profit realized than by selling the animals in poor I prefer liquid manure to any other for potatoes, condition to be driven some hundreds of miles to the and in fact for every vegetable. My opinion is the neighborhood of those cities, and then fattened result of several successful experiments with this where the materials for doing so are highly expen- essence, but before giving them to you, I will desive. Such, at all events, has been the result of scribe the pit in which I collect all juices and offal. railroads in Great Britain. Here is one great ad- It is 6 feet deep, 60 feet long, and 20 feet broad, vantage over the western States. This, and the with a good tight clay bottom, and stoned up on all present low price of the land, as well as the salu- sides. My cow shed is on the north side, and the brity of the climate, may well be subjects of consi- floors of the stalls and passages incline sufficiently deration to those who are about to emigrate. to allow the fluid excrements to reach the pit withIt is common to think everything without value, out resistance, and the solids are thrown in at each which, if not cash, has not some approximation or cleaning of the stable. The inclination of my yard convertibility into cash; and yet simple-minded is also towards this receptacle, and the wash from folks have sometimes thought that cash itself is it I consider important. By means of a pump I only profitable so far as it can procure happiness draw off the liquid when wanted, and with a hogsfor ourselves or those whom nature or friendship head placed on a roller, roll and irrigate my meahas attached to us. Some, too, who have travelled dows simultaneously. Last season I tried the fluid in many countries, have at least fancied that cheer- for potatoes. I plowed half an acre of ground, and ful scenery has a strong tendency to make cheerful after harrowing it well, passed the roller over with those who live surrounded by it. Such people, the sprinkling apparatus attached; put on about 8 though they may wish more frequently to find here tons of the liquid manure, together with 2 bushels those tokens of human well-being-neat farm-of salt, then followed again with the plow, previous houses and thriving sheep and cattle of the most to planting the seed. Notwithstanding the drought, useful kinds, will yet see that the hand of intelli- the crop harvested from the half acre was 170 gent improvement has in many places been at bushels of a very large size, many of them 41 work, and must be delighted with the fertile val- inches in diameter, and very few under 3 inches. I leys and the beautiful hills, everywhere capable of never saw a more even crop in my life. For high cultivation, which characterize the grass lands gooseberries, raspberries, &c., there can be nothing of Western New York. R. H. better than manure in a fluid state, and vines thrive Buffalo, Feb., 1846. better and produce much finer fruit when it is used. In fact, no plant is more benefited by this application than the grape. I believe even in this country it is SOME time ago I promised to give you an account quite a common thing to see a gardener dipping the of my seedling potatoes. If they possess no other roots of plants intended for transplanting, into a recommendation, they are entirely free from the dis-paste made of urine and clay, or any earthy subease so prevalent all over the world. I have lately gone through my bins containing nearly two hundred bushels, and after carefully inspecting them, The use of liquid manure, as a fertilizer, is not a found every one perfectly sound. My neighbors novelty. On the contrary, the Chinese, Germans, have not been so fortunate for the last two or three and Italians, have for ages paid great attention to years, and I attribute my success to my method of the collection of urine, and to the manufacture of preparing the seed, and subsequent culture. I cut substitutes, and many artificial mixtures have been two eyes to a set; after which they are spread over made with great success. In England, scarcely a a barn floor to dry for six or seven days before put-farm is without its cistern to hold the juices and ting them into the earth, and during this time, each wash of the barn yard, the farmer being obliged to set is carefully examined by handling, to ascertain husband everything in the shape of food for the the fact of its drying and shrinking properly. Oc-land. And when chemistry steps in and tells us the casionally one or two soft ones are found, which are discarded as worthless; the good sets will always dry up, and yield but little to the pressure of the finger, and these alone are planted. As soon as the vines show themselves above ground, I top dress them with slaked lime, 40 bushels to the acre, hoeing only twice, but using the plow as often as necessary, to keep down the weeds. SEEDLING POTATOES. stance. When this is done all flourish, and no sheltering from the sun is necessary. valuable properties of these fluid excrements, that man must be obstinate indeed who will not save all and pay some of his dues to the earth with this valuable liquid. It is an admitted fact, that all composts, bones, lime, magnesia, &c., are dissolved by some means before vegetables will notice them; hence, in presenting a fluid manure to them, as the salts of the urine have a forcing power, vegetation For the last three years I have gone through the immediately commences. The improvements that same operation with other potatoes, not seedlings, are constantly being made in the agricultural world, and have invariably lost one-half of my seed by and the wonderful facts brought to light by the aid their not standing the drying test; but it is better to of science, show clearly the growing interest evinced lose half the seed than half the crop. In cutting in making the earth bring forth its full fruits. carefully a potato that is in part affected, you can Common sense tells us the earth must be fed, or it remove the diseased portion, and by submitting the will become exhausted; and to avoid the fate of seed to be dried, ascertain its fitness for propagation. one of our Southern States, let us collect and preI have found the disease showing itself in a spot serve everything containing the necessary elements no larger than the head of a pin, and then gradu-of vegetation. Wм. B. ODDIE ally spreading over the whole potato; is not this The Meadows, Rockland Co., Jan., 1846. a sufficient objection to the planting of whole roots? Ladies' Department. INSECTS.-No. 2. LADIES' DEPARTMENT. From the Diary of an Old Lady.-March 1st, half past four o'clock. A fine bright morning, promising a spell of weather that should put housekeepers in motion. 97 Both ends of the sack are open, and it walks with equal ease, backwards or forwards. The mice, too, are now to be carefully looked after; they are making nests in band-boxes, in my summer bonnet, and other inconvenient places, where they imagined they might bring up their little families in peace and prosperity; but they did not know me, they are new comers. The first day of spring brings with it a train of 14th. Betsy tells me that the cockroaches are thoughts of anticipated pleasures-and a crowd of beginning to show themselves in the kitchenbusiness. My household all in motion, and I only nasty things! and should never be allowed to rest wait for breakfast and daylight to begin a strict, in peace in a well ordered country-house! therefore, though quiet investigation of closets, cellars, and I will send for plenty of spirits of turpentine this other unexplored corners that have rested in peace very day, and this evening will pour it into every since the cold weather set in. To-day I must pre-crack and hole about the kitchen, which will drive pare the trunks and closets that are to receive them out; and, on their appearance, a stream of blankets, furs, and carpets, for the summer; not that boiling water from the kettle shall prevent their rewe can yet dispense with them, but the moths are turn. It is not true that if you kill one, ten will beginning to take wing, and they must be looked to. come to the funeral; the person who first said that 2d.-Visited the flannel closet, and found moths was either ignorant of their history, or she was too suspended from the ceiling and on the walls-a few lazy to take measures to kill them. The cockroach had already taken wing; but the largest portion are which infests our houses (Blatta orientalis) was still in their little sacks, waiting the next warm originally taken from Asia to Europe, and from weather to change into the fly, and deposit their thence to America. It deposits its eggs in warm eggs on the first woollen garment that they meet places, near ovens and under hearths, where it dewith out of use, or carelessly left in their way. It lights to pass the remainder of its life. It lives is a common error that moths love dirt-it is not so; three years, and undergoes no other changes than but they do love to live with a careless house- frequently casting off its skin, like the crab, whenkeeper, where they can feed unmolested on the ever it has grown too large to be comfortable in the woollen cloths that are suffered to remain in dusty old one, and on the third year gains a pair of closets or garrets that are seldom visited by the wings; it has then arrived at maturity, and deposits brush. Moths, in common with all insects, deposit a number of eggs enclosed in a dark brown case of their eggs on or near the food best suited to the a bean-like appearance. They increase with great young grubs; the eggs soon hatch if the weather be rapidity, but may soon be destroyed if diligently favorable, and the worms feed for five or six weeks, looked after and killed. Turpentine poured into when they leave their food, and suspend themselves their haunts will instantly drive them out, when in their sacks on the walls, or in corners of closets, boiling water thrown on them will effectually drawers, and where they must be searched for and destroy them. Red lead, Indian meal and molasses, destroyed. There are many species; some feed on mixed in equal proportions, and placed in their way, fur, some on wool, and some on skin; thus an old will be devoured greedily by them, and proves cerneglected hair trunk may supply moths enough of tain poison. Nothing appears to come amiss to their various kinds, to ruin half the valuable clothes in appetites, either animal or vegetable; but wet, dirty the house; for in the absence of their proper food, dish-cloths appear to be their peculiar delight; and they devour all woollens indiscriminately. Must should you visit the kitchen an hour after the give strict orders to have the hair trunk well ex- family are gone to bed, you will find such articles amined-troublesome things-determined never to blackened by their numbers. A pan of boiling wahave another. Visited the meat room, found moths ter placed under such articles, and the cloths dropped in their sacks hanging on the wall-wondered what in, will prove an excellent trap. A week's diligent could take them there, when, on a strict search, search will clear a house, unless they have been found to my astonishment that they were feeding on suffered to increase for years. Their vile habits the skins of the hams-a new species to me, and and disgusting odor make them dreaded by every therefore to be carefully preserved in my cabinet, one; yet they are suffered to remain in most houses and their pictures taken. Explanation.-1, Ham moth; 2, worm partly projecting from the sack. 1. without molestation. Having made these discoveries, it is my determi nation that all the pleasant weather of this month shall be devoted to a careful cleaning of all the cel12th.- The lars, closets, store rooms, and neglected crannies, moths I found and that neither water nor white-wash shall be feeding on the spared; but it shall be done quietly and in order, hams have takand with as little inconvenience to the family as the en wing. They HAM MOTHS.-FIG. 28. nature of the case will admit. I do not wonder that are of a small size; pale yellowish brown with a men and the seamstresses of the household comslight golden lustre; the under wings of the same plain of bustling housekeepers--I shudder when I color, but much paler. The worm never entirely think of them. A bustling housekeeper is seldom leaves the sack; but when feeding or in motion, an economical one; for while her peculiar occupaprojects its head and four front feet out, clinging tion is attended to, everybody else must stop theirs, with the hind feet to the inside of the sack, thus thus only half the household machine is effectually prepared to retire under cover on the slightest danger. employed, while all is in motion and wearing out. 16th.-Salmagundy says Aunt Charity died of a easily destroyed, as they live in or immediately unFrenchman! now I am sadly afraid I shall die of a der the bark; the second year they penetrate one or woodpecker! for, of all animated things, they rouse two inches into the wood, and during that time they my curiosity the most. The day is cold, and a light are in reach of the woodpecker or a piece of wire; snow is falling, looking very beautifully, but not the third and last year they become more voracious very tempting to leave a warm fire and my writing and much larger, and penetrate a foot or more into the table to go into the orchard; but all day I have been body of the tree. Their path is always upwards, and attracted to the window by a scarlet-capped, white-as they arrive at maturity bore near the surface, and bosomed, dandified woodpecker, who, by his busi- lie concealed under the bark while in the pupa ness-like air and earnest manner of prying into all state. When its transformation takes place, it the holes and corners about the trunks of the trees, gnaws a hole in the bark and makes its escape; convinces me that there are secrets to be discovered therefore, the first clear warm afternoon, the girls that I am not willing he should keep to himself, how-shall go with me, and with pruning knives and wire ever glad I may be of his assistance in discovering in hand, will share the sport with the woodpeckers; them: besides, I am much interested in a bunch of and if I hear of any of the boys killing a wooddried leaves that has dangled on the branch of a plum pecker, I won't say what I will do, but I think I all winter, having more meaning in it than people shall hand them over to a smart ubbing with the suspect, or I am much mistaken. The long-handled oil of hickory! rake shall help me to that secret; so snow and cold to the contrary, notwithstanding, I will go-better die of cold than of a woodpecker! THE GARDEN. THE month of winds and storms, noisy, boister ous March, has forced himself into notice, like a lunch, rushes home ravenous for his dinner, and is great overgrown school-boy, who, having missed quietly told to wait patiently, for it will not be ready this half hour. shine, we feel that spring has come indeed; and if In these rapidly lengthening days and warm sunwe do not hurry our preparations for gardening, we shall be caught napping by bright, showery April, all smiles and tears, and birds and flowers, before we are half ready for it. Well, here I am back again. The day is not as cold as I thought. My thick coat and wadded hood have kept off the light snow, and my gum shoes prevented my feet from suffering, while I fully gratified my curiosity. The bunch of dried leaves proved a screen to a cocoon that I shall be glad to watch, as I suspect it to be the winter home of a large green worm that was feeding on the tree last summer. The woodpecker was in search of the worm that is so destructive to the apple orchards, and had succeeded in destroying many that were sufficiently near the surface for his curious long gers of spring, the modest snowdrop, the crocus, the tongue to reach; but the older ones had gone too its clusters of dark rose-colored flowers, have and yellow hellebore, and the mezereon, with far for him, and required some contrivance on my bloomed amid alternate storms and calms, and are part to find them; a piece of stout bonnet wire I no more seen; all but the last have withdrawn to find very effectual. Some had gone beyond the their earthy beds, to enjoy another ten months reach of the wire; but I am told that mercurial sleep. It warms my very heart to look out upon ointment filled into the hole will poison them-I the sheltered borders, and see the gay daffodils and will try to-morrow. FIG. 29. 2 green Those beautiful harbin merry-looking purple polyanthuses, nodding to most twig of yonder red maple, carolling like any This worm is much to be dreaded, and carefully guarded against. It is the larva or young of a Beetle called Sapuda bivottata. The face and lower part of the body is white; the wings and head are marked by two white and three cinnamon brown stripes, from the eyes to the tips of the wing cases; the horns or antennæ are longer than the body, they are from one-half to three-quarters of an inch in HINTS TO LADIES.-Stair carpets should always length. They begin to appear early in June, have a slip of paper put under them at and over the escaping from the tree in the night, which is their edge of every stair, which is the part that first time for flight and motion, concealing themselves wears out, in order to lessen the friction of the during the day among the leaves of the trees on carpet against the boards beneath. The strips which they feed. The eggs, which are of a pale should be within an inch or two as long as the carpet grass-green, are deposited under the loose bark of is wide, and about four or five inches in breadth. the tree, from three to twenty in number. In favor- This simple plan, so easy of execution, will preserve able weather the young worms soon hatch, and a stair carpet half as long again as it would last penetrate the bark. During the first year they are without the strips of paper. Boys' Department. BOYS' DEPARTMENT. USEFUL AMUSEMENTS FOR BOYS. ON most farms the care of young stock belongs to the women and boys. The boys should make the care of calves their own. Calves should never be allowed to suck after the first day. When they have filled themselves well with the first milk, they should be taken away and confined in the barn; and until the milk becomes good for use, it should be taken from the cow, and fed by hand to the calf. It will soon learn to drink, if a finger be put in its mouth and its muzzle in the milk. At the end of three or four days, it should have no more new milk. When the milk has been skimmed, let it be warmed and given to it. The calf will not be so fat and look so sleek as if fed with new milk, but will grow in frame as fast, and be as large in size and bone, as one fed on new milk, if it have enough; the reason of this is that the cream skimmed off the milk only makes fat, and does not make flesh or bone. Feed the calves well with good sweet skim milk at regular periods, say three times a day, and give them good pasture, and by fall they will be of good size. Always treat them kindly, and make them gentle. This will give you good and kind cows, if the calves be heifers; and good and gentle oxen if they be steers. In the fall either make yourself, or get made, a small yoke, put it on the steer calves, and accustom them to it, and commence breaking them. In the winter, after they have become docile, hitch them to small sleds and draw little loads of wood. By spring the steers will be well broken. ANOTHER POULTRY ACCOUNT. You may remember, boys, that last April, I gave you a copy of my poultry account for 1844. Now if you are so inclined, I will overhaul the account. for the past year. But before we go to the figures, I will tell you of sundry mishaps and blunders, which have had some effect on the profits, for by the errors of others you may learn as much as by their success. 99 fifty chicks, four only exist at this present. Now these calamities happened on this wise. The old fowls, having their wings clipped to prevent roosting on trees, fell a prey one night to sundry unruly dogs, who took advantage of their crippled condition, and the little chicks suffered in various ways from a want of that important requisite, "the master's eye." An unsightly heap of brush, in the neighborhood of the coops, afforded shelter to that sneaking rascal, "black rat," who cut the throat of every unfortunate chick that came within his domain. One night some frisky young Berkshires escaped from their pen, for lack of a few nails driven in time, and played such pranks among the coops, that the account of killed and wounded the next morning was quite a serious affair. Neither did the geese entirely escape. Theirs was a case of killing with kindness. The man who had charge of the live stock, believing, like many a better educated one, that "good living," and " plenty of it," was the great good of earthly existence, dealt out the corn so liberally that by reason of excess of fat, two only, out of twenty-four eggs from the two geese, contained the living principle, and of these one only hatched, the other suffering from a lack of patience in, I wont tell who. Now then, having got through the chapter of accidents, let us look to the cyphering. I commenced the year with the following stock, viz. : 1845. Dr. Jan. 1. To 44 bens 6 cocks, a 25 cts. $12 50 3.75 2 50 $18 75 Feb. 25. To cash for 15 hens, a 25 cts. 3 75 Jan. 30. 66 66 22 geese, a 50" 11 00 " 6 young ducks, 1 00 5 common do. 1 25 แ 66 1 p'r Muscovy, Dec. 31. 61 1 2 bush. of corn, a 62 1-2 cts. 38 44 labor picking geese, 88 First, then, not having a proper yard enclosed, I had to keep the fowls during the summer shut up in their house (21 ft. by 12) until afternoon, as I was planting immediately around the building. This confinement, and limiting their food entirely to corn, when they should have had a variety, such as oats, buckwheat, a little wheat, and some Dec. 31. By stock on hand, viz. : butcher's offal, or scraps of meat, induced a distemper among them, by which some dozen or more were carried off; and causing a great falling off in the eggs. Then again all the broods of early chickens were completely destroyed by a certain little animal, which it is not polite to name, and which we must therefore spell, viz., l-o-u-s-e. I soon found that a few drops of sweet oil, or a little fresh lard, well rubbed on the back of the head, and on the wings of the chicks, immediately on taking them from the nest, was a perfect remedy-so much for Dame Partlett's family. The Gobbler's family was even more unfortunate, for of the four turkeys that survived the winter, three were killed during the summer, and of about 100 FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. By the steamship Cambrit, we are in receipt of our foreign journals to February 4th. MARKETS.-Ashes in limited request. Cotton re mains in price as per our last, and was quite firm. A small advance is anticipated as soon as money becomes easier. Flour no change. Beef, Pork, and Cheese, slow of sale. Lard has fallen rapidly. Tallow, a slight improvement. Tobacco, without alteration. Wool has advanced and was purchased freely. The paper is to be published entire by the Society and does honor to the American name. Money was still scarce and in much demand. Important Alterations of Duties on American Produce. --The British Ministry propose to make important reductions on many of the articles exported from America to England. We hope to see a similar spirit manifested by the cabinet at Washington. The alter-sary to beware of planting those plants which have been ations comprise 14s per cwt. 8s per cwt. Free. Free. Free. 8s per cwt. 16s per load. 2d per lb. Candles-Tallow, 10s per cwt. 1s per quarter. 10s per cwt. 5s per cwt. 5s per cwt. - 10 per cent. Tallow, out. To Prevent the Return of the Disease in Potatoes.-The board of Trade in Holland has published the follow ing rules to be observed as a preventive of the potato disease-1. To leave the potatoes in the ground until very dry weather occurs. Experiments having shown that their decay is accelerated by being taken up, it is advisable to leave them in the ground at first, in order to get dried, and afterwards to lay them out over the field. This would have the double advantage of rendering the vegetable more wholesome, and of preserv ing it. 2. The following applies especially to those potatoes to be used as seed for next year: It is necesattacked by the disease. They must be carefully chosen from those whose stalks have not been attacked, and placed in a situation free from the slightest damp As the disease has been less severe in gravelly than in clayey soils, the tubers should be chosen from those gravelly soils where the disease has not penetrated 3. The withered leaves of diseased potatoes, which are of no value, should be immediately burnt; the same should be done with the rotten potatoes, which cannot be of any use. Nothing should remain of them. 4. It is necessary to avoid as much as possible planting potatoes in the same spots where they have been planted this year, for it is most probable that seeds of the fungi have remained in these places, and there would be great risk of the ensuing crop being simi larly attacked. 5. If, notwithstanding every effort, the disease should again break out next year, the mement the first symptoms of it are perceived, the first leaves that turn yellow should be taken off and burnt, or the entire field should be watered towards evening with lime water, or still better, with diluted sulphuric acid so as to destroy the seeds of the cryptogamous fungi; sulphuric acid, moreover, prevents rotting, and when prepared as above direced, can do no injury to the plants themselves. Increase of Stock in New South Wales.-Our flocks and herds continue to increase. We had on the last day of 1844 nine thousand horses, one hundred and forty-two thousand head of cattle, and five hundred and fifty thousand sheep, more than we had on the last day of 1843.—Simmond's Colonial Magazine. There seems great inconsistency in admitting American bacon free, and charging hams (the other part of the pig) with a duty of 7s per cwt. We advise our friends to cure the whole side, including the ham, which in this country is called "A gammon of bacon," and is estimated a " dainty dish," but do not overdo it with salt. In a few packets hence we will forward to our New York agents recipes for curing bacon, adopted in three most celebrated counties in England, viz., Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Cumberland, which may be had on the application of a letter, post-paid. Mutton Hams, cured, are, in England, held in high estimation by the epicure. These could be imported free as salted meat; and our recollection of the prices on a late tour through the States, leads us to the expect-els, taking care to mix the seed as carefully as possiation that the exporters would make money by the speculation.-European Times. Spanish Sheep.-We have recent advices from Messrs. Taintor and F. M. Rotch, who are now in Spain, busily engaged in looking over the Merino flocks of that country. They seem determined to bring away something valuable if to be found, no matter what may be the risk, trouble, and expense-to say nothing of their fatigue and danger in traversing so rude and disturbed a country. Steep for Seed Wheat.-Sulphate of soda (Glauber's salts) is dissolved in water in the proportion of 25 lbs. to 31 gallons of water. With this solution the wheat laid upon a paved or slabbed floor is sprinkled, the whole being meanwhile well turned till the grain will absorb no more of the liquid. Twelve pounds and a half of sifted quicklime are then added to each 8 bush ble. The seed thus prepared should be sown imme diately. The sulphate of soda, which is composed of sulphuric acid and soda, combines with the lime; the lime forms sulphate of lime or gypsum; the caustic alkali acts on the diseased germs, and the calcareous salt stimulates the grain.—Ag. Gaz. Potatoes.-It has been the observation of myself and others that the pigs fed on the infected Potatoes have fattened faster than on those that were not damaged, and I think Liebig accounts for this in his theory of Mr. John P. Norton, our Edinburgh correspondent for the change that has taken place in the darkened parts the past year or more, has been on a tour in France of the potatoes. I had an acre of potatoes planted early, and Germany, and being very much engaged, has been and though most of them were injured, yet I do not obliged to discontinue his letters for the Agriculturist. find them become worse. The great thing is to keep He will probably leave England for the United States them dry. I find cows and sheep use them readily, this month. It rejoices us to announce, that he has and thrive upon them. I have planted potatoes this won the £50 (nearly $250) prize of the Highland Ag-autumn, and some where the infected potatoes grew, ricultural Society for the best analytical investigation and am inclined to think that I shall have as good a of the organic and inorganic parts of various kinds of crop there, and as free from damage, as elsewhere.oats, grown on different soils, and by different manures. Ib. |