No. 42.-VOL. 4. of sinkers and swimmers. There may be plants, the sound seeds of which will not sink; but I know of none. If it be found in any instance, they would, I think, be found in those of the Tulip-tree, under the names of the several plants, which are, 131. Seed may be of the right sort; it may be the Ash, the Birch, and the Parsnip, all of which as to the way of propagating them, to be con- true to its sort; and, yet, if it be unsound, it will are furnished with so large a portion of wing. Yet sidered as exceptions to the general rule. There- not grow, and, of course, is a great deal worse all these, if sound, will sink, if put into warm fore, I shall, in the present Chapter, treat of pro- than useless, because the sowing of it occasions pagation by seed only. loss of time, loss of cost of seed, loss of use of water, with the wet worked a little into the wings first. 126. CULTIVATION must, of course, differ, in land, and loss of labour, to say nothing about the 135. There is, however, another way of ascersome respects, to suit itself to certain differences disappointment and mortification. Here, again, taining this important fact, the soundness, or unin the plants to be cultivated; but, there are some if you purchase, you must rely on the seedsman; soundness of seed; and that is, by sowing them. principles and rules, which apply to the cultiva-and, therefore, all the aforementioned precautions If you have a hot-bed; or, if not, how easy to tion of all plants; and it is of these only that are necessary as to this point also. In this case make one for a hand-glass (see Paragraph 94,) (especially if the sowing be extensive) the injury propose to speak in the present Chapter. 127. It is quite useless, indeed it is grossly may be very great; and, there is no redress. If a put a hundred seeds, taken as before directed, Sow them in a flower-pot, and plunge the pot in absurd, to prepare land and to incur trouble and man sell you one sort of seed for another; or, if the earth, under the glass, in the hot-bed, or handexpense without duly, and even very carefully, he sell you untrue seed; the law will give you re-glass. The climate, under the glass, is warm; attending to the seed that we are going to sow dress to the full extent of the injury proved; and and a very few days will tell you what proportion The sort, the genuineness, the soundness, are all the proof can be produced. But, if the seed does of your seed is sound. But there is this to be matters to be attended to, if we mean to avoid not come up, what proof have you! You may said; that, with strong heat under, and with such mortification and loss. Therefore, the first thing prove the sowing; but, who is to prove, that the seed was not chilled or scorched, in the ground? that would not come up in the open ground. complete protection above, seeds may come up is, the That it was not eaten by insects there? That it There may be enough of the germinating princiSORT OF SEED. was not destroyed in coming up, or in germinaple to cause vegetation in a hot-bed, and not 128. We should make sure here; for, what a ting? loss to have late cabbages instead of early ones! 132. There are, however, means of ascertain- Therefore I incline to the opinion that we should enough to cause it in the open air and cold ground. As to beans, peas, and many other things, there ing, whether seed be sound, or not, before you try seeds as our ancestors tried Witches; not by cannot easily be mistake or deception. But, as sow it in the ground. I know of no seed, which, fire, but by water; and that, following up their to cabbages, cauliflowers, turnips, radishes, let-if sound and really good, will not sink in water: practice, we should reprobate and destroy all tuces, onions, leeks, and numerous others, the The unsoundness of seed arises from several that do not readily sink. eye is no guide at all. If, therefore, you do not causes. Unripeness, blight, mouldiness, and age, save your own seed (of the manner of doing which are the most frequent of these causes. The two SAVING AND PRESERVING SEED. I shall speak by and by,) you ought to be very first, if excessive, prevent the seed from ever careful as to whom you purchase of; and, though having the germinating quality in them. Mouldi- 136. This is a most important branch of the the seller be a person of perfect probity, he may ness arises from the seed being kept in a damp Gardener's business. There are rules applicable be deceived himself. If you do not save your place, or from its having heated. When dried to particular plants. Those will be given in their own seed, which, as will be seen, cannot always again it becomes light. Age will cause the germi- proper places. It is my business here to speak be done with safety, all you can do, is, to take nating quality to evaporate; though, where there of such as are applicable to all plants. every precaution in your power when you pur-is a great proportion of oil in the seed, this quality 137. First, as to the saving of seed, the truest chase. Be very particular, very full and clear, will remain in it for many years, as will be seen plants should be selected; that is to say, such as in the order you give for seed. Know the seeds in Paragraph 150. are of the most perfect shape and quality. In man well, if possible. Speak to him yourself. 133. The way to try seed is this. Put a small the Cabbage we seek small stem, well-formed on the subject, if you can; and, in short, take quantity of it in luke-warm water, and let the loaf, few spare, or loose, leaves; in the Turnip, every precaution in your power, in order to avoid water be four or five inches deep. A mug, or large bulb, small neck, slender-stalked leaves, the mortifications like those of having one sort of basin, will do, but a large tumbler glass is best; solid flesh, or pulp; in the Raddish, high colour cabbage, when you expected another, and of for then you can see the bottom as well as top. (if red or scarlet,) small neck, few and short having rape when you expected turnips or ruta Some seeds, such as those of cabbage, radish, leaves, and long top. The marks of perfection are baga. and turnip, will, if good, go to the bottom at well known, and none but perfect plants should be saved for seed. The case is somewhat dif-| 144. As to bees carrying the matter, and im for granted by such men as a Clergyman ferent as to plants, which are some male and pregnating plants with it, the idea appears non-Church of England! others female, but, these present exceptions to be sensical; for, how comes it that whole fields of 147. Suffice it, now, that we know, that noticed under the names of such plants. Indian Corn are thus mixed? And, in the Indian will mix, when seed-plants of the same tribe 138. Of plants, the early coming of which is a Corn, let it be observed, the ear, that is to say, near each other; and we may easily sup circumstance of importance, the very earliest the grain-stalk, is at about four feet from the that this may probably take place though should be chosen for seed; for, they will almost ground, while the flower is, perhaps, eight or ten plants stand at a considerable distance always be found to include the highest degree of feet from the ground! What, then, is the bee since I have, in the case of my Indian perfection in other respects. They should have (which visits only the flower) to carry the matter given proof of mixture, when the plants great pains taken with them; the soil and situa- to the flower, and is the flower then to hand it three hundred yards from each other. tion should be good; and they should be careful-down to the ear? Oh, no! this is much too clum- must be the consequence, then, of saving ly cultivated, during the time that they are car-sy and bungling work to be believed in. The from cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, squa rying on their seed to perfection. effect is, doubtless, produced by scent, or smell; and gourds, all growing in the same gard 139. But, effectual means must be taken to for, observe, the ear is so constructed, and is, at the same time? To save the seed of two so prevent a mixing of the sorts, or, to speak in the this season, so guarded, so completely enveloped, any tribe, in the same garden, in the same language of farmers, a crossing of the breeds. that it is impossible for any matter whatever to ought not to be attempted; and this it is There can be no cross between the sheep and get at the grain, or at the chest of the grain, makes it difficult for any one man to raise all the dog but there can be between the dog and without the employment of mechanical force. of seeds good and true. the wolf; and, we daily see it, between the grey- 145. Away, then, I think we may send all the 148. However, some may be saved by ever hound, and the hound; each valuable when true nonsense about the farina of the male flowers who has a garden; and, when raised, they to his kind; and a cross between the two, fit for being carried to the female flowers, on which so to be carefully preserved. They are best nothing but the rope: a word which, on this oc- much has been said and written, and in conse-served in the pod, or on the stalks. See casion, I use, in preference to that of halter, out quence of which erroneous notion gardeners, in many sorts will be perfectly good to the a of respect for the modern laws and usages of my dear Old England, have spent so much time in eight or ten years, if kept in the pod or o native country. assisting Cucumbers and Melons in their connu-Istalks, which seeds, if threshed, will be go 140. There can be no cross between a cabbage bial intercourse. To men of plain sense, this is little at the end of three years or less. Ho and a carrot; but there can be, between a cab-something so inconceivable, that I am afraid to to keep seeds, without threshing them out, bage and a turnip; between a cabbage and a leave the statement unsupported by proof, which, [dom convenient, often impracticable, and a cauliflower nothing is more common; and, as to therefore, I shall give in a question from an exposes them to injury from mice and rats the different sorts of cabbages, they will produce English work on Gardening by the Rev. CHARLES from various other enemies, of which, howev crosses, presenting twenty, and perhaps a thou-MARSHALL, Vicar of Brixworth in Northampton- greatest is carelessness. Therefore, the be sand, degrees, fron: the Early York to the Savoy.'shire. "Setting the fruit is the practice of most is, except for things that are very curious Turnips will mix with radishes and ruta-baga;)"good gardeners, as generally insuring the em that lie in a small compass, to thresh o all these with rape; the result will mix with cab-"bryos from going off, as they are apt to do at seeds. bages and cauliflowers; so that, if nothing were" an early season, when not much wind can be 149. They should stand till perfectly r done to preserve plants true to their kind, our" suffered to enter the bed, and no bees or in-possible. They should be cut, or pull gardens would soon present us with little besides "sects are about, to convey the farina from the gathered, when it is dry; and, they shou mere herbage. "male flowers to the female. The male flowers possible, be dry as dry can be, before the 141. As to the causes I pretend not to dive into "have been ignorantly called false blossoms, threshed out. If, when threshed, any mo them. As to the ་་ affectionate feelings" from" and so have been regularly pulled off (as said) remain about them, they should be placed which the effect arises, I leave that to those who" to strengthen the plants; but they are essential sun; or, near a fire in a dry room; and, have studied the "loves of the plants." But, as "to impregnate the female flowers; i. e. those quite dry, should be put into bags, and hu to the effect itself I can speak positively; for, I" that shew the young fruit at their base: This against a very dry wall, or dry boards, have now on the table before me an ear of Indian" impregnation, called setting the fruit, is arti- they will by no accident get damp. Th Corn having in it grains of three distinct sorts; "ficially done thus: as soon as any female flowers place is some room, or place, where the WHITE CORN, that is to say, colcur of bright are fully open, gather a newly opened male occasionally at leat, a fire kept in winter. rye-straw; YELLOW-CORN, that is to say, colour" flower, and stripping the leaf gently off from 150. Thus preserved, kept from open a of a deep-coloured orange; SWEET CORN, that is" the middle, take nicely hold of the bottom, and from damp, the seeds of vegetables will to say, colour of drab, and deep-wrinkled, while" twirling the top of the male (reversed) over the sound and good for sowing for the number of the other two are plump, and smooth as polished "centre of the female flower, the fine fertilizing stated in the following list; to which the ivory. The plant was from a grain of White-" dust from the male part will fall off, and adhere will particularly attend. Some of the se Corn; but, there were Yellow, and Sweet, grow- to the female part, and fecundate it, causing this list will keep, sometimes, a year lon ing in the same field, though neither at less than the fruit to keep its colour, swell, and proceed very well saved and very well preserved, a three hundred yards distant from the white. The" fast towards perfection. This business of setting pecially if closely kept from exposure to th whole, or, at least, the greater part, of the White-" the fruit may be practised through the months air. But, to lose a crop from unsoundn Corn that grew in the patch was mixed (some" of February, March, and April, but afterwards seed is a sad thing, and, it is indeed, negl ear's more and some less) in the same way; and "it will not be necessary; for the admission of wholly inexcusable to sow seed of the each of the three sorts were mixed with the other" so much air as may afterwards be given, willness of which we are not certain. two, in much about the same proportion that the" disperse the farina effectually; but if the weaWhite-Corn was. "ther still is bad, or remarkably calm, setting Artichoke 142. Here we have the different sorts assem- may be continued a little longer. If short of Asparagus bled in the same ear, each grain retaining all its" male flowers, one of them may serve to impreg- Balm distinctive marks, and all the qualities, too, that nate two females !" Basil distinguish it from the other two. Sometimes, 146 Lest the American reader should be dis-Bean 143. It is very well known, that effects like and pudding and beer at their master's expense, Cabbage YEARS. Chervil 4 Cives 4 Jerusalem Artich YEARS. gathered green, against fifty, gathered ripe. Not of Tyre planted it by the water, and it made 3 only were the plants of the former feeble, when their city a great nation, and their merchant-men, 3 compared with the latter; not only was the pro-princes. By thy great wisdom and thy traffic, 4 duce of the former two-thirds less than that of hast thou increased thy riches."* 2 the latter; but even the quality of the grain was Solomon obtained a branch of this plant from 3 not half so good. Many of the ears had smut, Tyre, through which he made himself the rich2 which was not the case with those that came from est monarch of the universe, and his little king2 the ripened seed, though the land and the cul-dom the admiration of the world. Alexander 4 tivation were, in both cases, the same. arsnip 7 1 Spinach ennyroyal 2 Squash 10 3 Tansy 10 Tarragon ea otato umpkin Purslane tadish tampion tape Rhubarb 2 Thyme 2 Tomatum 2 Turnip 4 Wormwood 3 4 2 2 We have recently received from Mr. Stephen It was then a small plant cultivated only by the Stillman, a very beautiful sample of Cotton, that Hamburgh Company. Elizabeth lived to see it was raised in Sangamon county, State of Illinois, blossom through the nourishment which her en2 Lat. 39° 40'; and upon land, that we are told, pro-lightened mind procured, not only from the oriduced 800 lbs. to the acre, with very little attention. ginal soil of the Levant, but from the eastern Our correspondent also says, that some of his and the newly discovered western world, as well neighbours raised at least one third more to the as from the north. The succeeding reigns have acre, and that many settlers, from North and enjoyed the fruit, except when it has been blight151. Notwithstanding this list, I always sow South Carolina, have told him that their cotton ed by the intestine troubles, or cankered by monew seed in preference to old, if, in all other was as good and as much to the acre as they used nopoly; a disease that stints the growth, and respects, I know the new to be equal to the old. to raise in the Carolinas. nourishes caterpillars. And, as to the notion, that seeds can be the better We have likewise been politely favoured by But, to leave allegory and ideal plants, we trafor being old, even more than a year old, I hold Mr. J. R. Bedford, of Alabama, with a description vel into the land of Ham, from whence the Gosit to be monstrously absurd: and this opinion and drawing of an improvement by Dr. Rush sipium plant originated. It is supposed that anI give as the result of long experience, most Nutt, of Mississippi, on the Cotton Gin, which is ciently it grew only in Upper Egypt; but on attentive observation, and numerous experiments calculated to free cotton from trash and dirt, as this we cannot decide so positively as we can made for the express purpose of ascertaining the perfectly as possible. affirm that the Egyptians were the people who fact. Mr. Bedford, during the busy season, resides at first made cloth from cotton wool. 152. Yet, it is a received opinion, a thing taken New Orleans, to transact commission business, The Israelites, who must have learnt the art for granted, an anxiom in horticulture, that Melon and he informs us that cotton cleansed in these while in bondage, in all probability were the seed is the better for being old. Mr. MARSHALL, improved Gins, had been readily sold in that first who cultivated this plant in the land of Caquoted above, in paragraph 145, says, that it market at several cents per lb. more than was naan. ought to be "about four years old, though some at the same time given for cotton of equal staple, From Arabia it would naturally travel towards prefer it much older." And he afterwards ob- but cleansed in the usual manner. China, through all the countries that lie below serves, that "if new seed only can be had, it The drawings have been placed in the hands the 40th degree of north latitude; but, as a speshould be carried a week or two in the breeches-of an engraver, and as soon as he can prepare the cies of the cotton plant has been found in the pocket, to dry away some of the more watery cuts, we will publish this useful article. In the same latitude in America, it confirms the opiparticles!" What should we do here, where no mean time, we extract from "Phillips' History nion that most plants spring spontaneously within breeches are worn! If age be a recommendation of Cultivated Vegetables," a very interesting ac- a given distance of the Poles, and that their vain rules as well as in Melon seed, this rule has it; count of this wonderful Plant, and although the rieties originate from the nature of the soil, or for, English authors published it, and French wealth which its cultivation creates, is surpris- accidental impregnation from plants of a similar authors laughed at it, more than a century past! ingly great, yet our readers will find this infinite- species. 153. The reader will observe, that, in England, ly transcended, in the consolidation wrought by a melon is a melon; that they are not, there, its manufacture: witness the subsequent history brought into market in wagon loads and boat given of a single pound of cotton.-Ed. Am. Far. loads, and tossed down in immense heaps on the stones; but, are carried, by twos, or threes, and Natural order, Malvacea, or Columnifera. A Pliny says, in his Natural History, that in the with as much care as a new-born baby is carried. genus of the Monadelphia Polyandria class. higher parts of Egypt, towards Arabia, there In short, they are sold at from a dollar to four We are not able to discover on what account grows a shrub and bush that produces cotton, dollars a piece. This alters the case. who can afford to have melons raised in their Xylum and Gossipuum. Serapio calls it Coto, fruit resembling the bearded nut or filbert, out Those the Greeks named this plant Ebay and reddio which is called by some Gossypium, and by others Xylon. He says, the plant is small, and bears a gardens, can afford to keep a conjuror to raise from whence we seem to have derived the Eng of the inner shell or husk of which the downy them; and a conjuror will hardly condescend to lish word Cotton. follow common sense in his practice. This would There are six distinct species of this plant now cotton breaks forth, which is easily spun, and is be lowering the profession in the eyes of the vul- discovered; the most common and importart of superior for whiteness and softness, to any flax in gar; and, which would be very dangerous, in the which is the Xylon herbaceum, or herby cotton. the world. Of this cotton, he adds, the Égyptian eyes of his employer. However, a great deal The vegetable floss is formed in the interior of priests of old times delighted to have their sacred of this stuff is traditionary; and as was observed the blossom of the plant, and surrounds and inrobes made. This cloth was called Xylina. The before, how are we to find the conscience to termixes with the seeds, when the petals decay. the Persian gulf, there were cotton-trees that same author informs ust, that in an island in blame a gardener for errors inculcated by gen- The cotton down, which is of a nature between tlemen of erudition! wool, silk, and flax, now forms a principal branch produced fruit as large as quinces, which opened 154. I cannot dismiss this part of my subject of a tree that is happily cultivated in this coun- when ripe, and were full of down, from which without once more cautioning the reader against try; and lest it should be forgotten, that Com-that in an island in the same gulf, called Tylos, was made fine and costly cloth like linen; and the danger of unripe seed. In cases where win-merce is not an indigenous plant of England, we there was another kind of cotton tree, called ter overtakes you before your seed be quite ripe, will venture to remind the reader, that it is an exthe best way is to pull up the plants and hang otic of the most tender nature, and that it requires Gossampines, that was very productive. Theothem by the heels in a dry airy place, till all the continual care and attention of man to ensure its phrastus also mentions these trees§, which we green depart from the stalks, and until they be growth. presume to be the Arboreum, or tree cotton, and which seem also the same that Virgil notices: "Or Ethiopian forests, bearing wool, quite dry, and wholly rid of juice. Even in hot There has seldom been more than one large weather, when the seed would drop out, if the plant known to exist in an age: this, when deplants were left standing, pull, or cut, the plants, stroyed, gives rise to its cultivation in some and lay them on a cloth in the sun, till the seed distant part of the globe, where its blossoms" Or leaves from whence the Seres fleeces pull.” be all ready to fall out; for, if forced from the beautify, and its fruit enriches the country that This species is a perennial plant or shrub, and hod, the seed is never so good. Seeds will grow nourishes it. Commerce is a native of no parif gathered when they are green as grass, and ticular country, and only thrives in a soil that is afterwards dried in the sun; but they do not pro-manured by honour, equity, and justice. The duce plants like those coming from ripe seed. wisest monarchs have nourished it, and best serI tried, some years ago, fifty grains of wheat, vants of thrones have protected it. The Kings * Ezekiel. † Book xix.c. 1. Book xii, c. 10 and 11. was cultivated as a curiosity in this country as the most sumptuous courts, with its useful and of the author of this work, one individual in the long back as 1694. elegant productions. metropolis pays annually from ten to twelve Nievhoff, who was in China in the year 1655, Calico, or cotton cloth, is now generally be- thousand pounds for the article of silver-gilt says, cotten grows in great abundance in that come a substitute for linen cloth throughout the wire, which he prepares for the manufacturers country, and was then one of the principal arti- kingdom, not only for the finer parts of female of Paisley, to be woven in the corner of each cles of its trade. The seeds had been introduced dress, but even for domestic purposes, where demy of muslin, in imitation of the Indian cus into that empire about 500 years previously.-strength and durability are required. Calico is tom. Siam produces the most beautiful cotton; hose so called from Callicut, a city on the coast of The cotton-wool is not only used for genuine and other articles, manufactured from this down, Malabar, being the first place at which the Por-articles, but is employed to adulterate, or as a exceeding even silk for lustre and beauty. The tuguese landed when they discovered the Indian substitute for silk; and even many of our linen seed of this silky cotton has been sown in the trade. The Spaniards still call it Cullicu. cloths have a considerable portion of cotton in Antilles, where the plants flourish, and yield this The demand for printed callicoes becoming their composition. delicate floss in abundance. common, induced some persons to attempt the art Cotton cloth, like that of linen, when decayed, The Turks have long had possession of that part in London, about the year 1676; and in 1722, an is transformed into paper for printing. of the Eastern world, from whence the common act was passed to promote the consumption of The seed of the cotton-plant intoxicates parrots. cotton springs. They cultivate this annual plant our own manufactures, which prohibited the use Old medical authors mention the seeds as being a in the neighbourhood of Damascus and Jerusa- of foreign calicoes, that were either dyed or good remedy against coughs, and of a singularly lem, as also in the Isle of Cyprus. It is like-printed, to be used as apparel or furniture, un-stimulating quality. wise cultivated in Candia, Lemnos, Malta, Sici-der a penalty of five pounds to the informer for Leewenhoek accounts for cotton producing inly, and Naples. This variety of the cotton plant every offence; and drapers selling such calico, flammation, when applied to wounds in lieu of is sown in the spring, on land that has been forfeited twenty pounds. The effect of this act linen, by a discovery which he made in examinploughed and prepared for the purpose; and is cut was this: it drove the calico printers to imitate ing the cotton with a microscope. The fibres down when ripe, in the same manner as our har- the India chintzes, by printing Irish and Scotch were found to have two flat sides, whence he vest. The seed of the cotton is about the size of that linens; which was continued until the making concludes that each of its minute parts must of tares, and of rather a clammy nature, which of cloth from cotton was established in England. have two acute angles or edges; which acute causes it to adhere to the downy substance with The manufacture of calicoes and muslins of edges being not only thinner and more subtle which it is mixed, and from which it is separated of every description, with that of velvets, fus- than the globules, whereof the fleshy filaments by the little machines, which discharge the seed tians, counterpanes, &c. is now carried on to such consist, but also more firm and stiff than any of on one side, and the cotton on the other. Smyrna an extent, and brought to such perfection, that the globulous flesh, it follows that, upon the apalone has furnished us with 10,000 bales of cotton it is supposed that the neighbourhood of Man- plication of cotton to a wound, its edges must not wool per annum. This country formerly took chester could supply the whole world with these only hurt and wound the globules of the flesh, great quantities of cotton-yarn from the Turks; goods; which, instead of being imported from but also cut incessantly the new matter brought but our manufactories are now so complete, that the East, are at present shipped for the Indies to them to produce new flesh; and that with even the spinning is done by machinery, which in great quantities. By the aid of our machinery more ease, as this matter, not having attained enables us to get it turned into thread, both more we also produce from cotton, lace of so even a the firmness and consistence of flesh, is the less regularly and cheaper than the indolence of the fabric, and at prices so infinitely below what it able to resist its attacks; whereas the linen Turks can furnish it; but we still import some can be made for in linen thread, that it has in a ordinarily used in wounds, being composed of cotton-yarn from the Mahometans, which, being great measure superseded the use of real lace. little round parts, very close to each other, drawn from the distaff, has great advantage over Manchester, being the centre and heart of the forms large masses, and is thus incapable of the yarn which is spun by machinery for making cotton-trade, has either given birth to, or at- hurting the globular parts of the flesh. candle-wicks, particularly those of sperm and wax, tracted genius from all quarters of the nation, to as the fine threads being drawn straighter, are assist in the necessary operations for forming fa- PAPERS COMMUNICATED FOR PUBLICATION IN THE not so liable to spring out in burning, which brics as numerous as their embellishing colours causes the candles made of other cotton to are various, in which the arts of the engineer, the mechanic, and the artist, as well as the spingutter and burn irregularly. It appears that we had made some progress inner, the weaver, the bleacher, the dyer, the On Fallowing for Wheaton gathering and cleanstainer, and the chemist, are all called into action. the manufactory of cotton in Queen Elizabeth's reign, as Gerard observes in his History of Plants, "To speake of the commodities of the wool of this plant, it were superfluous; common experience, and the daily vse and benefit we receive by it, doth shew; so that it were impertinent to our history, to speake of the making of fustain, bombasies, and many other things that are made of the wooll thereof." AMERICAN FARMER, BY ORDER OF THE UNITED ing Clover Seed, &c. &c. DEAR SIR, This vegetable wool, that employs so great a useless state, and is advantageously exported, af- vented it. I am now better, and shall give such portion of our population, is imported in a raw ately on the receipt of it, had not sickness preI should have replied to your letter immediter being stamped with British art and industry: an answer to your inquiries as my experience The following account of a pound weight of and observation enable me to do, without prounmanufactured cotton strikingly evinces the im-mising you any thing, either new or important, on portance of the trade and employ afforded by the subject. this vegetable: "The cotton-wool came from This author appears to have been the first the East Indies to London; from London it went ed to be fallowed is, "whether I think it necesYour first inquiry on the subject of land intendwho attempted to cultivate the Gossipium plant to Manchester, where it was manufactured into sary to introduce the scythe or the hoof previous in England, for he says that, "it groweth about yarn; from Manchester it was sent to Paisley, to the first ploughing, or whether I do not think it Tripolis and Alepo in Syria, from whence the where it was woven; it was then sent to Ayrshire, practicable to obtain equally good crops, from factor of a worshipful merchant in London, Mas- where it was tamboured; it came back to Paisley, land where the whole mass of vegetable matter ter Nicholas Lete, did send vnto his said master and was there veined; afterwards it was sent to has been turned under diuers pounds weight of the seede, whereof Dumbarton, where it was hand-sewed, and again some were committed to the earth at the im-brought to Paisley; whence it was sent to Ren-will observe that it is not necessary to use the In answer to the first part of this enquiry, I pression hereof: the success we leave to the Lord.frew to be bleached, and was returned to Pais- scythe, or to pasture the land previous to ploughNotwithstanding, my selfe, three yeares past, ley; whence it went to Glasgow and was finish- ing, provided impediments to good ploughing do did sowe of the seedes, which did grow very ed; and from Glasgow was sent per coach to not exist in the soil, such as stones, stumps, &c. frankly, but perished before it came to perfec-London. The time occupied in bringing this and the mass of grass or other vegetable matter tion, by reason of the colde frostes, that overtooke article to market was three years, from its being is not too rank for the plough to subvert or comit in the time of flowring." packed in India till it arrived in cloth at the mer-pletely turn under. If it can be effectually buried The cotton manufactory alone has raised Man-chant's warehouse in London : it must have been by the plough, the more vegetable matter is chester from an humble town to a place of the conveyed 5000 miles by sea, and about 920 by ploughed in the better for the succeeding crop, first importance. It has for near two centuries land; and contributed to support not less than and the more fertilizing to the soil. But when been increasing in size and in trade; and the 150 people, by which the value had been in this plan is adopted, it is necessary to sow the perfection to which our machinery and the in-creased 2000 per cent." wheat or rye upon a single ploughing, and har dustry of the people have arrived, within these So wide and so beneficially is the influence of row in the seed. The former system pursued last fifty years, has multiplied the inhabitants, the cotton-trade spread, that to the knowledge throughout Pennsylvania and this Valley, is gen and increased the trade from the supply of its neighbourhood with a few domestie articles, to furnishing the most distant countries, as well as *7 Geo. I. Stat. i. cap. 7. erally exploded. Instead of breaking the fallows early in the spring, stirring them once or twice during mid summer, and again in the fall at seeding time, the more economical and bet-tached from the straw by threshing with flails, els placed about 8 inches apart each way-th ter plan is adopted, of suffering the field to lie and using rakes. This is an expeditious part of corn was hoed three times, all the suckers wer 333 in grass during the summer, either for hay, pas- the process, as the heads separate with great pulled out in July; and in August all the sucker ture, or to be ploughed in, intoto, where the land facility. These heads are then placed in a ring, were again taken away, together with the false was poor and required such aid. But in this case on a good tight floor, and tread with horses until stalks, and those that were smutty; on the first of care is taken not to disturb the sod or vegetable the whole mass is reduced to a fine powder, re- Sept. the stalks were topped; and on the 26th the mass deposited beneath the furrow. The plough-sembling scotch snuff.t ing is done in August or September, and after lying two, three or four weeks, to meliorate by weather in that state which would make tobacco for drying it-there was 213 bushels of corn in If the seed is good and perfectly dry, and the the roof of a long shed, to give a good opportunity corn was harvested, and spread on a floor under exposure to the influence of rain and air, the crumble into powder, by handling it roughly, six the ear; one basket of which was shelled, and seed is sown and harrowed in lengthwise; that horses may tread out ten bushels in a day; but produced half a bushel and two quarts of shelis in the direction of the ploughing. This is done if the weather is humid or even givy, (as the to-led corn; so that had the whole been shelled on in order to prevent the harrows turning up the sod. bacco planters term it) this quantity cannot be the day of harvesting it, the produce would have The harrows to be large and weighty, with got out, with the same force of hands and been 119 bushels and 26-32 of a bushel of shelled strong, sharp iron teeth. Those I use are 4 horses, in two days. Tobacco, in this case, af- corn-on the 14th of Nov. the whole was shelled, feet square, with 24 teeth, 12 inches long, 1 fords an excellent hygrometer to ascertain the and measured, and found to be 116 bushels and inches square, and projecting below six inches.-proper state of the air for this operation. To 28-32 of clear sound corn; the average weight of If a single harrowing does not reduce the sur- prevent the dust, which rises during the tread-which was 58 to 59 lbs. the bushel-the entire exface to a good tilth, it may be harrowed again, ing, becoming both offensive and injurious, it is pense of cultivating this acre of corn, including and the second harrowing may cross the first, if proper to keep open the barn doors, and permit $35, charged for 40 cart loads of manure, was it is found not to disturb the sod. The mass of a free passage of air. Shovels must be kept em- $44." vegetable matter now buried beneath the sur-ployed to throw up the clover chaff, and confine face, and excluded from the influence of the air, it to the ring traversed by the horses. will perish, and soon enter into the incipient state That, Payson Williams, Esq. of Fichburg, is of fermentation, and afford both warmth and fer-mon wheat fan, turning it very slowly, and pre-being 23 bushels and 28-32 of a bushel, on one The next operation is to pass it through a com-ing raised the greatest quantity of Spring Wheat, entitled to the society's premium of $30, for havtility to the roots of the grain. This system of husbandry is applicable to as that contains seed not yet detached from the would permit, the ground was ploughed, and harserving the chaff which falls nearest to the riddle, acre. such soils as are sufficiently loose and friable pug. This may be trod a second time, or sown rowed; the seed, two and a half bushels of the "In the Spring of 1822, as early as the frost to crumble before the harrow, fifteen or twenty in that state. What passes through the fan must Gilman wheat, sown; again harrowed, and days after ploughing. It is not adapted to stumpy now be riddled through a cockle riddle, and last- ploughed in fine, with a horse plough, and left in or stony land, or such as is so stiff or tenaciously through a clover riddle, (easily obtained in this situation with the belief that the crop would that it cannot be reduced by a single ploughing Baltimore or Philadelphia) which will permit endure our New England drought better, as the and harrowing. But as it is a peculiar property the seed, and that only, to pass through. This surface would be enlarged, thereby retaining more of clover to meliorate the soil, it rarely happens last operation will generate some dust, which of the dews than a plane surface; the result, comthat land clothed with a thick crop of it, two or (if the seed is for market) may be thrown off by pared with neighbouring fields, declares this bethree years, docs not lose its accessive adhesive-passing it once more through the fan. ness, and crumble before the plough. Few plants so easily enter into a state of decomposition, and ver heads, suffer them to lie in heaps, formed so ploughed with the wheat; these plants not onBut if you use a machine for collecting the clo- with clover, herds-grass, and red-top, this was allief not unfounded. As the field was seeded down disengage so much carbonic acid gas, as clover; like a hay cock, two or three weeks. During ly stood the drought remarkably well, but at this but as all plants or grasses do, in a greater or this time they will undergo a slight degree time have completely covered the ground with the less degree, they must all contribute to the fer- of fermentation and heat, (of course,) which, af- Farmer's best carpet. The quantity of grass-seed tility of the soil, if ploughed in. Some of our ter getting thoroughly dry, will greatly facilitate used by me, is never less than 12 lbs of clover, perennials are subdued with difficulty, and de the operation of treading out the seed. Let this and one peck of herds-grass, to the acre. Here compose slowly, and none mere so than the blue be done, as in the other case, in cold, dry wea- permit me to observe that innumerable are the ingrass. It is necessary that this grass should be ther. completely turned under, and not again disturbed by the plough, if intended to be sown in wheat, request pretty diffusely, as it was your wish that what is worse, the little he does give with such a I have now, Sir, treated the subject of your his grass crops, by not allowing seed enough; and stances in this country, where the farmer fails in unless the first ploughing had been done during I should be minute; and if any information is sparing hand, is suffered to take its chance under the winter. In that case, stirring the land in communicated, from which you can derive in-that pest in agriculture called a bush harrow, the spring, and again in the summer, would be struction or advantage, it will afford me pleasure which not only drags stones, and other loose matadvisable. The amount then, of what I have to have contributed thereto. said on this subject, is, that the more vegetable brought to the surface by stirring with the plough or cross-harrowing. If the grass is too rank to be ploughed in, (even with the aid of a log chain attached to the beam, to prostrate it before the I am, Sir, with respect, AGRICULTURAL REPORT. Coulter) it will be better to use the scythe.-The Mass. Committee on Agricultural Experi- fall; this process will not only crush in the small Clover may be mown in September, when brown, and reserved for feed. In this case it will be unments, submit for the consideration of the Board, ones, but even the surface for the scythe, without necessary to sow clover seed the succeeding the following, in addition to their report dated the least injury to the grass roots-to this digresspring. the 10th day of October last, to wit: Your next enquiry relates to gathering and entitled to the society's premium of $30, for hav-cing in some measure, the interests of my fellow That Col. Joseph Valentine, of Hopkinton, is much I may be mistaken, than the wish of advansion I am impelled by no other motive, however preparing clover seed for market. The man-ing raised the greatest quantity of Indian Corn, citizens, whose good fortune is to till the soil.agement of this requires a judicious attention to being 119 bushels and 26-32 of a bushel, on one I had the wheat cut very early, when much of the the order in which the clover is, when put into acre of land. the barn or stacks, and the state of the weather in 1821, the land was cultivated with Indian corn, days, was in excellent order for the flail; after "The soil is a deep yellow loam-straw was green, which, after laying about two when the seed is to be separated from the pug and manured with ten cart loads of green barn which it was equal to swaii hay for fodder-the or chaff, which envelopes it. If the clover is manure, spread on the ground, and eight loads of amount of grain by measurement was 26 bushels mown, it should be quite brown (or black) be-compost manure put in the hills. In the spring of and 8-32, from one acre and 18 rods-the quality fore it is cut, and immediately raked into win-1822, the ground was twice ploughed, and 20 cart of the grain is excellent, not one kernel of smut or nows or small heaps, and suffered to lie exposed loads of green barn manure spread on it-it was burnt grain in the crop-the seed prepared by a to rain or dew, until the sap and juices of the then furrowed in rows about three feet and a half thorough washing, after which it was immersed in plant have mostly evaporated. It must then, apart; and about 20 cart loads of barn, hog and thick white-wash, made from good lime, so as to when in a dry state, be hauled into the barn or slaughter yard manure, were put in the rows; the coat over every kernel-no fears need be enterbuilt into good ricks, and there remain until Jan-last mentioned manure was mixed together, with tained from the plentiful use of this liquor, as by nuary or February, when the air is cold and in one hogshead of Smithfield lime; the seed was way of experiment I have planted wheat after its its driest state. The heads are then to be de- the Brighton twelve rowed yellow corn, the kern-lying in this liquor four days, which vegetated |