PLOWING SANDY SOILS. both the sandy and gravelly soils, as to leave Spring plowing for sandy soils is preferable to them difficult of penetration by roots, and when fall plowing for although the plowing of clay they are of such character as to render it injudisoils, including ridging and back furrowing, may cious to bring them to the surface by deep surbe done profitably in the fall, the same practice is face-plowing, we may at least follow in the same not advisable with those of a freer kind. The furrow with the lifting sub-soil plow, which does freezings and thawings of winter will materially not turn the soil, but will disintegrate it to a great improve clayey soils, by rendering them more depth, with the expenditure of but a small amount free from the disintegration of particles, division of force. In this way sandy soils become ærated, of masses, etc. Sandy soils, however, should be and from the decay of roots passing deeply into left undisturbed until spring, by which means them, they are gradually supplied with organic they are less liable to be disturbed by high winds, matter so as to improve their general condition. freshets, etc. This disturbance, however, should occur in spring; No error is more common than to suppose that thus they are less compact during the growing sandy or gravelly sub-soils render sub-soil plow-season, and become stiffened during winter, rening useless. On the contrary, the continuous dering them more practicable in their character descent of water from the soil will so compact by spring.-Working Farmer. THE NEWTOWN PIPPIN APPLE. This is one of the very best, and yet pearance, and selling at common prices. One The Newtown Pippin is of medial size; flesh Baldwin tree, of the same age, will outweigh four fine, firm, crisp, juicy, of a rich, sprightly, high Remarkable for reof them, and out-bear five or six of them, in good aromatic flavor and aroma. fair fruit. It generally fails in New England; taining its freshness to a late period. Late winter, in some favorable situations in the Middle States, spring, and to mid-summer. A slow, scrubby and in some parts of the West, it succeeds well. grower; moderate bearer. Fruit inclined to be It requires a warm, deep, strong, friable loam, defective under the best management. Origin, neither wet nor dry, lime in the soil, or manure, Newtown, Long Island.—Cole. and the highest culture. Some pomologists reckon two kinds; others WATER PROOF.-A correspondent of the Merthink there is but one, modified by various circhant's Magazine gives the following receipt for cumstances. The Green (dotted outline) is flat- the prevention of wet feet, and adds that by tish-conical; stem, short, deep cavity; smooth, subjecting his boots to this treatment three pairs olive-green. The Yellow (the larger outline) is have lasted him six years, and are likely to last flattish-round, angular; stem short, rather deep six years longer. He says: I put a pound of tallow, and half a pound of cavity; rough, yellow, or greenish-yellow, brownrosin in a pot on the fire; when melted and ish or red cheek. We have seen another form mixed, I warm the boots and apply the hot stuff and color. Roundish-conical, very deep cavity; with a painter's brush until neither sole nor upsmooth, wax-like, pale yellow, bright red cheek. per leather will suck any more. If it is desired Newton Centre, Jan. 16, 1855. ROOT CROPS. Much of the success of root crops depends up that the boots should immediately take polish, or any other liquid manure. It should be thrown dissolve an ounce of wax in spirits of turpen- over and well incorporated, as it will be apt to tine; to which add a teaspoonful of lampblack. work through the loam or muck, and waste if R. W. TURNER. A day after the boots have been treated with the that is not attended to soon. tallow and rosin, rub them over with wax in turpentine, but not before the fire. Thus the exterior will have a coat of wax alone, and shine like a mirror. Tallow, or any other grease becomes rancid, and rots the stitching as well as the leather; but the rosin gives it an antiseptic on their early treatment. Those that germinate quality-which preserves the whole. Boots and slowly, such as the carrot, should have the seed shoes should be so large as to admit of cork soles. swollen, by burying it in the soil for a few days Cork is so bad a conductor of heat, that with it encased in a bag before sowing, and when being in boots, the feet are warm on the coldest stone sown, small quantities of radish seed should be floor. mixed with it. The radish seed will mark the rows at an early date, so as to enable proper tools to be passed between, and remove the weeds even before the carrots shall appear above the surface of the ground. For the New England Farmer. half an inch or less of the surface, and if not All light scaly seeds should be planted within shaded by the radish leaf will bake from the sun's heat, and refuse to germinate, unless previously We should not wait for weeds to appear before MR. EDITOR :-Your correspondent from East Hartford, Ct., in the N. E. Farmer for Jan., 1855, wants information in regard to an article made by the hard soap manufacturers, and called by them swollen. in the vicinity of Boston (as well as Hartford) The early attention by disturbance of the soil salt ley. Having used many scores of loads of for carrots, parsnips, beets, &c., is positively necthat article, within the last eight years, separate- essary to insure success. Careless culture in the ly as well as in connection with night soil, I am able to reply to the questions put by "J. R. S." early part of the season will materially injure the First, let me say, that a scientific and observ-crop. ing neighbor who has a few acres of meadow he wished to lay down to grass in a manner best cal- disturbing the soil, but by frequent stirring we culated to be lasting, and also wishing to know roots shall have fairly started, and are in full posmay prevent their growth altogether until the for a certainty whether salt ley was as economi- session; then an occasional stirring by the Horse cal (at the same cost per load) as night soil, Hoe or any of those tools lately introduced by placed two heaps of loam upon the borders of his meadow, containing about five cords each, and the surface of soils, so that the entire strength of Ruggles, Nourse, Mason and others for cleaning added five loads of 80 cubic feet each of ley, to the soil and all the atmospheric advantages may one heap, and the same of night soil to the other. be applied to the crop. After causing the same to be thrown over until well incorporated, he divided his land equally in bushels of parsnips, and nearly or quite a thous We raised last year, by such treatment, 1500 two parts, and spread the compost, sowed his and bushels of carrots per acre. When guano or grass seed, harrowed, and then rolled the surface with a heavy roller The first year the result was be in small doses, and at each disturbance of the the phosphates are used, the application should decidedly in favor of the night soil; the second soil. The results will be much greater than when they stood side by side; the third, the difference in favor of the ley was more than equal to what all are placed in the soil before the planting of the it lacked the first, while its effect was very appar when applied after the roots are partially grown, seed; for in its slow downward travel by solution ent long after the night soil had spent itself. This the manure may come in contact with the young experiment as well as some of my own of a similar character, satisfied me that ley is very perma- are all applied in the rows instead of between the spongioles ready to receive it. If the manures nent and valuable as a fertilizer, when properly rows, the roots become hairy and roughened, but incorporated with meadow muck for upland. when more generally disseminated through the When it is spread upon grass land, it is sure to soil they become evenly divided by moisture before bring in a large amount of honey-suckle or white clover, which is the same thing. reaching the roots. The great increase in demand for root crops will fully warrant their increased culture.- Working Farmer; If used for corn it should be spread and plowed in, as it will be apt to kill the corn if allowed to come in contact with it. I believe it superior to any other manure for other potatoes, as it THE SEASON.--A correspondent writing from Kenkeeps the worms from troubling them. It may nebunk, Me., April 8, says "the sledding has been be used for any purpose that any manure is. It very good here until to-day." In the neighbor is the best for sandy land as it holds the moisture hood of Boston the frost is not yet out,-manure and prevents in part the consequences of a drought. One cord of meadow muck, if fine, is heaps carried out last fall, are still frozen; postsufficient to absorb one load of 90 cubic feet. holes cannot be dug, or very little spring work And if the ley is good (for some is nearly worth- done. It was refreshing this morning to see the less, being made of lime and soda instead of ashes) first team and plow in motion. The Weston peois equal to a cord of stable manure. Pile up the muck and run the ley into the basin on the top, ple deserve the premium. From Randolph, Vt., and be careful that it don't work out at the sides under date of April 2, we learn that the snow and waste, as it is more likely to than night soil was then four feet deep, great drifts still remain ing, and no sugar had been made. From Dorchester, N. H., the account is that the snow in the woods on the first of April was six feet deep in many places. BIRDS. Birds, says M. Toussenel, live more in a given time than any other creatures. For, to live, is not only to live; it is also to move, act, and travel. The hours of the swift, which in sixty minutes can reach the distance of eighty leagues, For the New England Farmer. are longer than the hours of the tortoise, because THE NORTHERN SPY APPLE. they are better occupied, and contain a greater Men of the present day, who MR. FARMER -This new variety, which has number of events. attracted so much attention in Western New can go from Europe to America in little more than a week, live four times as much as men York, is little known in New England. No apple brought into notice has elicited so many the passage. People who are now fifty years of of the last century, who took a month to make and different opinions of its merits. What I said of it in a report to the American Pomological age have still a longer time before them than Michael Angelo and Voltaire had at that moment Society, re-printed in your paper, was intended when they were laid in the cradle. Independentas a caution to those planting or grafting extensively, rather than to deter any one from ly of birds thus enjoying more of life than all other beings in the same given number of years, giving it a fair trial. trace of its effects; or rather, time only improves time seems to glide over them without leaving a them, reviving their colors and strengthening their voices. Age increases the beauty of birds, while in men it brings on ugliness. One reason why it has been so poor a bearer is, it has been extensively propagated from nursery scions. In 1846, I paid three dollars to a Rochester nurseryman for four dozen scions, which had been cut from small nursery trees; these were A bird is a model ship constructed by the hand grafted on old bearing trees. Scions cut from them two years after, and grafted on bearing manageability, and lightness, are absolutely and of God, in which the conditions of swiftness, trees, first produced fruit. Another reason why it is not an early bearer, hand of man. necessarily the same as in vessels built by the There are not in the world two is its upright growth. A person visiting an orchard of one thousand trees, containing one both mechanically and physically speaking, than things which resemble each other more strongly, hundred varieties, and told there is one tree only the carcase and frame-work of a bird and a ship. of the Northern Spy, may easily select it. This The breast-bone so exactly resembles a keel, that may be partially remedied. I bent some of the the English language has retained the name. The most vigorous limbs on my trees and tied them down, when three years grafted, (in October,) wings are the oars, the tail the rudder. That and the next season they were filled with fruit original observer, Huber, the Genevese, who has buds two years before a blossom appeared on any other. carefully noticed the flight of birds of prey, has even made use of the metaphor thus suggested, to establish a characteristic distinction between It is a rapid grower, hardy, and requires high culture, with plenty of lime or ashes, and more who have the first or second wing-feather the rowers and sailers. The rowers are the falcons, thinning of its branches and small limbs than longest, and who are able by means of this powany other sort. In quality it is decidedly the erful oar to dart right into the wind's eye. The best, taking the same rank in March, April and May, or perhaps June, that the Gravenstein does mere sailers are the eagles, the vultures, and the in October and November. One bushel will, in sails. The rowing bird is to the sailing bird buzzards, whose more rounded wings resemble any market, when known to be in good condi- what the steamer, that laughs at adverse winds, tion, (not bruised by transportation,) sell for is to the schooner, which cannot advance against more than one barrel of any other sort grown in them. New England. The bones of high flyers, as well as their feathAny man having a small space to spare for a few trees, provided he likes an apple of fine tex-ers, are tubes filled with air, communicating with a pulmonary reservoir of prodigious capaci ture, tender, of high flavor, unshrivelled, and as fresh in April or May as any other in October, the air-cells which lie between the interior musThis reservior is also closely connected with ty. will be satisfied if he gets but a small quantity cles, and which are so many swimming-bladders, for a few years. It is deserving a general trial, at least a few trees in every orchard. Should it by aid of which the bird is able to inflate its volume, and diminish its specific gravity in proporprove a good bearer, (and it may when propa- tion. In birds that are laden with a heavy burgated by scions from bearing trees,) it must be a then of head, Nature has interposed so decided a great acquisition to our very small list of good gap between skin and flesh, that there results an late-keeping apples, and may be for New England almost complete detachment of the skin. Consewhat the Newtown Pippin is for New Jersey. Burlington, Vt., April. C. GOODRICH.. quently, they can be stripped of their coating just as easily as a rabbit can. In man and other mammifers, the blood, in the act of breathing, BIG CARROTS.-THOMAS GORDON, Esq., of Bid- advances ready to meet the air; in birds, air endeford, Me., has sent us two carrots, one of which ters to find the blood, and comes in contact with weighs four pounds and three-quarters, after hav-it everywhere. Hence an ubiquity of respiration and a rapidity of hæmatosis, which explains the ing lost a goodly nip of its nether end. It prob- untirability of the wings of birds. The muscles ably weighed six pounds when taken from the do not get fatigued, because they receive new ground. California will please stand back a lit- vigor every second from the influence of the ever tle. revived blood. A stag or a hare drops at last, when hunted, because its lungs, rather than its gale announce the coming of the tempest by a legs, are tired. peculiar form of bird's expression, which they Between the different members of a bird's body both seem to have borrowed from the vocabulary there exists a sort equilibrium or balance, which of the frog-a pre-eminently nervous animal, to prevents any one organ from obtaining undue de- whom the science of galvanism is greatly invelopment without another losing in the same debted. The chaffinch, in unsettled weather, proportion. Thus exaggerated length of wing recommends the traveller to take his umbrella, generally coincides with very small feet and legs. and advises the housekeeper not to be in a hurry Examples: the frigate-bird, the swift, and the to hang out her linen. Certain mystic geniuses humming bird. Feathered feet and legs are have attributed this faculty of divination posmostly short, as in pigeons, bantams, ptarmigan, sessed by birds to some special sensibility, acand grouse. Nature always contrives to econo- quainting them with the actions of the electric mise out of one part of a bird's body the materi- currents that traverse the atmosphere, and acal which she has too lavishly expended upon an- curately informing them of their direction. Nor other. Good walkers are bad flyers, and good is there any scientific argument which can be flyers are bad walkers. First-rate runners and confidently opposed to such a theory. divers are deprived of the power of rising in the After the organs of sight and touch, the sense air. Half blind individuals, like owls, are as- of hearing comes next in importance. The delitonishingly quick of hearing. Creatures clad in cacy of the auditory powers of birds is sufficientplain costume are recompensed by the powers of ly apparent from the passion for vocal music song. The lark and the red-breast, victim spe- which many of them manifest. It is an univercies (both being greedily eaten in France) have sally admitted physical law that, in all animals, the gift of poesy bestowed upon them for their a close and invariable correspondence exists befuture sorrows. tween the organs of voice and those of hearing. The most exquisite sense a bird possesses is Now birds, it will be seen, are the Stentors of nasight. The acuteness and sensibility of the reti-ture. The bull, who is an enormous quadruped, na are in direct proportion to the rapidity of endowed with an immensely capacious chest, wing. The swift, according to Belon's calcula- does not roar louder than the bittern, a moderate tion, can see a gnat distinctly at the distance of sized bird which frequents our ponds. In Lormore than five hundred yards. The kite hover-raine, they style him the boeuf d'eau, or "watering in the air at a height beyond our feeble bull.' A crane, trumpetting two or three vision, perceives with ease the small dead minnow thousand yards above the surface of the earth, floating on the surface of the lake, and is cogni- pulls your head back just as violently as a friend zant of the imprudence of the poor little field- who asks you "How do you do?" from the balmouse, as it timidly ventures out of its hole. All cony of a fifth-floor window; while the thunderGod has done and made, He has thoroughly well ing of Mirabeau, who should venture to har done and made. If He had not exactly propor- angue the Parisian populace from the top of the tioned the visual organs of the bird of prey, or towers of Notre Dame, would run a great risk of the swallow to its dashing flight, the mere ex- not being able to convey a single word to a sintreme velocity of the bird would have only gle member of his congregation. served to break its neck. Partridges constantly Ascend in the air, by means of a balloon, in kill themselves against the iron wires of electric company with an old Atlas lion, whose formidatelegraphs; and nothing is more common than ble roaring once struck terror throughout Algeto find thrushes and larks with dislocated verte- rian wilderness; and, when you have risen only bræ, when they fall into the large vertical net half a mile, make your travelling companion which is used in France by twilight sportsmen. give utterance to the most sonorous of his fine Perhaps, after all we have said and seen, the chest-notes. Those will spend themselves in sense of touch is the most perfect in birds, and empty space, without descending so low as the the organs of feeling are endowed with a subtle- earth. But the royal kite, floating another half ty of perception more exquisite than even those mile above you, will not let you lose a single inof sight. In fact, air being the most variable flexion of his cat-like mewing, miniatures though and unstable of elements, birds would be endowed they be of the lion's roar. "It is probable,” says by nature with the gift of universal sensibility, Mr. Toussenel-M. Toussenel is always speaking enabling them to appreciate and foretell the through our humble interpretation-"that naslightest perturbations of the medium they inhab- ture has expended more genius in the construcit. In consequence, the feathered race are armed tion of the larynx of a wren or a nightingale, with a nervous impressionability, which compri- than in fabricating the ruder throats of all the ses the different properties of the hygrometer, quadrupeds put together." the thermometer, the barometer, and the electro- Smell and taste are but feeble in birds; and scope. A tempest, which takes the man of sci- they have no great occasion for either sense. A ence by surprise, has, long before, given warning bird's appetite must be enormous, in order to to the birds of the sea. The noddies, cormo- supply the animal heat necessary for the mainrants, gulls, and petrels, know twenty-four hours tenance of its superior nature. A bird is a locobeforehand, by means of the magnetic telegraph motive of the very first rank, a high pressure enwhich exists within them, the exact day and mo- gine, which burns more fuel than three or four ment when ocean is going in one of his great ordinary machines. "Animals feed, man eats," rages, opening wide his green abysses, and fling- says worthy Brillat Savarin. "Clever men alone ing the angry foam of his waves in insult against know how to eat properly." This strictly true the forehead of the cliffs. Some birds are the gastrosophic aphorism is more exactly applicable harbingers of wintry storms; others usher in the to birds than to quadrupeds. Birds feed to asadvent of spring. The raven and the nightin-suage their hunger and to amuse themselves, not to indulge in epicurism. They fatten through Half a peck of potatoes will furnish sprouts sheer ennui, and for pastime's sake, rather than enough to bring a dozen bushels of potatoes. through any ambition of "cutting up fat." The It is early enough to set the plants by the first task, moreover, assigned to them, is to destroy of June. the innumerable seeds of weeds, [which they do Place them in drills a foot apart, a litin a larger proportion than the protected seeds of tle deeper than they stood in the hot-bed, leaving human food,] and animal and insect vermin, the drill a trifle dishing. If the weather is dry which would soon annihilate the labors of man, and warm at the time of setting, water them for a did not certain species of birds feel an incessant few days. craving to devour them. Birds have no nose for the same reason that they have no palate. It is The ground should be plowed or spaded a foot not necessary that creatures, destined to eat every- deep, well manured, and thoroughly pulverized. thing without making wry faces, should have Some persons throw two furrows together, but in posted in front of their stomach, as we have, a our hot and dry summers, we think such a pracvigilant sentinel, who is troublesomely cautious tice injurious. The soil best adapted to this root who and what he allows to enter the fortress. All, therefore, that has been said about the fine is a warm, sandy loam, though it will grow on scent of the crow and the vulture, who snuff gun- any soil that will bring a good crop of corn. powder and corpses at incredible distances, is The cultivation should be careful, keeping all simply absurd. There is an excellent reason why weeds out, and the soil constantly loose. The crows should not smell gunpowder; namely, that vines run, like cucumber vines, so that the hoegunpowder is scentless until it is burnt, (we ven THE SWEET POTATO. ture to doubt this statement of fact; having a ing must be done early. Care should be observed decided personal nose for the saltpetre.) If crows not to leave the vines covered with earta, as in could perceive that perfume, it would attract that case they will take root and prevent the them, instead of driving them away. Crows and growth of the first setting. Some persons forcivultures are carrion birds, who love, above all 'things, the treat of a battle.-N. Y. Church-bly tear up the vines where they have attached man's Magazine. themselves to the ground, in order to throw the vigor of the runners into the main roots. The crop is fit for gathering when the tops decay. In harvesting, great care should be observed An inquiry in relation to this delicious esculent, not to bruise the potatoes by throwing them by "G. S. P." of Bethel, Vt., reminds us that together, or in any other way, as a slight bruise many people would find it convenient, and would will engender decay. The leaves of the vine are be glad to cultivate a few rows, sufficient, at quite handsome, being large, smooth, and genleast, for their own table through the autumnal erally three-lobed. months. We have raised them successfully for The potato is used boiled, baked, is excellent several years. They are not quite so sweet, or in making bread, and makes a pie nearly or quite so yellow, as those sent here from the South, as good as the squash. It has a peculiar, agreethough our erop in 1853 afforded very fine ones, able flavor, and is called easy of digestion, is wholesome and nutritious. both in color and flavor. Some four or five years ago we had a corres- The recipe for making pies of the sweet potato pondence with Mr. TIMOTHY A. BASCOM, of Hins- is as follows:-Boil soft, peel and mash them. dale, N. H., on the subject of the sweet potato, To every quarter of a pound, put one quart of who presented to us in April a box of them sound milk, three tablespoonfuls of butter, four beaten and pretty good at that time,-but not with their eggs, together with sugar and spices to the taste. full flavor.. Mr. BASCOM informed us that the sweet potato POTATOES. As in the common potato, there are many vari- is a good crop for milch cows,-that they are eties of the sweet-the Mississippi yam is consid- very fond of them, and that he can obtain a ered the best. It would be cheaper for those larger amount of them than of any other potato wishing to plant only a few, to purchase the slips, on the same quantity of ground. as they may always be obtained at the proper season, of RAND & Co., 110 Quincy Market. Those who desire to cultivate more extensively will find the following directions convenient. Plant the A large quantity of European potatoes werə sold a few days since by auction, in New York, potatoes in a common hot-bed, and cover two and at a price which would pay the foreign farinches deep with fine loam, and they will come mer a very large profit beyond the cost of freight, up in two or three weeks, and when two and a etc., and this, too, in a country where they might half inches high they will do to set out. In col- be produced at less than the freight paid by the lecting the sprouts place one hand on the potato foreign farmer. Every year since our childhood, we have heard farmers say that they feared poto keep it steady, and cut out the sprout with. tatoes would be low next year, as everybody the thumb-nail, or pull it out; the potato will would be raising them in consequence of the high continue to furnish them for three or four weeks. prices; and thus far has prevented a full supply |