Shape and Construction of Churns.-Hidden Light-Turnips for Pigs, -299 .300 ..301 Ground Nuts.-Soft Soap.-The Use of Leaves.-Africans no Arithmeticians, ..302 303 Sherman Morgan.-Chemistry No. 1, .304 Shaping Cattle's Horns.-Culture of Madder,. 305 Native, .306 The Curculio.-Mixing different varieties of Corn and Cutting the Stalks, ..307 The Wood-Thrush,. .308 Plowing with an Elephant.-History of Medford, .328 Napoleon and Urbaniste Pear.-Cockroach Riddance.-Deep Tillage, Articles in Season.-The Weather and the Crops in Northern Vermont, POSTAGE.-The Postage on the Monthly Farmer to Subscribers, is now twelve cents a year, to be paid quarterly or yearly, in advance, at the office where it is received. DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. VOL. VII. JOEL NOURSE, PROPRIETOR, BOSTON, JULY, 1855. SIMON BROWN, EDITOR. CALENDAR FOR JULY. JULY, the month of Summer's prime, * NO. 7. FRED'K HOLBROOK, ASSOCIATE how to enjoy. In Winter, the Trees may be supposed to sleep in a state of insensible inactivity, and in Spring to be laboring with the flood of new life that is pressing through their veins, and forcing them to perform the offices attached to their existence. But in Summer, having reached the middle term of their life, they pause in their appointed course, and then, if ever, taste the ULY is an exceed- nourishment they take in, and "enjoy the air ingly important they breathe." The very insects on the ground, JOHN CLARE. month to the far- Like the Woods and Groves, "the Hills and Plains have now put off the bright green livery of Spring; but, unlike them, they have changed it for one dyed in almost as many colors as a harlequin's coat. The Rye is becoming yellow and ripe for the sickle. The Wheat and Barley New England har-are of a dull green, from their swelling ears being alone visible, as they bow before every breeze vest, perhaps not second in importhat blows over them." The stiff and stately tance to any other. herds-grass, or as it is called in Europe, the It is the month, meadow cat's-tail, sways awkwardly to and fro, too, upon which while the graceful and silk-like red-top yields another valuable crop in pliantly to every breeze, and the American cock'sgood measure depends,-foot, or orchard-grass, with the sweet-scented the golden maize, or Indian corn. vernal, meadow foxtail, rye, and other grasses, This plant requires the frequent all mingling their varied colors, and presenting hoe, and the fervid suns of July. them as they sway in the breeze, afford a most The late Buttercup, Indeed, all the crops which the lively and beautiful scene. farmer has committed to the Ox-Eye, Daisy and Red Clover blossoms are still earth with so much pains, and which have sprung| in their prime, and give a charming appearance into healthy and promising plants, now require to the whole. But nothing can be more rich and his constant care to protect them from insects beautiful at this season than a great patch of and weeds, and keep the soil in a favorable condi- purple Clover, lying apparently motionless on a tion to receive the rains and dews and atmos- sunny upland, encompassed by a whole sea of pheric influences. other grasses, waving and shifting about it at Summer has now fully come, and her "whole every breath that blows. world of wealth" is spread out before us in prod- Now a great many things are intensely Julyigal array. The woods and groves have dark-like. Cattle chew their cuds and lash their puncened and thickened into one impervious mass of tured sides, standing knee-deep in water; fishes sober uniform green, and having ceased to exer- fry in shallow ponds; pedestrians along dusty cise the more active functions of the Spring, are roads quarrel with their coats, and cut sticks resting from their labors, which we know so little to carry them across their shoulders, while every 298 thing seen beyond a piece of parched soil quivers TURNIPS.-In the course of the month, when- The Garden still has its beauties—as it ever has where it has received a considerate care,-but we cannot stop to particularize them now. The sol emn woods are now inviting, where the Whet-But we have found that a moist condition of the saw, the Brown Thrasher and Cherry-wink, make surface had more effect in inducing germination them vocal with their peculiar notes. Boys read of the seed than the day of the month. After Izaak Walton with a new relish, and explore the considerable experience and a pretty extended brooks that take their courses through the mead- observation, we are still of the opinion that the ows or dim woods, and throw the careful bait to root crops may be cultivated by most farmers the speechless trout in the dark water by the with a decided profit. The great cost has been bank, or under some ancient and massive root. in keeping down the weeds otherwise they are Silently as the panther approaches his prey, they not difficult crops to manage. They are easily move along now stepping upon a bunch of moss, got in, and may be cultivated with a horse or the or a tuft of grass, for the trout's ear is as quick wheel-hoe, without any difficulty. Would it not to note a footfall on the walls of his castle as an be a good plan to use the same piece of land for a succession of years for these crops, never allowIndian's, put to the ground. The Haying, the Harvesting, the Weeding, the ing a weed of any kind to go to seed upon it, and care of Stock, and the thousand nameless things enriching it with manure as free from seeds as it that press upon the farmer in July, leave him is possible to get it? If such manure is plentifully but little time for visiting or study; but there are applied in the fall, and plowed under 10 or 12 hours for good-nature and pleasant social inter- inches, there will be no complaint that the root course with one's own family and the neighbors, will not flourish on the same soil. Where the and, if rightly improved, will produce a crop as weeds do not come, carrots, beets, parsnips or turnips may be profitably cultivated. valuable as the crops of the fields. For the New England Farmer. DOUBLE PLOW. THE HOEING. This important operation must not be neglected. The lodging grass, early in July, is a strong temptation to take the scythe in DEAR BROWN-I have to-day tried the sodhand instead of the hoe-and it may be well to do so for short periods; but no man of ordinary and-subsoil or double plow on the old homemeans can afford to neglect his hoeing; it has stead at Chester, and as this is the first exin that good old town, I hasten "to make a note cost him too much labor of himself and team, and periment I have witnessed with this implement, too much for seed, to omit the cultivation of a of it." The land was sward, full of witchgrass, and crop that needs it. If he allows weeds to crowd and rot his plants, or a hard and repulsive sur- stony underneath, as all the land here is, alface to return to the skies unappropriated, the though it has been plowed a hundred years or so, and the boys have "picked rocks" on it annually. fructifying dews which Heaven has in kindness The plowman doubted whether his three yoke of sent, he will not reap abundantly where he has small cattle could "put through" so large a plow, It is among the first errors of the farmer, in such land, but he succeeded in finishing his stint of above an acre before night. not to tend thoroughly the crops he has put in. HAYING.-Grass cut in the morning, spread imand cocked before the mediately, turned at noon, dew falls, will rarely need, in good weather, more than a mere opening of the cocks the second day. A load of fence rails would be about as acceptable to a well-fed cow, as much of the herdsgrass that is carried to the barn. It is spread in the intense sun, and exposed to the wind till it is brittle, juiceless and harsh as wire. In our opinion, twice as much hay is spoiled by over-drying, as there is by not being dried enough. sown. Several judicious neighbors looked on, and our unanimous conclusion was that no other plow could run with the same team to that depth-ten inches full,-and that no other plow with any team could do the work so well. The plow is Ruggles, Nourse, Mason & Co.'s largest size, No. 354. The double plow is the thing for the hard and stony land of Rockingham County, not in new land, but in the common old fields. We believe that no more team is required to draw it than the single plow, and nothing can put the witchYours, H. F. FRENCH. grass out of sight, like it. Chester, N. H., May 19, 1855. Clover hay should be cut in the morning, lay COAL ASHES FOR PEACH TREES.-Will those who in swath until four o'clock, then turned upside down. The next afternoon gather it with a three- have not otherwise disposed of their coal ashes, tined fork into cocks, and let it remain two nights place a half bushel around each of their peach more, when it will be sweet, the leaves all remaining on the stems, and the whole will be eaten by the cattle and prove highly nutritious. remain through the summer, as the best manure trees, in the form of a little mound, and let it for the trees, and as a remedy for the borers. In the fall dig it into the ground. For the New England Farmer. suppose that all agricultural productions could be had at the same ratio at that time, then, of course, so far as a man's living was concerned. MR. BROWN-A leading article in your paper fifty cents then was worth as much as a dolla of April 14, on high prices, &c., has caused some is now. reflections as to the cause of such prices as we as much as a dollar in silver is now? Of course But was fifty cents in silver then worth now have and live under. That the prices are not, and why? Because money, that is, "golu high, I admit-in most cases, higher than they and silver," must always hold its relative value should be. But I have seen and lived through when measured by itself. In fact, it is the focus high prices before; in 1836 and 7, grain, flour, or standard where all real property terminates. pork, &c., were as high as they are now; though, and, of course, its value is fixed. So, in reality. taking the round of agricultural produce as a I claim that you cannot make money any the less whole, it did not range as high then as now. valuable at one time than another, though you But then it is, or may be asked, what is the cause may have to give more gold for productions at of such prices? And, of course, the war in one time than another. But, then, "Wall Street Europe will be named as one thing, emigration and State Street" talk about money as being cheap for another, speculation for another, and so on. and dear-that is, now they have to pay two per Now, for one, I do not put so much stress on the cent. a month, where they used to get it for one "war question" to make high prices as many per cent., &c. Of course, this means that their will, though it may affect us some, indirectly, on business compels them to pay two per cent. ; but. grain and flour. During our late war with Mex- in reality, the money is worth no more than ico, which was in operation from 1846 to 1848, when they pay only half per cent. I think it did not affect our prices of agricultural Another and great reason of the present hig). produce materially any way, though we were a prices, I consider, is in the constant drain of gold party and directly interested in that war as a and silver (since California has opened) to Europe. nation; and yet it had the effect to draw away to pay for imported goods, manufactures, arts. a large number of our population from farming &c., which, in the main, we could just as wel and the productive arts. make at home. Now, suppose a railroad is to be But what I consider to be one of the great built through your town, and five thousand dolcauses of the present prices is, the constant drain lars worth of railroad iron is wanted to carry the of productive labor from all parts of the country, road through your place. Which is the better during the last six years, or since California policy, to raise five thousand dollars and send to opened in search of gold. Of course we have England and buy the iron, or have the rails at had less producers and more consumers in shape your own price, and made by your own workmen. of emigration, which emigrants do not produce at home? In the latter case, the five thousand much in the first six months, but after that they (in California gold) is paid out to workmen in can make producers as well as consumers. Well, your own town. A gets a part, C a part, and E the consequence of California may be said that a part. It is all there among you; what one has we have had less produce and productions and not got, another has. But in the former case, it more gold, which is true to a certain extent, goes out of the country, and it is a matter of though I am not aware that many are overbur chance whether any part ever gets back again. dened with that "article" at present. But I am But the policy of the government appears to be not one of those who believe that a large influx to have the balance of trade against us all the of gold and silver into a country will, as a con- while, so that the United States appears to be the sequence, make high prices directly. Yet it half-way house,' ," where the California gold might have the effect to stimulate all kinds of stops over night; next day it takes the steamer. business, and so produce may rise in consequence. goes to Europe, and that is the last seen of it. But you say, in substance, "that an influx of Now, as it appears that we have got to have a gold, like an inflation of the paper currency, adds large share of European emigration now and for nothing to the real value of property. Its effect all time to come, would it not be a good plan to is merely to make money less valuable, so that save all the productive labor we can, and so keep none of it is given for articles of real value, as the gold here in the country to produce and rethe products of the earth and of the arts." Now produce and pay its own way. I do not see it just in that light. It may be true, that a large amount of gold laid down on a But then, again, as to high prices of produce worn-out soil, will not improve that soil directly;ter of 1835 and 6, in the spring of that year, hay now and in former years. During the hard winneither can it produce improved scientific labor, if that labor is not to be found. Still, it can be was worth twenty-five dollars a ton in all this made to produce the best labor at hand, and in section, and hard to be got at that. Since that time, it has several times been up to twenty dolthat way the soil can be renovated, and soon the productions on the soil will be worth as much, it is worth from sixteen to seventeen dollars the lars the ton; at this season of the year and now and more, than the original gold laid out. For ton. But to show that they had high prices forinstance: thirty years ago (or in 1825 say,) corn could be bought for fifty cents a bushel, and now ducer's prices from your paper, taken from the merly as well as now, I will copy a list of prc. it is worth a dollar a bushel, (in 1855.) Now, Portsmouth Journal. This was the price current An inflation of the paper currency means, of course, an for February, 1817, or thirty-eight years ago, and amassing of paper money, say four or five dollars of paper to these are wholesale prices; of course the retail the representative of money, the true standard of property comes were higher. "Bacon 15 cents per pound; bardown to the actual amount of coin in existence and circulation. ley, $1,25 to $1,50 per bushel; beans, $4 to If this be so, then gold and silver, or coin, cannot "inflate" the $4,50 per bushel; butter, shipping No. 1, 24, No. 2, 22 cents per pound; corn, $1,90 to $2,10 one of gold and silver. But, then, as the paper currency is only currency, be there ever so much of it, because it is the real standard of property itself. So we understand it. |