSBANDRY. - CHAPTER XVI. THE DAIRY. Us Profits.— \ature of the Expenses. — Products in Cheese or in Butter. — Comparative Profits. — Circular to Dairy-women, The first object of a farmer in cultivating the soil is profit ; and next to this, the desire of securing his profits with as little expenditure of labour and means as possible. To do this, the quality of the soil, its condition, and the size of the farm must be taken into consideration. Its situation will in a great measure determine the first ; its condition will of course depend on the judicious or injudicious treat- ment it has received ; and as to number of acres, it is evident that, without a certain quantity of them, some kinds of farming, such as grain-raising or wool-growing, cannot be profitably undertaken. Per- haps there is no one branch of farming that can be so readily adapted to all farmers, great or small, as the dairy ; and while it is clear that to raise grain extensively, a large farm is required, and nmch la- bour and money must be expended, a medium farm, one of eighty or a hundred acres, will be found best calculated for the dairy, as the hiring of assistants can usually be dispensed with in such cases. For a man with but forty acres to attempt the raising of grain for sale, and to keep, at the same time, the ne- cessary horses, cows, and sheep for his farm and the supply of tlie family, would be an unprofitable undertaking ; but on such a farm a dairy may be kept that will be a source of great profit when com- pared with the capital invested. To have this matter clear, it will be best to make a few estimates, in all cases getting as near well-es- THE DAIRY. 235 tablished results as possible, and where anything must be left to conjecture, always being careful to ^rr on the safe side of the calculation. A farmer wishes to commence a dairy with ten good cows, not herd-book stock, but good native animals. The price of cows for several years past, in the spring of the year, has varied from 18 to 22 dollars — we will call it 20 — thus making the cost of his cows 200 dol- lars. For pasturing, it is generally estimated that two acres to each cow will be required ; and it may be so, as pastures are generally laid down ; but where the turf is clean and close, and the soil in good heart, we are confident something less will suf- fice to give them every advantage. The interest on the twenty acres required for six months, the time the dairy will be in operation, at 30 dollars per acre, wiU be 21 dollars. The interest on the money in- vested in cows will be seven dollars. A dairy-maid, if one is required, for six months, at a dollar per week, is twenty-six dollars. The expense, then, will stand thus : 10 cows, at 920 each .... $200 00 Interest on do. six months ... 7 00 Interest on two acres to each cow . 21 00 Dairy-maid six months ... 26 GO Total expense . . . §254 00 If it be a cheese-dairy, much will dupend, as to the receipts, on the quality of the milk and the skill shown in making. The quantity of c'vieese produced varies greatly in different dairies ; and in estimating profits, a medium rate must be selected. ^Ir. Brown, of Otsego county, made from thirteen cows 4700 lbs. of clieese, or 361 lbs. to each cow. Mr. E. Perkins, of Trenton, Oneida county, from 78 cows made 32,000 lbs., or 410 lbs. to each cow ; and in his com- munication he slates that the dairies in that cheese- making region vary from 400 to 500 lbs. to a cow. Some experience in the dairy business, and familiar 236 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. .icquaintance witli a dairy district, lead us to suppose Lhat 350 lbs. to a cow would not be an extravagant es- timate. The average price of good cheese, when, sufficiently ripe for sale, for several years past, has not been less than eight cents per lb. ; and many dairies find their sales have averaged from $9 to $9 50 per cwt. Making our estimate at eight cents per lb., the receipts of a dairy of ten cows would Stan J^as follows : 3500 lbs. cheese, 8 cents per lb. . . !^280 GO 100 lbs. butter, 15 cents per lb. . . 15 00 Whey for swine, §2 per cow , 20 00 $315 00 Making the receipts from each cow for six months $31 50 ; or, if we deduct the butter as being most of it necessary in the dairy-room, it will leave the sum of 30 dollars per cow. In some of the best dairy districts of New-England, it has been common to dispose of the cows to drovers after the dairy sea- son has closed, but little feeding being generally re- quired to make them good beef. Cows are not as high in the fall as in the spring by about 20 per cent. ; and if our farmer determines to sell his cows in preference to keeping them over the winter, they will bring him about 160 dollars. This sum must be added to the receipts of the year, making a total of 475 dollars. The whole will then stand thus : Receipts $475 00 Expenses 254 00 $221 GO Giving to the farmer a clear profit of eleven dollars upon each of the twenty acres used for the dairy. It must be remarked, however, that to produce this result, the cows must be in good heart and tolerable order on the first of May, and have good feed for the summer. Cows that " shrink" through the win- ter, and pasture on daisies, johnswort, and thistles THE DAIRY. 237 through the summer, -will not reach the above mark ; and the owners of such cows may think themselves fortunate if the summing up does not show a balance the other way. If the dairy is devoted to making butter, there will be but little difference in the result ; though, if car- ried under favourable circumstances, we think ma- king butter rather more profitable than cheese. Many persons, however, connected with the dairy, think otherwise ; and the difference, at any rate, can- not be very great. To make butter through the sum- mer, the dairy must be so situated and constructed that a uniformly proper temperature may be main- tained ; as it is well known, if the temperature be too low, the cream will be so long in rising as to be- come bitter ; and if too high, as is usually the case in summer, the milk sours before the cream has time to separate, by which much of the cream is lost, and the butter rendered of an inferior quality. In making butter, more is depending on the quality and richness of the milk than in making cheese, as some cows from the same quantity of milk will give double the amount of cream that others will ; and hence the selection of animals must be made with reference to this point. The fact here mentioned accounts for the difference in the quantity of butter produced by different dairies, and the varying esti- mates consequently made of the quantity which each cow will produce in a season. There are some cows that, with good keeping, will make a pound of butter a day for seven or eight months ; and there are oth- ers, that, if they give half a pound a day, may be con- sidered as doing well. The breed of cows has a great influence in deter- mining the quantity and quality of the milk. The Earl of Chesterfield, a short time since, instituted a series of experiments with some favourite cows of different breeds, the results of which were as fol- lows : " In the height of the season, the 238 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. Qti. Milk. Oz. BuUcT. Holderness gave, per day . 29 . 381 Long Horn .... 19 . 25 Aiderney 19 . 25 Devonshire . . . . 17 • 28 Ayrshire 20 . 34" That tliere are few, if any cows of our native breeds that will approach this quantity of milk or butter, most must be willing to admit. Indeed, an able writer on cattle in the Farmer thinks tliat few cows in this country will average more than from 160 to 170 pounds a year. From some experiments we have ourselves made, and from the reports of a few ordinary dairies, we are disposed to dissent from this writer ; and we believe that, with moderate care in the selection of cows and in the management of the dairy, 200 pounds may be easily reached. Mr. Curtis, of Marblehead, Essex county, Massachu- setts, from common cows and ordinary pasture, for three years made butter as follows : 1828—8 cows .... 1272 Jbs. butter 1829—7 •' .... 1175 " 1830—6 " .... 1090 " Which last is at the rate of 181 pounds to a cow, and that under unfavourable circumstances to make the most of the milk. We know cows that produce a pound a day for at least three months in the height of the season, and that without extra care or feed ; still a native cow, to do this, must be good. For three years past, butter, taking the whole season, has averaged 15 cents per lb. ; and, calling the amount produced from a cow 200 lbs., the balance will stand thus : Butter from 10 cows, 2000 lbs. . , $300 00 Skimmed milk, $3 per cow ... 30 00 $330 00 Making a difference of fifteen dollars in favour of butter over cheese-making. Where the milk is , THE DAIRY. 239 churned fresh from the cows, the quantity of butter will of course be greater ; but we have never made it in that way, and have no authentic information by which the difference, and, of course, the profits, can be correctly estimated. Various estimates have been made of the expense of getting in a crop of wheat or com ; but, where wheat is put in after a summer fallow, as is usually the case, the expense of ploughing, harrowing, seed, interest, wear of implements and land, cannot be estimated at less than ten dollars per acre. Ad- mitting the average crop of wheat to be twenty bushels per acre, Avhich must, taking the whole, be considered liberal, and a profit of ten dollars per acre, wheat at one dollar per bushel, which may be considered the average price, will be the result. It would be easy to make out a list of the items of ex- pense and profit, but there can be no necessity for it here, as every wheat-grower can make the calcula- tion for himself, if he needs to be convinced that the above estimate is not far from the truth. If the crop to be compared is corn, estimates made with great care by Judge Buel, by Clark, and others, show that in ordinary' cases the expense of a crop, including labour, seed, use of land, &c., is at least fifteen dollars per acre. The profits of a corn-crop are more variable in our latitude than most others, sometimes running very high, and at others being literally nothing ; and we believe that, if the aver- age estimate of profit on an acre of corn is put the same as wheat, it is as high as the experience of the farming community will justify. If the above calculations are correct, then the dif- ference in profit per acre between the dairyman and the wheat-grower is not so much in favour of the latter as has been generally supposed. It may, how- ever, be said, that the practice of disposing of his cows by the dairj-man after the season is closed, would in the end be suicidal to the business if gen- 240 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. erally adopted ; and hence, as a general rule, the cows must be kept over the winter, making it necessary to deduct from the profits the expense of keeping during this period. The result would then be as fol- lows : A cow will eat a ton and a half of hay during the winter, which, at the average price of eight dol- lars a ton, would be twelve dollars for keeping ; rather exceeding, if there is any difference, the neat profit on each cow the first season. It must be re- membered, however, that if the produce of a good cow will pay for herself and her winter's keeping the first season, then the dairyman enters the field the second year with an unencumbered capital : the cows are paid for, and the entire amount of the pro- duce, with the trifling deductions above stated, are to be counted as profit. Let our dairy counties look at this matter carefully ; it is well worth their atten- tion. [We add the following, as coming from extensive and experienced dealers in the products of the dairy; and have no doubt attention to its suggestions would add much to the quality and character of the prod- ucts of the American dairy.] TO THE DAIRY-WOMEN OF OUR COUNTRY. The undersigned, dealers in butter and cheese, would call the attention of the manufacturers of these articles in the middle and western purts of this state, to the existence of general and just com- plaints in regard to the quaUty and condition of both butter and cheese made in such sections, together with the packages. In view of this fact, and to en- courage an improvement that will restore and in- crease the reputation formerly enjoyed by producers of these articles, they would respectfully submit to their consideration the following views, relative first to the manufacture of cheese : In all cases, the milk THE DAIRY. 241 and rennet should be perfectly sweet ; as much of the animal heat should be evaporated from the milk as time will admit ; when the curd is properly pro- duced, break it up very fine, cook it well, but do not heat it so much as to start the oil in the curd ; sea- son it with clean, fine salt, pure from lime ; put the cheese in the press cool ; press it hard, in order to extract all the whey from the middle before the out- side closes tight ; continue to press for two days ; from the press put a dry cloth over it for a few hours, until a rind is formed ; then put on annatto, dissolved in strong ley ; cover again with the cloth until the next day ; after the cloth is removed, put on a thick, strong coat of melted beeswax and lard, or butter ; get a bright, smooth surface, and keep it so, by constant rubbing and turning, until the cheqpe is perfectly cured. When put in the casks, let it al- ways be done in cool, dry weather. All cheese should be slightly coloured with annatto in the milk; and such as do not exceed fifty pounds in weight should be made a bright orange colour ; cheese of this description being generally in good demand for the Southern markets. Finally, there shoi>ld never be any late cheese. In no case should cheese be sent to market made after tht 15th day of Septem- ber ; nor should it be sent even thus late, unless the utmost pains is taken with it, and unless it is well cured by a fire. It is of the greatest importance to the dairy interest that these rules, in regard to late cheese, be strictly conformed to ; for this kind of cheese not only destroys itself and greatly injures the market for a good article at thr present time, lut, should the practice of making and sending it be persisted in, it will eventually destroy the business. To prevent any loss to the farmer, the undersigned would advise them to make butter after the 15th of September; butter made after this time always com- manding a fair price. 2d. Of Cheese-casks. — They should be smoothly II.— T 242 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. and well made of good seasoned wood, not less than half an inch in thickness for small casks, and five eighths of an inch for large casks : the heads of all large cask^ should be at least five eighths of an inch in thickness, to prevent them from springing ; the staves should be narrow, in order to preserve their places and keep the cask round ; there should be always a fair bilge, with at least eight good substan- tial hoops (maple hoops should never be used) ; the quarter hoops should never be put down so low on the casks as to allow the staves to spring out when the head hoops are taken oft'; the other hoops should all be securely nailed. 3d. Of Butter. — In all cases where it is made from cream, it should be churned before the delicious fla- W^ur is lost, or any bad flavour induced ; avoid too much heat in the process, as this causes the butter to be soft and of fine grain, bordering on a waxy character ; never fail to extract every particle of milk before it is laid down ; season it with rectified fine salt, or ground solar salt, and work in no more of it than will be entirely dissolved : where any of it is leli undissolved, it destroys that delicate rosy flavour which renders the article most desirable, and its value diminishes in proportion to the excess of salt — this being one of the greatest objections to Western butter. ' 4th. Of the Packages. — The undersigned would recommend two kinds, viz., firkins and Welsh tubs. The firkins should be made of seasoned white oak, with walnut hoops. Where white oak is not to be had, they should be made of heart-stuff of white ash, and hoops of white or black ash or elm, of good shape and perfectly smooth ; have on at least ten good hoops, smoothly shaved ; let them be perfectly tight, and contain 100 lbs. Welsh tubs should be made of seasoned white ash, hooped with seven sub- stantial split ash hoops, smoothly shaved, to contain from 100 to 120 lbs. Both firkins and tubs should THE DAIRY. 243 be soaked in a strong pickle, in ordtr to saturate the wood before the butter is laid down ; but never put any salt at the bottom or on the top of the butter. Great care should be taken to put it down solid; never fill the packages so full as to have the head or cover touch the butter, and always make a smooth surface on the top with the la-dle. The tubs and fir- kins should be weighed, and the actual dry weight marked upon them with a marking iron in such a maoner as not to be obliterated ; and let them always be found accurate. In conclusion, the undersigned give it as their de- cided opinion, that the manufacturers of cheese and butter in the middle and western parts of this state, who will observe the above rules, and unite with the observance a desire to make their articles of the first quality, after a little experience, will be able to compete with any part of the United States, both in quaUty and prices, at home or abroad. Possess- ing, as these manufacturers undoubtedly do, one of the finest soils, and the best adapted to grazing of any in our country, they may produce the article in the greatest perfection. On this, as well as other accounts, the undersigned wish to impress upon their minds the importance of this subject, and that the course recommended is the only one which will secure to them the advantages of a fair price and a good reputation for their labour and pains. Signed, Leggett & Lapham, and others. JSew-YoTk, Ajjrit, 1S38. 244 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. CHAPTER XVII. THE KITCHEN OR FARMER's GARDEN. Importance of a Good Garden. — Proper Soil. — Preparation. — Sowing Seed — Depredators. — Qualities and Germination of Seed. — Degrees of Hardiness. -' There is very little danger of the importance of the garden to the farmer being overrated, or of the directions for forming and cultivating one being too ample and minute. The farmer who manages his garden well not only finds it a source of great per- sonal comfort and emolument, but it proves to him an experimental farm in miniature, in which the va- rious modes of cultivation ; the effect of the several kinds of manures ; the changes which continued cropping with one kind of plant, or a rotation of plants produces on the soil, and their respective qual- ity, productiveness, and consequent value can be determined with accuracy. A neat and well-arran- ged garden may be generally considered a very good index to the slate of the farm ; for rarely, indeed, is a man found who manages and cultivates his garden thoroughly, that will be inattentive and slovenly in the culture of his field-crops. On the contrary, in most cases where the garden is neglected, the farm will be found in a corresponding condition, with more weeds than valuable plants, and indicating that the labour expended will receive a very inadequate re- ward. There is among farmers generally a too prevalent idea that the work done in the garden is lost to the farm. Such is not the fact; and it would not be difficult to s'^ow that the acre in garden, well culti- vated, and stocked with a proper variety of vegeta- THE KITCHEN OR FARMER's GARDEN. 245 bles, yields a far gr(iater amount of actual profit, even if not the worth of a single dollar should go to the market from it, than any other acre of the farm. The quantity of food used either by man or beast, and contributing essentially to the comfort as well as the positive subsistence of a family, is very great ; but, as it is consumed daily, its value is httle real- ized, except by those who are compelled to purchase in the market what the farmer, or most individuals in the country, may produce in their garden. It is to aid in the cultivation of the common garden, such as every farmer, mechanic, or professional man out of our cities and villages may have, that the follow- ing directions are principally intended. The pro- fessed gardener has his works devoted expressly to this pursuit ; most of them too bulky and expensive for common use, and containing a mass of directions not applicable to ordinary garden-culture at all, or not without an expenditure which few are willing or able to encounter, and embracing a multitude of plants or vegetables cultivated more as articles of luxury or curiosity than as being of any actual value. In arranging these directions and descriptions, ref- erence has been had to the works of Loudon, Smith, Bridgeman, the articles on Gardening in the Encyclo- paedias, and many valuable hints have been derived from the numerous agricultural and gardening jour- nals of our country. The most essential requisite to a good garden is a good soil ; one adapted to the vegetables intended for cultivation, and by its original composition or artificial management brought into a state the best calculated to ensure productiveness and increase fer- tility. The best soils for gardens are those in which the several original earths of sand, clay, and lime are so proportioned and balanced that they may be worked easily, and will not be liable to suffer either from drought or the accumulation of water. Such a soil usually approaches the nature of deep, strong 246 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. loam, and by proper management can have an}' de- gree of depth or fertility given it. If the soil is very light, sandy, or gravelly to a considerable depth, it will be too porous, subject to drought and to infiltra- tion, or the sinking of the most valuable and effica- cious parts of manures so far into the earth as to be "below, and, consequently, lost to the plants. On the contrary, if the soil contains too much clay, it will be close and tenacious, retentive of moisture, and while it will be hard and solid when dry, it will be sticky and like mud when wet. A clay soil, or one too retentive of moisture, is more difficult to manage than one which fails the other way ; but either can, by proper care and skill (the first or porous soil by the application of retentive materials, such as clay- marl or common clay, and the last by deep and thorough digging and draining, and perhaps the ap- plication of a quantity of sand), be made suitable for most plants. A soil naturally favourable is, howev- er, always to be preferred, as in this case the simple incorporation of manures to the proper depth is all that is required to fit it for the reception of seed and the growth of vegetables. Inattention to the soil is a fundamental error in commencing a garden, and many failures have occurred from a want of care in this respect. But, however well constituted the soil may natu- rally be, to produce many of the vegetables grown in the garden, or, indeed, any of them in perfection, it must be brought into a rich state by the liberal ap- plication of manures. These, for the garden, should be fine, free from the seed of all weeds, and easily incorporated with the earth. In the country we not unfrequently see manure fresh from the stables, full of seed, straw, or hay, applied to gardens without any previous preparation ; thus, at the same time, greatly increasing the labour of cultivation, and ma- terially diminishing the quantity and value of the product. ISone but thoroughly-rotted manures or THE KITCHEN OR FARMER's GARDEN. 247 compost should be used on the garden ; and a neg- lect of this rule will subject the cultivator to much inconvenience and loss. The best compost is made *of successive layers of stable manure and vegetable mould, such as old turf or muck from swamps ; the earths absorbing and retaining the gases from the fermenting dung, and thus aiding the decomposition of the vegetable or fibrous matter existing in the mould. Where convenient, the compost heap will be much increased in value by keeping it under cov- er, and by turning and mixing the ingredients once or twice after the active fermentation has ceased. We have tried, and seen tried by others, a mode of preparing compost, which appeared in a considera- ble degree to unite excellence of compost and profit in its formation. In one part of the garden let a trench five or six feet in width, and from twelve to eighteen inches in depth, be made, into which, as early in the spring as may be practicable, stable or long manure is to be placed, forming a kind of mound or ridge, the central part of which may be some three or four feet in height from the bottom. Over this the earth removed from the trench is to be thrown, and enough added to make a covering of ten or twelve inches in thickness, on which, at the prop- er season, some of those plants that require or will bear such a position (pumpkins, squashes, or even cucumbers and melons may be so grown) may be planted ; and the decomposition, while going on, pro- duces heat sufficient to give the greatest luxuriance to the vegetables, while the manure is at the same time preparing for application the coming season. The time of preparing the soil for the reception of the seed must of course depend much on the circumstances of quality and exposure, but more on that of climate, influenced as this must in a great measure be by geographical position. Thus, while green pease are plentiful in tlie market at Charles- ton, they are blossoming at Norfolk, in earh , vigor- 248 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. ous growth at New- York, and just sown at Montreal and Quebec. The fact, therefore, of geographical position must always be considered in the culture of plants, time of sowing, &c. ; and that of elevation should not be overlooked, as it is well known that the difference in temperature between a valley and a mountain-range or elevated land, at not more than three or four miles' distance, is not unfrequently equal to that of as many degrees of latitude. It is always desirable to have the seed of vegetables as early in the ground as is consistent with the safety of the plants, as the earth in the spring contains the moisture essential to perfect germination, and as soon as the ground has received the proper degree of heat, then is the time to plant. Some seed will germinate with a much less degree of heat than oth- ers ; and those that are most hardy are usually of this class. Thus lettuce and pease will vegetate at a temperature in which the seed of melons, and even corn, would most certainly rot. As a general rule, then, applicable to all parts of the country, it may be said that all seed should be put in the earth as soon as its temperature will admit of germination, and the young plants be secure from the spring frosts. The preparation of the ground for a garden requires few directions ; if properly constituted, and sufficiently rich or well manured, nothing is necessary but turn- ing it up with the spade or the plough, making the surface fine for the reception of the seed, and giving a depth of loose, friable earth, of not less than eigh- teen inches, for the roots of the plants to penetrate and seek their food in. A good depth of rich soil is favourable to all plants, and indispensable to some. In laying out and planting a garden for vegetable culture, reference will usually be had more to utility and convenience than to mere appearance ; but even the arrangement of the kitchen garden maybe made to display correct taste, and the exemplification of habits of order and neatness is rarely more J'onspic THE KITCHEN OR FARMER's GARDEN. 249 uous or deficient than in this place. The allotment of the ground must be made so as to give the proper proportion to each variety of plant ; and the situa- tion of each must be arranged so as to secure the benefit of air, light, &c., without which perfection cannot be expected. Reference must also be had, in planting the garden one year, to its probable cul- tivation the next, so as to secure a rotation of plants,' and not have the same variety occupy the same ground for successive years, where it can be avoid- ed. Beds or squares are found the most convenient disposition of the surface, as they may be construct- ed with regularity, and the divisions between them will give easy access to the whole. The operation of putting in the seed is usually and best performed by the hand. Some few of them may be planted by the drill sufKciently well, but, as a whole, the hand is preferable. Many of the seeds planted are very small, and such, if planted deep, will not germinate ; and if left Avith the earth loose about them, they will also fail. The depth to which ordinar}'' garden seed should be planted can be much better gauged, and the operation of covering more effectuall)'' performed by the hand than in any other way. If the ground is made sufficiently fine, what some gardeners call a hand drill, or a kind of rake, maybe used, with advantage for making the furrows in which the seed is to be deposited. It consists of a rake-head, longer or shorter as required, into which teeth wide at the head and tapering to the point are inserted, at the distance required for the rows of the vegetable to be sown. A handle, in- serted in the usual way, completes the implement. Two or three of them may be necessary, as some plants demand, in growing, a greater distance be- tween the rows than others, and the teeth of the rake or drill must correspond to the required dis- tance. When the ground is fine and in good order for seed, such a drill, drawn across a bed or plat to II.— U 250 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. be sown, will make as many furrows as it has teeth ; and if the first furrow is made accurate by a hne or a straight-edged board, the succeeding ones will be so too, since a tooth may be allowed to run in the last-made furrow in drawing the drill across the bed. After the seed is deposited and covered, a roller should be passed over the furrows, to press the earth closely about the seed and ensure germination. All garden ground, when planted, should be rolled, as a smooth, level surface is one of the best preven- tives against insects, cutting off many of their hiding places, or exposing them more readily to capture. Nearly all cultivated vegetables have their pecu- liar depredators among the insect tribes, and all gar- dens are more or less infested with some of them. The cut-worm feeds on beans and cabbages, or seems to prefer such plants to most others. The surest way of eradicating these is to examine the parts of the garden allotted to such plants early in the morning, and, where a plant is cut down, the depredator may be found either immediately by it, or within a few inches of it, and destroyed. A good dressing of lime incorporated with the surface, besides benefiting the soil, will have the effect of destroying many of the worms and small bugs, and the eggs of such insects when near the surface. The yellow bug so destructive at times to cucum- bers, squashes, melons, &c., can only be effectually prevented 'from preying on these plants by hunting them out and killing them. A squeeze between the thumb and finger is the most certain method of ar- resting their career. The cabbage is liable to the attacks of a small fly or bug. which, when they are young, inflict great injury upon them. As they col- lect on single plants, by paying attention to these, and destroying as many of them as possible around such plants, and by frequently hoeing the plants to aid their growth, much of the loss that would other- wise be incurred may be prevented. A caterpillar THE KITCHEN OR FARMEr's GARDEN. 251 appears by thousands, at times, on cabbages and turnips, and we have sometimes noticed them on beets; but as these are the product of the eggs of a moth, and, when young, are confined to a single leaf, the gardener who begins with them in season will have little difficulty in exterminating tliem, by pick- ing all such leaves before the myriad brood is scat- tered, and crushing the whole at once with the foot. The same mode of extermination is also the best that can be pursued with regard to the aphis, or green plant-louse, that depredates so extensively on most cultivated plants. The singular manner in which the young of this insect is produced, gives a rapidity of multiplication unknown to other insect tribes, and enables a single female, when impregna- ted, to become in a few days the parent of millions. When a colony is observed on the turnip or cabbage, or other plants, they should be exterminated at once, or they will spread with astonishing rapidity. One of the most effectual aids of the gardener in the de- struction of insects is a brood of chickens. A hen with a dozen or twenty chickens, placed in a porta- ble coop, and the chickens allowed to run at large, will destroy more bugs,' cut-worms, slugs, snails, earthworms, and moths, than the most active and skilful man ; and, while young, and their services the most valuable, they will meddle with or injure no plant. All the care requisite is the occasional feed- ing of them with the hen. The multitudes of small birds which abound where they are undisturbed also destroy thousands of these insect depredators ; and the disposition which unthinking boys or brutalized men show to kill or maim these beautiful residents of our groves or orchards, should meet with the se- verest reprehension. When insects are, however, very numerous, it may be desirable to use some other measures of prevention or destruction, and a powder made of soot, ashes, and charcoal, dusted over the plants, 852 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. will sometimes be of great service. Too much soot on very tender plants must be avoided, as it will prove fatal at times if used too liberally ; no such danger results from the charcoal dust or ashes. A decoction of waste tobacco, dung, soot, burdock, or elder leaves, or other materials offensive to insects, in water, and applied with the watering-pot, will aid in driving them away or destroying them ; and if an occasional watering of soapsuds, or of a solution of saltpetre be given, the benefit will be great, and the growth of the plants materially assisted. Much of the success of the gardener depends on the quality of his seed, and too much care cannot be given to this point. There is a constant tenden- cy in all varieties of the same plant or species to intermix, or, as it is terme'd in breeding cattle, to cross with each other ; and hence, unless great care is taken in the growing of seed, their product may not be like the original or desired variety. The value of the watermelons cultivated for the New- York and Philadelphia markets has greatly decreased, in con- sequence of the general growth by the market gar- deners of the citron melon for preserving ; the vari- eties having intermixed to such a degree, that the flavour of the melon has suffered materially, and its rind been thickened in the same proportion. The beet is another plant very liable to have its value impaired by impregnation with inferior kinds; and many who purchase the scarcity or the sugar-beet, find the product of their seed to be some variety of the common beet, or a mixture of that with the re- quired sort. Cucumbers, squashes, carrots, corn, and many other vegetables deteriorate for the same reason ; and those who grow seed for the market, or for themselves only, should be aware of these facts, and plant the roots intended for seed at such dis- tances from other varieties of the same plant as to preclude all intermixture. The facihty of germination in seed, and the val- THE KITCHEN OR FARMER's GARDEN. 253 ue of the plants it produces, are much influenced by its age. There are some kinds which cannot be kept beyond the second or third year with safety, as they will either not germinate at all, or so tardily as to give weak and worthless plants. Light, thin seed, such as rhubarb, parsnip, &c., should be only one year old. The carrot, pepper, pease, beans, onion, f.ress, nasturtium, &.C., will be good when two years old. Lettuce, parsley, spinage, artichoke, mustard, &c., will vegetate freely at three years. Cabbage, celery, radish, and turnip seed may be used when four years old ; and cucumber, melon, squash, beet, pumpkin, and burnet seed will grow when kept five or six years ; though in nearly every case, the fresh- er the seed the better. Owing to neglect of this or- der of nature, seed is put into the garden that never vegetates ; and even seedsmen, it is to be feared, are so forgetful of these facts, that seed past its prime for vegetation is often sold to farmers and others, to their great injury. The following table we copy from Bridgeman's " Young (iardeners' Assistant," a work that we caa cordially recommend to all engaged in gardening. At 1 foot distance, an acre will contain 43,560 plants li " " 19,360 " 2 " " 10,890 " 2i " " 6,969 " 3 " " 4,319 " 4 " " 2,722 " 5 " " 1,742 " 6 " " 1,210 " 9 " " 537 " 12 " " 362 " 15 " " 198 " 18 " " 134 " 23 " " • 98 '< 24 " " 75 " 27 " " 59 " 30 " " 48 " This table may be useful in various ways, not only to the gardener in determining the plains he 254 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. can put on an acre at the several distances named, but in planting trees it shows the number that v/ill be required when the distance is once fixed upon, and in farming, the number of hills of corn per acre, and the proper division of a given quantity of ma- nure on a certain number of acres, so that each part shall be equally benefited. For convenience' sake, writers have divided the commonly cultivated garden plants, so far as it re- gards their ability to endure a low temperature, into Hardy, Half Hardy, and Tender. Hardy. Half Hardy. Tender. Asparagus. Artichoke. Beans, Kidney and Pole. English Dwarf Beans. Beet Cucumber. Leek. Cabbage. Egg plant. Onion., Cauliflower. Indjan Corn. Parsley. Carrot. Melun. Parsnip. Celery. Okra. Pease. Cress. Peppers. Salsipy. Lettuce. Squasli and Pumpkin. Spinage. Radish. Tomato. Corn Salad. Turnip. Herbs in general. As plants cultivated in gardens are intended for food at different stages of maturity, some while in the bud, as asparagus ; others while green, as salads, sweet corn, and summer squash ; and others in a ripe state, as the melon, potato, and tomato, refer- ence must be had to these things in the division and appropriation of a garden ; but, in all cases, plants intended for seed must be allowed fully to ripen, and their seed to perfect itself, or it will be compara- tively worthless. Imperfect or impure seed may indeed germinate, but inferior, sickly plants will be produced. As these notices of gardening are intended for the use of those who cultivate plants or vegetables for their own use rather than for those who make gar- dening a profession, and who, of course, will avail themselves of more ample and comprehensive trea- tises, it may not be amiss here to state, that only ARTICHOKE. 255 those plants will be described, and their mode of culture given, that are necessary in any good garden, be it ©wned by farmer or mechanic, and which ve- getables may be grown in nearly all parts of our country in the open air, without the aid of artificial appliances. There can be no propriety in encum- bering our pages with descriptions of vegetables or plants which not one in ten thousand of our gar- deners cultivate, or find of any value, and of which people generally have perhaps never heard. The vegetables described have been classed al- phabetically, as being more convenient to the read- er. Some of the herbs most prized for cooking or for their medical virtues have been introduced in their proper places, and will doubtless be found of service when cultivated in the kitchen-garden. The most simple, and, at the same time, effectual methods of growing vegetables will be described, as being best adapted to the generality of readers. The sci- entific or botanical name will be added to the com- mon one, as distinguishing the plants more definitely, very diff"erent plants in different parts of the countiy being known by the same name. ARTICHOKE. The two plants grown under the name of arti- choke in gardens are very different in their nature, modes of- cultivation, and uses. The first is grown for its large fl?ower-heads, the last for its tubers, which, like the potato, are matured in the earth. Of the first kind, the Cynara, there are two varieties, Cynara Scolymus and Cynara Hortensis, or Globe Ar- tichoke ; which latter is preferred for general cul- ture, as producing larger heads than the other. The artichoke may be propagated by seed sown in beds of rich, fine earth, or by suckers or offshoots from old plants in the spring ; and a plantation of tliem, if well cultivated, will continue to produce good heads from seven to ten years. The flower- 256 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. heads, in a green or immature state, contain the fleshy part used, technically called the bottom, and which is prepared for cooking by being freed from the scales and seed-down. Boiled from an hour and a half to two hours, and served up with melted but- ter and such condiments as may please the palate, they constitute a dehcious dish, and may be had ia perfection from July to October. Artichokes require a rich, deep soil, and, before they are planted out, the ground allotted them must be made so by trenching and manuring. The young plants or suckers are set in the earth in rows about four feet apart, and two feet from each other in the rows. Two or three plants or suckers, and by some gardeners even more, are placed at each point of setting. These beds require to be dug and manured with thoroughly rotted manure every spring, a fork being used for loosening the earth ; and they must be kept free from weeds at all times. The crowns of the plants require protection during the severity of the winter, and horse-litter, light dung, leaves of trees, or other similar matters, will serve to secure them against the frost. Early in the spring the covering must be removed, the beds levelled and dug over, the earth loosened around the plants, and, where they begin to spring up, the shoots must be removed, with the exception of three or four of the most thrif- ty on each stool. " The maturity of a full-grown artichoke is apparent by the opening of the scales ; and it should always be cut off before the flower appears in the centre ; the stem should be cut close to the ground at the same time." This vegetable is a native of the south of Europe, and has been ex- tensively spread over many countries for culinary purposes. The Jerusalem Artichoke, Helianthus Tuherosns, known to most as the common artichoke of the gar- den, is, like the potato, a natiA'e of America, and the ASPARAGUS. 257 roots or tubers are held in great esteem by many, sliced thin and eaten with vinegar and pepper, or boil- ed and mashed to be eaten with butter. Few roots are propagated more easily, either by cuttings or whole tubers ; and, when once introduced in a soil, the eradication is somewhat difficult, as the least piece containing an eye (and these are very numer- ous) is sure to sprout. When intended for the table they should be planted in a good soil, but not freshly manured (as the roots in that case are apt to be wormy), and hoed so as to keep the earth loose and clean around them. If allowed to remain in the ground through the winter, the roots will have a crispness and richness not found in those preserved in any other way. The cultivation of the Jerusalem Artichoke for swine has been strongly recommend- ed by some eminent farmers, and great crops have been occasionally raised. It is not probable, how- ever, that in ordinary cases it could be made to su- persede the potato," or that the yield of the artichoke would equal that of the latter root. ASPARAGUS. Asparagus Officinalis. Asparagus is one of the most esteemed of garden vegetables, and can be cultivated readily in most sit- uations, where the ground has been properly fitted for its reception. There are several varieties, dif- fering little except in the size of the buds or shoots, and all requiring the same mode of cultivation. It is idle to attempt the culture of this plant unless the earth is rich and deep, and, to ensure this, garden- ers recommend that it be dug over and thoroughly incorporated with manure to the depth of two or three feet. A soil moderately light, in which the roots can spread freely, will be found best for this plant; and, when once prepared, its fertility must be kept up by forking in, either in the fall or early in the spring, three or four inches of well-rotted ma- nure. Aspara'gus-beds should have the full light and 258 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. warmth of the sun, as the buds will not only start earlier, but will be larger and finer. The seed may be sown as soon as ripe in autumn, or as early us a bed can be fitted for it in the spring, the soil being of the finest, richest kind, and the seed being put in in rows a foot apart and lightly covered. They will be fit for transplanting the first year if well cultivated, although some prefer letting them remain in the seed-beds till the second year. An asparagus bed may be made by preparing the ground as described above, and allowing four feet for four rows of plants, with alleys two and a half feet between every four such rows. The young plants must be placed in trenches six or eight inches deep, twelve inches apart in the rows, the crown of d many varieties of them have been produced, and may be found on the catalogues of our principal seedsmen. The general subdivis- ions of the garden peas are dwarf and tall, or early and late ; and of each of these there are many kinds. Of the early or dwarf pease the Washington, Bish- op, Charlton, and Blue Prolific are perhaps the best known ; of the tall or later kinds, the several varie- ties of Marrowfats are unequalled. The pea called the Sugar Pea is cooked like stringed beans, the pod having no toujh inner film, and is boiled whole. Of this pea there are two kinds, the Dwarf Sugar and the tall Crooked Pod ; the first growing three, and the last six feet in length. The earlv nr dwarf pease THE POTATO. 279 require sticks to siipport them about three feet in length, and the tall or later varieties about six feet. The Bishop or early Dwarf is, however, only one foot high. Different modes of sowing pease in the garden are practised, as in drills, rows, and circles, and these double and single ; but care must be taken to have the rows or drills proportioned in distance to the height the pease are expected to grow ; or from four to seven or eight feet apart. In the widest spaces other vegetables may be planted, such as roots that will come to maturity after the pease are ripe and the brush is removed. Pease may be started in frames or hotbeds if placed in pots, and will be much earlier than if grown in the open air. A quart of pease will plant from one hun- dred and fifty to two hundred feet in the row ; the early dwarfs three to an inch, the middle sorts three to two inches, and the large sorts an inch and a half apart. The Pea will produce better for being fre- quently hoed, and the earth drawn up to the plants ; and care must be taken to have them bushed early, that they may have proper supports. Pease should always be cooked immediately after being gathered, or much of their sweetness is lost. " Taste and try" is the only rule in boiling them, as a little difference in age and hardness will make much diflerence in the quickness and ease 6f cook- ing. Some put in a sprig or two of spearmint with the pease in boiling, as imparting a finer flavour, and a little salt in the water should never be omitted. For field-culture of pease, reference may be had to the agricultural journals of the day, in which the diflTerent processes, and the value of the crop, may be found fully described. There are two plants extensively cultivated known by this name ; one the common Potato, Solanum tu- berosum, and the other the Sweet Potato, Convolvulus 280 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. batatas, so valuable in the South. The seed end of the potato (or the one having the most eyes) should be selected for planting where early roots are de- sired, as the experience of ttie Lancashire garden- ers, who supply the London market, proves that po- tatoes from these shoots will be ten or fifteen days earlier than from sets from the other extremity. From ten to sixteen bushels will be required to plant an acre, according to the variety used, and the man- ner of cutting or planting them. Potatoes usually come to maturity whether planted early or late, or from April to July, requiring a rich earth, full of vegetable mould, rather moist than dry, and kept clean and free from weeds. The common practice is to earth them up once or twice at hoeing, but it is not certain that this is the best method of cultiva- tion, as some of the best crops on record were • grown without hilling. The probability is, that some varieties require earthing more than others. From three to six hundred bushels may be obtained from an acre. A moderate hotbed is required for the Sweet Po- tato in this climate. In a bed of this kind, let some roots be planted early in April three or four inches deep. In a month sprouts will be thrown up, which, w^hen three inches above the ground, are to be part- ed off, and transplanted into a rich, light soil, in rows four feet apart. If the potato is allowed to remain, more shoots will appear, which may be afterward set in the garden as before. They must be hoed till the vines begin to cover the ground ; and, in all cases where the earth is light, a shovel of manure should be incorporated in the hill before the sprout is put out. A peck of good sound roots in a bed, and the shoots treated in this way, will usually give from twelve to eighteen bushels of good roots, which are highly prized for the table. The Rohan Potato, latelj'^ introduced from France, promises to be one of our best varieties, its pro- PUMPKIN. PURSLANE. — RADISH. 281 ductiveness being great, and the quantity of seed pei acre small ; five bushels being deemed an adequate supply. PUMPKIN. Cucurhita Pepo. The most valuable varieties of this well-known vegetable are the Fine Yellow, Connecticut Field, Mammoth, and Seven-year Pumpkins. It succeeds the best in new soils abounding in vegetable mat- ter, and is excellent for feeding cattle or horses, boihng for swine, and for many culinary purposes. At some of the horticultural exhibitions of Philadel- phia, specimens of the Spanish or Mammoth Pump- kin were shown, weighing from two hundred to two hundred and thirty-eight pounds. The common mode of cultivation is to plant the seed with Indian corn, and great crops of them are sometimes grown in this way. Too many plants in this case must not be admitted, as they will, if too thick, injure the crop of com very materially. Pumpkins of good quality make excellent pies, and, stewed and mixed with wheat-flour, or wiih Indian meal, make a sweeter and better bread than either would alone. PURSLANE. This plant is found in almost every garden, and, if left to itself, soon becomes a nuisance, and is treated as such. The young shoots, however, make a very good salad, and it is much used as a potherb or for greens. It may be cultivated where desired by sowing the seed in May, either in drills or broadcast. It does not readily admit of transplanting. RADISH. Raphanus Salivus. The best radishes for spring culture are the early Scarlet, short and long. Scarlet Turnip, and White Turnip ; and for summer, as resisting heat better, the White Nonpareil, Yellow Turuip, and White and II.-Y 282 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. Black Spanish. The excellence of the radish de- pends mainly on the rapidity of its growth, giving freshness and crispness. The Short-top Scarlet may be sown as early in the spring as the ground can be fitted, or by "the middle of March. The ground must be rich, well worked, and, if in a warm and protected border, the plants will be the better for an early crop. Some gardeners sow them in drills between the rows of onions, the radishes get- ting their growth and being removed before the room is required for tlie onions. If successive crops of radishes are desired, they may be sowed every two weeks from March until May, always remembering that the late-sown ones should be of the kind pre- ferred above for summer. Radishes are frequently grown in frames or in hotbeds, and, if of good qual- ity, are always acceptable, and by many considered a luxury after the passing away of a severe winter. RHUBARB or PIE-PLANT. Rheum. There are tliree varieties of this plant cultivated; the Rheum Rhaponticum and Rheum Unclulatum, for the sake of the leaf-stems, and the Rheum Palmalum, which is chiefly grown for the sake of its root, so extensively used in medicine. Rhubarb may be propagated by offsets taken early in the spring, or from seed sown in March or April. Wet weather is the most proper time for transplant- ing, and the second year is the most critical time with the young plants. The roots of the Palmatum should remain six or seven years before they are taken from the earth, as they require a long time to reach perfection. The plants of all these kinds must have a deep, rich soil, as the size of the stems of tiiose used for cooking, and the roots of the kind cultivated for medicine, are mainly depending on this. The English gardeners have produced one or two varieties of the Rhaponticum, the Giant Rhu- barb and the Victoria, much superior to the old kinds 8P1NAGE. SQUASH. 283 The stems are the parts used, and these peeled, washed, and treated in the manner of apples, by stewing, and the addition of spices, make excellent pies, tarts, &c. The growth may be much forward- ed in the spring by placing a barrel or box over them, and piling stable manure around the outside. A few good roots will furnish a supply for a family, at a time when other green articles for pies are dif- ficult to be obtained. spiNAGE. Spmacia. For summer use, sow in April ; for fall use, in Au- gust ; and for spring use, in September. Spinage is a very hardy plant, and, sown late, it will live through the winter if covered with straw, salt hay, or cedar brush during the most severe weather. By this course early and good crops can be obtained. The difficulty with spring-sown plants is their propensity to run to seed and become worthless in hot weather. The seed may be sown broadcast or in drills ; but the ground must be rich, and kept clean by frequent hoeing. There are several varieties of this plant, of which the large round-leaved is considered the best, being hardy and productive. The New-Zeal- and Spinage, Teiragona expansa, is of late introduc- tion, but promises to be a useful vegetable. Its growth is luxuriant, and a space of two or three feet in the best soils may be left between the plants. It endures the summer heat better than the common varieties, and should therefore be sown in the spring in hills, two or three seeds together. Spinage is one of the best of potherbs, and may be boiled in clear water, drained, salted, and butter- ed to the taste, or boiled with meat, as other greens usually are. As one of the earliest cultivated plants, il deserves a place in every garden. PQUASH. Cucurbila Melopepo. Tne souasnes best deserving of cultivation are the 284 AMER10A.N HUSBANDRY. Early Bush Squash, Vegetable Marrow, and Lima Cocoanut or Acorn Squash. The Crooknecks are valuable varieties, as are the Valparaiso and Cushaw; but for the table we prefer the first-named kinds. The general cultivation of the squash is the same as that of the cucumber and melon; planting in well- manured ground in hills, the bush kinds four feet apart, and the runners from six to eight feet. Sum- mer squashes are used before ripening ; winter squashes must ripen, but should be gathered before frosts occur. They must be kept dry, and, if not allowed to freeze, will keep good for some months. SALSIFY. Tragopogon Porrifolius. This plant, called also the Vegetable Oyster, is exteusively cultivated, both for its tops and roots ; the first being gathered while fresh and tender, and cooked and eaten as asparagus ; and the latter, being cut into thin slices, are boiled in milk and water till soft and tender, then mashed and slightly thickened with flour, after which they are fried in lard or but- ter. In this state they are considered a luxury. They are cultivated by being sown in drills in April, an inch deep, and the drills one foot apart. The plauts must be thinned to the distance of six inches from each other, and the after-culture is the same as for carrots or beets. The roots may be gathered in the fall, and packed in earth or sand, or allowed to stand where they grew till wanted. oMATo. Solanum Ly coper sicum. The Tomato has long been grown in gardens for the beauty of its fruit, but within a few years its cul- tivation has been much extended, and it is now gen- erally esteemed both for its culinary and medicinal prop!>rties. The Tomato may indeed be considered the fiUihionable plant of the day ; and not to know and admire it " argues one's sell unknown." Still it must be admitted that the taste for it is acquired, TLRMP, 285 and a strong confil^rce in its medical properties is necessary to induce the uninitiated to pronounce it "delicious." The plants may be started in mod- erate hotbeds, and transplanted as early as the weatlier becomes warm, or Ln the latter part of May, though much will depend on location, and the object of delay will be to secure the plant against cold or frost. The plants need support ; but, if placed at a considerable distance, say five or six feet from each other, they will ripen their fruit with- out. 'Vhv Tomato may also be grown by sowing the seed early in May in a warm border, on mellow, rich ground, to be transplanted in June ; or, perhaps better, they may be sown wh^re they are to stand in hills, and superfluous plants pulled out. Tomatoes are used for the table in various ways ; served up in sugar as a dessert, or substitute for peaches, strawberries, &c. ; made into pies and tarts ; preserved as other sweetmeats ; pickled in brine for winter use ; and converted into a capital catsup. In preparing the latter article, put one pint of salt to a peck of tomatoes : bruise the fruit, and let it stand two days ; strain it dry, and boil the juice till the scum ceases to rise ; add two ounces of black pepper, as much pimenta, an ounce of ginger, an ounce of cloves, and half an ounce of mace. Boil the whole together, and bottle for use. TURNIP. Brassica Rapa. For summer turnips, sow early in the spring, on a moderately rich soil, and if new, or abounding in vegetable matter, the turnips will be better than if sown on land rendered rich by recent manuring. The seed may be sown broadcast and raked in. Some get two crops in a year from the sanit- ground by sowing the first in .March and the last in .August. Where new land is not to be had, sandy or gravelly soils will produce the sweetest turnips, and usually the largest roots. For the fall crop the seed should 286 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. be sown about the first of August, and the roots should remain in the earth as long as they can be lel'l with safety, as frosts improve the quality of this root materially. 'There are many varieties of the turnip cultivated, of which the early White Duich, Garden Stone, Red and White Top, are grown commonly in gardens ; and the Norfolk, the Globe, the English White or Hat turnip, the Aberdeen, and the Swedish or Ruta-baga, are for late or field-culture. The great enemy the turnip has to encounter is the small bug termed the turnip-fly, which devours them in the seed-leaf; and there should always be a supply of lime, soot, char- coal, and tobacco-dust provided, to use as soon as the plants are above ground, or on the first symp- toms of attack. After the rough leaf is formed, the plants may be considered safe. Fine dust, it appears to matter little of what kind, annoys these insects much, and, if such dust is freely thrown over the field until the rough leaf appears, they are rarely disturbed afterward. The Globe, Aberdeen, and Ruta-baga are princi- pally cultivated for the feeding of sheep and cattle ; and perhaps in no way can a greater amount of ani- mal food be obtained from a given quantitj^ of land than by the growing of these roots. The introduc- tion of the field-culture of the turnip marks one of the most prominent eras of improvement in agricul- ture ; and few things have contributed so much to the high state of cultivation in England, and the rapid increase of the grain-crops in that kingdom within the last quarter of a century, as the turnip. The value of the turnip-crop in England has been estimated at from 60 to 70 millions of dollars ; and a very large proportion of the beef and mutton con- sumed in that country is made entirely from it. In the United States the culture of these roots is com- paratively recent, and though, owing to the differ- ence in our climate and seasons, it is not prol>able POT AND SWEET HERBS. 287 the turnip can ever become of as mucli importance here as in Britain, still there are few crops more certain, or that more amply repay the grower. For the best methods of cultivation we must refer to the agricultural journals, merely remarking that the middle of June will be early enough for sowing ; that the soil should be rich and friable, and drained of all surplus water; the rows about two and a half feet apart, and the roots from eight to twelve inches dis- tant in the rows ; that a pound of seed is sufficient for an acre equally distributed, and may be' sowed either by the hand or with the drill-barrow. POT AND SWEET HERBS. We add, as proposed, a short hst of such herbs as are most useful for cooking or culinary purposes, or are most prized for their aromatic or medicinal vir- tues. Burnet. Poturium Sanquisorba. — This plant is by some used like parsley, to garnish baked or roasted meats ; and in very warm weather, a few sprigs of it in a glass of sweetened water makes a pleasant and grateful beverage. Sow the seed in the spring, on clean, light, good soil, and it will soon be fit for use. Balm. Melissa Officinalis. — This plant is cultivated in the garden for its febrifuge properties, and also because it is a plant of which bees are fond, and is consequently much raised by the apiarian. It is propagated by seed, but most usually by division of the roots or slips. It is perennial, and only re- quires to be kept clean from weeds. Chamomile. Anthemis Nobilis. — This plant is grown for its aromatic and medicinal properties. Its virtues seem to be concentrated in the f owers, which should be preserved with care. It is a per- ennial, and may be propagated by division of the roots. The chamomile border must be kept free 888 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. from weeds, and have a little fine, rich mould occa« siona'lv thrown over it. Caraway. Carum Carui. — The seed of this plant is extensively used in domestic cockery, and is much esteemed by coufectioners. If it is sown in autumn, the plants will produce seed the next season ; if sown in the spring, not until the succeeding year. Coriander. Coriandrum Satiimm. — This plant is an annUfil, and is cultivated for its seed, which is used in some medicinal preparations, and is also cov- ered with sugar for a sweetmeat. Fe.v.vel. Anethum Focniculwn. — This plant is con- sidered very wholesome, and the stems, earthed up, are eaten as celery, while the leaves are by some much prized in broths, &c. The seed is a carmina- tive, and has been recommended in diseases of the chest. Fennel can be propagated by sowing or by division of the roots. It is a perennial. * Lavender. Lavandula Spica. — This is thought to be the plant from which the spikenard ointment, so precious among the ancients, was prepared. It is among the most powerful stimulants of the nervous system. The distilled oil of this plant is sometimes called Oil of Spike, and is a part of several aromatic compounds. It is propagated by seeds. Marjoram. Origanum. — There are two kinds of this plant cultivated in gardens ; pot marjoram and sweet marjoram. It is much used in food to make it more savoury. The seeds may be sown broadcast or in drills, and on the spot where they are to re- main, as they do not well bear transplanting. The best time for sowing is April, or early in May. Mint. Mentha. — There are two kinds of this plant cultivated, Mentha Viridis, or Spearmint, and Mentha Piperita, or Peppermint. The spearmint was much used by the ancients. Pliny says, " you will not see a husbandman's board in the country on which all the meats, from one end to the other, are not sea- soned with mint." A sprig of it was thrown mto POT AND SWEET HERBS. 289 milk to prevent coagulation in the stomach ; ani it is still one of the stomachics. Peppermint is chief- ly cultivated for distillation. The mint is cultivated by division of the roots or by shoots, and requires a rich but rather moist soil. Rosemary. Rosmarinus Officinalis. — This plant is much esteemed on account of its fragrance. Like other perennials, it may be cultivated from seed sown in the spring, and a bed of it will last for years if occasionally dug over and covered with fine mould. Sage. Salvia Officinalis. — The is one of the most valuable of garden herbs, being used extensively for various culinary purposes, particularly in the prep- aration of meats, making of sausages, &c. It may be sown in beds of fine rich earth in the spring, and successive crops will be produced from the roots for several years. SuMMER-S.woRY. Saturcju Horiensis. — This plant, like sage, is used in many culinary preparations, im- parting a pleasant flavour and odour. It is cultiva- ted in beds from seeds, and should be sown annually. There are still other plants used by the cook and the confectioner, but the above are all that are usu- ally required either as pot or aromatic herbs. Much of the goodness of all herbs depends on their being dried for use at the most suitable time, or when the properties for which they are esteemed are in the most perfect state. Herbs are usually the most vig- orous and full of flavour about the time they begin to blossom ; and the first or last cuttings are never as valuable as those taken in the height of the sea- son. All herbs should be gathered on a dry day ; the roots and dirt carefully cut away; the plants spread, or tied up in small bunches, and dried by a stove, or in a Dutch oven before a common fire, as quick as it can be done. The best way of preserving herbs is to pick or rub off the leaves as soon as they are dry, reduce them to a fine powder, sift them, and pack them in close bottles. The Shakers, who are jr.— Z 290 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. much celebrated for the excellence of the herbs they cultivate and prepare, dispose of large quantities yearly, first compressing them in dense masses, and then dividing them into small parcels for the market. CHAPTER XVIII. THE FRUIT-GARDEN. Choice of Soils. — Exposure. — Transplanting. — Seedlings.— Graftuig and Budding. The preceding chapter was devoted to a descrip- tion of the farmers' kitchen garden, and a list of such plants and vegetables as will be found most useful in occupying it ; the present will be devoted to the no less essential part of every farm, the fruit- garden or orchard. Few there are, whether farmers or others, who cannot find a spot for a few trees about their dwellings, and nothing can contribute more to the health, comfort, and pleasure of a fam- ily than to have such a spot, however limited, oc- cupied with choice fruit-trees ; and thus, by care in the selection of varieties, some of the most impor- tant fruits may be had in perfection the year round. Nothing can excuse, in any one who has the means, inattention to the fruit-garden or the orchard ; and among those who are possessed of these, nothing but ignorance or a want of taste could tolerate the inferior fruits that so much abound, while the finest varieties may be obtained and cultivated with equal ease. As in the kitchen-garden, so in the fruit-garden, the first thing to be attended to in its formation is the selection of a suitable soil and its preparation. As a general rule, it may be remarked, that no soil THE FllUlT GARDEN. 291 which is retentive of water, or which has a hard sub- soil, is fit for a fruit-garden. The soil should be permeable to the depth of two and a half or three feet, so that the tender fibres of the roots may pen- etrate i'i easily, and seek sustenance in all directions, without coming in contact with stagnant water, sour earth, or hardpan. A rich, deep loam is the best for fruit : not too light or sandy, but retaining sufficient moisture for the use of the tree. If the soil is nat- urally too hard or stiff, it must be dug to a sufficient depth and mixed with vegetable mould ; and if in- clining to wet, it must first of all be effectually drain- ed. Unless this is done, all efforts to produce good fruit will be unavailing. The trees will flourish but a short time ; the influence of the bad soil below will soon show itself in the mossy trunks, the stunt- ed branches, and the small, inferior fruit produced, and these symptoms in any orchard will indicate the difficulty, and the mode of remedying it. To make the soil dry, deep, and rich is the first thing to be attended to in a fruit-garden. Exposure is another thing that cannot be safely overlooked in commencing an orchard. The princi- pal enemy to fruit in the United States is the cold, northeast storms which frequently occur about the time of blossoming, and which act with much more pernicious effect on fruit-trees unprotected and fully exposed to their force, than on those partially or wholly sheltered. Close, confined situations must, however, be avoided, as, without the sun and a free circulation of air, healthy trees and fine fruit cannot be expected. A southern exposure is to be preferred where it can be had without incurring other disad- vantages. A position open to the south, and pro- tected on the north by a belt of woodland, or planted- out forest-trees, will, where other things are favour- able, rarely fail of giving good fruit, and escape the bhghts which so often destroy the hopes of fruit from orchards in. unprotected situations. A close range of evergr-?on trees has been found of essential 292 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. service in protecting the fruit-garden, independent of their value as an ornamental adjunct of the farm, 'J'he preparation of the ground for the transplant- ing of fmit-trees must be carefully performed. If it is too stiff, while digging it over, small gravel, sand, lime, coal-ashes, animal or vegetable matters, com- posts that will loosen the soil, in short, almost any- thing that will render it more friable, will be found useful, and may be added. Nothing benefits soils intended for fruit-trees more than exposure to at- mospheric action ; and hence, deep ploughing, or, if necessary, trenching and spading to the proper depth, must be attended to before the operation of trans- planting is attempted. The spring of the year will usually be found the best season for transplanting trees, though many prefer the fall ; and, where suitable precautions are used, trees may be removed at almost any season. In favour of fall-planting it has been urged, that, du- ring the winter, the roots are accommodating them- selves to and taking hold of the soil, and therefore will be ready to proceed with vegetation earlier than if they had been displaced immediately before they were to be called into use. So far as regards the fixing of the tree in the earth by its settling around the roots during the winter, this statement is doubt- less correct ; but we are inclined to the opinion tliat roots, during the torpidity or hybernation of the tree grow little or none ; and that this advantage claimed for fall over spring planting is more nominal than real. In the germination of seeds, the first roots are formed from the materials already provided in the seed ; and, after this is expended, ihey do not in- crease until farther matter, elaborated in the newly- opening leaves, is transmitted to them : and. as a ne- cessary consequence, the roots of trees only spread while the' warmth of the sun expands the foliage. In transplanting fruit-trees, there is a commoji error in placing them too deep A trifle, say an inch THE FRUIT-OARDEN. 293 or two, of greater depth may be allowed when planting out, than when the trees are standing in the nursery ; but many farmers give them a foot or more of earth over what they formerly had ; and this deep setting, by the exclusion of air from an impor- tant part of the trunk, produces a bad effect on the whole tree. In setting trees, finely-pulverized earth onl)' should come in contact with the roots ; and the trees should be shaken, to fix the particles as evenly and closely around the whole as is practicable. When the holes are filled, the earth should be well trodden down ; and, if it is very dry, frequently moist- ening it wdl have a good effect in promoting vegeta- tion. In no point, perhaps, is error more frequently seen in the transplanting of trees than in the size of the holes into which they are put. This is almost uniforml)- too small. The roots, instead of having room to expand or grow in their natural position, are bent, trodden, and forced into the narrow space dug for them ; and not unfrequently, where the sub- soil is hard, before they have reached any distance in searching for food, tliey find their progress as ef- fectually intercepted as by a wall of rocks ; and, in addition to this, the hole, in such impervious earth, serves as a receptacle for stagnant water, souring and vitiating the juices of the tree, and destroying its health and fruitfulness. Fruit-trees, when transplanted, are frequently left to take care of themselves ; the turf fixes around tliem, the earth becomes compact and hard, the ma- nure originally added to the soil becomes exhausted, and, as a natural consequence, the vigour of the tree is lost, while the parasitical mosses and fungi seize upon it and claim it for tlieir own. Mr. Prince di- rects that the turf should be removed from fruit- trees to the distance of a few feet around them, and the earth kept mellow and rich ; that the bodies of the trees, to promote tlieir growth, should be washed every year, or brustied over with common soft soap 294 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. undiluted with w^ter, and thai this course will give a surprising thrifliness to ihem. It not untVequently happens that seedlings, if per- mitted to produce fruit, yield only that which is worthless, and hence budding or grafting becomes necessary. Indeed, these are the only ways in which the best, or any description of fruit, can with certainty be obtained. Budding or inoculating is performed by inserting the bud of one tree beneath the bark of another ; and, when the union is effect- ed, the tree is cut off immediately above the bud, which from that time becomes the leading shoot, and produces the fruit. July or August is the time for budding, and it may be done at any time when the bark, will peel freely, to admit the insertion of the bud. The process is simple, and can be learned by any one in a few hours, so that he may thus suc- ceed in obtaining any choice fruit he pleases, the buds of which can be procured. Nurserymen inoc- ulate or bud all their seedhngs when young, that there may be no mistake in the kinds or qualities of their trees ; and the operation always succeeds bet- ter on young trees than on larger ones. On large trees grafting is substituted for budding, and consists in introducing a twig from a tree pro- ducing the fruit it is desired to procure, into another which is of little value. This twig is called a scion, and is cut in the winter, before the sap has begun to circulate. Scions cut in February, and kept in a cool, moist place, will rarely fail of grow ing when inserted, 'i'he earlier grafting can be performed after the circulation of the sap has commenced ; and, as soon as the danger of freezing is past, the later well-preserved scions may be inserted at any time during the early part of the season. In or chards, or with large trees, grafting is preferable to budding, and can be practised where the latter can- not be performed. The tree or branch to be graft- ed, when the ordinary mode is adopted, is cut or THE FRUIT-GARDEN. 295 sawed off square, and should be smoothed with a knife, as a wound in wood smoothed is less liable to injure the tree, and heals more readily than one left rough. The cut branch is then split or cleft with a suitable knife, a wedge is inserted to keep the parts separate, and a scion, with one end pointed into ^ wedge-like form, is carefully placed in the cleft, the bark of the scion and that of the tree being accu- rately adjusted to each other. Most frequently two scions are put in each cleft, one at each side, and, the wedge being taken out, they are held firmly in their places until the union takes place. As exclu- sion of the air is requisite, compositions either of clay or wax are used for this purpose, and to facili- tate the union of the scion with the stock. Graft- ing-clay is made of equal parts of horse-manure free from litter, cow-manure, and good stiff clay, to which is added a small quantity of hair, and the whole is well worked into a stiff mortar. Grafting- wax is made of equal parts of rosin and beeswax, and a little tallow. The whole is melted together, turned into cold water, and then worked by the hand, like shoemakers' wax, until it obtains the proper consistence. If spread on brown paper or on cot- ton cloth, and cut into strips, it can be applied more readily and neatly than in the common mode of using it. There are several kinds of grafting, such as cleft-grafting, or the one we have described, side- grafting, root-grafting, grafting by approach, saddle- grafting, and splice or whip grafting ; but they are little used except by nurserymen, and the particular methods may be found in works devoted to the orchard and the fruit-garden. In the selection of scions, those from the horizontal or spreading brandies will usually be found better than those cut from the thrifty perpendicular shoots, as they make better bearers. As our space is limited, we shall only select for notice such fmits as are more particularly adapted 896 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. to our climate, referring those who may wish lor farther information to Kenrick's Orchardist, Man- ning's Catalogue of Fruit"*, Prince's Poniological Manual, and the excellent papers on the Cultivation of Fruit by J. T. Thomas, in the Genesee Farmer ipr 1838. I\Ir. Bridgeman, in his Gardener's Assist- ant, has furnished catalogues of fruits which have been consulted, and we can bear cheerful testimony to the general accuracy and fidelity of his descrip- tions. In this chapter we shall confine ourselves to fruits which should have a place in every well-ar- ranged fruit-garden ; while amateurs, or those wliose means will admit, may make as extensive additions as they please. THE APPLE. Pijrus Malus. The apple has always been one of the most es- teemed and valuable of fruits ; but, within a few years, two additional causes have conspired to in- crease the interest felt in the cultivation of this fruit. The first is the introduction of new and val- uable varieties, obtained by skilfully carrying out the principles of vegetable crops ; and the other is the comparatively recent discovery of the great impor- tance of this fruit in feeding animals. Our orchards have been termed the vineyards of this country ; and, though the use of cider as a beverage has for- tunately much declined, still much of it will be made for drinking, as well as for vinegar and vari- ous culinary purposes. More attention may be ex- pected to be paid to the quality of that made, and the lest kinds of apples for cider will be in demand as formerly. One of the greatest improvements made in the cultivation of the apple has been the in- troduction of such varieties that the fruit-orchard can now supply us with fresh fruit the whole year, the later kinds being capable of preservation until the early have ripened. The apple is one of the longest lived of trees ; and THE APPLE. 297 English writers mention instances in which it has attained the age of a'thousand years. Some of the first planted in the United States are now nearly or quite two hundred years old, and are still vigorous and productive. The average age of the apple-tree, in favourable circumstances, Knight considers to be not far from two hundred years ; but, unless in a good soil, they decay much earlier. Writers on this tree mention instances in which from one hun- dred to one hundred and fifty bushels of apples have been produced by a single tree ; and few parts of a farm are more profitable to its owner than an or- chard of well-selected apple-trees. The quality of the fruit in an orchard is greatly influenced by the treat- ment the tree receives. The apple, as well as all other fruits, in order to arrive at perfection, requires the sun ; and hence the fruit on the side of the tree exposed to its influence is always richer than that on the north, or in the central parts of the tree. Pruning exercises great influence on the character of the apple, and this operation should always be conducted with particular reference to the admission of light and air to every part of the fruit-bearing branches. Pruning, in ordinary cases, is delayed until the tree is nearly mined. It is then perform- ed, perhaps ; but such large branches require remo- val, that extensive wounds are made, requiring years to heal entirely over, and furnishing places in which insects and the dry rot establish themselves, causing the destruction of the tree. To be eflTectual, pruning should be annual. The branches cut off will then be small ; such a shape may be given to the head or top of the tree as is wished ; and all danger of bleed- ing or rottenness from the cutting off of large branch- es will be avoided. A variety of opinions have been advanced as to tlie proper time of pruning ; but there can be little question that tlie most proper time is immediately after the sap has ceased flowing, and when the new 298 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. layer of wood begins to form. The next best time is the winter. Pruning should be carefully avoided while the sap is flowing, as the extraction of that fluid is injurious to all trees, and particularly so to fruit trees. The reason why summer pruning is to be preferred is found in the fact that the materials for healing the wounds made by this operation have been already elaborated, and are ready for deposi- tion. The consequence is, that granulations of new wood and bark are immediately formed, and, unless the wounds are large, in consequence of previous neglect in pruning, they will be closed almost at once, and farther decay or other injury prevented. A tine, sharp saw is the best instrument for pruning; and in all cases, the stump or wound should be cov- ered with a coating of some composition that will exclude air and moisture. Tar stiffened with brick- dust, or any other substance that will give it consist- ence, makes a very good application, or thick paint of any kind may be used. The kinds of apples cultivated have multiplied to such an extent that an enumeration of the varieties will not be here attempted. Fifteen hundred vari- eties are now cultivated in the garden of the Horti- cultural Society of London ; and more than two hundred are known in the United States. Many of these are of little value, and the kinds required to constitute a good orchard are comparatively few in number. The apple is most usually divided into dessert, baking, and cider varieties ; but a division into summer, autumn, and winter fruit will be best understood. It is a singular fact, that many varie- ties which have proved excellent when cultivated abroad, have been found very inferior here, owing to the chmate, or other causes not well understood; and hence no imported kinds that have not been tested by fruiting here can be fully relied on. We give a few varieties of each division. THE APPLE. 299 EARLY or SUMMrR FRUIT. Early Red Juneating. — This is a small apjile, green- ish yellow, with deep red stripes, flesh rich, sub-acid, and agreeable. Ripe in July and August. Early Harvest, or July Pippin. — Bright straw col- our, flesh white and rich, juice very fine. It is just- ly much esteemed, and ripens in July and August. Sweet Bough. Early Bough. — A well-known and superior fruit. Colour pale yellow, form oblong ; flesh very tender, sweet, and excellent. Ripe in August. Red Asfracan. — Skin dark red ; apple of medium size ; covered with a thick bloom, like a plum ; acid. Ripens in August. Early Summer Pearmain. — Size medium. Bright red on the sunny side ; on the opposite, yellow streaked with red ; juicy, fine-flavoured, and excel- lent. Ripens in August. Summer Pippfh. — Pie-apple. This is an excellent apple for cooking. Slightly red on the sunny side, otherwise resembling the Fall Pippin. Ripe in Sep- tember. Should be found in every fruit-garden. In addition to these, the Codling. Summer Rose, Williams's Red, Early Buffington, and Sine Qua Non, may be noticed as vejy fine early apples, and de- serving of general cultivation. Williams's Red is a favourite apple in the markets of our cities, and is ripe in September. It originated in Massachusetts. Toole's Indian Apple is a fine fruit, originating at Sodus, in Wayne county, New-York. It is ripe in September, and is good either for the table or for cooking. AUTUMN APPLES. Arnerican Nonpareil. — A fine apple ; colour yellow sireaked with red; medium size; 'flesh rich and agreeable. Ripe in October. Fall Pippin. White Rennette. — A most valuable 300 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. apple ; large, smooth, and yellowish green ; flesn crisp and tender ; juice fine and sugary. Ripens in October, and keeps for some weeks. Strawberry Apple. — Excellent ; colour red ; fine, spicy flavour ; good for dessert or baking. Golden Pippin. — Golden yellow. Ripens in No- vember, and keeps until March ; highly aromatic, and an excellent apple. Straat. Stroat. — Introduced by Judge Buel ; flesh yellow and tender; skin yellowish green ; juice rich and pleasant. Ripe in September, and good until De- cember. Prince''s Red and Green Sweeting. — Green, striped with red ; very sweet ; juice rich ; flesh tender and of excellent flavour. Ripe in September. A supe- rior apple. Rambo. Seek-no-Farther. — Extensively cultiva- ted ; flesh tender, and a valuable fruit. It keeps longer than most autumn apples. In addition to those we have here named, there are Knight's Golden Pippin, Autumnal Swaar, Alex- ander, Golden Russet, and many others of fine fla- vour, and, where room can be had, richly deserving a place in the orchard. WINTER APPLES. Baldwin. — Good size ; briglit red ; flesh yellow, rich and juicy ; agreeable acid flavour. Ripens in November, and keeps till March. Spitzenberg. — Red colour with white specks ; flesh yellow, slightly acid, and of fine flavour. Ripens in October, and is good through the winter. Bell Flower. — A beautiful apple; bright yellow; form oblong ; flesh tender, rich, juicy, and nigh-fla- voured, and equally good for the dessert or for cooking. , Swaar. — One of the very best winter table-apples : large, green, of superior flavour and richness, and should be found in every collection of fruit. Good till March. THE APPLE. 301 Newtown Pippin. — When perfectly ripened, one of the finest apples in this or any other country. Olive yellow when mature ; flesh yellow and firm ; flavour rich and aromatic ; good from December till April. Rhode Island Greening. — Fruit large; greenish yel- low ; shghtly acid, and ci iiiie flavour ; good till April. It is one of the few winter apples good for cooking as well as the dessert. Roxbury Russet. — This apple is one of the best for late keeping, and is extensively grown for ex- portation. Medium size ; yellow russet colour ; flesh rich, sub-acid, and excellent; will keep till June. In addition to the apples here named as first- rate winter apples, the Gilliflower, Green Sweet- ing (which keeps till June), Nonesuch, Ribston Pip- pin, Pearmain, Vandeveer, Large Winter Red, and many others, may be noticed as deserving cultiva- tion, and excellent apples. CIDER FRUIT. It is the custom throughout the country, where apples are grown, to work up fruit of every variety into cider, not unfrequently sour and sweet, rotten and sound together ; and it is hardly necessary to say that there is as much difference between cider made in this slovenly manner and that produced from good fruit, pipperly selected, as there is be- tween the latter and Champagne. The value of ap- ples for cider mainly depends on the quantity of sac- charine matter developed in the juice, and this is ascertained by its weight ; the most valuable being easily determined by the hydrometer. Bridgeman gives the following as the best cider apples of the country. Harrison. — As a cider apple, this has a deservedly high reputation in ihe IMiddle States, and from it the celebrated .\ewark cider is mostly produced. It is small, yellow with dark spots; flesh yellow, firm, 302 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. rich, and the juice sprightly. Ton bushels are al- lowed for a barrel of cider, which, b_) distillation, will yield fourteen quarts of sjj.hts. Newark Sweeting. — This is a good cider apple, and is frequently mixed half and half with the Harrison apple when ground. It is of middle size ; skin smooth, colour red and yellow ; flesh firm, sweet, and rich. Hewes's Virginia Crab. — From this fruit is obtained the famed Crab cider. The apple is small and round ; dull red, streaked with yellow ; flesh tough and as- tringent, and juice acid. With proper treatment, the cider from this variety is fine. Granniwinkle. — Skin dark red, and rough ; moder- ate size ; flesh yellow, sweet, and rich. It is com- monly mixed with the Harrison in making cider. Ripe in November. The diseases and enemies to which the apple and other trees of the fruit-garden are subject, will be noticed in another part of this chapter. PEAR. Pyrus. This tree is found wild in Europe as far north as the 51st degree of latitude ; and, as experience has proved, when cultivated, is very hardy, and will grow in almost any soil. As it sends down tap-roots like some forest-trees, it flourishes better in deep than in shallow soils ; and in a dry, sound one, will live and remain healthy for centuries. Pears can be propagated either by budding or grafting, the stocks being obtained from seed or from suckers ; and since Professor Van Mons, of Brussels, com- menced his series of experiments with seedhng pears, the varieties, which before amounted to some hundreds, have increased to an immense number. Out of 8000 seedling pears fruited by him, bOO varie- ties deemed proper for cultivating were obtained. Pears are classed as dessert, kitchen, and Perry pears. The first should be characterized by a rich, aromat- SUMMER PEARS. 303 ic, sugary juice, the pulp melting, or, in a few kinds, crisp. Kitchen pears, which are required for boiling, baking, &c., should be rather austere than sugar)-, and neither soft nor crisp. Foi making the liquor called Perry, pears may be either huge or small ; but, according to writers on the subject, the more austere the pear, the better will be the liquor produced. The pear being less spreading in its top than the apple-tree, will bear closer planting, twen- ty feet distance being sufficient for the pear, while thirty feet should be allowed the apple. There are no finer dried fruits in the world than are prepared from some of the rich sugar-pears dried in the oven ; and they will keep for several years without decay or injury. Pears, as well as apples, for the sake of convenience, are divided into Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Pears have so many aliases, or are known by such a variety of names in different countries or parts of the same country, that names are of com- paratively little value in making selections. SUMMER PEAKS. Early Musk Pear, or Primitve Pear of some cata- logues, is one of the earliest varieties, but all are not pleased with its flavour. Ripe in August. Stmjvesant. — This fruit is named from Governor Stuyvesant, of Knickerbocker memory ; and the original tree, now more than 200 years old, and still productive, is, or was standing a year or two since, at the corner of 13th street and 3d Avenue, New- York. It is a rich, fine-flavoured fruit, and ripens in August. Early Sugar. — In goodness this ranks with the Musk Pear, both being more prized for early maturi- ty than positive excellence. Dearborn's Seedling. — This pear originated in the garden of Gen Dearborn, at Roxbury, and is a su- perior fruit. At maturity the skin is of a delicate yellow ; the flesh melting, and of the best flavour. Ripe in August. 304 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. Madeleine, early Ckaumontelle, Harvest Pear. — An old fruit, but a superior one. Some have supposed that this variety of pear has passed its prime, and is in a state of decay ; but the evidence does not seem to be conclusive. To these may be added the Summer Rose, Jar gonelle, Rousselet, Windsor, &^c., all good summer fruit, and deserving a place in the garden. AUTUMN PEARS. Bergamot. — This pear has been cultivated in Eng- land, according to Loudon, ever since the invasion of Julius Caesar ; and is still a vigorous tree, and the fruit fine. iSeckcl. — Of American origin ; yellowish rus'set ; flesh melting, spicy, and of the richest flavour. The fruit grows in clusters, and is ripe in September. It is worthy a place in every fruit-garden, being in the first rank of this fine fruit. iS^ Michael's, White Doyenne, Vergaloo, and at least twenty other names, have been given to this pear, which is a very good one, and extensively cultiva- ted in this country and in England. Gushing. — Originating at Hingham, Mass. The tree is a good bearer, and the fruit is of the best quality. A large number of fine pears for summer and au- tumn fruits have. wit}vin a few years, been introdu- ced into this couniry <"rom abroad, among which are the Golden Buerre, NaooJeon, Doyenne Sautelette, Green Sylvange, an^^ others. One of the largest of pears is the Duchess of AM£'ooleme, which is also a fruit of first-rate excellence. U has been known to weigh twenty-two ounces. T'le greater part oi these pears are in perfection \n Ocvr^bcr. WINTER PEAKS. Chaumontelle. — A capital old varit.'y, si;:o Jar^e . yellow tinged with red; flesh melii;:^, musK^. sweet, and exceilisut PERRY PERAS. 305 Colmar. Winter Bergamot. — A good pear ; in per fection from November to F'ebruary. Holland Bergamot. — Greenish yellow colour, mar- bled with russet; flesh juicy and high-flavoured; keeps till May, and succeeds well grafted on the quince. Saint Germain. — This is a large, green fruit, at maturity rather 3vellowish ; flesh juicy, paccharine, slightly acid, and delicious. It is an old and cele- brated fruit, ripening in November and keeping till March. Pound Pear, Black Pear. — This tree is a great bearer. Fruit coarse, but good baked in winter. The cultivation of winter fruit has been but little attended to as yet in this country ; but a few of the late varieties of pears in every garden or orchard will be found a great acquisition. The best method of cultivating pears is to bud or graft on pear-stocks. They will grow well on the apple-stock, but in this state they are not durable, perishing in a few years. On the quince-stock the pear succeeds well ; and this mode of production is indispensable where dwarf trees are required. As the borer more frequently attacks the quince than the pear, to avoid this insect, and yet secure the ad- vantages of the quince-stock in retarding the circu- lation and growth, and increasing the productiveness, the pear-stock is first grafted with the quince, and then, a year or two after, the quince is grafted with the pear, leaving an inch or two of the quince-stock to dwarf the inserted pear. PERRY PEARS. The cultivation of the pear for the conversion of its juice into Perry has not been adopted to any considerable extent in this country. Alcoholic li- quors and cider have been the substitutes ; and the latter will probably remain so. We shall therefore II.— A A 306 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. notice only a few of those the most celebrated abroad for this purpose. Monarch. — A pear introduced by Mr. Knight, and an excellent variety for the table as well as for Per- ry. The fruit is large and of a very musky flavour. Borland. — The specific gravity of the juice of this pear is 1070 ; and, of course, it makes excellent Per- ry. 'J'he original tree of this variety is growing in Herefordshire. Oldfield. — A good Perry fruit. From it is made the esteemed Ledbury Perry. To this class also belong the Hoi more, Longland, Huflcap, &c., all cultivated mainly for their juice. PLUM. Prunus. The Plum is found wild in nearly every quarter of the globe, and the varieties are almost innumerable. The Plum succeeds best in elevated positions, but in all places is liable to suffer more or less from the curculio, which is its greatest enemy. "The Green Gage is considered the best desert plum ; the Wine Sour for sweetmeats ; but the Damson is the best baking plum."* Plum-trees, in transplanting, will not bear to be set deep ; and it is better to secure them by staking than to infringe the laws of nature in this respect. New kinds of plums are readily multiplied from the seed ; and old esteemed varieties are propagated by budding on young stocks, in pref- erence to grafting on large trees. Wounds on large plum-trees are not unfrequently fatal, gum exu- ding freely, and a decay speedily commencing that usually extends to the root, and eventually destroys the tree. 'I'he Plum produces but as a standard tree, only pruning out branches that injure each other by rubbing ; but it may also be trained as an espalier where gardens are small, or space for its growth is limited. The plum is not a long-lived tree, and those * Bridjiemaa PLUM. 30T who would have fine fruit of this kind must be care- ful to renew their plum-trees as the old ones begin to show sj'^mptoms of decay. The following are some of the most esteemed varieties of this fine fruit. Green Gage. — Yellowish green colour, purplish russet next the skin ; flesh greenish, full of sweet and perfumed juice, and of delicious taste. Ripe at end of August or first of September. There are multi- tudes of plum-trees about the country called the Green Gage, generahy raised from the seeds of this tree, but not unfrequently wholly dissimilar in their qualities. Some of these varieties, however, are equal, if not superior, to the original fruit, of which the next named plum is a specimen. Prince''s Imperial Gage. — This fine fruit, said by Mr. Manning to be the most productive and profitable of all plums, originated in the Flushing nursery from a seed of the Green Gage, and at once took a high rank among plums. Skin yeUow with a whitish bloom; flesh rich and of fine flavour; capital for preserves. Ripe in September. Orleans., ok Red Damask. — Skin dark red with blue bloom ; flesh yellow and rich ; separating easily from the stone. Ripe in August. Primordian, or early Yellow. — This is the earliest of our plums, ripening about the middle of July. Fruit yellow, small, and sweet, but not first-rate. Huling's Superb. — This plum is of the largest size, sometimes weighing four ounces. Greenish yel- low ; flesh sweet and fine flavoured. Originated from seed in Pennsylvania. J^te Purple Damson. — This is the best plum for preserves. It is tart, but has an agreeable flavour when cooked. Washington. Bolma/s Washington. — A large, beau- tiful plum, of superior quality. Colour greenish yellow with crimson specks, and rich bloom. Ori- 308 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. ginated in New- York, and has weighed over four ounces. Flesh yellow, firm, sweet, and delicious. Magnum Bomtm, Egg Plum. — Of great size, oval, pale yellow. Excellent for preserves. Ripe in Sep- tember. Wine Sour, Rotherham. — An old variety, but excel- lent for sweetmeats; of medium size, dark purple colour, flesh yellow, juicy, and pleasantly acid. Flourishes best on a porous limestone or gravelly soil. Coe's Golden Drop. — This is a fine fruit and a good bearer. Colour yellow, with spots of violet and crimson. Flesh gold colour, rich and superior. This is a capital fruit, and worthy of a place in ev- ery fruit-garden. It ripens in September, and keeps several weeks. To the above list may be added, as deserving of cultivation, Bleecker's Plum, Cooper's large lied, Purple Gage, Flushing Gage, Red Magnum Bonum, Morocco, or early Black Damask, New- York Pur- ple, and nnany others to be found in our principal nurseries and fruit-gardens. There are thousands of plum-trees about the coun- try that have been partially or wholly destroyed within a few years by the blight ; and from its rapid spread when left to take its course, it would seem to be the most formidable enemy to the plum-tree that exists. It makes its appearance usually on the branches, by a cracking of the bark and a protrusion jf a fungus-looking mass, that hardens, turns black, gives the branch a twisted or contorted form, and destroys it by penetrating the whole of the wood, and thus arresting the circulation. In some of the finest plum-growing districts of this state, where no efforts have been made to check the disease, the trees are nearly destroyed, and the culture of the fruit in a great measure suspended. The disease is supposed to be the result of an insect which depos- ites its oggs in the wood, and its action produces the PEACH. 309 fixcrescence and the injury. The only remedy yet discovered is instant and lull excision of all the dis- eased branches, as fast as the fungus appears, com- mitting them immediately to the flames. These ex- crescences usually appear in June, and trees should be examined through that month and July, and the first appearances of the blight carefully noted and its extirpation effected. The fruit curculio makes its appearance about the time the tree blossoms, and, as soon as the fruit is of the size of a pea, this insect commences its op- erations upon it. A kind of crescent-shaped mark denotes the place where the egg is deposited. It speedily becomes a worm, which feeds on the fruit, causing it in most cases prematurely to fall, when the worm escapes into the ground, where it under- goes its transformations, and is ready again to attack the fruit of the succeeding year. The remedy for the curculio is plain. Let all the premature fruit be gatliered as fast as it falls, and given to the pigs ; or, if that is not convenient, or would be too much la- bour, let the pigs have access to the trees, and the business will be done effectually. Geese also, when kept in fruit-gardens, prove beneficial by eating the defective fruit, and other matters that prove injurir ous, bugs, worms, &c. It has long been observed, that trees standing in yards where the ground is trodden hard, or by gravelled walks, are less infested with the curcuho than others not so situated. Sud- den and violent jars of the tree during the time the curculio is most active, will prevent or retard his op- erations in a great measure ; and if, when so shaken off, they are caught on sheets and destroyed, Lhe danger of the fruit being injured the succeeding year is greatly lessened. PEACH. Afnj/gdalus Persica. In the catalogue of the London Horticultural So- ciety, two hundred and twenty-four varieties are in- 310 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. eluded, of which fifty are noted as American peaches. The French consider the Nectarine as a peach, only differing from the common varieties in having a smooth skin ; and, so far as their general treatment, propagation, and after-cultm'e are concerned, Jhey may safely be considered as only varieties of the same tree. For the peach, a rich, sandy loam, rather light than otherwise, is to be preferred ; and where it is inclined to be heavy, after being made perfectly dry, a large hole nmst be dug for trans- planting, filled with surface-earth, mould, and the lightest earth to be found. Peaches are readily grown from seed. The best method is to plant them as soon as possible after the fruit is eaten, and they will generally spring up the next summer. If they have become very dry, they sometimes require another season, with the freezing and thawing of a winter and spring, to cause them to sprout. There can be no dependance placed on seedling-trees for fruit, as they rarely, and in the best varieties more seldom than in the inferior kinds, resemble the original kind. This may be accounted for by the fact that trees, like animals, have a con- stant tendency to return to the original type ; and the greater the deviation from that type made by im- provement, the more liable will be the young trees to show symptoms of deterioration, and, of course, the greater the necessity of guarding against such changes. Peaches are usually budded, and this op- eration should be performed in the first or second year of their growth from the seed. They should be transplanted to their places in the orchard or gar- den early, as young peach-trees are not as much re- tarded or injured in their growth as larger ones. Peach-trees should be placed eighteen or twenty f("^t f;om each other, and not within the shadow of other and taller trees. Deep planting, in the case of the peach, must be sedulously avoided, and the roots allowed to spread freely in the surface soil. i>£ACH. 311 '■fhe peich does not remain a bearing tree for a long term ol years, though in iavoura'jle situations il will live I'rom thirty to fifty years. The yellows is the most formidable disease of the peach-iree, and is particularly dreaded for its con- tagiousness. On this account, the greatest care should be taken in purcliasiiig trees from nurseries, and introducing them into districts where the disease is unI<.nown,to see that they are free from infection. It does not appear that any remedy has yet been dis- covered ; and the best writers recommend, when a tree is attacked, that it be immediately cut down. One of the earliest indications of the yellows is a premature ripening of the fruit on the whole or a part of a tree, accompanied or followed by a discol- oration of the leaves. If the tree is allowed to stand the succeeding year, bunches of sickly, wiry shoots appear on it, and, if not at once checked by the extermination of the tree, the disease may be now expected rapidly to extend to others. Cold •weather or frosts will sometimes cause the leaves to curl and change colour ; but no danger need be apprehended fronr this source, as, unless the wood itself is injured, healthy foliage will succeed. The peach is very sensitive to frost or cold ; and, being a native of a warm climate, flourishes best in warm exposures, and in Soils that readily acquire a con- siderable degree of heat. Mildew sometimes appears on the leaves of some of the more tender and delicate varieties. This in- dicates that such trees require a warmer aspect, a more free circulation of air, and, above all, a drier bottom. Stagnant water about the roots of the peach will most certainly be fatal to the tree, eithei inducing disease or destroying it at once. 'I'he cur culio also attacks the peach, but rarely ; while the Nectarine is very liable to be injured by them, its smooth skin ofl^ering no resistance to their ap- proaches. If they make their appearance, they may 312 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. be destroyed by the course of treatment recom- mended in the case of the plum. Tlie general divi- sions of the peach are the freestone and clingstone. We copy from Mr. Thomas his list of peaches, fur- nishing a succession of good fruit from the middle of August uutit winter. Those who wish to enlarge this list or add some of the new varieties, may con- sult Bridgeman's or Floy's Catalogue. F.arly White Nutmeg,^ Kiirly Anne, j Karly Red Rareripe, | ^ Early Newington, "^ q Kar y York, j 3 Diana, Grosse Mignonne, Im Old Mixon, Red-cheek Malacaton, ( o Old Newington, Malta, I (B Lemon Clingstone, j g Columbia^ ] " Heath, } ? President, I Mornsiania Pound, ) Some of the best varieties of peaches have origina- ted in this country; such as the Mulacaton, Kmper- or of Russia, Brevoort's early Melter, George the Fourth, &c., while manybf the most esteemed Eu- ro] can varieties, when introduced here, are found of vf'iy little value. No part of the world exceeds New-Jersey and part of Long Island in the fineness of their peaches, and they are cultivated for the mar- kets of the neighbouring cities with great success and profit. Mr. Bridgeman remarks, " All the varieties of the peach produce their fruit upon the young wood of a year old, the blossom-buds arising immediately from the eye of the shoots. The same shoots seldom bear after the first year, except on some casual small spurs on the two years' wood, which is not to be coimted u])on. Hence the trees are to be pruned as bearing entirely on the shoots of the preceding year, and a full supply of regular grown shoots must be retained for successional bearers. Cut out the re- dundant shoots, and all decayed and dead wood, and reduce some of the former bearers, cutting the most naked quite away." CHERRY. 313 In transplanlinff peach-trees, which should be done ill the spring, Mr. Floy recommends "that the tree be pruned carefully, and all the young shoots shortened to about one half their length." CHERRY. Primus Cerasus. The cherry was introduced into Italy in the year 73, and into Britain in the year 193. The Romans had eight varieties : there are now between two and three hundred. Cherries are grafted or budded on seedlings from cherry-stones ; and in this country budding is more practised than grafting, the latter being attended with some difficulties not encounter- ed in inoculating. Seedlings cannot be relied on to produce fruit like the original tree ; hence, where budding is not practised, the sprouts or suckers that spring from the roots of the cherry are principally relied on for the propagation of any particular fruit. Cherry-tiees produce their fruit, in most cases, from spurs on the sides or ends of the two or three year old branches ; hence, where there is room for ex- pansion, the bearing branches are rarely shortened. The iMorello, however, bears i's fruit on the shoots of the preceding year, and a supply of young shoots must be left in pruning, in every part of the tree, for the next year's bearing. Tiie Mazzards, Hearts, &c., are tall-growing trees ; and to remedy this, and form handsome heads, the leading shoot must be cut off when three or four years from the bud ; after which little pruning is required, except to remove decaj^ed wood, or irregular, crowded branches. Cherry-trees may be transplanted at any time between the period of the firm establishment of the bud and their bear- ing, which is generally about the fifth j'ear. The best period for budding is the early part of suminer ; and as it will not succeed unless performed at tlie right time, it is better, by frequent examination, to determine this point, rather than leave anything to chance. 314 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. Cherries are classed as Dukes, Morellos, or round fruit, and Heart-shaped, or Bigarreans. The follow- ing are some of the most esteemed varieties of each. BOUND FRUIT. May Duke — Ripens in June ; round, red, and of me- dium size ; flesh tinged with red ; when ripe, fine- flavoured, with an agreeable acidity. This tree is a good bearer. A multitude of inferior fruits are known about the country by this name, and their worthlessness has tended to bring this original fine fruit into disrepute. It is true of this cherry, as well as most others, that they are rarely allowed to at- tain perfection on the tree, but arc gathered and eaten in an immature state. Early May. — This is the earliest of the cherries, but has little merit, and is cultivated principally on account of its early ripening. Richmond. — This is a valuable cherry for cooking, but is rather too tart for eating. It ripens in June. Amber. — Large and round ; somewhat transparent ; mottled red and yellow, juicy, sweet, and excellent. Eipe in June and July. Morello. — This fruit is so called from its juice re- sembling that of the Moras or mulberry. It is a fine round cherry, rich tasted, nearly black when fully ripe, keeps late, and is superior for preserving in brandy or for drying. Waterloo. — Flesh firm and of good flavour; ripens its fruit in July ; large, and, at maturity, nearly black. Holman's Duke, Carnation, Plumstone Morello, late Duke, and others, are fine cherries, and may be cultivated with profit. HEART-SHAPED FRUIT. Amber, Yellow Spa}ush, Bigarrean. — Yellowish am- ber colour, but fine red next the sun ; very large and heart-shaped ; flesh firm, while, sweet, and fiue-fla- vouied: a beautiful and excellent fruit. CHERRY. 3 1 5 Black Heart. — Fruit large, heart-shaped, dark pur- ple ; flesh dark red, tender, and excellent flavour. Kipe in July. Black Tartarian. — This fruit is known by many names, but the one here given is the most generally used. It is a beautiful cherry ; large, reaching some- times an inch in diameter; heart-shaped ; dark, shi- ning purple ; sweet and delicious. Ripe in June and July. This, by many, is considered the best of cher- ries. Mazzard. — The wild cherry. It is cultivated for stocks to bud or graft the superior cherries upon. Its principal use is for making cherry-brandy. White Tartarian. — Colour very pale yellow, next the sun approaching to amber. It is of superior fla- vour, and. much admired. The tree is a good bear er, and the fruit is ripe in July. Black Eagle — Is a new variety introduced by Mr, Knight. The tree is vigorous, fnjit black, flesh ten- d-er and fine-flavoured, fruit middle sized, and ripe in June and July. Elton. — This is a superior cherry, and was raised by Mr. Knight in 1806. It was produced from the seed of the Bigarrean, which had been fecundated with the pollen of the White Heart. Pale, glossy yellow ; flesh firm, rich, and sweet. Ripens after the May Duke. There are several other cherries that are fine, good bearers, and deserving of cultivation, but the above varieties will furnish a plentiful supply of first-rate fruit. Mr. Manning, who has paid much attention to frnit, and the cherry in particular, has recom- mended the following as affording a good course. Black Tartarian, Black Heart, White Bigarrean, El- ton, late Duke, and Florence. Few fnht-trees are cultivated with more ease and certainty than the cherry, and hence the greater ne- cessity of paying attention to procuring good fruit. The insects ar.d diseases to which the tree is subject 316 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. are not of a formidable kind, and few fruit-trees re- ward tlie planter by better hearing. The curculio attacks the young fruit at times, and, when that is the case, the precautions recommended for the pUun may be adopted. The Morello is liable to be affect- ed by the blight that attacks the plum, but very few instances have yet been observed by us where the cherry has been injured to any extent by the disease. It will be well, however, to be on your guard, and subject the infected branches to excision and burn- ing at once. Unless this is done, the evil, now for- tunalel}' so rare, may become as serious as it is with the plum. CRAPE. Vitis, Vinifera, Vulpina. Vines may be propagated either by cuttings, lay- ers, or eyes; but plants from cuttings are* generally preferred. If the wood is ripe and sound, and the plants well rooted, the manner in which they have been reared is of comparatively little consequence. The vine is found in almost all parts of the world, and will thrive in any soil that has a dry, well-drain- ed bottom. The fruit on very rich soils will be large, but not so fine-flavoured ; or, on poorer or gravelly soils, the fruit will be less in size, and not so abundant, but richer in flavour. Many attempts have been made to establish vineyards in this coun- try with European grapes and on European models, but they do not seem to have been very successful ; while some fine wines have been made from native grapes cultivated for that puipose. According to Mv. Bridgeman, the following of the imported varie- ties have been found to succeed best in the vicinity of New-York. " The Sweetwater, Chasselas, Muscadine, White Tokay, Black Hamburg, Blue Cortiga, Miller Burgun- dy, Austrian Muscadel, Messlier, Morilon, Black Prince, Blanc, and some excellent seedling sorts frona the imported Lisbon grapes. To plant a vinery for GRAPE. SIT a full crop of good grapes of various flavours, take n white and red .Muscat, a white and red, or black Mus- cadine, a white and red Frontignac, a black or rod Muscadel, a white Raisin grape, a white and red Hamburg, a Stillwell and red Sweetwater, a white and red Nice, a black Damascus, a red Syracuse, and a black Constantia. The above list contains some of the most esteemed table-grapes of all col- ours and flavours, which will ripen in succession. The best kinds of our native grapes for private gar- dens are the Catawba, the York, Black Madeira, the Schuylkill, Muscadel, and the Isabella. To these may be added the Scuppernong or Hickman grape, which is said to be larger than the Fox grape, of a delightful perfume, and, when ripe, of a yellowish white colour." Much of the productiveness of the vine depends on its training and pruning; but no certain rules can be given other than that air and light should be af- forded to every part of the vine ; and it has been ob- served also, that vines of great length, and the strong shoots at the extremities of the branches, produce fruit of finer quality than the shorter or lateral ones. The wild grape rarely produces fruit until it has reached the top of the tree or support on which it depends, and then, as it begins to spread and the shoots descend, it produces abundantly. In Italy the vine is cultivated with the mulberry ; thus a double crop of silk and wine is produced from the same field. Vines trained high, or elevated on walls, tall trees, or houses, suffer usually less from mildew than those growing in more confined situations. All foreign vines need protection in the Northern States, and hence they must be pnmed and trained with ref- erence to being laid down in the winter. Of course they must be shortened, and only allowed a height of five or six feet, as is the custom in the vineyards of the South of France, where, however, no meas- \xxe» of precaution during the winter are necessary. 318 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. Mr. Bonsall has a large number of American vines growing in liis vineyard near Philadelphia, and it is his opinion, after much experience, that we must rely upon them in preference to foreign varieties, so far as the making of wine is concerned. Mr. Bonsall's mode of training is peculiar, but succeeds well. Posts are set in the earth seven feet in height along the rows of vines, and ten feet from each other. Three nails are then driven into each post, to within half an inch of their heads, the first two and a half feet from the ground, one at the top, and the other midway between. Around these nails No. 11 iron wire is secured by a single turn, and continued from one to the other. Around the wires the tendrils cling easily, and the vines are fully supported, Avhile the air and sun penetrate easily evecy part. Mr. Bonsall trains his vines to produce fifty clusters each, and, when fresh pruned, they will not at any age be more than four or five feet high. To protect European varieties, it is necessary to lay them down and cover them with earth. To do this, prune them in autumn, disengage them from the trellis, bend them to the earth, and, after placing some flat stones upon them to keep them in a proper po- sition, cover them with at least three inches of earth. The European kinds require renewal every few years in our climate, or the fruit mildews in such a manner as to be worthless. In its native climate the vine lives to a great age, as is proved by the vine- yards of Italy and France, some of which are known to be several hundred years old ; and by the great age attained by our native vines. Those who think of cultivating the vine for wine, will doubtless make themselves acquainted with the works that treat on that subject fully; while those who wish to cultivate for the market or their own tables, and all should di the last, will find little diffi- culty in succeeding. QTTJNCE. 319 QUINCE. Cyclonia. The Quince may be propagated by {>eed or by layers, and cuttings in a moist soil will succeed. Quince-stocks are much used for producing dwarf pears, but the summer or autumn pears succeed bet- ter on these stocks than the late ones. If more than one shoot springs from a layer or cutting, all should be removed but the most vigorous ; which should be preserved with a high, clear stem for the main stem or for grafting. The Quince produces the most abun- dantly, and the fruit is of the best quality, when grown in a rich, moist soil, in a sheltered situation. Austere as the fruit of the quince is, the curcuHn sometimes attacks it ; but the chief enemy of this tree is the borer, which is the larvae of an insect, the egg of which is deposited in the bark near the surface of the earth, and the worm produced from it feeds on the wood, usually eating upward. It is not so readily observed as the peach borer, as that insect throws out the dust made in his progre^L-, while the quince borer packs his immediately after him. Extracting the insect by direct excision is the best mode ; but when it has penetrated to any con- siderable depth, this is difficult, and it may then be drawn out with a flexible barbed wire, operating like the barbed tongue of a woodpecker. All wounds made in extracting the borer should be dressed at once with a thick paint, or with tar and brickdust, to prevent the decay of the tree. There are many varieties of this fruit, but the fol- lowing may be considered the most worthy of culti- vation. The Pear Quince.— An oblong fruit, much resem- bling the pear in form. It is not as common as the varieties succeeding, and is, for general uses, rather inferior. It is, however, a good fruit. The Apple or Orange Quince. — This is the one mos/ desen'ing of cultivation, and is the one gener- 320 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. ally found in gardens. It if. a large fruit, of a rich dark yellow, and is deservedly esteemed for its cook- ing properties. The Portugal Quince. — The fruit of this variety is less austere and more juicy than the preceding ones, and is much pi-ized for marmalade and preserves, having the property of assuming a fine purple tint while undergoing the culinary process. It is rather a shy bearer ; but, though not common in the United States, is the kind generally cultivated in England. Loudon recommends this as the best variety for in- serting the pear upon. The Eatable Quince. — The distinguishing character of this fruit is its being less astringent and austere than the preceding kinds, and hence is considered eatable. Few palates, however, relish this or any other variety, unless prepared for the table by cook- ing. There is no fruit grown in our country so valuable for marmalade and preserves as the quince, and, as a natural consequence, none that finds a more ready market. Every fruit-garden should contain a few trees of each variety. They are planted about ten feet apart, and require little attention or pruning. RASPBERIIY. RubuS. Among the minor fruits, the Raspberry, both cul- tivated and common, holds a distinguished place, and is much esteemed as a table-fruit and for culi- nary processes. There are several species of the Rubus that grow spontaneously in the United States, such as the Black and Red Raspberry, the Blackber- ry, Cloudberry, &c. In Europe the Blackberry is known as a bramble. Nicol, in his work on fruits, enumerates twenty-three varieties of the cultivated Raspberry, and twenty-one of the bramble or wild varieties. Mr. Prince's catalogue contains nearly thirty varieties, or names of varieties. A.11 the varieties of this family are easily perpetu- RASPBERRY. 321 ated or propagated by the young suckers or shoots thai spring up abundantly in spring or summer from the roots of the older plants. They can also be raised from the seed, and will bear the second year; while suckers of one year's growth, detached and transplanted in spring or autumn, will bear some fi-uit the first year. The best of the wild varieties are the Red and Black Raspberry, Blackberry, and Virginia Raspberry ; and, of the great number of cultivated kinds, the most esteemed are the small and large White, Red Antwerp, Large YeUow An- twerp, Brentford White, Twice-bearing Red, &c., &c. Raspberry-beds are the most productive about the fourth year ; and, when properly taken care of, the ground loosened and the dead wood cut out, will continue to bear well for five or six years, when, if they exhibit symptoms of failure, they may be re- placed by new shoots. Vigorous shoots from stems in full bearing are to be preferred. The Raspberry, in ordinary gardens, succeeds well in single rows or in a hedge form ; and a selection of the most shady, as well as the most sunny part of the garden, will give a succession of fruit for a long time. All weeds and superfluous suckers must be carefuUy eradicated, except such suckers as may be wanted lo form new beds or hedges, or to continue the old. Vines that grow too long will produce more, and finer fruit, if properly trimmed ; and, to have them vigorous and good bearers, rotten manure or com- post should be forked in around the roots of the plants. The Raspberry is much esteemed for sweetmeats, jams, tarts, and sauces. It is also very delicious served up with cream and sugar, and is grateful to most palates. Like the Strawberry, it is a fruit con- ducive to health, as the acetous fermentation it un- dergoes in the stomach is very shght ; and, conse- quently, it is adapted to persons troubled with rheu- matism or gout. A row of a few rods in length Tr._B B 322 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. against one of the walls or fences of the garden will secure an abundant supply of fruit, if set with either or both of the Red and Yellow Antwerps, or the common Black Raspberry, the size and productive ness of which last fruit is much increased by judi- cious cultivation. STRAWBERRY. Fraguria. Of this most delicious fruit, it has been rightly said, " There are few in the vegetable kingdom that can equal the Strawberry in wholesomeness and excel- lence." Strawberries are natives of most temper- ate or cool climates, and are found wild in great numbers both in America and Europe. Fortunate- ly, the Strawberry unites properties the most con- ducive to health with a fragrance and taste pecu- liarly grateful, which render it one of the most gen- eral favourites among fruits. The methods of planting the Strawberry are very various, some cultivators preferring hills, others rows, and others beds, in which the plant occupies the whole surface of the ground. When it is re- membered that the Strawberry, though a low plant, has very strong roots, and that convenience in gath- ering the fruit is also to be consulted, it is evident that some little space should be allowed to each plant, and that, consequently, hills or rows will be better than closely-covered beds. Perhaps beds, with three rows each, eighteen inches apart, and a space of two feet between the beds, will be found to economize space as well as any other method. Mr. Downing, of Newburg, recommends hills ; and Mr. Darke, of Ohio, also prefers hill-planting, as it allows spading each Wciy. Hills must be from eigh- teen inches to two feet apart. The preparation of the soil is a matter of much importance in forming a strawberry plantation ; for, though the plant will grow in almost any soil, expe- rience shows that under certain circumstances onlv STRAWBERRY. 323 will it produce fine and abundant fruit. A proper strawberry soil must contain a good supply of ve- getable matter ; hence the wild Strawberry, growing on newly-cultivated lands, is usually very fine, and decayed wood and leaves have been found some of the best materials to incorporate in the strawberry- bed. The earth must be made fine and deep by spading or other means, and thoroughly-rotted ma- nure or compost fully incorporated with every part of the loosened soil. A deep, mellow loam, moder- ately moist, and well filled with vegetable matter, is found best for the Strawberry ; yet it will succeed in almost any soil where the requisite depth and richness are given. There are very numerous varieties of the Straw- berry, and they are classed in the catalogue of the London Horticultural Society under the heads of Scarlet, Black, Pine, Chili, Hautbois, Green, Alpine, and Wood Strawberries. Of all the different ivmds, the Wood or Field Strawberry is the highest fla- voured, and the Alpine is probably the most prolific. The Methven Scarlet is one of the largest, not un- frequently measuring four inches in circumference ; and the Downton, a variety of the Chili, originated by Mr. Knight, was grown by Judge Buel, for sev- eral years in succession, to the size of four inches and three fourths. Of the many varieties, the following may be rec- ommended as making a good selection for gardens. The Wood and Scarlet Strawberries of the native kinds ; the Downton, Keen's Seedling, Wilmot, Blood Pine, and Elton's Seedling of the dark or black kinds ; of the Hautbois, the Black Hautbois and the Twice-bearing ; and of the Chili, Wilmot's Superb and Keen's Imperial. The Alpine produces fruit from June till November, or until prevented by the frost fi-oni coming to maturity. Wilmot's Su- perb does not always succeed here, and the Methven Castle is sometimes hollow and w^orthless ; and, as 324 AMJ:;UICAN HUSBANDRY. a general rule, it may be remarked, that the large kinds of fruit are not as high-flavoured, and are more liable to be defective than the middle-sized or smaller varieties. Mr. Downing recommends the Bishop, as uniting all the qualities required to make a fine and delicious strawberry. Strawberry plantations may be established either in spring or autumn; and April or September have been pronounced the best months for transplanting. The plajit is easily propagated by runners, which, rooting at each joint, only require separation and removal to constitute a new plant. If these roots are taken up in September, they will produce fruit the next season. From the large mass of foliage and flowers produced from a single root, it is evident that, until the fruit is set, large quantities of water are required ; but afterward a dry bed, and a dry, sunny air, give the richest fruit. To have good fruit, 'the runners must bq cut off from the bearing plants, as they exhaust the juices ; the ground must be kept perfectly clean and free from weeds ; and, for the larger varieties, covering the earth with wheat or rye straw during the period of fruiting makes the berry ripen better, and keeps it from contact with the earth. Oat-straw is said to cause the fruit to mildew. Dry leaves will do in the place of straw, and, after the bearing season is over, they may, with other compost, be spaded or worked in as manure. Many persons, in cultivating the Strawberry, have experienced much disappointment in finding that their plants, though growing luxuriantly and blos- soming freely, produced no fruit. This is account- ed for by their having made an unfortunate selection of plants for their beds. Strawberry-plants are of two kinds, /er/77e and unfertile. Every one who has noticed the common field Strawberry is aware that some patches of vines produce ever)'' year abun dance of large, showy flowers, and little or no fruit while others, with flowers of little show, are uniform STixAWBERRY. 325 ly fruitful. The same causes are operative in the cultivated plant; and, if the transplanted sets or roots are from unfertile stocks, no fruit can be ex- pected, however vigorous the grovpth. The great- est care, then, seems to be necessary in commencing a bed or plantation to select productive plants, as in this case, as well as most others, like produces like, and, if unproductive ones are chosen at first, unpro- ductive ones will be perpetuated and multiplied, and the reverse if fruitful plants are selected. In some instances, the non-bearing plants in a bed are the most vigorous ; and, if attention is not given to them, they will crowd out the bearers and occupy the whole bed. On the subject of fertile and unfer- tile plants, Mr. Downing makes the following very just remarks ; " If any person will examine a bed of the Hudson or any of the large scarlet strawberries when they are in blossom, he will discover a great number of plants that bear large, showy blossoms, filled with fine yeUow stamens. These are the barren plants. Here and there, also, he will discover plants bear- ing much smaller blossoms, filled with the heads of pistils, like a small green strawberry. The latter are the fertile ones." By attending to these distinctions in selecting plants to make new beds, or in separating those al- ready made, fertile plants are ensured, and all dis- appointment in the result avoided. If it is desira- ble to cultivate the strawberry on a very dry soil, it may be done either by incorporating clay marl with the compost used, so as to render the soil more re- tentive of water, or the beds may be made (instead of being higher than the general surface of the gar- den, as they usually are) lower than the other parts, 80 as to receive as much of the water that falls as possible. When we recollect the astonishing quantity of this fine fruit that can be grovm cm a few rods of 326 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY, land, when the varieties are well selected ; its de- licious and healthy qualities, and the ease with which it can be cultivated, it must be considered surprising that so little attention is paid to it, not only by mechanics and professional men who culti- vate gardens of their own, but by fanners, who cer- tainly should devote a small space of ground to this most valuable of fruits. CURRANT. Ribes. This well-known shrub is found in almost every garden, and the fruit, where good varieties are se- lected and the plant is properly cultivated, is de- servedly esteemed. When fully ripened, the cur- rant is prized as a dessert fruit ; and in an earlier stage is used for pies and tarts. A good wine is also made from it with little expense or trouble, and might easily be made to supersede the cheap import- ed wines, as, when well made, it is certainly supe- rior to the most of them. There are many varie- ties of the currant, red, white, and black ; and varie- ties of the cultivated kinds may be multiplied to any extent by sowing the seed. The best and most usual mode of propagation is by cuttings from the last years growth, and healthy, vigorous shoots should be chosen. In common with most other fruits, the currant succeeds best in a good loam, but will grow in al- most any soil that is sufficiently deep and rich. This shrub will grow in the shade of trees ; but the finest and best flavoured fruit is found only in situs- ations exposed to the sun, and open to a free circu- lation of air. Currants are commonly planted in rows around the borders of gardens, where they are left to take care of themselves, and soon throw up such a multitude of suckers that the fruit becomes inferior from the crowding oif the branches, and the want of thinning and pruning. To prevent this multiplicity of shoots, and give •¥- GOOSEBERRY. 327 every plant a si;igle, tree-like form, tall shoots should be chosen as cuttings, and from these every eye or bud on the lower part, and to the height of some inches above the ground, when they are set out, nmst be carefully removed with a sharp knife. In this way few or no shoots will appear, and the plants, standuig single, will form good heads, and produce fruit of a much finer quality than that grown on plants cultivated in the usual way. By training in this way, removing the suckers as they appear, cutting out dead branches, shortening such shoots as show a disposition to grow too much wood, and keeping the earth clean about them, good fruit may be confidently expected. The Red Currant is perhaps more common than any other, and is generally thought the highest fla- voured ; but we prefer some varieties of the White, as being a larger fruit, sweeter, and better adapted to the dessert than the Red. It also makes a good white wine,, preferred by some to the red wines. The flavour of the Black Currant is peculiar, and disagreeable to many. It is frequently found in swamps, or low, moist places, but is comparatively rare in gardens, and, when grown, it is usually for its medicinal uses, being strongly astringent, and employed for making a gargle in sore mouths or throats attended with inflammation. It is very com- mon in the north of Europe and Asia, and is made much use of by the Russians for various purposes. According to Loudon and others, the best white cur- rant is the White Dutch, and Knight's varieties of early, large, and sweet Reds. There are several other kinds of currants, such as the Rock, Pennsyl- vania, Mountain, Upright, Wild, and Champagne, but they are little cultivated. GOOSEBERRY. Ribes Grossularia, etc The English cattle-grower has his Herd-book, to which he refers to determine the purity and blood 328 AMERICAN HUSBANDRV. of any animal oflfered to him ; and the EngUsh goose- berry-grower also has his Gooseberry-book, in which the varieties and their quaUties are as care- fully recorded, and to which constant reference is made when this fruit is under discussion. Upward of 700 varieties are known, most of them the result of crosses ; and in Lancashire and other goose berry districts of England, fairs are annually held, at which prizes for the best fruit are distributed in sums of from ten shillings to ten pounds sterling, when the names and sizes of the winning fruits are entered in the " Gooseberry-book." One variety, the " Roaring Lion," has been known to reach the weight of an ounce and a half to a single berry ; and many kinds have produced berries exceeding an ounce in weight. In Lancashire, where the cultiva- tion of this berry is carried to greater perfection than in any other part of the world, not only is the ground made very rich, but applications of the drain- ings from dunghills is occasionally made ; and, while the roots of the plants are kept well watered, suck- ling, as it is called, or placing a sewer of water im- mediately under the fruit, is practised to a consid- erable extent by the competitors for these prizes. Gooseberries are propagated with the greatest ease in several ways, but cuttings are most gener- ally used. These should be taken in the autumn from healthy, vigorous shoots, the buds, with the exception of two or three on the upper part, cut off, as directed for currants, and the plants placed in a good soil. Gooseberries may be planted in rows six or eight feet apart, and should be five feet from each other in the rows. Where so much space is not convenient, the plants may be trained to a single stem, and tied to a stake ; this, though the stems are six or eight feet high, if properly pruned, wiir admit closer planting, while the circulation of air and the production of fruit will not be prevented. Unfortunately, nearly all the varieties of the Eng- UOOSILUERRY. 329 lish gooseberries, and particularly those of the lar- gest kinds, have been found so liable to mildew in this country as to be almost worthless, and many gardeners have given up their cultivation in despair. To what cause this disposition to disease is to be traced does not seem to be satisfactorily known. Whether to defects in the culture, too much crowd- ing of the plants, or too little pruning of the branch- es, or whether to some pecuUarity of our climate, such as its greater heat and more sudden changes during the summer months, is undecided. Probably all these causes are operative ; but we think the cli- mate is the most likely to be the principal agent in this disorganizing process. No method of prevent- ing the mildew is yet known other than close pru- ning, and a free circulation of air to every part of the head of the plant. There are several varieties of native gooseberries, some covered with strong, close prickles or spines, and some that are smooth like the English kinds. One of the wild kinds grows in swamps, is smooth, covered with a bloom like the plum, and in tallness much resembles the cranberry. It is a shy bearer, and the fruit rather small, or it would be a desirable variety for many uses. The native varieties are the finest flavoured, and might probably be improved by cultivation. As it is, they make a fine, close hedge or border for gardens, and deserve a place in every collection of fruit, as they usually produce abundant- ly, and are, so far as we have noticed, perfectly ex- empt from mildew. The common gooseberry, cul- tivated in the usual manner in borders or hedge- rows, lasts many years, and requires little or no attention. Gooseberries are a very delicious fruit, and the larger varieties, when free from mildew, are highly prized for the dessert. The smaller kinds make the richest of pies, tarts, &c. ; and gooseberry wine is of the finest flavour when properly made. The fruit- 330 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. garden cannot, therefore, be considered properly fur- nished without this fruit ; and it is to be hoped the diiRculties that have attended the cultivation of the improved varieties v^^ill be so overcome by acclimi- zation or otherwise as to render its success certain. Writers on the Fruit Garden enumerate a variety of other valuable productions ; but, as the most of them are not adapted to general cultivation, or re- quire more attention than farmers or others can well bestow, we have not deemed it necessary to enter into particular details as to culture. Of these we may here enumerate the Apricot, Almond, Chestnut, Cranberry, Fig, Hazelnut, Filbert, Mulberry, Madeira Nut, and Hickory Nut. Those who wish to intro- duce the culture of these trees will find ample direc- tions in the various works on trees, fruits, and gar- dening that have been published. DISEASES AND DEPREDATORS. Fruit-trees are liable to diseases and to attacks from insects, some of w-hich prey on the wood of the tree and others on the fruit. Some of these we have already indicated ; but a few additional remarks will not be out of place on this topic. A bad, wet, cold soil is one of the most fruitful sources of dis- ease, and the remedy is obvious ; make the soil dry by draining, and rich and loose by manuring and digging. When trees appear to be unhealthy ; when their leaves look yellow or curled ; when shoots spring from the roots, or bundles of shoots from the branches ; when gum oozes from the bark, and that integument is discoloured or cankered, disease is present, and the tree should be examined, and the cause discovered and removed if possible. In most cases, moving the earth around the body of the tree ; cutting off and burning decayed or diseased branch- es ; scraping the trunk and large branches, and washing them with ley. whitewash, soapsuds, or DISEASES AND DEPREDATORS. 331 Other similar applications, will produce a good effect, and restore vigour. Trees attacked by mildew may be sprinkled with soapsuds, and dusted with snuff, tobacco-dust, or sulphur ; if canker is observed, let the part affected be cut clean out in such a manner Ihat no water can remain in the wound, and then wash the place with a niixiiue of soot and water, after which it may be coated over with train or other oil, and soot or brickdust used to thicken it and give (t a proper consistence. Of the insects that attack trees and fruit we have already noticed the curculio and the borer, and the best means of preventing injury from their presence. There are two insects that seem to prefer the apple- tree to other fruit-trees, which are very destructive, and in some seasons ruin the fruit of whole districts. These are the caterpillar and the canker-worm. The caterpillar is the product of a moth, which deposites its eggs in a thimble-like form around the outer shoots of the apple branches in autumn, where they remain during the winter, and are vivified by the warmth of spring about the time the buds open to supply them with food. If they appear early, a sec- ond crop is sometimes produced late in the season, but usually in less numbers than the first. These catei'pillars do not eat the fruit ; they injure it by destroying the leaves necessary to the elaboration of the juices that go towards perfecting it. Nothing but a Httle attention is necessary to free an orchard from this pest. The silklike nest spun by the worm shows itself at once, and a rag or a brush on the end of a pole, apphed while the worms are in their nests, will wind up and crush the whole. The canker-worm is a more serious and destnic- tive enemy than the caterpillar, in those parts of the country where it is found. Its habits are such that it is less readil)"^ observed, or its depredations pre- vented. The female of the canker-worm is wing- less, and, when it emerges from its chrysahs state in 332 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. the earth, it is obliged to climb th" tree on which it is to feed. In this state it resembles a grub. The male has wings, but usuiijly ascends the tree in com- pany with the female. The eggs are deposited on the branches, and from these the worm which is so destructive proceeds. When the period of change to a chrysalis arrives, the worm descends to the earth, generally by spinning a web, and, hiding be- neath the surface, remains till the change is comple- ted, and again emerges in another form to recom- mence its ravages. As the insect, in the state of chrysalis, is limited to the spread of the branches at farthest, and in most cases is within a few feet of the trunk, moving the earth or incorporating with it ash- es, lime, or other ingredients destructive or disagree- able to them, would seem to be likely to kill them or drive them away. Bandages of tar, fish-oil, and other matters have been recommended ; but the only effectual remedy yet known is the expensive one of encircling the tree with a lead trough filled with oil, the space between the trough and the trunk being closely packed with some substance* that will prevent the passage of the worm. As the trough is occasionally replenished with oil, a passage over it is impossible, and, of course, all access to the tree is cut off. The great length of time, however, in which the grub or worm ascends to deposite its eggs, reaching from November till June, renders the prevention of the attacks of this worm more trouble- some than that of any other. Whenever the ground is thawed during the winter, the worm will be found ascending ; and, after it has once obtained a lodg- ment in the tree, all methods to expel it have been ineffectual. University of California Library Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. REC'D LD-URl MAR 2 0 1S98 3 1 158 00468 9450 ^u- ■ ^.^PiT^^^m']'^ regional library FACiL:r-, A 001 085 276 2