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cultivation, and bears a higher price in the London market than any other.

The Georgian oat, is a large grain, remarkably prolific variety introduced from Georgia, near the Caspian sea. Some cultivators, on good land, prefer it to the potatoe oat.

The Siberian or Tartarian oat, is considered by some as a distinct species. The grains are black or brown, thin and rather small, and turned mostly to one side of the panicle or ear. The straw is large and reedy, but it is usually very productive, and is well calculated for the poor soils, and exposed situations.

A variety called the winter oat, is cultivated in some parts of England. It is sown in October, the plants are luxuriant at Christmas, tillering like wheat; is depastured by ewes and lambs all the spring; the fields are then shut up, and an ample harvest is cut in August.

There are many other varieties of oats known, their names, owing to some local cause, and by selection, or systematic impregnation, new kinds may be originated at pleasure. Degeneracy in any variety usually takes place in a limited time, unless care is taken to select the best heads and well ripened grains for seed. Some English farmers are at the pains to select the best seeds after the grain is threshed. The best seeds are picked out by hand by women.

It is found by experience, that of the numerous cultivated varieties, the potatoe and Poland are the best selections for low land, and the red oat for good uplands; the common or the black oat, may be sown on inferior soils; as may also the Tartarian. The numerous instances given in the last volume of the Farmer, of the astonishing productiveness of the Tartarian, shows that it is a variety well adapted to our soils and climate.

In the sowing of oats less regard may be had to soil than with any other grain; the only requisite seems to be that it shall not be too wet. Tenacious clays, or poor gravel, where scarcely any seed bearing plant will grow, will produce a crop of oats, if ploughed at the proper season, and the seed of good quality and judiciously put in. "The best oats both in quantity and quality, are those which succeed grass; indeed, no kind of grain seems better qualified by nature for foraging upon grass lands than oats; as a full crop is usually obtained in the first instance, and the land left in good order for succeeding ones."-(British Husbandry.)

In England, the time of sowing oats is from February to April; a proof of the great disparity existing between the climate of this country and that; since here, oats are sown from the last of Apr'1 until June; very few being usually put in during the month of April. It should always be remembered, however, that early sown oats, as well as spring wheat and barley, are always heavier and of better quality, than late sown ones, and as a general rule, all spring grains should be put into the ground as early as the soil can be prepared for their reception.

As with other grain, the quantity sown per acre varies much with different agriculturists and different countries. Here, from two and a half to three bushels an acre, is considered amply sufficient; "in England from four to six bushels are usually sown."Potatoe oats require a less quantity than other oats, as they tiller better than any other varieties, and having no awns, contain a greater number of grains in a bushel.

BONES-MANURE.

It is well known that bones converted to dust, constitute the most efficient and valuable manure that has yet been discovered; and that to this substance much of the improved state of European agriculture may fairly be attributed. It has occurred to us as somewhat surprising, that in the present advanced state of chemical science, and when the constituent parts of bones are so well known, that no attempts to produce a compound embracing the same substances, and capable of producing the same results, have yet been made. Bones are composed of gelatine, fat, cartilage, and earthy salt. Chemistry has determined the nature of each of these substances, and the proportions in which they generally exist in bones is also known. The earthy salts are lime and phosphorus, or the solid part of the bone is phospate of lime; a substance of great value to plants, and which is found in many of them. We therefore can see no insuperable obstacle in the production of an article, which if it could be afforded at a reasonable cost, would, from its active nature, and the ease with which it can be applied, supersede all others in those places and for those purposes, in which ordinary manure is inefficient or disgusting. We regret that the profound genius of the philosophic Davy had not been directed to this point; as such a discovery would be one of the greatest gifts science has yet made to agriculture. Perhaps, however, the discovery has been reserved for Hare or Silliman, as the application of electromagnetism to mechanical purposes was for Davenport. We shall see.-Gen. Farmer.

INDUSTRIOUS HABITS.-Professor Ives, of New Haven, makes the following instructive reference to the late President Dwight, in a recent address before a Horticultural Society:

"He had the largest garden, the best culinary plants, and the finest fruits in the city, and all cultivated by his own hands. This fact will excite surprise, when it is recollected that he delivered a lecture to his class six days in a week; performed the duties of Professor of Divinity, and superintended the government of the col

lege. He demonstrated that an abundance of delicious fruit might be cultivated at a very little expense. He was a minute and accurate observer of the habits and laws of vegetables, and delighted in conversation to give or receive instruction in horticulture. He infused into his conversation music and poetry, and he was listened to with delight, even when his theme was cultivation of cabbages. He taught that the proper time to prune fruit trees was in June, when the plant was in the most rapid growth; and the reason was, that the wound would heal most readily at that season. Dr. Dwight was enabled to perform so much and so various mental labors, by invigorating his constitution by exercise in the open air. No one felt more strongly the sentiment of the poet:

"The idle is a watch that wants both hands,

As useless when it goes as when it stands.
Want of occupation is not rest;

A mind unoccupied is a mind distressed."

PREMIUMS

OF MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, FOR 1838.

The best cultivated Farms.

The trustees, with a hope of further awakening the attention of the farmers of Massachusetts to a sense of the importance of good cultivation, and at the same time of exciting an honorable competition for exhibiting the best cultivated farms, have decided to appropriate to this object six hundred dollars of the funds entrusted to them, the present season, as follows:

For the best cultivated farm of not less than 78 acres exclusive of wood land, regard being had to the quantity of produce, the manner and expense of cultivation and the general appearance of the farm,

For the next best,
For the next best,
For the next best,

$200 00

175 00

150 00

57 00

CUT WORM.-In some years these larvæ are very destructive to the Indian corn, and of all the contrivances for destroying them we have seen, that of Parke Shee, of Delaware county, in Pennsylvania, is the most simple and most expeditious. A pair of old wheels from a cart or wagon, are fitted with several projections like the cogs of a spur wheel in a mill, which are so formed as to impress in the earth a hole 4 inches deep. The smooth track which the wheel makes on the soft ground, induces the worm in its nocturnal wanderings, to follow on till it tumbles into the pit. It cannot climb out, and the hot sun destroys it.-Farmer.

MISCELLANEOUS.

To please the fancy and improve the mind.

KOSCIUSKO.

From the Analectic Magazine.

THADDEUS KOSCIUSKO was born in Poland, about the year 1752. Descended from a family, at once noble and poor, from his earliest youth he was dedicated to the profession of arms. Being accordingly sent to Warsaw, at a precocious age he made rapid advances in the study of the art of war, and early obtained a commission in the service of 'The King and Republic of Poland' as it was then called.

In the course of a few years more, we find this young officer in France, whither he had repaired for the purpose of further military instruction; and, on his return to his native country, he was immediately advanced to a higher rank in the Polish army, having found means to obtain the protection, not only of the king, but also of one of the chief nobles, who maintained a powerful ascendancy both in the diet and public affairs.

But, being young and ambitious, he at length determined to repair to the trans-atlantic continent for the express purpose of aiding and supporting the American cause. As for himself, he already appertained to the party that opposed the encroachments of Russia, and languished for the independence of their native country; and, in addition to feelings of this kind, there is something fascinating in the very sound of liberty to a young, ardent, and ingenuous mind. On this occasion, Kosciusko prevailed on a lady of noble birth, and distinguished family, to unite her fate to his, and to accompany him to the New World: but these romantic lovers were pursued, overtaken, and separated for many long years, by the interposition of paternal authority: for it was then a species of treason in that country, for one of the poor nobles to aspire to the hand of a daughter of a great and a powerful magnat. At this period, too, the bulk of the Polish nation actually consisted of vassals, literally adscripti glebæ; and, as in Russia, at the absolute disposal of the aristocracy.

After a variety of adventures, captain Kosciusko at length landed in America, and instantly repaired to the head quarters of geneWashington, by whom he was handsomely received. He had arrived, indeed, at a fortunate moment; for hostilities had but recently commenced, and the defenders of liberty, although numerous, active, and resolute, were at the same time raw, ignorant, undisciplined, and unacquainted with every thing that appertains to the art of war. To such an army, if army it could then be called,

this young and spirited Pole became a treasure.* He was present at many engagements during the war, in all of which he conducted himself with great gallantry; and was admitted into the family of general Washington, as an officer appertaining to his suite. It is gratifying to remark the association of these great men of kindred minds, in a common cause; the one, afterwards establishing the triumph of liberal principles, for which he contended, the other a like asserter of his country's freedom, treading in the footsteps of his patron and friend. The circumstance reflects much credit on the discernment of Washington, and is peculiarly interesting, from the subsequent celebrity which the gallant Kosciusko attained. It was, while enjoying the confidence of our great commander, that colonel Kosciusko acquired the friendship of the celabrated Marquis de la Fayette; he was much esteemed by the count de Rochambeau, who afterwards became a marshal of France; and, in short, he appears, by his skill, his bravery, and his amiable manners, to have conciliated the regard, not only of the American officers, but also of the numerous body of French, and other foreigners, then in their service.

At length, when peace arrived, he determined to return to Europe. Having landed in France, he immediately proceeded to Poland, where his love and patriotism were both excited by some

* In Colonel Williamson's (deputy adjutant general of the northern divisions of the army) despatches to major general Gates, dated Ticonderoga, May 1777, we find the following mention made of the subject of this memoir. "Colonel Kosciusko is modest in the extreme.' And, sometime after, colonel Wilkinson, regretting the departure of Kosciusko, thus anxiously expresses a wish for his return:-'for God's sake let Kosciusko come back as soon as possible, with proper authority.'

General Wilkinson's Memoirs. At page 200, Vol. I. of the same work, from which the above extracts are derived, we find the following:

'The ill-fated Thaddeus Kosciusko was at that time our chief engineer, and for months had been the companion of my blanket: he selected a position for a fortified camp, about four miles below Fort Edward, at Moses' creek, where the waters of the Hudson river are separated by an island: the troops were now organized into divisions, and occcpied the opposite sides of the river; ground was broken on the island for a battery to command the pass: the position had been selected because the approximation of the hills to the river, formed a defile susceptible of defence against a superior force."

Page 232-The American army, about 6000 strong, moved to Stillwater, 8th September, 1777. The ground at this place was examined, a line for intrenchments traced, a fatigue of 1000 men put to work under Colonel Kosciusko, and the following order was issued on the 10th-'Whether it may be immediately necessary to engage the enemy on this ground, or to push them into Canada, the general has the firmest opinion that both officers and soldiers will be zealous in the execution of his commands."

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