* r • . New York State College of Agriculture At Cornell University Ithaca, N. Y. Library THE FARMER’S MANUAL; BBItTG A PLAIN PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE ART OF HUSBANDRY, OESIOITSO TO PROMOTE AN ACQUAINTANC' WITH THB modern improvements AGRICU]LTUR|:, TOGETHER WITH REMARKS ON GARDENING, AND A treatise ON THE MANAGEMENT OF BEES. BY FREDERICK BUTLER, A.M. author of the “catechetical compenb of histort,'- HISTORICAL SKETCHES,” &c. WEATHERSFIELD ; PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR Clark & Lyman, Printers Middlettum INTRODUCTION. errors, by exhibiting a plain practical system of farming, derived from the best, and most approved practical writers, and cultivators ; together with my own practical expe- rience for more than thirty years. I have arranged this treatise in monthly order, em- bracing the several descriptions of husbandry that belong to each month, to enable the practical farmer, at one view, to derive the greatest advantage from such truths as may be found useful. To impress this the more forcibly, 1 have introduced each month with a general recapitulation of such improvements as should have been made, or such labours as sho'uld have been performed the preceding month. PREFACE. T HE great object of this work is to collect all the most yaluable improvements in husbandry, both in Europe and America, as they stand recorded by the most learned and approved authors, and reduce the whole to one plain prac- tical system of American farming, adapted to our climate, the state of our markets, and more particularly to the high price of labour in our country. Having been engaged in farming upon a large scale, for about thirty years, and in the course of that time, tested by my own experience, most of the European systems ; I enter with some confidence upon the labours before me ; but with what success, the public alone can decide. By abridging the learned work of Mr. Huish on the Culture of the Bee, as an addition to the work, together with a few practical' remarks on Gardening ; 1 have en- deavoured to compress into one cheap volume, all that is both valuable and useful in the science of husbandr*, and ibr the special use of the plain practical American Farmer. The whole is interspersed with occasional remarks of the Author. Farming has generally been considered, in our country, as a rustic, old fashioned business, that any man of com- mon sense could do, if he chose ; and what was really be- low the attention of a gentleman ; but happy is it for our country, such sentiments are daily passing under the lash of public opinion, and the true worth of the farmer, and the art of farming are rising to their true scale of public estimation. The Agricultural Societies of our country, will, in a few years, excite an emulation that will make our farms, in some measure, resemble the Salem Alms-House Farm, and our farmers become the Paul Uptons of their country. The numerous benefits resulting to every family from IV PKEFACE. the productions 01" a well cultivated Garden, are too evi- ilent to need any remarks by way of illustration. The health they afford to the family, not only in the luxuries which they furnish for the table ; but in the exercise, amusement, and enjoyment they impart in their cultiva- tion, exceed all description : in fact, the fruits and vege- tables of a garden are the life of a fiihily, upon every principle of enjoyment and economy. 1 have wholly omit- ted all remarks upon the flower-garden, and confln'ed my- self to the plain and useful remarks of the sauce or kitch- en-garden, with a few hints upon garden-fruits generally. TFARMER’S MANUAL, MARCH. You have now collected your wood and fencing stuff for the next season ; your hemp and flax are in great forwardness, and your threshing was all closed early in February. You have cut your cions for grafting. Cut up your wood, and house it, or pile it up for the summer, and next winter; the difference in the say- ing, between green and dry, or seasoned wood, will nearly pay the expense of sledding, besides the extra trouble of kindling fires; both which are objects worthy of attention. If you have neglected to sow clover, at seed-time, upon your winter grains, you may now sow to advan- tage, as soon as the ground is bare ; (the sooner the better,) or upon a light snow — both will answer well. You may harrow down your corn-hills, or light po- tatoe grounds, as soon as the surface is free from Irost, and sow your spring rye, it will generally do better, than after a ploughing, as late as the first of May. Dress with stable, compost, hog-pen, or such other well rotted manure as you have, such grass grounds as you have neglected in autumn ; three loads now may be equal to two then ; but it is best to secure a good crop even now. Your winter-grain should now be dressed with plaster, if it was neglected at seed-time ; your mowing grounds, which are upon a dry soil, 1 * • 0 THE farmer’s manual. will pay you well for a bushel or two of plaster, or a few bushels of lime, or leached ashes, to the acre. Your orchards continue to claim your attention ; finish trimming as fast as possible, and cart or sled off the brush before the ground becomes soft and poachy — give to each tree a top-dressing of your' best chip, stable, or compost manure ; your fruit will richly repay, besides the extra profits upon your grass under your trees ; whether mowing or pas- ture, together with the growth of your trees. No far- mer ever paid too much attention to his orchards, nor probably ever will. Look to your fences, and see that they secure your orchards, grass and grain lands against your horses, cattle, and sheep. If your fences are bad, you have toiled in vain ; all is at hazard ; all is bad. Commence setting your fruit and shade trees; these, if omitted in December, generally succeed best, (when set in the spring,) as soon as the frost is out of the ground. Whenever the frost will per- mit, plough your hemp and flax ground, together with such land as you design for peas. Frequent ploughings greatly benefit these crops, and your peas cannot be sown too early to prevent the cftects of the bug, and insure you a good crop. Look to your water-courses, and change their direc- tion to receive the benefit of the spring rains; the frequent changing of your water-courses will render your mowing even, and prevent one part from becom- ing too rank, and lodging, before the other part is grown fit to cut, and thus turn to your best profit, that which if neglected, would become waste and damage. Now is the time to nurse your stock with pota- toes and carrots ; and even your cattle and cows will pay you as well for the use of the curry-comb as your horses, and if you nurse them well in the spring, they will repay you with interest through the summer. Let your sheep range upon your old stubble fields, where you have not sown clover for mowing — green THE farmer’s manual. herbage is the most natural feed for this animal at this season ; but if you have no such range, potatoes and carrots, (not turnips,) may be used as a substitute. Secure them carefully against your grain, mowing, or young clover grounds, which you design for mowing ; the damage they will do you by feeding on these, would be greater than they could repay. Some farmers complain that red clover, when sown for mowing upon their orchard grounds, causes the trees to wither and decay. This may be remedied by sowing plaster of Paris upon your clover ; your or- chards will flourish as well as upon English mowing; one bushel to the acre in the spring, or fall, annually, will answer. It is of no consequence to inquire, why a crop so fertilizing as clover, should injure the or- chard, nor why the plaster should prevent it; facts are stubborn things, and are generally, all that are of importance in good farming. Others have found from experience that red clover may grow to advan- tage upon orchard grounds, without injuring the trees, provided the clover is fed off before it blossoms ; and thus fertilize their orchard grounds by feeding their clover. From this it appears, that the injury arises from the heads, or blossoms of the clover ; but the manner in which the blossom produces this effect, is again inexplicable, and so in fact are all the opera- tions of nature. One useful fact that shall enable the farmer to produce two spires of grass where only one had grown before, is of more real value, than a whole volume of nice philosophical disquisitions upon the operations of nature, in producing this grass; the first may be done; but the latter no man ever discovered, and probably never will. Ploughing, The season is now opening to commence your ploughing ; every farmer, and even farmer’s boy, feels as if he knew how to hold and drive plough, bet- ter than the man who writes books ; all this may be is THE farmer’s MANUAC.. true ; he knows that he should never turn his furrow wider than the plough-share will cut clean; but al- ways as much narrower, as the stiffness of the soil shall render necessary, to lay his furrows smooth and light, and free from clods ; in all such cases of narrow furrows, the extra expense of ploughing, will be saved in the expense of harrowing, with this ad- vantage to the crop, that the harrow pulverizes only the surface ; but the plough, when properly directed, renders the earth mellow, to the whole depth of the furrow. This again involves the question. How deep is best ? To this 1 shall reply particularly, as it has become one of the most important questions in field husbandry. When you turn in a stiff, or clover sward, for corn, or potatoes, let your plough cut to the depth of 8 or 10 inches, if the substratum is not an im- penetrable substance ; you will thus lay the founda- tion for a deep soil for ever, in your after tillage. Your corn, or potatoes, when planted, will lie below the dead earth raised from the bottoms of your fur- rows, and will strike their roots into the rich mould which you turned down from the surface. The sun, air, and rains, together with such manure as you may apply, either in the hill, or by way of top-dressings, about the hills, will all fertilize the dead earth so turned up, and render it food for plants. The frosts of the next winter will further improve this dead sur- face, and thus, by the next season, when commixed with the original mould, by a deep ploughing of the same depth, the whole will become a deep, rich, and fertile soil, and may ever afterward be ploughed to the same depth for the culture of any crops. The same is true, in a degree, of stubble grounds, ploughed, or ridged in in the summer, after harvest ; or of tur- nip ground fed by sheej), or of clover, or buck- wheat grounds, ploughed in, as fertilizing crops ; but where you plough your fallows for wheat, rye, oats, barley, or turnips, you will never succeed in deepening your soil below the natural mould, unless you have first THE farmer’s manual. 9 begun as above ; because these crops strike a shallow root, and will be left to feed on the dead earth which you have brought up to the surface. These are the outlines, or first principles of good ploughing, and the minute attention of every farmer, will soon dis- cover the mode which shall be best adapted to his dif- ferent soils, and different crops, with this general prin- ciple, to deepen his soil at every ploughing, as far as (he nature of the substratum, or under soil, and the safety of his crop will admit ; and in this way, he may soon bring his farm into a deep tillage. The succesfi. of one half of any one of his fields, under a regular deep tillage, comparfed with the other half under a shallow tillage, will be the most convincing argument in favour of deep ploughing, than can be laid before the practical farmer. Try and see. This being the life of a farm, it is impossible to be too particular in improving it. I shall conclude this article with the following remarks. 1. The depth of your soil being determined as be- fore, plough flat, or ridge, directly according to the nature of your soil. 2. If your soil is naturally dry, plough flat, and as level as possible, this will give an equal diffusion of moisture thronghoyt your field ; but if your soil is moist, plough into wide ridges of 1 3 to 24 feet, and if it is a wet soil, let your ridges not exceed 6 to 12 feet. The object of ridge ploughing, is to improve the furrows between the ridges, as drains for the water, therefore multiply your drains, by narrowing your lands, or ridges, according to the moisture of your soil ; and so vice versa. This is the best, if not only method of equalizing moist and wet lands. 3. In ploughing high hills, and steep acclivities, it is generally practised to plough directly up and down, with a furrow both ways : (up and down,) this is at- tended with two evils ; 1st, it is very fatiguing to the team to carry a furrow up the hill ; and 2d, it ex- poses the lands to be washed, and gullied in the fur- rows, which is sometimes ruinous. 10 DHE farmer’s manual. 4. These evils may be remedied by carrying a fur- row down the hill only, and by inclining this furrow to the left hand, directly in proportion to the descent of the declivity — and suffering the team to re-ascend the hill without a furrow. This will lessen your day’s work, not one half, but about one third, because your team will travel so much faster, both up and down the hill, when they carry but one furrow. — In this way, the steepest hills may be ploughed without a single furrow left open to the wash, except the last one, and the saving in the strength oi the team, and in the va- lue of the crop, which will arise from the extra good- ness of the ploughing, will doubly compensate for the loss of time. In this way, the steepest hills, on which cattle can travel, may be ploughed to advantage, by striking the furrows transversely, or in a direction in- clined to the left hand, directly in proportion to the steepness of the declivity. 5. In this way, one third or one half the strength of team will perform the work. G. Where the descent is gentle, and not exposed to wash, let your ridges range exactly with the descent, that the surplusage of moisture may pass off easy, and regular, in the furrows. 7. If your business drives, and .your land is light, you may fully compensate for the loss of time by widening your furrow slice; your plough-share will cut one fourth, one third, or even one half more, than in ploughing directly up and down, according to the steepness of the declivity, and the obliquity of your furrows. 8. All this, together with the general width of your furrow slice, must depend upon the judgment of the husbandman, directed by the quality of the soil. If the soil is hard and stiff', cut narrow ; but if it is light and loose, cut your furrow slice as wide as the share will cut clean, and no further; all beyond this is cut, and cover, which is bad ploughing. 9. Plough all your lands as msich as possible whea THE farmer’s manual. n the dew is on, in the morning, especially sandy, or light loamy lands, (when ploughed in summer,) and even in moist weather, if the season is dry ; but as a general rule, improve a dry time, both for your pliiughing, hoeing, and for your seed-time ; your crops will always repay your attention, some extraordina- ries in your soil excepted, and the surface will derive most benefit from the harrow in dry weather. Harrowing. No instrument of husbandry requires the judg*- meiit of the farmer more than the harrow : it is capa- ble of doing the most good, and hurt, at the same time, of anv other instrument. 1. The harrow, in field husbandry, answers to the rake in Hardening, and cannot be made to pulverize your tillage lands too fine ; but if this is done after your seeds are sown, it will cover them often too deep, and thus injure your crop ; and in flax and hemp, of- ten double the labour and expense in pulling ; and in your grass seeds, by covering too deep, will destroy their growth. 2. M ike it a general rule to level, and pulverize, as much as is necessary with the harrow, before you cast your seed, and then cover lightly with the har- row, according to the hardness, or stifluess of the soil — when the lands are light, once over will answer; but when they are stiff, twice may be necessary. Rolling. The field Roller is an instrument much used in Europe, and in some parts of our own cotintry ; and its good effects much extolled by the best writers, and upon the following principles; viz. 1. When used U|ion sward ground broken up for corn, it compresses the furrows to the earth be- neath, and thus guards the corn against the effects of droughts, by equalizing moisture. 12 THE farmer’s manual. 2. When used upon a stiff soil, it breaks the clods, and thus pulverizes that surface which could not be done with the harrow. 3. When used upon stony grounds laid down to mowing, it presses the stones into the earth even with the surfece, at the same time that it breaks the clods, and thus prepares the way for the scythe in a cheap, and easy method. 4. When used upon a light, sandy, or loamy soil, at seed-time, it gives permitnence, and consistence to the surface, which guards against drought. 5. When used in the spring, upon such winter grains as are exposed to be winter-killed, by the heaving of the frosts, it presses the earth to their roots and thus secures the crops. These and many other advantages are ascribed to the roller; hut upon this subject 1 have no expe- rience, so far as it goes to break clods and press in stones, it will doubtless do well. Remarks on the General Principles of Husbandry. 1. Whatever may be the nature of your soil, and situation of your farm, remember, that there is no soil so good, but it may be exhausted, and ruined by bad tillage, and that there is none so bad, that cannot be rendered fertile by good tillap, even barren heath, if it can be jiloughed, and swarded. 2. The true art of husbandry consists, in suffer- irig no croj) to grow upon your land, that will so far ex- haust your soil, as to lessen the value of your succeed- ing crop, whatever profit such a crop may afford you. 3. To avoid this, suffer no one crof) to grow two years successively, upon the same piece of ground, cxc'ptiny grass, and buck-wheat, without the fer- tilizing aid of rich manures to sujiport the Strength of the soil; and even then, a change of crops will generally do best, excepting onions, carrots, and hemp. THE FARUEK’s UAMUAL. 13 ■1. Every plant derives from the earth for its growth, such properties as are peculiar to itself; this plant, when followed successively for two or more years upon the same ground, will exhaust the soil of those jwopertics peculiar to itself, without lessening its powers to produce some other plants ; this fact is most striking in the article of flax, which will not bear to be repeated oftener than once in seven years, and is common to all crops, with the exception of those no- ticed as above. 5. To avoid this evil, arrange your farm into such divisions as will enable you to improve all the varie- ty of crops your lands may require, in such regular succession, as to form a rotine of 5, 6, or 7 years, according to the nature, quality and situation of your farm. C. This method will make poor land good, and good land better. Try and see. APRIL. Your hemp and flax are all dressed ; your wood cut and housed, or piled up; and your sleds housed safe for the next winter. Your orchards are all prun- ed, and the brush removed and cut up for summer’s use. Your fences are in great forwardness ; your mowing-grounds are dressed from your barn-yards, and your hemp, flax, oats and barley grounds, to- gether with your spring-rye, and wheat lands, now claim your attention. This is one of the most impor- tant months of the twelve, for the farmer. Harrow down your ridges ; plough and cross-plough for your hemp, flax and barley, and dress, after the first ploughing, with well rotted manure from your stables, barn-yard, or hog-pens, at the rate of 10, 15, or 20 loads to the acre, according to circumstances, and sow from two to three bushels to the acre of each 2 14 THE farmer’s SIAN’UAL. and harrow in the seed, not upon the furrows, this will bury your seed too deep ; but u|)ni) • ,s:ii-face made smooth and even by the harrow. Vour land rannot be pulverized too much with the harrow before your seed is sown. Your wheat, two bushels, and rye one and a half bushels to the acre, will do best ; when dressed with plaster, one, two, or three bushels to the acre, or with lime or leached ashes, sown, and har- rowed in with the grain. Your crops will be more secure against the rust, and blast, and smut, than when sown upon the stronger manures, especially if soaked in a strong pickle of sea-salt, or saltpetre, rinsed clean, and rolled in plaster, or live ashes, when sown. I’laster and ashes answer well also, when sown upon your hemp, flax, barley and oats. The time of sowing all your spring grains will de- pend much upon the season, with this general rule, the earlier the better, with proper security against frosts ; be sure to catch a dry seed-time if possible, the difference in the value of your crop, will richly repay a strict attention to this part of good farming. Hemp will do to be repeated sctccessively, for many years, with high manuring ; but all the other ci ops as above, should be sown after corn, or [lotatoes, or upon stubble land, ridged in in the fall, and perfect- ly free from weeds, or their seeds, or upon turtiip grounds after stubble. Select a warm, rich piece of ground near your dwelling, of 1,2, 3, or 4 roods, ren- der it rich with horse or hog manure ; plant this with Etiglish white potatoes, they will answer to begin to dig iti July ; these, when steamed, or boiled, will serve for early food lor your hogs, and bring them forward for early pork, and save your corn in the fall. I can say that 4 pigs, which averaged 27lbs. in the middle of July, by this mode of feeding, averaged ISOlbs. at Christmas following, with a very trifle of corn, excepting the last month, they then had corn altoge- ther, to harden the poik. This will be found one of the cheapest modes of bringing fonvard pork-hogs. THE farmer’s manual. Id If the expense of fuel, in boiling, is an objection, let it be rcinemberecl, that one or two gallons of water are sufficient to steam a hogshead of potatoes, if they can be placed over the steam, and covered with bran, or Indian-meal, which is perfectly dry, of 4 or d inches thick, so as to prevent the escape of the steam: before one gallon 'of water iS exhausted, the whole hogshead will Ijc boiled fit for the table ; let these be mixed in your swill- barrel, or tub, with the bran, or Indian-meal, apd placed near your hog-pen, for ready use: a good pfen full of fat hogs in the fall, makes the purse and, the family rich through the year; and the rich manure they will afford you, with a little attention in carting in earth and litter, will in- crease your next crops more than the hogs expend- ed in their fattening ; thus you have your pork clear, besides the increas^ed value of your lauds. Try it and see. Now is the time to begin the arrangement for your rotinc of crops, which will best promote the reve- nue of your farm, with the b^st fertilizing improve- ment for your lat^ds. Hemp, carrots, onions and buck- wheat, may be cultivated successively, u[)on the same grounds, foj* many years ; but clover, potatoes and Indian-corn,, oats and barley, wheatand rye, will not answer well for more than two years, without high manuring ; and even then, they do best under a change of crops : flax will not succeed well upon the same ground oftener than once in seven years, there- fore, arrange your farm in such order as to have a re- gular rotine, or succession of crops, once in 4, 5, 6, or 7 years, according to the nature and circumstances of your farm. Whenever you sow flax, oats, or bar- ley, sow clover, as a fertilizing crop, or clover and timothy, or orchard-grass, (which by many is prefer- red to timothy,) and stock down ; if with clover only, for two years ; but if with clover and timothy, or or- chard-grass, for four years; then turn in your clover for wheat, either with one, two, or three ploughing-s, 16 thb farmer’s manual. according to the quality of the soil, or other circuni stances, and sow one and a half bushels to the acre, in the fall, or two in the spring, and dress with plaster. When your grass-land has lain 4 years, turn in your sward, by deep ploughing, (say 8 or 10 inches deep if possible,) and plant'corn, or potatoes, with a good dressing of compost, 'or yard dung, in each hill ; this will subdue your sward, for a second crop of corn, or potatoes, the next year, or any of the spring grains you may choose ; thqs you may have a suc- cession of all the crops you tpay choose, without ex- hausting your farm, even without manure ; but if you use the clover as a fertilizing prop, your lands wifi rise in their value under every ,rotine, and increase your revenue. Buck-wheat may, be one of your ro- tine of crops, if ploughed in when in full bloom, be- fore a wheat, or rye crop ; but l^efore corn it will not answer. 1 have generally dope best with buck- wheat, by selecting some particular piece of land, (unfit for the winter grains,) and devoted it to the cul- ture of buck-wheat, successively, for many years. To illustrate my ideas of the succession of crops a little more clearly, take the following : viz. Istyr. Barley, oats, flax, or spring wheat, or rye with clover, or clover and fimothy, &c. 2d do. Clover, or clover and timothy, or orchard-grass. 3d do. do. do. do. 1th do. IVheat or rye upon the clover-sward, with 1, 2, or 3 ploughings, with clover again, with or without a potatoe fallow, &c. as at the first. .1th do. Corn, or potatoes upon the timothy-sward, then barley, oats, 6zc. as at the first. 6th do. Or corn, or potatoes again, or beans as fal- lows for wheat or rye ; or for the spring crops, as at the first. Under this management, every farmer can appor- tion his farm so as to have an equal portion of each successive crop, and never exhaust his soil. THE farmer’s manual. 17 It IS common for farmers to argue thus; This land must bear corn again ; thiS'ground tills easy, and bore good crops the last year, and the year before : without reflecting, that after the third crop, the land will have sunk one half of its value for the next year’s tillage, or will require a length of time, or an expense of ma- nure to restore its fertility, which will greatly reduce the value of the preceding crops. The same larmer would not say, Take such a horse from my stable to perform such a journey, he has just returned from a second of the same length, and he has done well : but he would rather say. Feed such a horse with particu- lar care.; for he has just performed two long journeys, and take a fresh horse for the next long journey : the other horse with proper care, w’ill do the business of the family until he is recruited. Just so with youc land ; all the animal principles peculiar to your horse, or your ox, are common to your land, (except loco- motion,) and require the same attentive care and nursing, to render it profitable. Flax is generally considered a poor crop, and with poor husbandry it is correctlj'' estimated ; but with 2, 3, or 4 ploughings,and rich manures, flax will produce 4, 5, or 6cwt. to the acre, with 8 or 10 bushels of seed: this is no mean crop; say 5cwt. at 12 cts. $60 10 bushels seed at 1 dollar, - 10 $ 70 If your land is suitable for flax, the season lavoura- ble, and you manure with 10, 15, or 20 loads of well rotted, rich manui'c, and dress, and harrow in with I or 5 bushels of line salt to the acre, or 1 , 2, or 3 bushels of plaster, and sow clean seed, three bushels to the acre, you may always expect 4 to Cewt. to the acre ; whereas even two would pay you handsomely ; 6cwt. of flax to the acre, have been raised from five pecks of seed, after hemp five years in succession, with about 1 3 bushels of seed ; this proves t^iat hemp f) 1.8 THE farmer’s HANUALi and flax are not incompatible with each other, and that /lax is no mean crop. Seminatio7i. The European writers make very nice and curious disquisitions and calculations upon the drilling sys- tem, and generally extol, and condemn the practice at the same time, as requiring a great nicety of judg- ment, both in its operation, and the different soils on which it will, and will not answer. I shall leave them to their own methods, both in theory and practice, and treat this subject entirely upon the broad cast plan. 1. Because this plan answers well, and our com- mon seeds-men can sow any quantity they choose to the acre with great precision, from three quarts, to three busnels, and give every cast its due proportion. 2. This answers best on both smooth, and stony soils, and the harrow may be made to answer best, either for a light or deep covering. 3. Weeds will not so readily grow upon a broad cast seeding, as between the rows upon a drill seeding. 4. AU- unnecessary expense of tools in husbandry, goes so^ar to lessen the profits, and increase the cares of the farmer. 5. By the broad cast method, the seeds-man can best a ortion his seed to his diflferent crops, and different Is, or even different parts of the same field, and this mode may therefore be accounted the best. Peas. Plough such a light sand, or sandy loam, as you de- sign for the white, green, or blue boiling pea, as early in March, or April, as the frosts will permit; the earlier the better ; (once will generally answer ;) and sow your peas upon the furrows, about 2 bushels to the acre, and cover with the harrow. Experience can be your only guide whether your land will pro- duce good boilers, and when you have proved which THE farmer’s manual. 19 fields will answer for this pea, you may always culti- vate it with success in the regular succession of your crops, and with a good profit, because the pea does not exhaust your soil. Peas, when sown early in April, with oats, or in May, with beans, say one bushel of each to the acre, come forward early, and give a handsome profit, to bring forward your hogs in summer, and thus save your corn in autumn for the profits of a spring market. This crop may be mown, and threshed in the com- mon mode, and the straw will answer both for winter feed for young stock, and litter for your horses and cattle, or perhaps to a better profit, as litter for your hogs in summer; such litter will enable you to cart in an extra quantity of rich earth into your hogs’- pen, and thus increase the quantity of this bes^of ma- nure. Sow flax and oats as early in this month as possi- ble, seed with 2 to 3 bushels of seed upon a strong soil. Begin to plant potatoes. Beans. Plough in May, or early in June, such lands as you design to plant with beans ; your poor sand, or sandy, or gravelly loams will answer ; provided you wet your beans, and roll them in plaster, at planting. Set your rows two and a half feet distance, and your hills from one and a half to two feet distance in the rows, and seed with 5 beans in a hill; the crop will always pay you well, both as a tillage, and a fallow crop for wheat, or rye, provided your bean lands can bear those crops, with the aid of plaster, or such other dress- ings, by the stronger manures, as you can give them. Under this head 1 will insert an extract from the New- York Daily Advertiser upon the Heligoland Bean. A friend of mine handed me the following inter- esting account of the Heligoland bean. I am induced to make it public for the benefit of those who have possessed themselves of some of this valuable article. io, THE EARMER’s manual. They appear peculiarly calculated for the Northern States, and I have no doubt will prove an advantage- ous substitute for corn, where frost is apt to injure the crop. A small ouantity have been sent for the benefit of the Agricultural Society of New-York, by J. Barclay of London ; they arrived a few weeks since, and have been distributed in various parts of the State. “ The merits of those beans consist in their ex- traordinary prolific quality, their perfect fullness of form and thinness of skin, and in their ripening much sooner than the common sorts ; they arc short in their straw, and the pods, which grow in bunches, commence very near the ground. They will succeed on soil not considered stiff enough for the common bean, and have produced gencr^ly, without extra manure, from 64 to 80 bushels the acre. *' At the annual meeting of the Agricultural Society of Wiltshire, held at Devizes, July 20th, 1814, Mr. Phil- lips produced two stalks, which had on them two pods, yielding 490 beans. In the spring of 1813, Mr. Phillips planted a bushel and a half of these beans, on half an acre of land, (a poor clay,) at one ploughing, without manure, and they produced the as- tonishing quantity of 52 bushels, Winchester measure. “ Several stalks of these beans were produced, and the Committee declared them to be infinitely superior, in point of productiveness and quality, to any other sort ever introduced into the country, and felt it their duty to recommend them not only to their own mem- bers, but to the public at large, who, they were cer- tain, would derive great benefit from their introduc- tion.” — Jilpable powder, and thus taken up into the cireulation of plants — hence the general re- m.trk, the fni'T the better, as a manure. Another of the properties of plaster is, that by a moderate heat, it readily p.isses into a state of calcination ; becomes liquid. ..lid boils like water. This is also a test of its quality — the best will most easily calcine; and in that state it imparts to the tongue the styptic sensa- tion of quicklinie. It is the opinion of some, that under this operation, by the heat of the sun, gypsum becomes an exciter of vegetation, passes into, and forms a component part of plants. Another proper- ty of gypsum is, that by chymical analysis it is found to be composed of sulpher, oxygen and lime, as its most essential properties ; these being the first principles, or most |)o\verful exciters, or promoters of vegetation, give to this substance the first rank in the system of rural economy. All the experiments which have been made with this first of manures, unless upon a cold, dead, wet soil, have gone fully’ to prove, that gypsum is not only the best, but the cheapest manure, and most to be depended upon, for general use, of all the manures. Oxygen is the great vivifying principle in the animal world, and is therefore styled, by way of distinction, vital air. This, vital air composes 28 parts of a hun- dred of atmospheric air, and thus gives life, not only to the animal, but to the vegetable world. Abstract, or remove these 28 parts of vital air from the atmos- phere, and neither animals, nor vegetables can live an instant ; they both die. Animafs inhale the vital, or oxygon air into the lungs, this commixes with the blood, and .gives that florid, or vermillion hue to the 24 THE farmer’s manual. blood in the lungs, and thus passes into circulation, giving vigour, life and energy to the whole system, and again passes off through the secretions of the body, and commixes with common air. It is a well known fact, that the foliage of plants and trees, pro- duces in constant succession, and entits into circula- tion, this, vital, or oxygen air, and of course it must follow, that by the inhaling vessels, both of the roots, trunk, branches and foliage, this oxygen, or vital air, is admitted into circulation, and becomes the essen- tial, or vital principle of vegetation. Whatever renders the earth loose, so as to admit a free circulation of air to the roots of plants, will best promote the great system of the economy of nature, and thus render it active and vigorous, by the free circulation of vital or oxygen air; the same as in the animal world. Whatever causes the greatest de- gree of fermentation, when buried in the earth, best promotes this economy of nature, by rendering the earth loose, for the free admission and circulation of air and moisture, and thus, by their chymical combi- nation, promotes the growth, and forms the substances of plants and frees ; hence the reason why animal substances produce the best effects in the promotion of vegetation, because they cause the greatest degrees of fermentation, in their dissolution ; and hence the rea- son why the growth of trees and plants never exhausts, or diminishes, the weight of earth in which they grow. Electricity has its full share in producing the above eflects, both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms ; but not upon the same principles of oxy- gen, because electricity is the most subtle and powerful of all substances, and pervades with equal ease all bodies, w hether hard or soft : not so with oxygen, it cannot commix with the earth, and thus become food for the roots of plants, any further than this earth is rendered light, or pervious, for the admis- sion of common air ; hence the reason why frequent ploughings, and fermenting substances promote ve- THE FAKMEr’s SfANUAL. 25 gelation ; hence the reason why plaster, when mixed with the seeds which are planted in the earth, gives the greatest vigour to vegetation ; because it imparts both its oxygen, and substance, to the absorbant ves- sels of the roots, and thus stimulates the vital princi- ples of those plants. All this is true as far as it goes ; and yet all this, without the heat of the sun, amounts to nothing ; and all this combined with the heat of the sun, amounts to hut very little, without the light of the sun : but the rays of light from the sun are not oxygen, nor elec- tricity, and yet they constitute one of the essential causes of vegetation, yet whal ctfects they produce, and how they produce them, are altogether concealed from our research, therefore 1 conclude as before, that one fact in good husbandry is worth two hypo- theses. Experience has proved gypsum to be one of the best manures, and taught us how to use it. From the Pennsylvania Farmer. “ Mr. Holbrook, of Derby. “ I have used gypsum, or plaster, for several years, as a manure. I have put many tons of it upon my own land, and have furnished my neighbours with it, both they, and 1, have derived great benefits from it. One of my neighbours sowed a quantity upon his up- land mowing, and his crop of grass was greatly bet- tered, as well as increased to three limes as much as the crop upon his adjoining land. 1 dressed a piece of land with it, on part of which I used to spread a run of water. Where the water was spread, I could not perceive that I derived the least advantage from the plaster, but the other part of the field produced white clover in abundance. I had four times the quantity of hay in proportion from the land dressed with the plaster, that 1 had from the land adjoining, on which none had been put ; and the land on whiA 3 26 the farmer’s manuao. the plaster was put had no advantage over the other; but merely what it derived from the plaster. “ In the year 1790, 1 dressed my land with plaster on which my wheat was sowed. 1 could noi perceive, at any time, that the wheat derived the least advantage from it. In September 1791, I sowed rye, and in April 1792, I sowed clover. ^The rye appeared to receive but little advantage ; but the clover was fine, and was materially benefitted. In 1793, the crop of clover was very good. In 1795, 1 sowed the same piece with rye, and had a very good crop. Whether the plaster sown in 1791, benefitted the rye, or whether it was through the assistance of the clover that the crop was so much im|)roved, I am unable to say ; but I am persuaded that 1 never did before receive so great benefit to my wheat or rye, from the same quan- tity of clover, as my crop now received from some cause. In 1796, I sowed it with rye, and harvested in 1797; but perceived no difference between this part of my field, and that on which no plaster had been sown. “ In September 1791, I dressed with plaster a field of clover which was sown in 1790; but no rain loll in a long lime. I received no benefit from it. In September 1791, 1 strewed plaster upon part of my wheat fallow, and j)loughed it in, but cannot say that my wheat received any benefit. In 1793, 1 planted the field with Indian-corn, and put a quantity of stable dung on that part of the field which had not been dressed with plaster, and left a small adjoining cor- ner on which 1 put nothing. That part dressed with plaster in 1791, was much better than that on which no manure had been put, and as good as that recently manured with stable dung. In 1794, I sowed the field with barley and clover. 1 could discover no benefit derived from it to the barley, but soon after the barley was taken oft’, the clover on that part of the field dressed with gypsum, appeared much belter than any part of the field which had been dressed with 27 THE farmer’s manual. Stable dung. The soil was a brown loam, mixed with a ragged slate-stone. “ In .■\p-ril 1792, 1 dressed part of a dry spire-grass meadow with plaster, just before a rain ; it produced a fine, growth of white clover, and much increased the natural grass. I judged my crop was double to that produced upon the adjoining field, which had been manured. In 1793, the product was equally great, in 1794, the eftects were apparently gone. In April 1792, I dressyl two adjoining pieces of sjrire.grass meadows: onq with unleached ashes, the other with plaster; they both produced a fine growth of clover ; that dressed with ashes 1 thought had some little the preference; but in 1793, that dressed with plaster had manifestly the preference. “ In April 1795,1 dressed part of a poor field, which lay for pasture ; but bore little, except five- f finger. It was thin, poor land. I discovered no efl’ects until September, when while clover began to appear ; and before winter, there was a material dif- ference between this and the other part of the field. In May 1796, I ploughed the field for buck-wheat and turnips, and .sowed it in July, extending into the part which had not been dressed with plaster. There was a great diflerence between that part of the field on which the gypsum had been applied, and the part on which there had been none ; both in the buck- wheat and turnips. The part dressed with plaster, produced nearly double to that which had not been dressed. In 1797, I planted the field with potatoes; they appeared to derive some advantage from the gypsum ; but it was not great. “ In the month of April 1793,1 dressed with plas- ter part of a field covered with a turf of natural grass ; in September, the clover appeared amongst the natu- ral grass. In April 1796, the diflerence between that dressed, and that not dre-ssed, was apparent. 1 then ploughed the whole in ridges for Indian-corn ; on part of the field 1 put plaster before the first hoeing ; on a 38 THE farmer’s manual. part soon after the first hoeing; and a small part wda ploughed and planted without any plaster ; and that part of the field on which 1 put plaster in 1795, 1 left without applying any thing. In a short time, the part of the field on which the plaster had been put in 1795, appeared to have the advantage, and in the course of the summer, the difference could be discerned at a very great distance. harvest, I thought I had dou- ble the quantity of corn on the land dressed in 1795, that I had on that dressed jn 1796, though the crop in this appeared greatly benc^tted. The land which was not dressed at all, did not yield more than half as much as the land dressCd in the hills of corn with the plaster in 1796, and not more than one fourth as much as that dressed with plaster upon the sward in 1795. In 1797, 1 put a bushel of plaster upon an acre of this field, be- fore planting ; then planted all the field with Indietn- corn, and put plaster in the hills ; except upon the acre as above ; at harvest, 1 could discover no essen- tial diflerence. “ In April 1 797, 1 dressed part of n spire-grass mea- dow with plaster, there then being a light snow upon the ground, which soon went off : ten or twelve days after, 1 dressed the other part of the meadow with plas- ter; there wos soon a material difference between the two parts, and it continued through the season. The part first dressed received much the most benefit. “sfrom my experiments 1 have found that scatter- ing gypsum over the whole land was better than putting it upon the hills of corn ; that my pastures have been greatly improved by it, and that when I have ploughed them afterwards, on which plas- ter had been strewed, the crops and grasses have de- rived more benefit from the plaster, than if it were applied the same year that the crops and grasses were sowed. The land on which 1 have used plas- ter Is loamy. My neighbours have derived much be- nefit from it upon their sandy river land. 1 have been as successful with the Nova-Scotia plaster as with THE farmer’s manual. 29 any, and think it as good as the European. I used to |)ut as much as three bushels to the acre, I now do not apply more than two, and I am persuaded that two bushels answer as well as three. 1 have never used so good, and cheafi manure as the plaster, and I look upon my land as double in value by its disco* very.” 1 have extracted this report of Mr. Holbrook’s at large, because it goes to prove with more nicety, and pre< ision, the real value, a^ well as the true, and best methods of using gypsum, of any series of experi- ments that I have seen. The fact, that plaster sown upon grass, or even pastiy.'C lands, gives an immediate profit, is of importance*, but that the same lands, when ploughed for tillage, two or three years after- ward, give an additional value to the crops, from the plaster thus sown, is doubly useful, both from its im- mediate, and subsequent effects: this is reaping the profits of the manure tvyice over, and is an undoubted evidence of its durability. Whoever reads this re- port of Mr. Holbrook’s, can never doubt the value and utility of gypsum, when properly applied as a manure. , Gypsum, — Soils. From the experiments made upon gypsum, as a manure, by Mr. Holbrook, of Derby, it clearly ap- pears, that it answers best upon both grain and gVass grounds, (if sown in the spring,) to be sown in this month. His reports to the New- Haven County Agri- cultural Society, have given full demonstration of this fact, as has been quoted. One of the objections to gypsum as a manure, has been, and continues to be, that it will not answer upon but few soils, and those of a sandy, or gravelly loam. This objection is now' found, from the best experience, not to be true. Gyp- sum answers well upon all grounds where clover will flourish, and this may be considered as a criterion, notwithstanding it answers best upon a sandy, gra- io THE farmer’s manual. velly, or a loamy soil, and so does clover. If your soil is a stiff clay, you may reduce it to a loam, by dressing the surface frequently, when under a sward, or covered with herbage, with plaster, sand, and rich manures, until you obtain a^rich sward, then turn in your sward for tillage, and stock down as soon as possible, and dress again as before ; in a few years, the stiifest clay may be reduced to a rich clay loam. If your land is a coarse, sharp sand, and even a blowing sand, you may reduce it to a loam by sowing plaster, with red-top, or other fibrous rooted grasses, until you can obtain a sward, then dress with plaster; with strong clay loam, marl, or even with a stiff clay, laid on in the fall, and well spread, and the clods well broken with the harrow and roller ; these dressings will commix with the sward, by the assist- ance of the frosts and rains of winter, and spring. When your sward has become strong, and rich, by the aid of rich manures, break up by deep plough- ing ; take one crop of potatoes, or grain, then stock down again, and jiroceed as before; you will in a few years obtain a rich sandy loam. It must be remem- bered, that the texture of these opposite soils can be changed, only by dressing upon the surface, when under a sward. The success of this mode of tillage depends very much upon the attention of the farmer, in avoiding a tillage with the exhausting crops, when his lands are ploughed ; and in stocking down again as soon as possible, that he may continue the means of changing the soil, by raising the strength and fer- tility of his land. The clay soil, when under tillage, cannot be plough- ed too frequently, to obtain the best crop ; and, on the other hand, your light sandy soil will do best under one ploughing, and that should always be as deep as the furrow which buried the sward, when broken up, and no deeper. It is therefore of importance, to obtain a deep soil by burying the sward under a fur- row of 8 or 10 inches, upon all sward-grounds, when THE farmer’s manual. 31 broken up. You may sow turnips to advantage, as a tillage crop, upon either of these grounds, in their changing slat-, provided you ^eed them off with sheep by hurdles, upon the ground ; but not as a croj) to be pulled and removed ; because they are one of the most exhausting crops ; they will impoverish your soil, and thus defeat, in some measure, your object. Clover, and buck- wheat may be used upon both, if ploughed in when green, as a fertilizing crop, when the soils begin to mix, and become fertile ; both these soils may thus be reduced to a rich, profitable tillage, for every description of (jrop. The farmer must al- ways observe this cautign, that if he exhausts their strength by bad tillage, they will both revert to their original state, and become clay and sand again ; but -by good tillage, they will continue to improve, until the one becomes a rich clay loam, and the other a rich sand loam, fit for clover and wheat for ever. It is worthy of notice, that the substratum of sandy soils, (even dead blowing sands,) is most generally a strong clay ; thus nature furnishes the means of perfecting her works for the use of man, upon the same grounds ; the upper surface of sand may be removed, upon one side or corner of your field, and the substratum of clay be dug and carted on, sufficient for all the purposes required, and at very little expense. 1 arn fully sensible that the high price of labour in our country, is a very serious objection to any very extensive improvements in reclaiming lands in this mode ; but such lands as are near to our dwellings, become more immediately the objects of our'atten- tion ; try these first, and you can then determine how far it will be for your interest to continue the improve- ments. 32 THE farmer’s manual. MAY. Your Sprin!? grains are now all sown, or about closing; and your Indian-corn now claims -your first attention, f have before remarked; that corn gene- rally has been found to'^do best when planted upon one-bout ridges, with a' deep ploughing, either upon long dung spread at large, before ploughing, or upon yard, compost, stable, or hog dung, put in the hill, (say one shovel full to th§ hill,) and the corn horsc- hoed between the ridges, and hand hoed upon the ridges, and thus preserving the ridges unbroken through the season. As this mode is seldom practis- ed', being an innovation upon the ancient cuslom, I a ill cite a few reports to the Agricultural Society of Ni'w- Haven County, to show the practical correctness of my remarks. INDIAN-CORN. Mr. Mallet, of Milford. “ When 1 plough my land for Indian-corn, I always lay it in ridges, whether it be sward or mellow, and plough the balks up to the ridges, and those ridges I never disturb by cross ploughing, while my corn is upon the land. I am fully convinced by my own ex- perience, and that of almost all my neighbours, who pursue the same method, that one fifth more corn, at least, will be raised in this manner than in any other upon the same land.” Mr. Holbrook, of Derby. “ Upon experiment, I find the method of ploughing land for Indian-corn, heretofore recommended to the Society by Mr. Mallet, to be the best J pursue. 1 lay all my land, of every kind, in ridges, when 1 intend it for Indian-corn, and plough the balks clean, lay them to the ridges, before planting; I never disturb those ridges by cross ploughing. Any person can see by looking at the part of my field which I have THE farmer’s MANUAE. 33 treated in this way, and at another part of the same field, that was cross ploughed, that the part lying in ridges has much the advantage. 1 have always had full evidence the same way upon experiment.” Judge Chauncey, of New- Haven. “ 1 have planted 2 acres of^Indian-corn this year. I ploughed in the manner mentioned by Mr. Mallet. The land has been mowed for five years past, and the sward is very tough. My crop is better than any of my neighbours have ; and they agree with me, that this method has increased it one third. From three years experience of this modeo^ ploughing for Indian corn, I am fully confirmed in the opinion, that its tendency is highly beneficial.” g This mode of tillage saves about one half of the ploughing, and a very considerable expense in hoeing : it is therefore worthy of notice. In- dian-corn is one of the most exhausting, as well as one of the most expensive crops ; therefore, se- lect your best lands for corn, and spare no pains to fit your land at planting, so as to get the greatest pos- sible crops from a little, land; this is the only mode that can render this crop profitable. It is always best for your corn groimds, to spread your dung at largo, and plough, or ridge in ; but this does not al- ways insure so large crops as to dung in the hill. Farmers are generally agreed, that one large pace, or three feet distance, for the rows of corn, is best ; but they are not all agreed as to the distance of the hills in the rows. 1 have seen experiments made upon the hills, from two to six feet distance, and have heard them all extolled. 1 have generally found three feet distance of the hills to be about right, if you take the precaution to steep your seed-corn 24 hours before you plant it, in strong tar- water, with salt, and roll it in plaster, it will fully repay your ex- pense and trouble; be.sides, the tar will keep oil' the crows and blackbirds, and save your corn from being 34 THE farmer’s manual. pulled up. If you throw your corn promiscuously into (he hill, it generally falls together, and will not admit of more than three stalks in a hill, to advantage ; but if you ])lace your seed at the distance of 4, 5, or 6 inches in each hill, you may let 4 or 5 stalks stand to advantage ; children can drop your seed-corn, and thus save all extra expense. I have seen a publication of Mr. Benjamin Fowler, of Hartford, in which he states, that he raised 160 bushels of corn pars, upon 155 rods of ground, dung- ed in the hill, at the rate of 6 loads to the acre. The one half of this corn was planted at the distance of 20 inches, and the other half 18 inches distance of the hills, with only one kernel in each hill, and the 18 inch hills did the best. This goes to prove the im- portance of separating at some distance, the kernels, when planted in the hills at the usual distance. This mode of Mr. F'lwler’s, gives only two kernels to the hill at the distance of 36 or 40 inches, whereas, by placing the kernels at the distance of 4, 6, or 6 inches as above, .8 or 4 stalks may be permitted to grow witnont interfering with each other, excepting by their shade, and if the suckers are removed at the third hoeing, (as' was done by Mr. Fowler,) the shading would be greatly rcrneilied. It must be remembered, that Mr. Fowler rolled his seed in plaster, and ashed his corn at the first hoeing. Indian corii is an exhausting, expensive crop, and deserves every attention that will promote its in- crease, especially one that will give 160 bushels of ears to the acre. Whenever ashes or plaster arc put upon corn at the hoeings, they are found to do best when strewed around the hills, in a circle of B or 10 inches diameter, with the greater quantity near the stalks. The best seed-corn, together with the best method of collecting, or saving it, you will find under Octo- ber, the harvest month. I have seen some good farmers plant potatoes with THE farmer’s MA^MIAL. 35 (heir corn, alternateiy anti with such success as in- duced them to follt >\ the jrrartice ; 1 could never suc- ceed in this mode, t annol recoinraeiid it, unless the l.ind is very hij lily manured, and from my own cx|/eriencc, not rVcIiThen. Pumpkins are a rich foocTfbr your hogs in Septem- ber and Oi toiler, and for your'eows and cattle ; they mnv be planted promiscuously with your corn, and do well ; but as they are often too thick, in this way, to be profitable, they may be planted between the hilfs of corn, of every 4th row, and every 4th hill, upon a shi vel full of rich manure, 2 seeds in a hill ; they generally do best in this way. Some authors recommend to sow turnips, thin, upon your last hoeing, and have confidence in it as a successful practice, without damage to the corn; upon this I have no experience. Continue to plant potatoes through this month, as you may have leisure, to stock your fallows. A po- tatoe patch, with pumpkins, near your hog-pen, you will find very useful, and convenient, in bringing for- ward your hogs. A verylittle attention thi-ough the summer wilt bring forward your hogs, so as to save your corn in the fall, and thus save your cash. Your coins which yi^u cut in February for graft- ing, now b. gin to expand their buds, and claim your attention. Select the most thrifty stocks, either in your field, or nursery, of 1,2, or 3 inches over; put two coins into each stock, and if they both grow, re- move one the next year, this will give as much head to your tree as the two, and wilt heal over sound; but if you suflcr both to stand, they will never unite where they grow, and meet, and when they become loaded w’ith fruit, they will open, or separate, so as to admit the rains, and thus rot, and ruin your trees ; you cannot be too cautious upon this head. Never graft two upright limbs u|)on the same .stock, for the same reason ; either cut off the one, or cut liud graft below both. Graft always as high as possible, to 36 THE farmer’s manual. guard against cattle, and to raise the head of youi’ tree, so as to admit the sun and air, as free as possi- ble, upon your undergrowth, whatever it may be ; it will also improve your fruit, both in size, and quan- tity. Mr. Forsythe recommends heading down large bearing trees, to change 'their fruit by grafting ; this will sometimes answer; but 1 have suffered severely in the loss of thrifty, full bearing trees, of 10 or 15 inches over, in obedience to Mr. Forsythe, ami can- not recommend the practice, unless you graft your tree partially, the 1st, 2d and 3d years, until you -have accomplished your purpose ; and I can say, that even this is not always safe. Guard your orchards carefully against the nest- worms, at this season ; and if you discover any of your fruit-trees to be unthrifty, or hide-bound, slit the bark with the point of your penknife, upon 4 sides, through the outer, but not through the irmer bark, (particularly stone-fruit, which will destroy your trees,) from the ground up, as high as you can reach, and dress with a corn-basket full of chip dung, about the roots, and near to the trunk of the tree, you will soon perceive the good effects. Open, and ventilate your cellars, and clear them out for the season, and rinse clean, and bung tight all such ciiler-casks, as you wish to preserve sweet in your cellars over the summer, and free from must. Weeds. These are our common enemy, and nature has ar- rayed a host against us, consisting of more than fifty different nations of weeds, as marauders, to destroy our labours, and rob us of our crops. They enter our gardens and corn-fields unobserved, by night, and by day ; they pillage, waste and destroy, more of our [iroperty than all the rest of our enemies, ex- cepting rum and tobacco. Let us set our faces against them, watch them close, and extirpate the a'HE farmer’s manual. 37 tirst, racHcally from our corn-fields, and the latter from our houses; then, and not till then, shall wc have peace and plenty, with the voice of health, both in our borders, and in our dwellings. Weeds are a noxious growth, quicker and more succulent than any of the grains, they therefore ex- haust the soil more, and quicker than the grains, and they also rob all plants in their vicinity, of the ferti- lizing properties of the air, and thus doubly destroy your crop and interest. If you wish for any illus- tration upon this idea of nutrition afforded to plants from the air, examine such small trees as grow conti- guous to large ones, or such corn or other herbage as grows near to a tree, or ijther corn, or herbage, which is greater ; the lesser will take their growth in a di- rection from the larger, for the purpose of drawing from the air that nutrition, which the larger robs it of upon the side next to it. Thus we see, 'that every weed that springs up in our corn-fields, becomes a tax upon our industry, or upon our profits, the first is necessarily so ; it is a part of the original curse ; the latter, which is not only the worst, but may become ruinous, is the immediate efl’ect of our own neglect. Weeds, wlien watched and extirpated in season, are subdued at a small expense, with little damage; but when neglected, their extirpation is attended both with expense and damage ; thus, by neglect, we suffer a double loss. Worse than this. One year’s neglect, will cause seven years’ toil, and a seven years’ damage ; so, on the otlier hand, one year’s close attention at weeding, will give seven years’ ease, with their profits : take your choice. To f ;uard against this common enemy as far as possible, etme recommend the following attention. 1. Plant such fallows with potatoes, as are infested with wire-grass and noxious weeds. The plough and hoe together, can alone destroy this enemy. 4 38 THE farmer’s manual. 2. Sufler no weeds to seed your fallows, either in autumn, or summer. 3. Be careful that your seed-grain is clean and free from all foul seeds. 4. Observe the same in your grass-seed, when you stock down. 5. Pull out the docks upon your mowing-grounds, before they seed and ripen, that they may not further foul your mowing, or be carted into your barn, and fed out with your hay, and thus foul your dung. 6. Remove every noxious weed from your hedges and fences, which can expose your fields to the effects of their seeds. Of this class, are the thistle, the dock, and burdock, &c. 7. Sufler no old tired field to lie waste, as a nurse- ry tor weeds ; the expense of jiloughing, will bear no proportion to the after expense of weeding. 8. Weed your corn with the plough and hoe ; not after the weeds are grown, but as soon as they begin to appear; one crop is enough for one piece of land at one time, and if you suffer weeds to grow with your corn, you will in fact have but one crop, and that will be loeeds, your corn will be only a nominal crop. 9. Weed your wheat, rye, barley, oats, flax and hemp ; the profit will be as great upon either of these crops, as upon your corn, and the expense compara- tively small, (generally.) Try it and see. • Irrigation. In my monthly remarks, 1 have noticed this spe- cies of tillage generally ; a few remarks a little more particularly, may be useful in this place. It is not my intention to give my remarks upon irrigation their full scope ; but to confine myself to such, only, as are adapted to the practical stale of our own coun- try. To make the most of this subject will niany times require a large capital, even in England, where labour is cheap; but the expense of labour, together THE farmer’s manual. 3y with the limited capitals of our own country, will not enable the farming interest generally, to extend their improvements by irrigation, beyond such wash as they can convey from gentle descents in the highways, on to their adjoining mowing grounds, and such wash as they may occasionally turn on to their meadows, from brooks, or other small' streams, by obstructing them with dams, suitable for the purpose. This me- thod of irrigation is both useful and valuable, and when turned on to sloping grounds, may be multiplied very extensively, at sinalP expense, upon the catch- work plan, (so called.) Xlpon this [ilan, when the wash is carried over the higher parts of the field, (upon sloping grounds,) lead it back and forth at suitable distances ; remembering always to keep your trenches as near to a water level as possible, and yet suffer the water to run, excepting at the turn- ings, where the water descends from one trench to the next below. Upon this plan, you can. flow your grounds even, by cutting small openings from. your trenches, and even obstructing your trenches occasion- ally, to promote the flow through these openings. The expense of this mode of irrigation is small ; but the f )rofits are doubly great, both in the quantity and qua- ity of your hay ; beside, both these profits will in- crease annually. No manuring will give such profits upon mowiflg grounds as irrigation, and the expense, generally, may be considered cheaper than pla.ster. Here let me repeat my former remark ; make the most of this method of tillage in the w.inter and spring ; it is then most valuable. Be careful to keep your cattle, horses and sheep, from your watered meadows : the first will injure them by poaching, and the feed will give your sheep the rot, and even their hay may be unfriendly to sheep, if flowed by great rains in sum- mer. I shall close this article with a remark of Sir John Sinclair ; “ A productive water meadow, is pro- bably the true mark of perfection in the management of a farm.” — Sinclair's Code. 40 THE farmer’s MANUAE. * Remarks. 1. It is the easiest and cheapest mode of fertilizing poor land. 2. It promotes a perpetual fertility without the ex- pense of manure. -• 3. It may be made to yield the greatest possible products, both in hay and pasturage. 4. It will greatly increase the means of the farmer '.o multiply stock, and thus enrich the other lands with manure. 5. It is within the power of almost every farmer to derive some advantage from irrigation ; this, when better understood, will oe more generally improved. All alluvial lands enjoy the benefits of irrigation, and such as are upon the borders of large streams, that annually overflow their banks, derive a fertility from a warp, or sediment, which the waters deposit, which is peculiar to that description of land, and renders 'hem peculiarly rich and valuable ; such are the lands of the Nile in Egypt, the Mississippi, the Connecticut, Sic. in America. The warp has formed by its depo- sit a large district of country in Egypt, called the Delta, and is constantly forming large and extensive tracts on the above rivers in America. Wherever this can be promoted by the assistance of art, it should never be neglected*. • Since my remarks upon the culture of luclian-corn were in press, 1 have seen in the Connecticut Couritnt the following success- ful experiments upon the culture of that most valuable grain, which appear to be worthy of notice. “ From the Coopersloum Jourrutl, Oct. 25. “ .Agricultural . — We are pledged to publish the mode of culture adopted by those who were the successful candidates for premiums on corn, &c. at the late fair in this County. We have accordingly selected the descriptions given by Mr. Hayden and Mr. Brightman, the former having raised 1 25 bushels and 26 quarts of corn to the acre, and the latter 109 bushels and 4 quarts. THE farmer’s manual. 41 JUNE. Your whole business of Spring husbandry, -both in the field and the garden, is now closed, and your fences are all in good repair. You will now enter with spirit upon the culture of the Potatoe. You have doubtless planted a good supply for the table and early feeding ; and the time is now come when you have an opportunity to enter extensively upon the culture of this most valuable root, as a part of your field husbandry, for the use of stock and the “ jVf. Hayden's Statement. ‘ The land upon which the crop was raised, had been occupied se- veral years as a oieadovv, is of a flat surface, was ploughed first in October, 1B18; in the spring following, harrowed, and soon after ploughed and harrowed — then furroweil ; the furrows being about 2 feet 3 inches apart. The seed was prci)arcd by steeping it in a strong lye made of hog manure, for 24 hours ; after which, the lye was drained off, and I added to half a bushel of seed, a half peck of plas- ter — stirring it until the corn was covered with plaster. The seed was then suffered to sUind until it had grown an inch, when 1 planted in single kernels promiscuously at tile bottom of the furrows, and then filled the furrows about half full of barn-yard manure, to which had been added aboutfive loads ofhogmanuru. In weeding time, I pull- ed out many stalk?, lea\ ing those remaining about seven inches apart, It was succoured once, and hoed three times.’ “ .Mr. Brightman's Statement. ‘ The ground is clayey loam, and had been many years in meadow. .About the middle of April it wa.s ploughed very shallow, just cut- ting through the sward, I then carried on to about an acre and a quarter, thirty waggon loads of good barn-yard manure, and ten waggon loads of chip manure, thou gave it a deep ploughing .and harrowed it down. The whole of tlie ploughing was 4 times, and harrowing was performed as often. About the middle of May, I dis- posed the laud into ridge.s about 3 feet apart. After levelling the ridges with the hoe, I planted tlie corn on the ridges at the distance of ei.ght inches per grain apart, it was hoed in the usual manner 3 times. Previous to hoeing the last time, the succours were all taken off, immediately following with the hoe, and covering up the wound- ed stalks, which I think was of essential service to the crop by pre-. venting them from emitting their juice. The corn that 1 planted was the small 8 rowed white corn, intermixed in a slight degree wiUs the yellow.’ ” 4 42 THE farmer’s manual* market ; particularly upon your fallow grounds. It is true, the potatoe may be planted at any time after the ground is free from frost, but it will not vegetate until the ground becomes warm. It is also true, that the potatoe called the English white, may be planted with success upon rich ground, as late as the 20th of July; very extraordinary frosts excepted. My remarks on this most important branch of good farming will be ; 1st, On the value of the different kinds of potatoes, and their use ; 2d, The different soils to which they are adapted ; 3d, The manner of planting and hoeing ; 4th, The time and manner of digging and housing them. 1. The English white, Irish yellow, common red, red rusty-coat, yellow rusty-coat and purple pota- toes, are the most farinaceous, produce the greatest quantum of starch, and are the mildest and best for the table ; the Spanish or hog potatoe, (so called,) is the most inferior, both for the table and market, and is fit only for stock. The coloured potatoes require the strongest soils, and will not admit of late plant- ing, as they require the longest time for their growth ; they should generally be planted between the first of April and the middle of June; the white and yellow potatoes will do well as late as the 20th of July ; they will obtain a good size by the 20th of September. It must be understood, that this late planting requires a rich soil. I have generally found, that lands of any description of soil, that will produce 20 bushels of corn, will produce 100 bushels of potatoes; allowing 1 dollar per bushel for the corn, gives jjl 20 00 25 cents per bushel for the potatoes, gives 25 00 Leaving a balance in favour-of the potatoes of 5- 00 This, in the same ratio, if the land will yield 40 bush- els of corn, will give a balance in favour of the pota- toe crop of 10; together with another advantage, 00 important to pass unnoticed. Indian-corn may be THE IARMEr’S manual. 4a considered as one of the most exhausting crops, and potatoes one of the least. When it is considered, that the true art of farming consists in obtaining the greatest profit from an acre of land without exhausting the soil, or rather by cul- ture to increase its fertility, the balance will be found, in an increased ratio, in favour of the potatoe crop. No field cultui’e admits of a greater variety than that of the potatoe; some farmers select the largest for seed, and plant one in a hill ; others select the smallest, and plant several in a hill ; some divide the largest potatoe into two parts, and plant one half in a hill ; others both halves ; some divide both the large and small potatoes into four parts, and place the four pieces in the hill at 4 to 8 inches asunder; others cut out the eyes of the potatoe, and plant them promiscuously, as they plant Indian-corn, 4,5,or C in a hill, and thereby save the potatoe for their stock ; I have found all these modes to answer well, and have heard good farmers extol each of these modes as being the best, according to their practice. To illus- trate this subject, I will give an extract from the Penn- sylvania Farmer : “ On the 2d day of May, I had six large potatoes that weighed 2lbs. and 2oz. cut into thirty-three sets, with two eyes each, which were planted in a stiff deep soil, with a small quantity of rotten dung scattered under and over the sets, which were placed about 6 inches deep, at the following distance in the rows, divided by pegs ; No. 1, 11 cuts, at 6 inches distance. No. 2, 1 1 do.' at 9 do. do. No. 3, 11 do. at 12 do. do. They were hoed twice. On the 10th of October, the earth was carefully drawn from off the plants, which were extended across the rows. The produce was as follows: No. 1 contained 124 potatoes, which weighed 28lbs. lOoz. and occupied 6 feet in length. 44 THE Parmer’s manuat,. No. 2 contained 130 potatoes, which weighed 32lbs. 2oz. and occupied 9 feet in length. No. 3 contained 146 potatoes, which weighed 31 lbs. 2oz. and occupied 13 feet in length; total 9 libs. 14oz. or I23cwt. to the acre*.” This result corresponds with my own experience for many years, and deserves attention, by its saving in the expense of seed. If 4 sets were placed in the hill at the distance of 5 or 6 inches asunder, and the hills 3 feet apart, they would probably produce as many pounds of potatoes, with a handsome saving of expense at digging. Some farmers cart on 10, 15, or 20 loads of long dung, and spread it on the field, and ridge it in, by lapping two furrows together, and plant their potatoes on the ridges in hills, from 2 to 3 feet asunder; hoe the potatoes twice upon the ridges, and keep the ground clenn with the plough, between the ridges, in the furrows ; others plough up the land smooth, and strike out the ground into furrows of 3 feet asunder, set the potatoes (when cut into one or two eye sets) at 10 or 12 inches distance, in each furrow; cover them lightly with the plough, and keep the land clean by ploughing up to the rows two or three times, as the season may require. In autumn, they turn off the earth from the rows with the plough, and dig with the hoe, this answers well ; * All Nature is governed by fixed and immutable laws, or princi- ples, and the true art of husbandry consists in a correct knowledge of the laws, or principles, of each plant, either separately, or collec- tively, in connection with other plants, and in adapting the culture directly to the assistance of nature. By this example it will be seen, tJiat the potatoe does not strike deep in the earth ; but extends horizontally, at a given distance, be- neath the surface, where it can derive its proper nutriment from the sun, air and rains ; if yon plant below this natural state, or earth up your plants by hilling too much, you counteract nature, and check the growth of the first settings, by cove«ing them below their natural depth, and if you hill up your potatoes too often, you will increase the number of potatoes in your bills ; but they will be small, fur tliey will form new sets at each hoeing ; therefore, hoe but twice, -if it is possible to keep down the weeds without a third bocing. THE farmer’s manual. 45 but 1 have found an increase of labour in digging. Some farmers plougli up their land smooth, and strike it out with a plough into squares of 3 feet, rank and file, after the manner of planting Indian-corn, and plant at the corners, and cover with the hoe; others ra^ke holes with the hoe, from two to three feet dis- tance, manure with farm-yard, or hog manure, or roll the potatoes (when cut and wet,) in plaster of Paris, or throw into the hill with the sets, about a table spoonful of plaster ; this upon a gravelly, or sandy soil, answers well. 1 have found this mode produce from 1 to 300 bushels the acre. Should you neglect either of these modes of manuring at your planting, you may dress your potatoes with a table spoonful of plaster, or a handful of live, or leached ashes, at the first, or second hoeing, with great advantage, upon a dry soil. These are the common modes of cultivat- ing the potatoe. Two important modes of cultivating this most valuable root, claim the particular attention of the farmer, who is in earnest, and regards the best interest of his farm. The first is as a fallow crop. Many years experience enables me to .say, that land which will produce 8 or 10 bushels of rye, will produce 100 bushels of potatoes; the dif- ference of expense between one ploughing and two hoeings, for an acre of potatoes, exclusive of the seed and digging, and two ploughings for a fallow, is not very great; the profit is 100, 150, or 5?t)0 bush- els of potatoes, according to the quality of the soil ; with the assurance, that the grain crop will rather be increased than diminished by the potatoe fallow, pro- vided the potatoes are dug, and the rye sown, early in the month of September, or the wheat before the 1st of October, which may always be done with the English whites, if planted before the 20th of Jimc. The true value of this mode of tillage, will consist in the increased quantity of stock it will enable the farme? to keep, and the increased value which he 46 THE farmer’s MANUAt. may derive from his manure from this stock in his general tillage. Potatoes, when planted on the same ground successively more than 2 years, will not do well ; but when used as a fallow crop will continue to do well. The second mode alluded to as above, is, that clo- ver lands, or even English sward, after the first cut- ting, may be turned over, and planted with potatoes, with assurance of a good crop, provided the land be in good heart, and the seed of the English whites, and the planting be finished between the 1st and 20lh of July, with one or two hoeingS, as the season may require. This mode of tillage, gives the farmer not only a double profit upon his ground, but a double advantage in keeping his stock, and prepares his ground for a spring crop, as he may choose ; or he may even sow wheat to advantage after the potatoes, if the sward is not too stiff. Although the potatoc originated in America, and was not known in Europe, until after the discovery of Columbus in 1492*; it was little known in the husbandry of our forefathers ; so late as 30 years ago, if a farmer raised 100 bushels of potatoes in a sea- son, it excited particular notice; and now they are become one of our best crops, and our farmers often raise, 1, 2, or 3000 bushels the season, which always command a ready market, and a fair price. The value of the potatoe in feeding, beef cattle, hogs, sheep, horses and cows, is found, by the experience of the best farmers, to exceed in value any other feeding; even the Indian-corn. No feeding will af- ford that strength and support to working cattle, and enable them to bear the heat so well, as the potatoe. When I come to treat of stock particularly, I shall show in minute detail the practical calculations of the best farmers, both in England and America, upon • Tliey arc said to have been carried from Darien to Knsland, bv Sir Walter Raleigh, in the 16lh century. THE farmer’s manual. 47 the use and value of this most excellent root. Now is the time to prepare for your fall and winter feed- ing ; no farmer ever raised too many potatoes, and prob.ibly too many never will be raised. The farmers of our country have too much good sense and judgment, to render it necessary for me to say, that great care should be taken to select the best of every crop for seed, and that the several kinds be kept pure and unmixed. The good, resulting from this, must be too evident to have escaped the notice of the most ordinary farmer. The carrot is the only root that can vie with the potatoe, both in the profits of its culture, and utility for feeding; but this requires that nice mode of hus- bandry, which renders it too diflicult and expensive to be extensively raised, so long as the price of la- bour is so dear in our country. A few hundred bush- els may be easily raised by farmers generally, in the kitchen-garden, with very little extra expense, under a proper management ; but as the season for the cul- ture is past, 1 shall defer my remarks upon this root, together with the mangel wurtzel, and other roots, until I come to treat on gardening generally ; I shall then give the subject a particular discussion, both as to the best practical modes of culture, and the best practical calculations upon their value, and use in feeding. Let me close this number with one general exhor- tation. Plant as much of your fallow grounds with potatoes as possible ; break up, after mowing, such sward as you design for tillage the next season, or such as you would wish to sow with winter-wheat, and plant it with the true English white potatoes; you will find your advantage in it. One hoeing will answer upon the sward ground ; but two hoeings are best for both sward and fallow grounds. 48 THE farmer’s manual. Clover and Tillage, This has become a most valuable and important branch of husbandry, both as an article of tillage and feeding, particularly for the use of horses ; but I shall defer all vemarks upon its value in feeding, until I come to the subject of Stock, and treat only in this number upon the value of cloveras an article of tillage, and the mode best adajHed to its cultivation. The red clo- ver strikes a deep tap-root like the carrot, and when designed for tillage, should be sown separately, with- out hcrds-grass or any other mixture, 4 or 3 quarts to the acre; it may be sown broad-cast, after the man- ner of wheat, in autumn, with the winter grains, or in the month of March, upon the winter grains, or with the spring grains, or upon the spring grains after they have made their appearance, or even with buck- wheat at midsummer : long experience has proved all these modes to do well; but the buck-wheat is the most uncertain ; when the crop is thick and stout, it is very apt to check and smother the young clover, and leave its tender fibres exposed to the frosts of winter, which often prove fatal to it. If you are constrained to sow your clover with buck- wheat, sow the buck-wheat thin ; and what you sacrifice upon the buck-wheat crop will be gained upon the clover. Never cut your clover the first season, nor feed it too close, both are an injury to it ; but the second season, cut your clover when in full bloom, when not more than one-fourth of the heads begin to turn brown, which will generally be in the month of June. The cutting and curing of clover is very nice and critical farming, and demands the first attention. The heads and leaves of clover are its principal value, the stalk, when course, is of little use ; therefore, in order to |jresei ve the most valuable parts, cut your clover in dry weather; and when the dew is dried off from the fir>t swaths, torn them over gently, without spreading, until you come to the swaths which arc THE farmer’s manual. 48 free from dew, let those lie untouched until noon, un- less showers, or a storm become threatening ; in this case, break off your mowers, and get your clover from the swath into small cocks. Let the cocks be made with the fork, with only once or twice rolling; but if the weather continues fair, let your mowers keep on and your hay- makers follow with their forks, and put all the swaths into small cocks. The next day, let these cocks stand, and go on cutting as be- fore; proceed thus until you have secured your clo- ver.. In two, three, or four days, as the weather may be, the clover first cut will be fit to cart, if the wea- ther proves fair, if not, the rains will never penetrate farther than the winds and sun will dry ; the clover will be injured only upon the surface. Should a long, cloudy, or moist turn of weather succeed, you may give your clover air, by taking off the top of each cock and placing it for the bottom, and thus with your fork change the order of your cocks by bring- ing the bottoms to the top; this mode will cause your cocks to shed rain better than the common mode of turning them over at once with the fork. When you find your clover sufficiently cured for housing, take the first good hay-day, turn over your cocks in the morning when the dew is off, and as soon as the moisture is dried from the bottoms, clear your field as fast as possible ; thus you will secure all the valu- able parts of your clover: viz. the heads and leaves, in full blossom, and as perfect a green as when growing; and your horses will hold their flesh and do more service on this clover, without grain, than on clover cured in the common method, with the usual quantity of grain, and you will readily experience the saving in expense, which, although of importance, will be found to be of minor consideration in this mode of husbandry*. ♦ If you sow your clover thin, with only 2 or 3 quarts of seed to the acre, (as is the practice of some,) it will be of an inferior quali- ty ; the stalk will grow large and rank, and require more attention 5 50 THE PAKMEr’s manual. A few loads of clover may always be housed in this mode with safety ; but if your fields are large, some precaution will become necessary to guard your mows against heating, which is not only injurious to the clo- ver, but will prove injurious to your horses, and give them a cough. To prevent both these evils, let your clover stand in the cock a day or two longer ; open it carefully when you are ready to cart, without spread- ing ; let your bays be open under the bottom, for a free circulation of air; fill several large bags with hay, set them erect upon the floor of your bays, mow the clover around them with as little treading as pos- sible; raise up the bags with the rise of your mow, and when your mow is finished, remove the bags ; these openings will serve as ventilators, and secure your mows from heating. 1^ you reserve your wheat or rye straw for this purpose, and cover your clover occasionally, as you mow it, with straw ; your strtiw will not only prevent your mow from heating, but imbibe the moisture of your clover, and become va- in curing ; therefore, never sow less than 5 or 6 quarts to the acre. Whenever your clover has sw eat and cured in the cock, so that you can select the largest stalks, and twist theoflike a string, without their emitting any moisture upon the surface, when twisted, you may then house your clover ; it is in its most perfect state. If you sow ti- mothy, or herds-grass with your clover, you may manage iii this way, for the first year, with safety — the second year it will become about one half timothy, or herds-grass, and must be spread and turned gent- ly, to preserve as much as possible the heads and leaves of your clo- ver; the third year, your clover will disappear, and the herds-gr.ass must be spread and cured in the common mode ; 1 say the common mode, for I presume that every farmer spreads his hay iulo 3 Swath winrows ; (unless it be heavy Knglish grass, of 2 or 3 tons to the acre, which will occupy all the surface of the field on which it grew, (o cure it ;) this saves the expense and trouble of one raking, and that he •preads in the forenoon all the swaths cut before 12 o’clock, (leav- ing the swaths cut after 12 o’clock, to continue in the swath pntil the dew is off the next morning,) and that he gets into cocks, before S or6 o’clock in the afternoon, all the hay spread upon his field. The fer- mebtation wlpch hay unilergoes by standing in the cock over night, not only sweetens the hay, but prepares it for a more rapid evapora- tion of its juices the next day, and will doubly pay the expense of cocking, besides the security it affords against bad weather. THE farmer’s manual. 51 luable feed for your horses and cattle, and thus be- come a double saving. One bushel of salt sprinkled upon your clover as you mow it, will preserve it against heating, and doubly repay you in the value it tvill give to your hay. When your clover is housed, you may turn in the sward, the first or second year, and plant potatoes for a wheat fallow, or feed lightly the second growth; but never mow it, if you intend to cut it again the next year. The first and second years, your crops will be good, the third will fail, and the clover will die, uidess ^you dress it with manure that will bring in other gr;isscs. The death of your clover, leaves ypur lan^l ^enriched by the decay and putrefaction of the roots, and thus, after the crops have rewarded liberally your expense and labour, your land has risen in the va^ue of its tillage, and is better prepared for the next roline of crops than before. AH farmers of celebrity are agreed, that the true and first principles of good husbandry, consist in ma- nuring, ploujghing, and a proper rotine of crops. I shall defer my remarks upon manuring, until 1 come to treat upon the subject of compost, and manures ge- nerally, and confine my remarks in this number to the article of clover and tillage. If it is your wish to combine the improvement of your stock, generally, with the improvement of your tillage, sow with your clover 4 or 5 quarts of herds-grass seed to the acre ; dress it in the fall or spring with about 3 bushels of plaster of Paris to the acre, if a light or gravelly soil, or with 8 or 1 0 bushels of live ashes to the acre, sown upon your grass, or 10 or 15 loads of good yard, stable, compost, or hog manure, if a clay or moist soil. If it is your wish to continue your field for mowing, dress it again the 3d year as at the first, and so on successively ; but even in this case, be careful to avoid a second cutting until the 3d year, (and even then you w ill do well to omit it,) and feed lightly in the fall ; a good coat of feed upon your mowing grounds, over the winter, is next to a good coat of ■rHE farmer’s MANl^AL. d-2 manure, and should be preserved as far as possible. Let not a hoof enter your grass grounds in the spring, particularly sheep and horses ; the damage will be greater than in June. Whenever you turn up jour grass grounds for tillage, be sure to plough as deep as possible ; this will not only give a good depth for your corn, or potatoes,-, to extend their fibres, but will lay your sward deep to rot, and thus give you a deep rich mould that will not soon be exhausted by tillage, and insure you more successful crops. The value of clover, when cut and fed green, in summer, or when housed and fed in winter, together with the most ap- proved method of feeding with it, either with or with- out straw, I shall consider under the article Stock. Manures. The basis of good husbandry, arc labour and ma- nure ; thesejrightly applied, will always insure good crops. You nave disposed of all your winter ma- nures, from the farm-yard and hog-styes, undoubtedly, to the best advantage ; the time has now come to at- tend to your summer manures ; to dress your lands in autumn. Let your hogs be enclosed in an open pen, nearto, orinone part of your barn-yard; throw into this the scrapings of your barns, together with every vegetable substance that will putrify and rot through the summer : plough up and cart in occasion- ally, such earth as can be collected from your ditches, or old sward balks ; your hogs will root and mix them together, and thus, with a little attention, you may obtain 20 or 30 loads of the best manure, or much more if your hogs are numerous and receive your attention. You will find an advantage, both in the growth of your hogs, and in the quantity of ma- nure, if you sow half an acre, or an acre, of clover on a rich soil, near the barn-yard, and begin to cut early for feed for your hogs ; it will be found both cheap and profitable. According to the best practi- TflE farmer’s manual. 5S cal calculations, it will give a profit of $ 30 per acre, when cut green, and fed in the barn-yard, either by horses, cows, cattle, or hogs, besides the profits upon the manure. If you are in earnest about your farm., you may carry this mode of making manure to any extent, by mowing and carting in your stout stubble; collecting and carting in your coarsest hay, pumpkin', and potatoe vines, corn bottoms, husks, &c. The same materials will yield you a stronger and richer manure from your hog-pens, than from the stercorary, (as is practised in England,) and without the expense of shifting, orchanging it by hand, as in the stercora- ry practice. Your hogs will do better than in a close pen, and the same land, in clover, will yield them more and better feed, than in pasture ; and the ma- nure thus obtained from the clover-field, will give you a handsome profit. A little experience will soon lead every farmer to make the most advantage in this way, which may be rendered very extensive*. Most farmers yard their cows at night, through the summer ; their manure should be collected into a heap, in some convenient part of the barn-yard, to prevent its being wasted by the sun and rains; a few minutes attention in the morning, when the cows are turned out to pasture, would collect a heap of several loads ina season, ready for your wheal, or grass grounds in autumn. If you should carton, and cover your heap occasionally, with a load or two at a time, of rich earth, (where it could be spared,) it would commix with the manure by fermentation, and be- come rich compost, and thus increase your (|uantity and your wealth. If you stable your horses occa sionally, or generally, in summer, let this manure also be conveyed to your heap, it will improve its quality, by being mixed with the other manure and the earths. Four good loads of this manure, will * Farmers who live on tlie sca-c() ridge, stands over the place where the dev!:.' !(i' l•(r\v was bcfore he began. As soon as he has, fiiiisiict' the first ridge, the planters begin to set, wiiiie he is ploughing the 2d, and so on through the fie!'' .This process is not very tedious, for in 1 had fifty-two acres of Ruta Baga planted 1 . 'ids way, and a crop of more than fifty thousand bi'.shels. A smart lad will set half an acre per day, with a girl, or boy, to drop the plants, and I had a man, who would set, often, an acre a day. *• Observe well what has been said about fresh earth, and never forgetting this, let us talk about the art of planting. We have a setting stick, which should be the top of a spade-handle, cut ofl’ about 10 inches be- low the eye, and pointed smoothly : the planting is then done in the manner of setting cabbages. Choose a dry time for your transplanting, and for this reason ; if your plants are put into wet ground, the setting- stick squeezes the earth up against the p]|iot in « mor- tar like .‘>tate ; the sun comes and bake's this mortar into a hard glazed clod ; the hole also, made with the stick, is smooth upon its sides, and presents an im- penetrable substance totheroot.s and fibres of the plant, and thus the vegetation is greatly checked ; but when plants are set in dry earth, the reverse of all this is true, and the fresh earth will supply proper moisture under any degree of drought. The hole thus being made in dry weather, set your plant without bending the point; support it with one hand, firm in the hole, and with the other hand, apply the setting-stick to the earth on one side of the hole, so as to form a sharp triangle with the plant, then thrust the stick down a little below the bottom or point, of the plant, and with eo THE farmer’s manual. a little twist, press th% earth up to the plant, at the point, or bottom of the root, and it is done. But if a vacancy remains below the bottom of the plant, it will not thrive well. This is true in all transplant- ings, both of roots and trees.” Mr. Cobbet here goes on to state his reasons in favour of transplanting, which arc these : 1. “ Time may be gained for one or two extra ploughings, between the 25th of June and the 25th of July, or even the 25th of August. 2. “ This transplanted crop n>ay follow some Other crop, such as early June cabbages, early peas, or potatoes, kidney beans, white peas, onions, &c. 3. “ It saves much of the expense of after culture. 4. “ It fixes a sure and regular quantity of plants upon the field.” Time and manner of Harvesting. Mr. Cobbet here recommends, (after stating a va- riety of experiments,) “ that the earth be turned off from the roots by an ox-plough, in dry weather, be- fore the hard frost sets in, and then gathered by hAnd, which will save the expense and trouble of loosening them by the spade, and greatly expedite the work. “ The crop when pulled, may be secured over the winter in the usual manner of securing potatoes, either in the" cellar, or in pits dug in some dry part of the field, and covered close and secure.” Uses and mode of applying the crop. Under this head, Mr. Cobbet goes on with a lengthy statement, to show the following valuable uses to which this most excellent root may be apjiiicd to great advantage. 1. “As feed for cattle, cows, sheep and hogs, both raw and boiled, or steamed, (which is preferable,) or even poultry, when boiled or steamed. 2. “ Cows that give milk, breeding sows, ewes with (heir lambs, and even pigs at weaning, are greatly iHE farmer’s manual. Cl bcnefitted by the use of Rula Baga, especially when boiled, or steamed. 3. “ This root far surpasses the turnip when fed off by sheep with hurdles, or otherwise, or by hogs upon the field. 4. “ The lops, when cut before the roots are gather- ed, are valuable as green feed for all the stock men- tioned above. An acre will yield about 4 waggon loads.” Mr. Cobbet next proceeds with an ingenious cal- culation upon the profits of a farm of 100 acres, with 12 acres of Rnia Baga, 13 acres of Indian-corn. 12 acres of orchard, under grass, three acres of early cabbages, an acre of Mangel Wurtzel, (or scarcity- root,) an acre of carrots and parsnips, together with such white turnips as can grow conveniently with his corn, after the last ploughing and hoeing ; and forms this result. "b With these crops, which would occupy 32 acres of ground, 1 should not fear being able to keep a good house in all sorts of meat, together with butter and milk, and to send to market nine quarters of beef, and three hides, a hundred early fat lambs, a hundred hogs, weighing twelve score each. These altogether would amount to about 3000 dollars, exclusive of the cost of 100 ewes, and three oxen ; and I should hope the trees in my orchard, and the other 56 acres, would pay the rent, or interest, of the farm and labour, with the taxes.” It will be noticed here, that Mr. Cobbet calculates to spend all his crops upon his farm, and thus secure to himself the advantages arising from the manuuc they would make. If any one should doubt the prac- ticability of this plan, let him turn over to the Salem Alms-House Farm, and cojujiare for himself; that farm had not the advantages of the Ruta Baga crop. As Mr. Upton has not given to the publin .his particular mode of managing his faim, and out his crops, I will supply its place by contintSng 6 62 THE EARMEr’s manual. this extract of Mr. Gobbet’s proposed process in detail. “ My feeding should be nearly as follows. I will begin with February ; for until then, the Ruta Baga does not conic to its sweetest taste ; it is like an apple, that must have time to ripen ; but then it retains its goodness much longer. I have proved, especially in the feeding of hogs, that the Riita Baga is never so good, till it arrives at a mature state. In Februa- ry, I should begin with my Ruta Baga as above ; my three oxen, which would have been brought forward by other food, to be spoken of by and by, would be tied up in warm and commodious stalls, well littered and cleaned frequently. The Ruta Baga, chopped into small pieces with a spade, and tossed into their manger, say two bushels per day, would make ihem completely fat, without the aid of hay, corn, or any other thing. If I killed one ox at Christmas, one in March, and one in May, they would consume about 260 bushels of Ruta Baga. “My 100 ewes would begin upon Ruta Baga at the same time, (February,) and continue until July. They will eat about 8lbs. a day each ; so that for 150 days, it would require 120,000lbs. of Ruta Baga, or 2400 bushels. “ Fourteen breeding sows to be kept the year round, would bring 100 pigs in the spring ; they and their pigs would consume about the same quantity. “ Three cows and 4 working oxen, would, during the 150 days, consume about 1000 bushels. 1 should then want 500 bushels of Ruta Baga upon each of my f2 acres; (i have this year raised 600 ;) which may easily be done. “lam now come to the first of July. My oxen are fattened, and disposed of. My lambs are gone to market, a month ago or more. My pigs are wean- ed, and of a good size, and now my Ruta Baga is gone ; but my ewes, kept well through the winter, will soon be fat upon the 1 2 acres of orchard, and THE farmer’s manual. 63 hay ground, aided by my three acres of early cab- . bages, which are now ready to begin cutting, or rather pulling. The weight of the crop may be made very great indeed. Ten thousand plants will stand upon an acre, in 4 feet ridges, and every plant ought to weigh three pounds at least. I have shown before, how advantageously a crop of Rula Baga might fol- low these cabbages, and so might a crop of buck- wheat. My cabbages, together with my hay fields, and grain fields after harvest, with about 40 or 50 waggon loads of lluta Baga greens, would carry my stock well till December, (cabbages being planted at diflercnt times,) and from December to February, Mangel Wurtzel, or scarcity, with white turnips, would keep my sheep, cattle and breeding sows plen- tifully ; and my 100 fattening hogs would be more than half fat upon the carrots and parsnips; or I should keep my parsnips over till spring, and supply their place with corn for the fattening hogs ; which would consume about 3 bushels to each hog to com- plete their fattening, the remainder should be reserv- ed for sows when giving milk, or the ewes occasion- ally. Thus all my hay and oats, and wheat, and rye, might be saved and sold, leaving me the straw for lit- ter ; these surely would pay the rent or interest and taxes and labour. “ If it should be objected that 1 have taken no ac- count of the mutton, beef and pork my house would consume, neither have 1 taken any account of the 100 summer pigs which the 14 sows would bring, and which would be worth 200 dollars.” Mr. Gobbet goes on to state, “ that his stock would, in one shape or another, give him more manure than would amount in ulility to a thousand tons weight of common yard manure, which would give 10 tons to the acre annually and thus concludes ; “It is better to have one aerp of good crop, than two acres of bad. If the one acre can, by double the manure, and dou- ble the labour in tillage, be made to produce as much 64 fHE farmer’s manual. as two other acres ; the one acre is preferable, because it requires but half the fencing, and little more than half the harvesting, with half the interest and taxes, as two acres. “ A heavy crop upon all the ground that I can put a plough into, is what I should seek, rather than to have a great quantity of land.” N. B. Mr. Cobbet has not noticed the profits upon young stock, with which he might have consumed his hay, nor the culture of pumpkins, which are certain- ly a nutricious and valuable crop. Neither has he noticed the method by which he proposes to supply his farm with manure : doubtless his hogs would pro- duce an abundance for all his purposes, if properly littered, and this would also surpass in value his earth, when burnt into ashes. These two manures, when combined, would support his system of farming for ever, without exhausting his farm. Mr. Cobbet '. cry justly excludes the horse from the profitable stock upon his farm, and treats him as an article of luxury and convenience only. This doubtless will taud as a general principle, with very few excep- :ions. If Mr. Cobbet had combined the profits of the dai- ry with the improvements of his other 56 acres, (as mentioned before,) his farm would doubtless have been more complete. This every farmer can do to luit his convenience. In my former remarks, I have not noticed particu- larly the several rotines of crops used in England, be- cause the crop of Indian-corn, which is so valuable in this country, is not known to them, and is not ad- mitted into their system : they substitute barley, oats, peas and beans, in their fattening, for the Indian-corn, and arrange their crops accordingly. 1 have given but one example, which includes In- dian-corn, and every farmer can vary this example to suit his own convenience, or the particular state of his farm. He will readily see the necessity of pre- THE farmer’s manual. Go serving the due proportions, and regular succession in his variations. I shall conclude this remark ou- the roline of crops, with the following remark of Sir John Sinclair. “ The most effectual mode of increas- ing and preserving the fertility of weak soils, is, by having a division of them in pasture, thrown out of the usual rotation for 3 or 4 years; and then brought •in again, so that in the course of a 21 year’s lease, each division, in its turn, remains in grass for a pe- riod of time. Every part of a farm thus derives a proportional share of the advantage of being kept in grass which is preferable to th4 plan of preserving one part of a farm constantly in grass, and the other in tillage. On the whole, the convertible system of husbandry, where a large proportion of a farm is cul- tivated for grain, and the remainder for grass and green cro|)s, is in general to be recommended. By the grain crops, a sufficient quantity of straw is pro- vided as food for cattle, or for litter to be converted into dung ; whilst, at the same time, a fair profit is to be derived from the grain. The superior advantages of that system, can only be questioned by those who have had no advantages of obtaining accurate infor- mation. “ The.se departments of liusbandry, when conjoined, (i.istead of being kept separate,) reciprocally contri- bute to the support of each other’s prosperity.” Indian-Corn. The season is now past for planting your Indian- corn, and it is to be hoped that you have ploughed deep, upon a well sj)read coat of manure, or planted your corn with a shovel full of rich manure in the hill, or rolled your corn in plaster oi Paris, or put in a large spoonful of plaster into each hill ; but if you have neglected all these sureties tor a good crop, you may correct your error in this monlli ol .lune, by dressing your corn-hills at the several hoeings, with a handful of plaster, or of live, or leached ashes, which 06 THE FARMER^S MANCAt. will greatly benefit your crop ; particularly upon lands of a light and gravelly soil. This practice of dressing the hills, does best when applied at the first hoeing, and repeated again at the third hoeing; the first brings forward the stalk, and the last the ear. When you weed your corn at the first hoeing, turn oft’ the furrows from the hills with your plough ; this will leave a ridge of light loose earth between the rowsf which will be prepared to dress your corn with, by ploughing it up to the hills at the second hoeing. At your third hoeing, or hilling, strike a deep furrow be- tween the rows, and haul up the earth to the hills with the hoe ; but keep your plough as far from the hills as possible, that you may avoid the extended fibres of the roots, which, if cut with the plough, would injure your corn. Avoid the Corn-harrow at your first weeding, as is practised by some ; this leaves the earth close, or heavy, and dead between the rows, and injures your crop. Be sure that you finish hilling before your corn begins to silk and tas- sel, (or blow out, and set for the ears ;) nature should then be left to herself undisturbed, or your crop will be injured. The farinae, or blossom, upon the tassel, js as small and light as the finest flower ; this, when ripe, falls off" gently, and lodges upon the silk, which surrounds the c«b ; this again, the husk, by its pro- gressive growth, covers and protects from the weath- ■ r, or other injury ; each particle of farinae becomes a kernel of corn, adheres to, and is nourished and supported by the juices of the cob; whatever dis- turbs the corn in this state, shakes off the farinae ir- regularly, and renders the filling out of the ears ir- regular. The farina; of Indian-corn are so extreme- ly small and light, that they have been known to float in the wind, and mix in other fields of corn of dift’er- ent kinds, at the distance of 80 or 100 rods*. * If your corn U planted on ridges, upon manure spread at large upon the ground, and covered witli the plough, preserve your ridges ■jnhrokcn through the season ; horse-hoe the furrows, (a plough with THE farmer’s manual. 67 Pasture grounds and Fencing. These articles are of high importance in good farm- ing; but perhaps of the smallest consideration in the estimation of the American farmer. If ten, fifteen, or twenty acres of rough, half-fenced, undrained, or dry and unwatered pastures, were, by clearing, draining, watering and fencing, rendered as productive as one hundrecT acres now are, in their present neglected state; 80, 85, or 90 acres of the remainder might either be applied to tillage, with advantage, or bring an additional revenue in the same ratio, if continued in pasture ; both by the increased number, and value of the stock they would feed. Fencing is a certain ratio of exiiense, rent and inter- est, the farmer pays for the use of his lands. If the pro- fits upon an acre of ground, exclusive of the expense of tillage, give g 24, and it costs the farmer g 6 per annum to maintain the fence ; then his clear profit will be $18; but if with the same ex|)ense of fencing, his field brings him but $ 12 clear upon his tillage, he then gains but $ 6 ; this is paying interest with a witness. If he neglects his fencing, his whole crops, however valua- ble, may be destroyed ; this is sinking both principal and interest ; therefore, enclose no more land than you can both fence and improve well. AVould you make the most of your farm, apportion as small a part as possible to pasture, and multiply the value of this, by intersecting it with cross-fences into as many enclosures, of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8', or 10 acres each, as may be found best, according to the situation and size of your farm, and the number of your stock ; and according to the situation of your brooks, springs, or other conveniences for watering ; thus you may mul- a double mould-board would answer well,) and earth up your corn on the ridges with the hoc, the roots of your com will extend upon the ridges unbroken by the plough, and derive the greatest possible benefit from your manure ; tlie labour will be less, and the crop much better than in the usual mode of ploughing across the ridges. 68 THE farmer’s manual. tiply the value of your pasture grounds by frequent changings, and your stock will have a regular succes- sion of fresh feed, untrodden, and otherwise unin- jured ; the advantages of this will soon be perceived in your stock generally ; but will be most evident in your dairy. Your cows are the prime object of your pasture grounds ; therefore never suft’er your horses or sheep to enter your dairy pastures ; they not only crop close, and thus protract the time for the regular successive croppings ; and also, expose your pastures to the scorching rays of the sun, espe- cially in time of drought ; but they also select the finest and choicest feed, which will afl'ord the great- est nutrition to your cows, and thus destroy your best interest. Your division fences in your pastures, de- signed for your cows, or cattle, and horses, may be made light, with two or three rails only, if of a good height ; no adjoining ci’ops of tillage will induce your stock to break out of their enclosure ; but your fences dividing off your pastures from your tillage enclo- sures, cannot be too secure ; you may then till with safety, and rest with security, without damage, or anxiety. Where water is scarce, and difficult to be obtained for your pastures, (when multiplied as above,) you may select some small stream, spring, or pond, or even a reservoir of water, such as an ar- tificial pond, or large trough, supplied from some neighbouring spring, and enclose your pastures so as to have four or more enclosures centre in, or upon the brook, pond, or reservoir, and thus secure water for the whole. I have seen careful farmers, water 50 or 60 acres, or more, (from one pond or spring,) when divided into separate enclosures, in this manner. A little experience will soon show the value of this mode of improving pasture grounds, and lead to a practical knowledge highly interesting, and valuable to ottr country. Plaster, or live ashes, sown upon your pasture grounds, will not only repay a handsome profit, by THE farmer’s manual. 69 increasing the quantity and value of your feed, by bringing in the finer grasses, such as white clover, &c. but will greatly improve your lands for a potatoe fal- low, and a succeeding wheat crop, whenever you may wish to take a proper advantage of a rotine of crops. In some parts of our country, the pasture grounds are infested, and too often overrun with the white birch, thorn, and other noxious shrubs ; my own ex- perience will not enable me to say what are the best and most effectual methods of clearing, and pre- venting a successive growth ; the owners of such lands might soon ascertain this, and carry it into effect ; this is the most slovenly part of our husband- ry, and must be cured. Bushes cut in the old of the moon in August, and the sign in the heart, generally die. Such arable lands, as are worn down by bad til- lage, and upon the dry and hilly parts of your farm, you may reclaim by sowing white clover with oats, two or three pounds to the acre, and devote them to the pasture of your sheep; half a bushel of plaster, or a bushel to the acre, sown in the spring, or fall, would richly repay tlie expense and trouble, both in your feeding, as well as in your successive fallow, and grain crops. The value of this mode of hus- bandry, in fattening your sheep, and bringing forward your lambs, I shall consider under the article Stock. One more hint upon pasturing, will close this num- ber. If your pasturing is short, in proportion to your stock, and arable lancfs, break up early in the spring such fields as you design to fallow, (without a fallow crop of potatoes,) and sow a bushel of spring, or winter rye, or one and a half or two bushels of oats to the acre; they will spring quick, and yield you a rich and profitable early feed for your sheep, or cows ; in July, or August, you may feed close and cross-plough as usual, without any apparent injury to your successive grain cro|) ; particularly if you dress your field at sowing, either in the spring, or au- tumi^ with one or two bushels of plaster to the acre. 70 THE farmer’s manual. This, amongst many others, goes to assist the farmer to take every possible advantage of the several parts of his farm, at each successive season of the year, with the greatest success and profit. Coarse or hog meadow, by draining, may be con- verted into pasture grounds, which for a time will be- come more profitable; but with a little attention in cutting up the bogs, and keeping them down smooth, with a common bog- hoe, such lands may be greatly improved in their pasturage state, and by the assist- ance of manure, they may be reduced to mowiti^ of a good quality, at a very small expense; 10 bushels of lime to the acre would do well. If it should be ne- cessary to carry your drains across your plough lands, where an open ditch would obstruct your ploughing, waste your grounds, and become foul with noxious weeds, which by their seeds would also foul your lands ; you may lay a cheap covered drain to pre- vent these evils, in the following manner, viz. dig your drains with as much descent as possible; lay upon the bottom an oak or chesnut plank, 12 inches wide or more ; cover it with two others, 6 or 3 inches wide or more ; let the covering pieces rest together at the top, over the centre of the bottom plank ; fill up your ditch and till as before ; such a drain is both cheap, and easy to he laid, and also to be kept free ; the til- lage upon the ground where it passes, will soon re- pay, and if your drain is conveyed into other mowing, this also will richly repay. Arable Lands. In the course of my remarks, I have noticed parti- cularly the subject of pasturage, mowing, and the til- tage of arable lands, with a reference to their gene- ral and particularcullivation ; both in regard to then' present profit, and future improvement in value. " The subject of arable lands, as regards the general improvements of a farm, shall now claim some atten- tion. THE farmer’s manual. 71 Here, let me repeat again my former remark. La- bour and manure, are the basis of good farming. Is your farm so situated, that it may be cultivated upon the principles of a. general rotine of crops, (as before laid down,) enter immediately upon this sys- tem, and let this be your plan : 1. Assign so much of your farm to the purposes of the plough, as you can manure well, either with plas- ter, or the stronger manures, as before mentioned, (see article Manure.) 2. Keejj no more lands under grass, for mowing, than you can consume upon your farm wi'h profita- ble stock, unless in the neighbourhood of some large town, where the sale of your hay will buy you ma- nure. 3. Keep no more stock upon your farm, than you can keep well, either by pasturage or soiling, and for the following reasons : 1. Because one acre of plough land, well manured, will yield twice or thrice the product, as when tilled without manure. For instance, suppose you have 20 acres of rye and wheat fallow-,, in a steady way. Put 5 acres to clover, with plaster, the first year; and put 5 aeres more to clo\ er the second year ; cut the first 5 acres of clover, and feed it upon your farm ; continue to feed otit your clover upon your farm, and pul the dung your clover has made, upon such part of the remaining 10 acres, as may need it most; sow grain as usual, and the next year, viz. the third year, stock down 5 aeres n.oro with clover, arid turn in the first five acres of clover, which you stocked down, to supply the place of the third 5 a( res you have iiow stocked driwn. 'rinis you will have 10 acres of clo- ver, and 10 under the plough or in grain, in a steady way. After one rmntion in this way, jour 10 acres kept under tlte plough, will yield you more grain, and of a better quality, than the 20 did before; continue this practice, and in a few rotations, tin- 10 aert s w dl yield you double, or treble to what the whole 20 did 72 THE farmer’s manual. at the first, in the old way. Should you increase your stock, in this way, beyond the extent of your pastur- age, multiply your pasturage, as much as possible, by division fences, (see Pasturing,) and convert a part of your clover fields to a temporary pasturage ; this will improve their quality when under tillage again. In a few years, you may derive more profit from the stock only upon your farm in this way, than the whole product yielded before, and a double profit ujion your tillage grounds at the same time, together with the ag- gregate rise upon the value of your farm generally; in addition to all this, you will live better and much easier; tiy it and sec. I am sensible that it will require some capital to enter largely upon this method of farming ; let this be 110 bar to the system ; if you possess Inc means, enter upon it with spirit and liberality ; its principles are founded upon the broad basis of common sense, and common practice, both in England and America ; it will repay you faithfully and liberally. If your means are small, enter upon it by little and little, as you can proceed without getting into debt, (I here repeat again, farmers must never be in debt.) When you buy slock for your pur|)oscs, buy cows ; they will increase your stock with the least expense, and the best as well as most immediate profit. It is a common reflection of our country, upon the general system of bad farming, now in common prac- tice, that we run over a great deal of land, half fenc- ed, half ploughed and half tilled, at great labour, toil and expense, without order, calculation, or method ; and finally, without profit ; and that we obstinately persist in this, because our fathers die! so before us. The truth of these reflections 1 acknowledge, and have offered a system which will com|iletcly correct the error; but the reflection upon our fathers, I re- sent with spirit and indignation, as both cruel and unjust. Our fathers were the wisest, most virtuous, hardy, industrious, economical and valiant race of THE farmer’s manual. Tt; men, that ever conslituted a community. Would you realize the truth of this remark, look at the face of the country which they subdued ; the foes they van- quished ; the civil, religious ancU literary institu- tions they founded, and transmitted down to us, and which we so richly enjoy. These reflections upon our fathers, are used indiscriminately to prejudice our minds against the characters of our fathers gene- rally, and as much against their excellent institutions, as against their system of husbandry. Vindicate their excellent characters, by preserving their wise institutions, as well as by correcting their system of husbandry ; not because this was bad in them, but because it has become bad in us, under the changes the face of the country has undergone since their days, and under our bad tillage. Let us remember, that this system of husbandry which 1 have laiil down, would l.ave no more, and no better applied to our fathers, than to the present inhabitants of the fer- tile wilds of Illinois. The soil was alike with both, in a rich virgin state ; the more corn they could plant, and the more wheat they could sow, the more profits they derived from their farms; so, that what in them, under that rich state of soil, was good farming, has become to us, under the exhausted state of the soil, bad farming. Let this apology pass to the credit of our fathers ; but let it not be used as a cloak to cover the obstinate practices of imitation, in any of their descendants. The times are changed ; the face of the country is changed ; the quality of the soil has changed ; and if we will live as well, and become as rich and respectable as our fathers, we must cultivate their virtues ; but abandon their system of farming, and reclaim their lands, which have become exhaust- ed by bad tillage, in passing down to us ; this can easily be done by labour and manure, under a regu- lar rotine of crops, w'ith large and flourishing stocks of cows, cattle, sheep and hogs, with as few horses as the nature of things, and circumstances of our 7 74 THE I’ABMEr’s 6IANUAL. farms will possibly admit. The horse is a useful and valuable animal in the service of man, and his ser- vices are indispensable to his comfort and con- venience; but he is the most unjirofitable stock upon your farms. * 1. Because his high price exceeds all proportion to his productive labours. 2. His expense in raising, exceeds all probable calculations upon the profits of his sales in market. 3. His support requires such feed as robs your dai- ry ; your beef-cattle and hogs, for fattening. 4. He yields you no substitute for your dairy, beef and pork. 5. He is more liable to disease and accidents, than other stock, and, at his death, becomes a dead loss. He does not like the sheep, even leave a fleece in pay- ment. Whenever you keep or raise a horse, let him be a good one; such, and such only, will afford you any profit, either upon your farm, or in market. I shall conclude my remarks upon arable lands, with the following observations of Sir John Sinclair. “ The advantages to be derived from the alternate, or convertible husbandry, cannot be loo much dwelt on. None but those who have tried it, can be fully aware of the vast improvements effected, by laying down old ploughed lands into grass, as well as con- verting old pasture lands into arable ; (see my re- marks, article Pasture.) If one million of acres of old tillage lands were gradually laid down into her- bage, and the like extent of old pasture, broken up and put under a judicious rotine of crops, it would probably be the means of supplying the public mar-' ket with two million stones of beef and mutton addi- tional, and three million quarters of grain. Under that system, the crops are always abundant, and the soil is kept in a constant slate of increasing fertili- ty.” — Code of husbandry. Again, “ If one half of a farm be kept under arlili the farmer’s manual. 75 cial grasses and other green crops, as much live stock may be supported and fattened upon their produce, as if the whole farm were in pasture ; while the other half, enriched by the large quantity of dung produced by the consumption of these crop, will furnish as much disposable produce, for supplying the markets with the various sorts of grains, as if the whole farm had been kept under tillage. Hence the superior ad- vantages and profit, derived from a conjunction ol stock and corn husbandry ; by such a union, the grand system of husbandry can be more extensively and substantially improved, than upon any other plan hitherto discovered.” — Siticlair^s Code. JULY. Indian-Corn and Haying. Vou doubtless have half hilled your ludiau-corn, and cut your clover in the month of June. Every careful farmer will now dress his hills with ashes, or plaster, to render his earing heavy and full, and get through with his hilling as far as possible, before his English mowing claims his attention : any inter- ruption in time of haying, is both unsafe and perplex- ing. Some fanners delay their hilling until haying, to husband time, calculating to hill when the weather is foul and unfit for haying ; this is the worst calcula- tion possible. The damap to your corn by such delay, is bad ; to hoe or hill when your land is heavy, or wet, is bad ; it leaves your land tight, excludes the free circulation of air to the roots of your corn, and is a waste in the delay of hoeing, both in time and strength ; all which are bad. Select, therefore, the finest weather for your several hoeings ; your land will plough easy, hoe easy, your weeds will wilt and die in the sun, and your corn will be refreshed with a 76 THE rARMER'’s MANUAL. warm, loose, or light earth, which will readily receive the air and moisture, to nourish your corn. The manner in which these unite, or combine in produc- ing vegetation, 1 have considered under the article Oypsum. Your corn being dressed and hilled ; watch your English meadows critically ; cut your English spire- grass when green, as soon as the blossom appears, it is then the best of hay ; if you suffer it to stand until the seed begins to form, and the stalk turns yel- low, it becomes tough and wiry, and from being the best, it becomes very soon, in this state, the worst of hay ; therefore, 1 repeat, watch it critically, and when It comes to perfection, suffer no j)ossible avocation to delay your cutting. Your timothy claims also alike attention ; this, when cut in early blossom, is the best horse, or stock hay, next to the English spire-grass, and by some is pre- ferred for horses, even to this ; but if you suffer it to stand until the blossom falls off, and the seed be- gins to form, and the stalk, or even the under leaves, begin to turn, the true value of your crop is lost, and your hay becomes comparatively bad ; therefore, cut your English and timothy when in blossom, and cure, by spreading into three swath winrows, all swaths cut before noon ; turn it lightly as often as your time and hands will permit ; and get into cock by 5 or G o’clock, all the hay spread upon your field ; this is both safe and profitable, both as to time and expense, as well as in the value of your hay. You may take a second cutting to advantage from your English spire-grass, but never from your timothy, or herds- grass, without an injury to the crop the succeeding year ; therefore, be content to take the second growth, by feeding lightly, and sufler as great a coat to lie on the ground over the winter as possible; the next year will repay you with interest. Your common meadows of mixed, wild and coarse !'ra's.cs. will claim your attention in regular succesr the tarmer’s manual. 77 sion, after you have turned up and planted with po- tatoes such rich swards as you design for wheat til- lage in autumn, or for spring and sumnrer tillage the next season ; (be sure to accomplish this by the mid- dle of July, if possible.) When your potatoes are planted, and your harvest is cut and housed, enter with spirit upon your late haying; let nothing interrupt your progress; if the weather is foul, but not rain}', continue to mow^ ; when the sun appears, your swaths will be ready tor turn- ing, and in this way, your haying will progress rapid- ly; unless you are slovenly, by putting off the evil day, and prophesying smooth things, and leave your hay in the winrow. or spread about your fields, until the thundergusis, and storms overtake you ; your bu- siness is then obstructed and thrown into confusion, your expenses increased, and your hay ruined. 1 hese evils, a careful farmer always avoids, by keeping his hay always under his contvol, verj/ eertmordinarifs e.T- cepud, and thus his hay is good, and commands the first price in market ; his barns are sweet, his ex- penses are light, and his purse is heavy. As soon as your harvesting is through, plough in such parts of your richest Stubblefields as you in- tend for turnips ; dress your turnip ground with plas- ter, live, or leached ashes, or well rotted manure from your stercorary, and sow, and harrow, or bush in, one pound of seed to the acre. This process will insure you a good crop, and guard your soil against the bad elTecls of this exhausting root. If you can take advantage of feeding off your turnip crop with sheep, by hurdles, upon the field, you cannot raise too many ; the feeding will enrich your soil and your flock ; but if your calculation is to pull for market, you cannot raise too lew ; the profits upon the crop will not repay the expense of tillage and damage to your land. You have doubtless given your buck-wheat lands one fallow ploughing in Jane ; cross-plough and sow 78 THE rAKMER’s MANUAL, half, or three quarters of a bushel, or if your land la poor, one bushel to the acre at this time ; it is a poor crop wh(;n considered in point of tillage, (unless roll- ed down and ploughed in as manure, as a fallow for winter grain,) or for the value of its grain; but it makes up one of the varieties of husbandry, will an- swer upon some poor soils, in place of some other crop, and may with safety precede any of the crops in a regular rotine, excepting Indian-corn ; this grain will not flourish after buck- wheat. No insect will injure your buck-wheat crop ; but your turnips are often exposed to the destructive fly, which frequently ruin the crop. To secure your tur- nip crop decidedly against the fly, steep your seed 12 or 24 hours, before sowing, in fish, or train oil ; drain off the oil from the seed, and roll the seed in plaster ; this will separate the seed from the glutinous adhe- sion of the oil, render the casts free, and enrich your crop; all other steeps at times are said to fail; this is not only cheap and easy, but is said never to fail ; it will always preserve the crop. The value of turnips as feed, either upon the ground, or when pulled and housed, either for sheep, or cattle, I shall consider at large, under the article Stock, when the season for tillage is over, and the farmer has more leisure to read, and when his stock will necessarily claim his particular attention. IVheal. 1 have said very little upon the cultivation of wheat by the use of compost, barn-yard, or other strong ma- nures ; they generally answer well upon a moderate soil, for one or two crops ; but when continued upon the same fields, or used upon a rich soil, the crops of wheat are generally ruined by the rust on the straw, (commonly called the blast.) Farmers are all full well acquainted with the fact ; but even the best wri- ters are not agreed as to the manner in which the rust is produced. They are generally agreed in this, that THE farmer’s Manual. 79 at the time of the filling of the kernel in the oar, the warm rains, or warm moist weather, cause an exhala- tion from the surface of the earth on which the wheat grows, which lodges upon the straw, and forms fun- gus excrescences, of the toadstool kind, and that these excrescences absorb the juices of the straw for their support, and thus check their natural course to the support of the kernel, which cavtses it to shrink, or blast. Remarks. So much of this is true, that the rust on wheat gene- rally commences at this time, and under these circum- stances, viz. in w’arm rains; or a long season of warm, moist weather. But does not this combination of heat and moisture, at this lime, bring into action the rich manures, and thus force into fhe straw, (which has now finished its growth,) more juices than the kernel, (already filled out,) can take up, or than can pass oil' by natural perspiration, or evaporation? and do not these juices force open, or burst the straw, and thus sulTer the sap to exude through these small fissures, or openings, or even through the natural pores of the straw, or stalk? and do not these exudations, when exposed to the air, become glutinous, and form that excrescence upon the straw called rust, and thus rob the kernel of its natural sujtport, and cause it to shrink, or blast? It is not so essential in this instance to know the manner in which the eft’ect is produced, as to know the true cause and the best remedy. The true cause is the application of rich manures to the cultivation of wheat, upon a strong, or rich soil ; or their too frequent application, or too long continu- ance upon light, or moderate soils ; both are danger- ous, and admit of but one remedy, and even that a partial one. Cut down youf wheat as soon as the kernel becomes affected, and begins to shrink, and let it cure in the gavil ; the exuding fissures, and pores, will immediately close, and the remaining so THE farmer’s manual. juices will support the kernel in the same state as when you cut the grain ; it will rather swell than shrink, after cutting. This is always safe, and must not be neglected, if you regard the ralue of your crop. The same causes often produce the same effects upon rye, and the same remedy will always prove efTeclual. I have said nothing in particular of the several kinds of wheat in common use. 1 have sown the t white bald wheat and the red-beSrdecT wheat, gene- rally, and when free from rust, they have done well*. The red-bearded spring wheat, when the seed can be obtained from Canada, or VcrmoiU, I have found to an- swer well, for one or two years ;’but never the third, from the growth of the same seed ; it then runs out, and must be renewed from the northern country. I have generally found my spring wheat more inclined to smut than the winter wheat, unless I use the pre- caution of steeping and rinsing it, as before observed. The stiff’ straw wheat, which h now coming into use, may become a safe crop against the Hessian fly, which alone will render it a great acquisition to our country ; should it prove equally safe against lodg- ing, when grown too stout and rank, as well as against the rust, and the fly, it tvill soon become of universal „se — upon this we hope much; but I can say nothing from experience, and have seen no authentic experi- ments on which 1 can rely. Steeping and rinsing seed-wheat to prevent rust, have been fully noticed. Several other remedies are noticed by Sir John Sinclair, as practised in England, viz. selecting the red wheats generally, as being hardier than the white. Sowing earlier than the common mode, say on or about the 1st of September, insteail of 1st of October, that the wheat may become ripe before the usual times of rust come on. Sowing thicker also at the saine’tiine, he remarks, will some- f In alt the recent experiments in the Agricultural Society of HartforJ County, a great preference has been justly given to tlic reJ-beftrUed wlieat. THE farmer’s manual. 81 limes answer. Exchange of seed, either from for- eign countries, or different sections of tlie same coun- try, will sometimes prevent rust, and will otherwise well pay the expense and trouble. Crossing the dif- ferent kinds of wheat, by sowing the seed commixed upon the same field, and thus obtaining a new kind ; this will generally prevent the rust. The same writer recommends a top-dressing upon wheat, of sea-salt, or a manuring of salt ploughed in with the wheat, or even with a turnip cropj as pre- paratory to a wheat crop, as a sure remedy against the rust. Whenever lands become too strong by the rich manures, they will always occasion the rust, and they should be invariably tilled with corn, or pota- toes, as a preparatory crop for wheat, and then dress- ed with salt, or plaster only ; but never with the rich manures ; this process will generally succeed, if the seed is pure. The same writer goes on to observe, that wheat sown with rye, by way of meslin (so call- ed) is never subjected to rust, either in England, or in Italy, and closes all his ingenious remarks upon the causes of rust, with this conclusion, “ That the dis- ease is taken up at the roots.” This conclusion goes to confirm tny former remarks, which were drawn from my own experience and observation. The same writer has given us some nice calcula- tions upon the value of straw generally, as well as the comparative value of the several kinds of straw, and draws this general conclusion ; that straw generally, cither for feeding, or litter, is of one third, or one half the value of hay, and should be as carefully preserved, and used for both these purposes ; but ob- serves, at the same time, that straw, used for feed, should be given out as soon as threshed, otherwise it will become dry and of little value. Remarks. Straw when used for feeding cattle, is most valua- ble when fed out with clover, or when sprinkled with strong pickle, and fed alone ; unless when cut fine 82 the farmer’s manual. and mixed with provinder for horses, or mixed with boiled flax-seed for fattening beef-cattle, as will be shown by J\lr Landon of Litchfield. All these modes of using straw, fully show its value as an object of importance to the careful farmer ; but the improve- ment of Mr. Landon, gives it a value of the first im- portance. When straw is used for litter, either for hogs, cattle, or horses, it is generally allowed that one ton (the usual product of one acre of wheat or rye) will produce four tons of manure ; this will dress one acre of corn, or potatoes, in the hill, and thus give a profit on the crops of 10 or 15 dollars ; where- as 5 dollars may be considered as a fair market price for straw for feeding: leaving a balance in favour of littering, of 5 to 10 dollars, besides the benefit from the warmth derived by the cattle and horses ; •allow- ing the increased value of the land to pay for carting, &c. By this value of straw, when used for litter, may. be seen the value of stubble when mown, and carted into the hog-pen, or barn-yard, or even housed for litter for the winter ; the undergrowth which gene- rally may be mown with the stubble, will both in- crease the quantity and value of the stubble, for litter, if applied in its green state to the hog-pen, or barn- yard, or even cured and housed for the winter’s litter. The dilference between the value of such stubble, when mown and used as above, and when left to waste on the ground, will not admit of a comparison. Try it and see. Although the practice of ridging in stub- ble and its undergrowth, immediately alter harvest, may be accounted good husbandry, especially when labour is difficult to be obtained, yet if the farmer can find time to collect his stubble as above, he will always find it to his interest, provided it be done im- mediately after harvest, before the straw has suffered waste. Tillage. Should you have been under the necessity of driv- ing your arable lands too fast with Indian-corn, or THE farmer's manual. 83 Other exhausting crops, without resting and refresh- ing them by a regular rotinc, or succession of crops, and thus have reduced your fallow grounds below the advantage of tillage with a potatoe fallow; you may I'ecover such lands in one season, by sowing early in June, or July, from one to two bushels of buck-wheat to the acre, upon a deep ploughing; and ^ when your crop is in full bloom in July, or August, roll down the buck-wheat with a common farm roller, or where this is wanting, you may perform the same ^operation with the back of your harrow, (giving it an additional weight, as occasion may require.) This should be done by laying off your field into lands, as you intend to plough, so that your plough may not bc_^ choaked by crossing, or meeting the heails of your buck-wheat. Care should be taken to bury your crop as deep as possible, that the buck- wheat may all be covered, and the depth of your soil im- proved by the fermentation. The heads of the buck- wheat which may appear uncoveretl upon the field, may be prevented from seeding, by one or two light harrowings. This crop will undergo a strong fernien- tati(yi, and prepare your old tired fallows tor a suc- cessful crop of winter grain. If your field is of a light sandy soil, you may sow rye, or even wheat upon the tops of your buck-wheat furrows. In the season of sowing, drag in your seed with a long toothed drag, or cover your seed with the plough, as you choose. If jou have a clay, or stiff ^^oil, you may cross (ilough in August, and proceed in the usual way of soH'ing ; both will answer well. This pro- cess will prepare your field for a clover crop, (.tee article Clover,) which may be cut for hay, or rolled and ploughed in, when in full bloom, after the manner of the buck-wheat, and thus prepare your fields for any successful tillage yrni may choose. I cannot say' from experience, that the English while potatoes may- be planted with success upon the top of your buck- wheat dressing; but as the potatoes will not exhaust V 84 THE PARMER^S MANUAL. your soil, or lessen the value of your wheat, or rye crop, tl\e experiment may be tried with safety, and with strofit; probability of success. Before that most valuable article, plaster of Paris, came into use, or the mode of tillage, by deep ploughing, with buck- wheat, or clover, were known as above, I have reco- vered my old tired fallows by suffering them to lie for pasturing, 2 or 3 years ; and then, after a summer’s feeding, have turned over the sward, and sown rye with good success upon one ploughing, when 1 could catch a dry seed-time, so as to render my field mel-'* low with the harrow ; and with bad crops under a wet seed-time, when my land was heavy. This mode of tillage would be greatly improved, by sowing one or two bushels of plaster upon the first year’s pasturing, and by tilling with a potatoe fallow with plaster, when you plough up your field. If you sow plaster broad-cast upon your furrows, before you plant your potatoes, it will best improve, both your potatoe and rye crop, or if you choose to sow plaster, cither in or upon the hills of your potatoes, you may sow your plaster with your grain, at seed-time, and cover it liglyly with the harrow, ..or upon your grain without covering ; both will answer well. How to preserve your lands in the highest possible state of cultivation, at the least possible expense, I have attempted to show under the article Rotine, or Change of Qrops. Harvest. For this most important business, you have had a whole season, or I may say nearly a whole year to prepare. 1 presume, not one single farmer has left this employment to be attended to collaterally, when some other jobs may be finished ; but has had his eye upon it as a tvoik of the first moment, and is now ready with hands, and tools, and teams, provided. Your rye harvest first claims your attention; is 'the I'HE FARUEr’s manual. 8d straw all turned, excepting at the joints ? and is your kernel become so hard, that you cannot mash it be- tween your thumb and finger ? or is the straw below the ear become so dry, that no juice can be forced out by twisting it? you may put in the sickle, if the weather is fine, and cut, and bind, and shock as you go, generally; but if your stalk is very stout, and your ear full and heavy, let your gavils lie until the after part of the day, (ihunclergusts excepted ;) you may then bind and shock, stack, or cart, with safety, provided you house your grain where it can have free air, or your mows do not become too large; in this case, your grain will need more curing. The ad- vantages of beginning early upon your harvest, arc several. 1. Your grain will yield more, and whiter flour; will waste less by shelling; your harvesting will be expedited, so as to prevent the waste of shelling, by having your last cuttings become too ripe, as is common when the first cuttings become fully ripe, at the commencement of harvest. ■ You will have more time to attend to your turnip crops, upon your slub- b]e lands, before the wheat harvest, or after the wheat harvest. You will also be in readiness for your wheat harvest, which you may cut and manage, as in your rye harvest. If you take the same pre- cautions against heat in your gnin, as in your clover, by having your mows ventilated underneath, with proper openings up through them, for the circulation of air, the trouble will be trifling, compared with the safety and benefit. When your harvest is housed, you have secured the prime object of your farm ; bread — this is truly the stalf gf life ; the basis of good hu-'bandry, and good living. If you discover a rust upon the straw of your rye, or wheat, as is common upon lands highly manured with rich compost, or yard dung, you may conclude vegetation is checked, and that your grain, either be- gins, or will soon begin, to shrink. 8 86 THE TAIIMER’s MANUAL. Lose no time with your sickle; cut down your grain, if the kernel is formed into a consistence ; the Juices in the stalk will afford more nuiriment to the kernel in the gavil, than when standing, and your crop will be saved from ruin. This method is always safe, and must never be omitted. When your straw is cured, shock, stack, or house it, as before. One or two days, in good weather, will cure your grain in this state ; but if the w’eather proves foul, bind and stark, or shock, for security, and open your stacks in fair weather, until they are fit to house. Every conside- ration must give place to the saving of your crop. Ridge in with one-bout ridges, such stubble lands as you design to winter fallow for spring crops. AUGUST. Your harvest is housed, j'our late potatoes are planted, and your turnips are generally sown. Your late haying, and your oats, now claim your particular attention. Proceed with your late haying as with your English, and timothy ; if you gather it in a care- less and slovenly manner, and suffer it to be exposed to the rains, as being of little value, and not worth a careful expense, it will repay you in your own way, and will become truly of little value ; but if you col- lect and house it with proper attention, it will be the more valuable, and will repay you with interest. Be sure to finish before the 20th of August. Watch your oats, as you have done your English harvest; cut them when the .straw is partially green, a d as soon as the oat has formed into a consistence. The grain will be better, the straw more valuable for feeding, and a handsome saving in the shelling; but when you house them, use a little more caution than with your grain, in ventilating your mows; the oats will pack closer, and be in more danger of heating, than your grain. ” THE farmer’s manual. 87 Your haying being closed ; your oat harvest secur- ed; your cross-ploughing finished; your early plant- ed potatoes will now claim your attention. Your white, and yellow potatoes, are first ripe; take them belore the vine is entirely dead, and haul them out of the hills with a three-tined hook- fork : in this state, they will generally adhere to the vines, and by one stroke of the fork, the hill will be nearly cleared ; but if you suffer your potatoes to stand until your vines are dead, the coats of the yellow, and white potatoes, will soon begin to rust, and grow defective ; they will also sever from the vines, and the expense of digging with the hoe, nearly, or quite doubled. To save expense and labour, is ready money, in all business ; but in farrahig, it is ready money with interest, because it saves time, which is more valuable to the farmer, who is engaged about his farm, than money. 1 can say from my own knowledge, that one man, with such a fork as above, can throw out of the hill, after two hoeings, and when the vines are partly green, more than 100 bushels of potatoes in a day ; but how many the same man could dig with the hoe in the same time, I have no knowledge. Your potatoes should be gathered, and housed, as soon as dry, to preserve them from injury, from cat- tle, and the weather. Your early potatoes generally command a good market, and a fair price ; but one of your b§g^t markets is your hog-stye. The value ot this ro* when boiled and mixed with bran, corn, or oat-meal, and given to hogs to bring them forward to fatten, may be fairly estimated at 2s. or 2s6 the bushel. Gather your potatoe-vines, coarse hay, and stout stubble, and fill your hog-pens. Cart in turf, and other rich earths, and cover the vegetables in your hog-pens ; the great heat, and warm rains in dog-days, will bring your manure forward fast. Spare neither time nor expense; it will prove a rich mine. Flax and Hemp. Your flax next claims your attention ; this, if you de- sign it for the nicest domestic manufacture, you will 88 THE farmer’s HANCAL. pull when the blossoms begin to turn, and fall off, al- ter the Irish method, and rot it in the water, after the manner prescribed for rotting hemp ; {see hemp pro- cess.) 11^ you let it stand for seed, observe when the stalk begins to turn, and the under leaves fall off, then pull your flax, and, in both methods, bind up as you pull, in small bundles, and set up your bundles in small bunches, to dry ; or spread it upon the ground for se- veral days, if the weather is good, and then bind, and stack against the rains, in long stacks, with the buts, or roots out, and cover your stacks carefully with loose flax, that will shed off the rains, or your flax will be injured : the better way is to house your flax as soon as dried, as carefully as you have done your har- vest. Yoii may rot it in the water, or dew rot it, by spreading it upon your grass grounds, in Sep- tember, after the seed is carefully beat off by the flail, in the usual way of threshing, or beat ofl’ by hand, by whipping each sheaf across a barrel, or some other permanent body, such as a flax, or hemp brake, &c. The seed when cleaned is valuable^ either for the home, or foreign market, and commands a fair price, and good pay. No time can be fixed for rotting your flax, either in the water, or on the grass, both depend upon the warmth of the weather, and the latter upon the moisture of the season*. The success of your crop depends very much upon a suii^Je rot ; to obtain this, you must frequently dry a hand^l, and try it in your brake, and when the rot is perfect, lose no time in turning again your flax, to dry and take up ; and when dried, lose no time in housing it ; the least delay may expose it to a rain, at this season of the year ; this, if the weather is warm, or if cold and long, will injure, if not ruin your crop ; the same is equally true with your hemp. Next to your flax, your hemp claims your at- tention ; this requires a process somewhat dif- * When you rot flax'in the water, a ponJ or pit answers best; this confined water renders the flax soft, but will not answer for hemp. 89 i'HE farmer’s manual. ferent. When you observe the under leaves upon your male hemp begin to turn yellow, and fall off, after the period of blossoming is over, divide ofl your hemp-field into rows, 4, 5, or 6 feet wide, by pulling up the hemp clean, in alleys of 2 feet wide, in the intermediate spaces ; bind up the hemp as you pull, and carry it out, and set it up to dry, 10, 15, or 20 bundles in each bunch, and house it as soon as it will answer, without heating. You may then go on to pull out the male hemp from the female, (which bears the seed,) by passing in the alleys, and reaching into the rows, and pulling up cacli male stalk separately ; bind, and carry out, and stack as before, until you have separated the male from the female hemp ; house when dry as before. After 10 or 15 days, when the burs in your seed-hemp begin to open, and the black seeds appear, lose no lime in pulling, binding and stacking your hemp, as before; the hemp-birds- will become numerous and busy, in quest ot seed ; your hemp will shell, and your loss Vrill be great. In bind- ing your hemp, select two spires of the shortest of the best coated hemp, for bands ; for it you use the short undergrowth, which has but a thin coat, your bands will fail you in rotting, and your.hemp will sufl’er waste, by becoming loose, besides the difficulty, trouble and expense of binding over again, your bundles, when wet and heavy. When you are ready to put your hemp into water, say -about the first of October, (which should always be in some river, or brook, where the water changes often, and' not in a pond, or any stagnant water; this will become foul and |)Uirid, and the stench so great, that few persons can be found to draw your hemp,) you may thresh oil. the seed with a flail, as in (lax, or hold a bundle with one hand across a flax, or hemp-brake, and whifi out the seed with a hand-statf, upon a tight floor: the seed is va- luable for the same purposes as your flax-seed, either for the hotne consumption, or a foreigti market. The rotting of your hemp is al-^o critical, like your flax. 90 THE EARMEr’s manual. and must be watched and tried, when dried, in the same manner. If you draw your hemp from the wa- ter in October, or even in November, and the weather proves warm, it will over-rot before it can dry in the bundle ; you mujt spread, arjd dry it, as soon as pos- sible, and house it for the winter; but if the weather should be cold, you may set up your hemp across your fences ; and if it gets dry before the frosts of winter set in, house it as before, if not, and your bun- dles become frozen, you may let them stand over the winter, and house and dress in March, or dress from the field as they stand. The difference between the dressing of your hemp and flax, is this; your hemp- brake must be about twice the size of your flax- brake, in all its proportions, for the first braking ; and then if it is run through a flax- brake for a second braking, it will greatly expedite the swingling. Your swingling- knife must be about half the length of the flax-knife; the swingling- bogrd about 4 or 5 feet high. The shives must be separated from the hemp, by stroking gently with your knife, instead of whip- ping with a full stroke, as in flax, and by gently shak- ing the hemp, between the strokes, and all without the hatchel, as in flax. There is a great slight in dressing hemp; an expert hand will swingle clean about lOOlbs. per day. When your hemp is dress- ed, it must be bound up in bunches of 20 or 30!bs. each, and then it is ready for market. Hemp is a great exhauster of soil ; requires the strong- est lands, and richest manures, in great quantity ; re- quires also, much labour, and is of course an unprofita- ble crop in our country. In time of war, it has proved profitable, and may become so again ; of course its mode of culture should be correctly understood. Your hemp, as well as flax grounds, should be turned up into ridges in autumn ; the ridges should be levelled with the plough in the spring, as soon as the frost will admit; your ground then dressed with 10, 15, or 20 loads of your best manures, well spread and covered THE EARMEr’s manual. 91 with the plough, your fui rows smoolhcd gently with the vharrow, and your seed, say from 2 to 3 bushels to the arre, sown early in May, and covered lightly with the iKM'row. If you sow on the furrows, and cover deep with the harrow, or sow on a stilT soil, your hemp will pull very hard. Paring and Burning. This mode of culture in England, appears to stand high in the estimation of Sir John Sinclair, and all the best English writers ; and where labour is cheap, as in England, it doubtless, in many instances, will answer well ; but the true result of this mode of tillage ap- pears to arise from the fertilizing powers of the ashes derived Jrom the sward, when pared and burnt*. So far as this goes to show the value of ashes sown upon land, to increase the value of tillage, leads me to in- tjuire, whether the sward, when turned in to rot, un- der the furrows, together with one half of the expense of paring and burning, when laid out in wood-ashes, and sown upon the tops of the furrows, would not, in this country, answer a much better purpose for the succeeding crops, and give a more permanent, and lasting value to the land, for an after tillage ? If any one can be at a loss for an answer, let him try and see. Summer Fallowing. This is one of the most important branches of good farming, and upon which has arisen a great variety of opinion, and practice. Some farmers are of opin- ion that the ploughings for a summer fallow, cannot be too frequent, and that all fallow crops are injurious to the land, and particularly to the succeeding crops. • Quere. Whether lime sown upon the sward before ploughinif, and the crop then dressed with ashes, would not be jnore valuable ttiaii paring and burning. 92 THE farmer’s manual. Others consider all naked fallows as a waste of ex- pense, without any adequate benefit, and insist upon some fallow crops, either of turnips, to be fed off by sheep, or of potatoes, to be dug for stock, or of buck- wheat, or clover, to be ploughed in as a fertilizing crop. Both probably are in an error, and run into the opposite extremes. A strong stiff clay, or a hard gravelly soil, cannot be ploughed too often for a fal- low ; but a loose sandy soil may be greatly injured by too frequent ploughings. The latter may be till- ed to advantage, with a potatoe fallow jisand the for- mer by a turnip fallow, to bo fed off by sheep ; orafter several ploughings, with the fertilizing fallows of buck- wheat, ploughed in : but a rough stony soil cannot be tilled with a fallow crop to advantage; this land, and perhaps this only, requires a naked summer fallow. The great advantages to be derived from a summer fallow are these : 1. Frequent ploughings destroy the herbage upon the fallows, and the roots and seeds of herbage, and thus render the grounds clean for the following crops. 2. This is greatly promoted by a potatoe fallow, both in hoeing and digging. 3. The plough renders the earth light and mellow, to receive the seed when sown, and to admit the exten- sion of the roots of the grain, when it vegetates. 4. At each ploughing it changes the soil, aqd ex- poses a new surface to receive the benefits of the sun, air, rains and dews, with their fertilizing powers. 5. It renders the earth light and pervious, for the admission of the sun, air, rains and dews, and opens a free ciirulaiion for them to the roots of the grain, (or plants, whatever.) and thus they impart their fer- tilizing properties to the vital princi])les of the crop you cultivate. 6. The green fallow, when ploughed in, as well as the poialoe fallow, *greatly promote this benefit, by meliorating the soil. Upon this principle, the plough, with the fertilizing crops, upon a summer fal- THE farmer’s manual. S3 low, ore the only substitute for manure, under til- lage ; because the effects are the same, with this ex- ception, that the meliorating efferts arising from the fermentation of strong manures, are both greater for the time, and more' permanent and lasting. The ma- nure, also, will continue to assist the plough, in me- liorating the soil for after crops, by causing a new fermentation upon every new exposure of surface to the air, until the strength of the manure is wholly ex- hausted. Hence again, the value of your potatoe fal- low, to increase your number of stock, and quantity of manure. SEPTEMBER. Begin the second cutting upon your English mow- ing grounds ; but let your timothy stand for feed ; remember that rowen requires double the drying of the first crop, or the hay will be bad, and give your horses a cough, and the heaves. Top the stalks upon your Indian-corn close to the ears, as soon as the car becomes too hard to boil, when the weather is fine ; bind in small bundles and stack in small stacks, the same day, to secure against rains; your corn will ripen the faster, and receive no injury, and your stalks will be more valuable. If your hay is short, or you wish to sow winter grain after your Indian-corn, or secure your corn against the effects of early frosts, you may cut up your corn- hills close to the ground, in fair weather, with a sharp knife or sickle, and lay two rows into one, in small bundles, as when you top and secure your stalks ; bind your bundles above the ears, and stack the same day in small stacks, either u])on the borders of your field, or upon an adjoining field ; you may then plough and sow as upon fallow grounds ; secure your stacks by doubling down the tops, and binding the 94 THE farmer’s MANOAL. . < heads with a pliable stalk ; this will exclude the rains, which otherwise would damage, your corn. This corn will be ripe at the usual time, without the least diminution in its colour, weight or value : but in the opinion of some of the best farmers, (who are in the steady practice of this mode from choice,) with an increased value to the grain. The increa.sed quan- tity and value of your stalks, will, richly pay the ex- pense ; you may in this way bring forward the sow- ing of your winter grain, 2, 3, or 4 weeks, which will again at harvest repay the expense of clearing your corn-fields. If you house your corn-stacks before you husk your corn, the pitching will be heavy, and your bundles often break, and your places for hous- ing, be difiicult and inconvenient, and often exposed to your cattle ; therefore, husk your corn on the field, and empty your baskets into your cart as you husk, always remembering to leave the husk upon the stalk, by breaking off the cob ; these will again re[)ay your expense, in feeding. The difference in the mode of husking, will at first be considerable ; but a little practice will soon remove this, and render them equal. It is of high importance for every farmer, to know every mode of culture, that will af- ford him successful advantage in managing his farm, and in this point of view, this does not rank as one of the least. If you plant the Canada corn, (so. called,) it will, by early ripening, bring forward your sowing 10 or 15 days earlier than the great tucket, or com- mon corn, with crops of equal, if not of superior va- lue. which is also of .some importance. Enter with spirit upon your) potatoe fallows; dig, house, or market, with all the help you can muster. One man c.an throw out of the hill, with a hook-fork, as many as 5 or 6 hands can pick up and cart ; chil- dren ran be of great use in gathering your potatoes. Clear your poorest lands lii'st, and sow your rye upon them in the first week of September, if possi- ble ; say one bushel to the acre : your rich grounds THE farmer’s manual. ds will bear to sow as late as the last week in Septem- ber, and be as forward when the frosts of winter set in, as your poorest lands, sown in the first week. If the weather is fair, and your grounds dry, at seed- time, you may cover with the harrow, unless upon a clay, or stiff soil, which is apt to bake, your crop will then be best when covered with the plough, upon narrow lands, with deep furrows ; also, when the wea- ther is moist, and your lands wet and heavy, cover with the plough : in both cases, the harrow, after co- vering, leaves the land close and dead, and yrnir grain will lack roots' sufficient to insure you a good crop. I have said, say one bushel of rye to the acre, because this is the common practice, and it does well • but some farmers sow only half a bushel to the acre! others again only one peck to the acre, where the soil i.s light, and not exposed to be killed by the winier. I can say from experience, that I have sown 1, 2, 3 and 4 pecks to the acre, upon a light soil, and upon the same field, and could not discriminate correctly the diflerence in the ajipearancc of the grain, at har- vest ; yet I practice the common mode of one bushel to the acre. Let experience be the only guide to your practice. This is the time to ensure your crop ; let your lands be well prepared, and rendered as mellow as possi- ble, by deep ploughing ; let your seed be steeped lor 24 hours, belore you sow ii, in a strong pickle of sca- sall, with saltpetre, or in any rich liijuid manure; then rolled in plaster and sown immediately ; then dressed with one bushel of j)laster to the acre, sown on the furrows, if your .seetl is covered with the plough, or it may be sown and brushed in lightly with the harrow. With this practice, and the blessing of God, you may expect a good crop, if your fences are good.; but if they are bad, you have no right to ex- pect a blessing; this is your own willu! neglect. Your orehards, at the same time, eloini y our at- tention ; your early apples, which fall, will soon rot 96 THE farmer’s manual. and waste, if not gatheicd and made into cider. Cluldren ran do the business of gathering apples ; they are the farmer’s richest blessing, and vimen train- ed to habits of industry, become the best members of soeietv, when they grow into life. Let your chil- dren pick up your potatoes, when dug, and pick up and house your ajiples, it will be doubly profitable : first to you, and next to themselves. If your Iruit is made up when ripe and sound, you may generally have good cider, in the common practice ; but if your fruit is either rotten, or hard and unriiie, like the gleanings of your winter apples, no possible process can ensure you good cider. I will wave all the va- rious modes practised and recommended by the nice and curious, and conclude my remarks upon the or- chard, by the following extract from Thompson’s Notes on farming. “ The care of orchards, and the making good ci- der, are so very profitable, that it will necessarily draw the attention of every good farmer. Mr. An- derson, a gentleman in England, famed for good ci- der, gives the following account of his approved me- thod of making it. ‘ 1 .should first tell you that my orchards are upon a clay soil, which I think conduces much to the good- ness of my cider. I will he short in my practical account, making but few observations, and leave the curious to draw speculative reflections from it. I permit my fruit to remain on the trees, until a great part falls by ripeness; then gently shaking the trees, take in the apples in dry weather, laying them in heaps of equal ripeness in a loft over my press. There they remain until they have perspired, and that perspiration ceases. As soon as convenient after- wards, 1 grind my apples, and press out the juice ; if it casts a pale colour, I sufler the pulp to stand 12 or 24 hours, which will heighten the colour of the juice. As soon as it is expressed, 1 pour it into vats, through a sieve, (some filtrate through a hogshead of THE farmer’s MANUAl.. 97 clean sand, after the manner of a leach, and place a large strainer, or sheet, or table-cloth over the hogs- head, to strain out the pumice,) where it remains about two days, according to the state of the weather, and the nature of the. apple, (the longest when frosty, or cool weather,) till a thick head, or scum, rises upon it. Then 1 draw off a little into a glass to see if it is fine, ?ind as soon as 1 catch it so, I rack it off with- out delay into open vats, or into hogsheads. juice is racked into vessels larger at top, than the bot- tom, and 1 rack it off as soon as fine, I need not take off the head, or scum, it will not mix with the cider; but if the cask is straight, or I have neglected to draw oft’ until the cider begins to become foul again, I find I do best to take off the head with a wooden skim- mer, and then draw off as soon as possible. 'When- ever the brown head begins to open in the middle, or elsewhere, and a v/hiteness appears at the openings, I am certain it is time to begin to draw off; but ! find from experience, that tlic surest token is to ob- serve its state by what is drawn off in a glass, and this method should be closely attended to. 1 have drawn a glass of cider out of a vat at 8 o’clock, foul ; another at 10, fine, almost candle bright, without any appearance of the heads opening, as above observ- ed: at 11, it was growing foul fast, without high winds, or any extraordinary event, that 1 could per- ceive, to occasion it. Il then drawn off into open vessels, a fresh head may arise in 24 hours, then it may be racked into a close hogshead, or other receiv- er, where it will begin to ferment after a day or two, according to circumstances ; 1 then permit it to fer- ment 3 or .4 days, (never exceeding a week, for the hardest fruit,) then I fumigate a clean sweet hogs- head, with matches of coarse cloth, dipped in melted brimstone, and rack off my cider into the cask as quick as possible. If the lermentation still goes on, I give it one more racking in this way, and coyer the bung with a tile, until I am sure the fermentation has 98 THE farmer’s manual. ceased ; I then bung close for the winter. Some- times 1 have had the fermentations continue, and force me to 5, 6, 8, lO, or a dozen successive rack- ings, after ! begin to fumigate, and yet the cider has proved good. Many other modes are practised with good success ; but wherever this method is attended to, I will answer for its doing well.’ ” Remarks. The most important parts of this method of mak- ing good cider, are, 1 . The time and manner of gathering the fruit. 2. The care and attention in assorting it, by sepa- rating the hard from the mellow. 3. The packings which separate the liquor from the lees, or fine pumice, which causes the fermenta- tion. OCTOBER. Voo have now dug and housed your early fallow po- tatoes, and finished sowing your rye; enter with the same spirit upon your late planted fallow crops, (such as were planted upon your clover, or English swards,) and proceed in gatheringyour potatoes, and preparing your wheat lands, as you have done your rye ; plough deep, with small furrows. Steep your wheat as you have done your rye, and roll it in plaster, and sow plas- ter with your wheat, plough in, or cover with the har- row, as with your rye. Sow your wheat broad-cast, one and a half bushel to the acre ; this seeding is most generally approved. If your wheat appears to be smutty, wash it clean in some open vessel, where you can rinse it by stirring ; skim off the smutty, and light wheat, and then go on to sleep as before directed ; this will guard against a future smut upon your crop. ■rHE farmer’s MANtJAL. 99 Look to your field beans ; pull such as you follow with wheat or rye, and remove them to the bor- ders of your field, or on to the field adjoining, in small heaps, to cure ; or your sowing may be unnecessarily delayed, to the damage of your crops. Beans are a rich, healthy food for the table, occasionally, in winter; are valuable feed for your hogs and sheep, are easily raised, and do not exhaust your lands. Even the poorest light lands, or the stiffest clay, with a little plaster, either in, or upon your bean-hills, will give you a profitable crop, which, if pulled, ana cured as above, may serve as one of your fallow crops, " y®'* use plaster at sowing, as before directed. One of the great mysteries of farming is, to suffer nothing t® f®* main idle, but to make every article of your farm, both animate and inanimate, produce some steady, a^nd substantial profit : this a careful farmer may always do. Your orchards claim your steady attention through this month. Gather your winter apples by hand, from your trees, and put them into your spare flour-barrels, or any dry barrels, directly from the trees ; head them up, and let them remain in the open air, either upon the field, or in some other safe place, until the weather becomes so severe, as to endanger their freezing ; then house in your cellar, such as have not been marketted; the saving in this way will doubly repay the extra expense of picking by hand, and the cost of the barrel. Children can do the business of picking, with small baskets, or with bags slung over the shoulders, (as the seeds-man slings his bag at sowing,) with the assistance of a careful h^nd to move their ladders, and fill and head up the barrels. 1 have, in some seasons, gathered 3 or 400 bushels upon my farm in this way, in a few days, and always with good success. If you design your apples for the Southern or Wcst-lndia market, you may pack iheiH in your liarrels with clesn dry sand, at little ex- pense, and always with good advantage. I have of- ten done this with my winter’s store, and with a saving. 100 THE farmer’s MANOAL, Some persons construct shelves in a cellar, secure against frost, and place their apples separately upon the shelves, and find an advantage in saving their fruit over to the spring, which fully repays the expense. This does well, and may be considered in the end cheaper than barrels, as the shelves (if properly con- structed) will last many years ; but the barrels, by neglect, are soon gone. Try both. I need not say tiiat great care should be taken with your orchards, to cultivate the best fruit ; this every larmer knows, who deserves the name of farmer, and the manner of effecting this by grafting, has become common (o our country. I shall treat upon this sub- ject more particularly in my remarks upon gardening ; article Fruit. Finish gathering your late fruit for cider, make it up as fast as possible ; make some trial of Mr. Apderson’s plan, or method, to begin with ; if it pays the expense this year, you may reap advantage from it the next, besides the enjoyment of drinking good cidei’. In Newark, in New-Jersey, they have be- come famous for good cider, by such kinds of ma- nagement, and their cider always commands the first sales, the highest price, and best pay, in market; often a double price, when scarce in market. This is a consideration which no careful farmer will neg- lect. ® Look to your flax, and turn it when necessary, as the upper surface will rot faster than the under side. Lqok to your hemp, or flax, in the water, and see that it .js well covered with the water, and that it lies safe, (not being washed away with the great rains.) Dig and house your carrots and other roots, you design for feeding ; excepting your turnips and cab- bages ; these may stand to close your field crops. Draw your flax from the water as soon as it will an- swer, (upon trial as above,) spread it to dry ; and bind and house it the first moment it will answer : one extra rain may ruin your crop, or destroy your profits. Observe the same with your hemp. tHE VARMEr’s manual. 101 Watch your corn in your corn-lofts, turn it often, that it may dry even, and not mould, especially if the weather is warm and rainy ; bin up your first corn, in narrow bins, as fast as it will answer with safety, to give room for your late husking ; this valuable crop requires nice attention ; select the fairest and ripest ears, as you arc husking, for your seed-corn, particu- larly those with the smallest cob, and best filled out at the ends. Now is the time to improve your next crop. By pure seed, and by selecting the earliest, or the ripest, you may bring forward your after crops 10, 15, or 20 days ; this will secure your Indian-corn against early frosts, and ought not to be neglected; or will enable you to cut up by the bottoms, as before observed, 10, 15, or 20 days earlier, and thus im- prove youi' late sowing*. It is of the highest advantage to the farmer, not only to know how to cultivate in the best manner, each particular crop separately, but how to combine this cultivation with the improvement of other crops, so as to be able to make the greatest advantage from the seasons of seed-time and harvest. The same is as true with the seed of your potatoes, and all other crop.s, as of your Indian-corn, and may as easily be attended to, and improved, and to as good advantage. _ _ ^ Get your (lax all in from rotting, in the coul^ ot this month, if possible, and house it snug and dry ; secure your hemp, as fast as it will answer, before November ; the season becomes critical for such crops. Finish making and marketing your cider, and place such casks as you may reserve for domestic * This improveDieut majrbe extenJed still further ; you may se- lect your scod-corti from your field, taking the ripest ears, at dill'er- ent stages of your corn, (beginning early iu September,) and from the most thrifty stalks ; this will bring forward your next crop ; but if you select your seed from such stalks as produce two or more ears, y»u may, by pursuing this practice, double, or treide your quantity ef com upon the same grounds, with the same tillage. 102 THE farmer’s manual. consumption, at the north side of your buildings, where it may be kept cool, until the frosts of winter set in, then stow it away in your cellar. Plough into one-bout ridges (with deep ploughing) such grounds as you design the next season, for hemp and flax ; the extra benefit you will derive from the frosts of winter, and the rotting of the herbage, will richly repay the expense, in your succeeding crops. NOVEMBER. Your carrots, potatoes, and other roots, together with your Indian-corn and flax, inustnowall besecur- ed and housed ; and your.hemp is also housed, or un- der a proper management, and in a good way. Your orchards are cleared, and your cider all made, and your ridge-ploughing for winter, generally through : now let your farm-yard claim your first attention. Cart on to your mowing grounds all the manure col- lected i.i your barn-yard, and in your stercorarios, and hog-pens, through the summer, spread it in moist wea- ther, or before a rain, as even as possible, and brush it down thoroughly with a light harrow, or a thorn- bush, or any other bush that will answer the purpose ; your moist grass grounds, which cannot be washed by drains, or enriched with plaster, and your young clover, claim your first attention for fall manuring. Two loads of dung well spread on grass lands in the fall, are equal to three in the spring, in ordinary sea- sons ; but if the following May and summer should prove dry, two loads in the fall are equal to four in the spring. This is too serious an advantage to be neglected. After all your care and attention to this most important branch of good farming, through the summer and autumn, if your dung should fall short of your demands, you may now supply the defect, by re- serving your high and dry gravelly, and sandy lands THE farmer’s manual. 103 for your plaster of Paris, and dress with one, two, or three husheK to the acre, as the tillage may require ; and upon your moislrr grounds, you may spread your live, or leached ashes, in hroad-cast, according to the quantity you can collect ; they will richly repay for several successive seasons. Drains which convey a wash on to your mow- ing grounds, arc of the highest value; and now claim your serious attention ; therefore, repair, mend and secure your dams ; dig or plough out your drains, change their directions on to a new surface, (otherwise the parts last washed will be in- jured by becoming too rich and rank, and your grass will come forward and lodge, and rot at bottom, be- fore the other parts of your field arc fit to (mow) cut, and thus you suffer a two, or three- fold waste, from your inattention.) One gallon of water in winter, from the rains and melted snows, will exceed in va- lue many gallons of summer water, when applied as a wash to your mowing grounds. Your barn yards being cleared as above, and your drains well secur- ed, and as well directed ; your stabling and sheds to receive your slock, next claim your attention. If you arc ready for the expense, without injuring your other improvements, or contracting debts, (« farmer should never be in debt,) let ydur barn face the soutl^^- close one rood of land, or less, (according to th^um- ber of your stock,) in a square form, erect low and frame sheds upon the east and west sides of your yard, w'ith a single roof, that shall convey the water, or rains, off from the yard ; let the sheds extend as a side fence upon two sides of your barn-yard, from the corners of your barn, with cribs, or racks, for your cattle to feed. Next to good feeding, are warm and dry coverings for your stock. Let your barn-yard form a gentle descent, at or near to one corner, where the heavy rains may settle ; throw into this the coarse clearings of your cribs, refuse straw', buck-wheat straw, &c. these will ferment, and form a reservoir of 104 THE FABMEr’s manual. long dung in the spring, to dress your corn and pota* toe grounds. Let your barn-yard be furnished with separate racks, standing in the open air ; into these, throw your loose straw when you feed out your clo- ver in your cribs; your horses and cattle will cat up your straw clean in this way, and to good profit, by passing alternately or successively from the cribs of clover to the racks of straw, and thus mixing them to their liking. In stabling, it is of the first importance that your cracks be battened, y'our windows and doors snug and tight, your floors tight and secure, your mangers strong and tight, that you may feed with carrots, po- tatoes, or turnips, as occasion may require ; thus you will have the double advantage of good feeding, and warm stables ; both which are of the first importance in good farming. If you cannot afi'ord the expense upon your barn- yard, as above, you may make cheap sheds for your stock upon the sides of your yard as above, by set- ting substantial crotches, at proper distances, as sup- porters ; place such poles as you can conveniently col- lect, upon your crotches, with others extending across, with a gentle slope, or descent; cover with coarse hay‘, or straxv, as is most convenient : a few boards, q^e^ny quality, tacked upon the back sides, will 5l|ind your cattle from the winds, and make a cheap fence, at the same lime. You may reserve from your fences, when you repair them, such posts as are sound at top, and have rotted off at bottom, and set with these a crib fence, three rails high, and of a suitable width: they will stand well for several years, and make you the same saving of hay as the nicest cribs. You may also construct straw racks in your yard, by setting down two posts, with one rail fixed in the posts, of a suitable height, and place a number of old refuse, or broken rails, upon each side, alternately, to rest upon the rail fixed in the posts, as a support- er, and extending its whole length, fixing the bottoms - THE farmer’s manual. 105 of the cross rails firm in the ground, with a slant to your liking, to form your rack. These cribs, and racks will be both cheap, and of a great saving in your feeding. Draw your late rotted hemp, and set it up across your fences, for a winter’s drying. Cart into your barn-yard every thing that may be converted into manure. Crop lightly your late feeding grounds, such as clover, timothy, or English mowing, both by your cattle, horses and sheep. Feed oft' your turnips with your sheep, as they stand, by the use of hurdles, if possible, and in the following manner, viz. collect a number of chesnut stakes 6 feet long, and about 3 inches square, and sharpen them at the bottom; nail on to two of these stakes five strips of boards, (sawed for the purpose,) of about 4 or 5 inches wide, and 10 or 12 feet long, fasten each strip with two 10 penny nails, in each stake, thus nailing on the five strips at such distances as will be of sufficient height to secure your sheep in their enclosure. When you have pre- pared a sufllcient number of hurdles to enclose one or two roods of your turnip field, let two hands set the hurdles for the enclosure, with a crow- bar, or a wooden bar sharpened for the purpose ; this may be done quick, and at very small expense in the fol- lowing manner ; let one hand (after the hurdl^MH laid round the place of enclosure,) hold uj) a h^wre erect, and the other with the bar strike into the earth the holes for the stakes, (at the foot of each stake,) then filant the hurdle ; then the next, and so on in succession, until the enclosure is finished ; then turn in your sheep, cows, or cattle ; when one enclosure is fed off, and you have a desire to enrich that particu- lar spot, for any special purpose, as for onions, car- rots, scarcity-root, &c. you may juill the rest of your field and cart on your turnips and feed them upon the spot ; but if it is your wish to eto ich your whole field for wheat and clover, you may remove your hur- dles, and set again, and thus feed off the whole crop ; 106 THE FAIIMER’s MANUAL. this easy way of enriching your farm, together with its profits, needs no comment. One set of hurdles will last, with careful usage, and careful housing, 20, 30, 40, or 50 years, provided they are taken up and secured before the frosts of winter fix them in the ground, and thus expose them to the weather unne- cessarily over the winter. Cover with deep plough- ing the manure of the first enclosure, as soon as you have changed your feeding; this will secure against all loss from evaporation by the sun, and give your land an immediate advantage from the fermentation, before the frosts of winter set in. Plough in this manner successively, at your several movings, until you have fed and manured your whole field ; thus your land is prepared for any crop you may choose, and at a small exf)ense, with a handsome profit. Your fat sheep arc now ready for market, and your lambs and store sheep are prepared to winter, safe and cheap. The growth on your wool will repay all your ex- penses, both in its quantity and tpwlity. Plough up clean and deep such stubble, or sward grounds as you design for Indian corn the next sea- son, particularly such as are accustomed to be eaten by the cut, or grub-worm ; you will find this practice an effectual remedy. Salt, when sown on the sward, w^jDroducc the same effect. 'Harrow your land, when ploughed, as fine as possi- ble ; this will prepare it to receive a benefit from the air and frosts of winter, that will richly repay your trouble in the next crop, whatever it may be. House your cabbages; set out in some convenient part of your cellar such as you design for the table, ami place those intended for stock in some open shed, or loft, where they will lie secure against heating un- til they are fed out . — See Stock, Pull and house your turnips designed for market, and the table, or winter feeding, and secure them in your cellar against frost. THE farmer’s manual. DECEMBER. '07 Your farming is now all done, and I trust well done ; no man has thrown away a dollar unnecessa- nly upon new and visionary schemes, by making experiments upon English farming in our country ; or lost two dollars in saving the expense of one cent stock of manure, iiloughing, and tilling his fields, draining and bogging his wet mowing grounds, or not manuring, plastering, or washing his dry mowing grounds, or bv not rinsing and steeping his seed- wheat, or by sowing too spar- ttigly, or by not steeping and plastering his seed-rye, oats, barley, &c. or by neglecting to steep his Indian- corn at planting, and rolling it in plaster, or even by not plastering or ashing the hills, or even by neglect- ing to plaster his potatoes at planting, or at hoeing ; or what is worse than all, by neglecting to plaster his young clover, and suffering his fences to be out of repair, and thus waste his crops ; with all the tram of evils which follow ; poverty, disgrace, dis- tress and ruin. I am persuaded that every farmer who reads this work, has applied his money liberally, and to the best^ advantage, and is now prepared to amuse himself in the rare of his stock, in the social enjoyment of his friends, his family, and his fire-side, through the long approaching winter, with his heart lull of graiiiude to that God who is the parent of Na- ture, and of all her productions, and who has thus enriched him with the bounties of his common provi- dence, rewarded liberally the labours of his hands, and given him all things so richly to enjoy. Farmers,^ you are, under God, the lords of this lower creation ; in obedience to the command of God. you till the earth, nature’s vast store house ; into your hands she pours her wealth, through a thousand tributary streams, and from your stores are fed the inhabitants of the palace, and the cot. This high, this elevated, this ennobled rank in life, is calculated 108 the farmer’s manual. to show you your dependence upon God, the author of nature, of nature’s laws, and of nature’s works; to teach you such hundlity as will necessarily result from these conclusions, that although you can plough and plant, sow and reap, yet of yourselves, you can- not produce one spire of grass, or explain how it is produced ; you cannot effect the formation of one shower, or explain its effects upon the vegetable world ; this should teach you love to God, and bene- volence to men ; freely you have received, freely wive. From the vast store-house of nature, your cup overflows witli her richest blessings ; it becomes your duty to use them without abusing them. Select a full share of the best for your own comforts ; impart in fair market, for the support of the community, such as the consumption demands, and the reasonable support of your revenue requires ; and, with the re- mainder, be liberal to the virtuous and industrious poor. These are plain practical duties; but sources of incalculable satisfaction and enjoyment. In my remarks under September, the care of your orchard was noticed; let me call yoqr attention to an important article of this valuable and productive part of good farming. Select some convenient part of your garden, or field, contiguous to your house ; plough it early in this month ; harrow and strike it out with your plough into rows four feet asunder ; strew these furrows with pumice from your cider-mill, (se- lect the pumice from such fruit as you would wish to cultivate,) and cover it lightly with the plough; keep down the weeds for 2 or 3 succeeding years, until your trees have acquired the height of 3 or 4 feet ; thin out and transplant, at the same time, leaving the trees in your rows 6, 8, or 10 inches asunder. At tills stage of your jiursery, (2 or 3 years growth,) you may propagate such fruit as you may choose, by bud- ding, (a mode more safe and expeditious than gicft- ing;) without checking the growth of your trees. For particulars on budding and grafting, see Garden- THE farmer’s manual. 109 ing. Such trees as have already come to maturity for field setting, may be removed to the best advantage in this month, for three important reasons, viz. 1. The farmer generally has more leisure time, than in April. 2. If the trees are taken up when the top of the ground is slightly frozen, so as to hold the earth about the roots of the trees, they will be sure to livi‘. 3. In setting, be sure not to plant your trees be- low the rich mould; fill in with the richest of the mould, and give a top dressing. With this, they will be more sure than when set in the spring. Now is the time to form your orchards to the best advantage ; therefore, never sufl'er your trees to begin to head short of six feet, and even ten would be bet- ter than six ; this would admit the sun and air, to warm and fertilize the ground under your trees, which will not only cause them to yield more, and better fruit, but enable you to obtain about as much grass under the trees, as in the open air; and in dry sea- sons, you may obtain more. This culture will also repay double for manuring, both in the products of the orchard, and the hay. Slock. Your fences are all in such repair, that neither your own, nor your neighbour’s hogs, sheep, or cat- tle, can take advantage of an open winter to feed on your mowing grounds, or your winter grain, or injure your crops in the spring, before the frost is gone suflfi- cienily for you to repair your fences. This is an ar- ticle of the first importance, and which no carefuf farmer will neglect. Your carts, harrows and ploughs, together with all the imiilements of the summer’s tillage, are securely houseci. Your wood-house is well stored with wood kept over the summer, to last you until the season of good sledding arrives. You have plied your hogs, 10 no THE FAKMER’s manual. since the first of September, with pumpkins, or car- rots, and potatoes well boiled, and mixed with bran, or meal, and you are now driving them with Indian- corn, either shelled and boiled, or boiled upon the cob; this mode of boiling your corn, has been prov- ed to exceed in value the same miantity when ground, and g'iven in the usual way ; ami thereby the expense of toll, and going to ,the mill, are saved ; the pork will be equally hard and good. No more exj)ense will be necessary, in boiling a kettle of corn or po- tatoes, that will hold a barrel, than in boiling your tea-kettle, for the same time ; one gallon of water will be sufficient, provided you cover your corn, or pota- toes close with dry bran or meal, so as to prevent the steam from escaping ; where fuel is scarce, this saving will be an object of attention. You have now collected all your stock from your pastures, and closed your fields for the winter. You have selected such cattle as you have designed for market, and are now closing your sales, particularly all horses, not immediately useful and necessary. This animal is of the least value to winter over, of any of your stock. He requires your best feed, and gives you very little productive labour in winter; yields you neither beef, nor wool, in the spring, and never advances his price in the spring market, equal to one-fourth of the expense of wintering, exclusive of risk and trouble ; both which are very considera- ble. Let your working cattle, cows, sheep, and such young stock as you cE^n be sure to feed wdl over the winter, be selected as the special objects of your winter’s care ; and be sure to market to the best ad- vantage all the supernumeraries. The diflerence in the value between either of these articles of stock, which are full fed, and well kept over the winter, and those half fed, and poorly kept, is greater than I should dare to name; not only in its value the ensu- ing spring, but for all succeeding purposes of such stock. THE farmer’s manual. Ill Your barn-yards are cleared of their summer’s ma- nure, all which is well spread upon your mowing grounds ; (see article Manure /) your sheds and racks are all prepared ; your stables are rendered tight and warm ; your barns, as well as your houses, are all patched wherever a shingle is missing; the glass is all set in your houses ; your house-doors, and barn- doors, are all rendered tight and secure ; your cellars are all banked up where it is necessary, and thus ren- dered secure from the frosts of winter. Your cider is all got in, and put up upon the stalls ; such apples as you put up in barrels for the use of the family, are now snug in your cellar ; your turnips are dug and housed, and your cabbages are all pulled, and such as you intend for the table, are carefully set out in the driest part| of your, cellar; such carrots, beets and parsnips, as you design for the table, would pay you well in their relish and flavour, if you will pack them in sand, in dry casks. Such turnips as you wish to keep late, and preserve from being pithy, co- ver under a heap of loose potatoes, where you cau conveniently draw them. when wanted; you will pre- serve them pure over to the spring. Your French and Swedish turnips, will then supply for the sum- mer. In selecting your stock for the winter, you have been careful to reserve such, and such only, as are of the best size and form, and such-as show the great- est disposition to fatten, at the least expense, and are the most orderly and manageable ; having disposed of all the ill-shaped, unruly, unmanageable, and of a lean disposition ; in this way, you will, in a few years, have under your care a perfect stock, if you are care- ful at the same time to select the best size and form of each kind, to propagate with, or encourage your neighbours, by propagating from theirs if they sur- pass yours. The cultivation of your farms, by good husbandry, has not only taught you how to raise the value of your lands, and increase the profits upon your J12 THE farmer’s manual. crops, at the same time, by tillage, but has taught you, also, that the same attention to your stock, will enable you to derive the same profits from this source of win- ter’s husbandry. The general hints given as above upon the neces- sary attention to your stock, will be sufficient to ex- cite the farming interest generally to their stock; but the best mode of eflecting this, may be learnt from the practice of Mr. Bakewell, the noted reclaimer and cultivator of the Dishley farm, (so called,) in Eng- land. “ The choice of the best breed of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, which is too little regarded, is of great importance to a farmer, and deserves his nicest attention. The expense is as great, nay, many times greater, in keeping a creature of a bad breed, as of a good, and the value is very different. It appears that the Canada breed of horses would be found ex- cellent for the plough, or draught, and the Esopus breed for the carriage. In the choice of horses, the form should be particularly attended to. The Cana- da breed comes the nearest to the form of horses in the highest esteem in England, for draught, vix. that of a true round barrel, remarkably short, and lower over the forehand than any part of the back, the legs also short. The Esopus breed, of a proper size, are sightly horses for a carriap ; they ore gentle, tracta- ble, nnd easily broke, ancf yet have a proper degree of spirit, have a good carriage, are easily kept, and hardy. The Narraganselt breed have been account- ed excellent for the saddle. A cross breed with the .\arraganselt and Esopus, or with the English, (known by the name of the old Ranger breed,) have been ac- counted the best for the saddle in New-England.”— • Thompson’s Koles on Farming. These breeds are nearly extinct in Connecticut: but with proper attention they might be restored. “ Mr. Bakewell (of the Dishley farm in England) has rendered himself famous by his breed of cattle. THE farmer’s manual. 113 His principal aim is to gain the best, whether sheep or cow, which will weigh the most in the most valua- ble joints ; and at the same time that he gains the shape, which is of the greatest value in the smallest compass, he finds by experience that he gains abreed much hardier and easier fed than others. In his breed of cattle, his maxim is, the smaller the bones the truer will be the make of' the beast; the quicker it will fatten, and the weight will have a larger pro- portion of valuable meat,” The shape, which should be the criterion of an ox, bull, sheep, or cow, is that of a hogshead, or barrel, truly circular, with small, and as short legs as possi- ble ; upon this plain principle, that the value lies in the body, and not in the legs. All breeds, whose backs rise in a ridge, are bad. By proper management, Mr. Bakewell brings up his cattle in amazing gentleness ; his bulls stand still in the field to be handled ; they are driven from field to field with a small switch. His cattle are always fat, and this he insists is owing to their breed. The small quantity, and inferior quality of food, that will keep a beast perfectly well made, in good order, is surprising. Such an animal will grow fat in a pasture which would starve one with great bones and ill made. Mr. Bakewell is equally curious in the breed of his sheep. The bodies of his rams and ewes are as true barrels as can be seen ; round broad backs, and the legs not more than six inches long. An unusual proof of their kindly fattening, is their feeling quite fat between the fore-legs, upon the ribs, where the common kind never carry any fat. He finds that hardly any land is too bad for a good breed of cattle, and hardly any good enough to make a bad breed profitable. With regard to the rot in sheep, Mr. Bakewell thinks it is solely owing to their feeding on lands which have been flooded : hence it appears, that sheep 10 * iH THE farmer’s MAHtAtit should not bp suffered to feed on watered iheadows. Water flowioje over grass-grounds after Uie first of May, is sure to give your sheep the rot, whatever be the soil. Mr. Bakewtdl is remarkably attentive to the point of wintering his cattle. All his horned cattle are tied up in open, or other sheds, all winter, and fed according to their kind, on straw, turnips, or hay. The lean beasts have straw alone. Young cattle, which require to be kept in a tliriving state, and fat-; tening ones, are fed with turnips ; and in the spring, when the turnips are gone, hay is their only substi- tute ; by these means, he is able to keep a large stock. His farm, in all, consists of 440 acres; 110 of which, are arable, and the rest is grass ; and he keeps 60 horses, 400 large sheep, 150 horned cattle, and has generally 15 acres of wheat, and 26 of spring grain. It deserves particular notice, that Mr. Bakewcll pays a yearly rent for this farm; and when he came into possession, the farm was so low, from bad ma- nagemwt, as to render it very difficult to rent it at any price. The first attention of Mr. Bakewell, upon enter- ing this farm. Was turned to the improvement of his stock ; this he efl’ected in a gradual manner, by pro- curing the best breeds for their general propagation, until he raised the reputation of his farm, and of his stock, to a rank of the first eminence in England. The method of littering horses and cattle, as is of- ten practised both in England and America, not only renders the animals so much more warm and com- fortable, as to lessen the expense of food, but great- ly increases the quantity of manure, by preparing 10 or 15 loads of long dung to each creature, in a winter, so stabled and littered, either with coarse hay, straw, &c. and thereby furnishes the means of saving the whole (or nearly) expense of wintering, in the next year’s tillage. Now if we lake into considera- THE Parmer’s manual. 115 tion, the extra number of stoc'k the same farm would keep by the culture of the polaloe, as a fallow crop, and thus increase the quantity of manure, by consum- ing the straw, Jkc. for litter, and thus again, by the help of the manure to increase the quantity of hay, grain and straw, as well as potatoes, &c. it will at once be seen, that under this; management, all our far.ms may become Dishley farms, and all our farmers gain the wealth and reputation of Mr. Bakewell; be- sides, the pleasure of managing such a farm, will, of itself, doubly compensate all extra care and attention. JANUARY. Your pork hogs are all now killed, and doubtless marketted to the best advantage, excepting a good supply of the best, which you have carefully reserv- ed for your own use. Your hams and chops, are all put into a strong pickle, to prepare them for smoking ; if you have saltpetre, put it into the p.ckle with your hams, and if the barrel or tub is crowded, turn them often ; and at the end of 4 or 5 weeks, hang them up for smoking. If by any' means your saltpetre should not be dissolved in your pickle with your hams, you may pulverize it at the time of taking the hams out of pickle, and with a wet cloth rub over the hams with the saltpetre, particularly at each end, around the bones, say 1 oz. to each ham i it will strike through immediately, and your hams, when smoked, will be as high coloured, and as tender, as when preserved in the saltpetre pickle. Entire accident discovered this method, and frequent practice has confirmed it. Your beef is also all marketted, or put up for your own use/excepting such as you design for your win- ter’s feeding. If you feed with carrots, your cattle will require some water, but if upon potatoes, they will do best, after the ^st week, to be fed without 116 (THE farmer’s manual. water ; the moister of the potatoe will be found suf- ficient. You may now begin to realize the value of your potatoe fallows; your beef cattle will fatten faster than in the usual method, upon meal and pro- vinder, and your corn may be saved over for the spring and summer markets, which always com- mands cash, and a good price. Your cattle kept for labour, will pay you in their appearance, in their ex- tra labour, and in the saving of your hay, if you give them one peck a head each day. Your cows, also, will repay you in their milk, as well as in their appearance, and saving of hay, if you 'give each one a peck of potatoes each day ; but this is not all, they will make you more butter from the same milk, and pay double the next summer in your dairy*. I have before me an experiment upon fattening beef, published by Mr. Nathan Landon, of Litch- field ; in which he states, that he fattened an ox, and a three year old heifer, without either corn, or pota- toes, for a less expense than even a common feeding, and in the following manner, viz. “ I boiled about two quarts of flax-seed, and sprinkled on to cut straw, which had been previously scalded, and sea- soned with salt, tocether with some oil-cake, and oat-meal ; working them in a tub, with a short pitch- fork, until the whole became an oily mush. I fed the heifer regularly in this way, about two months, when she had eaten about one bushel of flax-seed, with the other ingredients in proportion. When she was butchered, she weighed 384lbs. ; 84lbs. of which was tallow. She would not have sold for more than * One acre of potatoes properly fed out to your stock, will afford you manure to dress two acres well the next year ; the profits on your stock, and on your extra crops, from your extra manure and tillage, will be your second profit j the increased value of your land, will be your third profit ; and again, the. increased quantity of stork thi." will enable you to keep, and thus, in a chain, augment your wealth, together with the value of your farm, will be a constant pro- fit ; this may not only be witnessed in the case of Mr. Bakewell, but in the case of every farmer who will practise it. Try and see. THE farmer’s manual,^ 117 16 before fattening. I sold two quarters of her for g 18 13. She cost me not more ihan g 10, ex- clusive of the hay she ate, which was rhitil) scald- ed, as above. On the first of February. 1 began with the ox. 1 fed him about three months, but not alioge- ther as well as 1 did the heifer. He digested ab»jut one pint of boiled flax-seed per day, prepared as above, which I suppose formed about one half of the fat in these two cattle. The ox was short, measured 7 feet 2 inches, and when killed, weighed 1082lbs. and had ISOlbs. of tallow. He cost me when faiien- ing, 25 cents per day: he had previously cost me $ 35. My nett gain in fattening these two cattle, was more than all 1 have cleared before in fattening oxen and cows for fifteen years, and this is owing 1 think chiefly to the use of fla^-seed*.” Since writing the abov£ extract, 1 have seen an ex- tract from the Berkshire Star, recommending the use of flax-seed in raising calves, as follows, viz. “ Boil half a pint of flax seed in two quarts of water ten minutes, to a jelly; then add skim-milk enough for three calves, or in the same proportion for any number of caWes. This food, given twice a day, or thrice, will make them healthy and vigor- ous. The jelly may be used with hay-tea, without the milk.” This method is noty coming into general use, and it will enable dairy farmers to enlarge their stock, without injuring their dairies. Your horses, kept either for the saddle, or the harness, will perform more service when fed upon potatoes, than upon oats, or grain, and will not readi- ly have the bots, or heaves. Even jour young cat- tle and horses, will richly pay you for a few potatoes occasionally, both in their appearance and growth. * Qucrc. Whether potatoes, or carrot?, steamed, or boiled, as one of the in^’edienU, will not be found to be mi iniurovemenl ; and whether flax-seed mixed m this way, w.th boHefl corn, carrots, or potatoes, will not improve the fattening of pork hogs. THE farmer’s manual. fl8 Whatever tnultiplics feed for your stock, enlarges the quantity of your hay, and enables you to increase the quantity of your stock. Whatever will enable you to increase the quantity of your stock, increases the va- lue of your property directly, and the subsequent va- lue of your farm indirectly, by increasing the quan- tity of your manure, and thereby the quantity and value of your crops ; thus you see that your potatoe fallows, which do not exhaust your soil, may be made the source of great improvement and wealth to the farmer*. Your sheep should be fed daily upon potatoes ; no article of stock will repay you with greater profit ; the quantity of their wool will be greater, and quality finer; they will be free frona ticks, unless kept in too warm a covering, and too many in a fold ; they will never shed their wool, and seldom lose their lambs, when fed daily upon potatoes. The saving of hay will be as great as with your other stock in the same ratio. The rage of our country has been great for the merino breed of' sheep ; this has now subsided, and the farmers generally calculate to keep a due pro- portion of the English and merino breeds, to suit the mutton and wool markets. Experience can only be the true guide upon this subject. Your affairs are now all snug, and well arranged ; let your accounts claim your particular attention. They should all be posted by the first of this month, and all balanced and closed, before the month is out; the saving you will make in yearly reckonings with your merchants, mechanics, labourers, &c. will rich- ly repay your attention. Perhaps there is no one thing in which farmers generally are more slack, than in their accounts, and it is of importance that it should be corrected. * From the best calculations maJe by the best feeders, carrots and potatoes, are found to be worth 2s. per bushel, boiled and given to hogs, or given raw to beef cattle, or Is. when given to hogs, raw, or unboiled. o > THE farmer’s manual-. 119 Improve the first turn of good sledding to draw home your wood and fencing stuff, for the next season ; the winters are so precarious, you may not have an- other. It is of the. highest importance that you pro- vide in winter for the next season, as well as to pro- vide in summer for the next winter. Think of ease, but work on ; the rich improvements before you, should be your ample reward, together with the flour- ishing state of your families. The example of every thriving merchant, or mechanic, is before you ; if they did not lay in their stock in due season, they would soon run out, and so will you. Look often to your water courses ; see that the wash is properly directed,- by not flowing too long, or too much, in one place,, to the damage of your field, and see that your banks and dams are not broken, and washed away; this i^ both a cheap and rich ma- nure, and such as no prudent farmer will neglect. The wash of the roads may be turned on to your sloping grounds, with very little expense and trouble, and afford you a handsome profit. Two most important things now claim your atten- tion ; the first is, see that your children are not only steady at school, and well supplied with useful, and valuable school books; but improve every possible opportunity to improve your own minds by reading history, geography, biography, and the sciences gene- rally. Converse with, and examine your children often upon their studies at school ; you will not only dis- cover tlie state of their improvements, but you can do more than the master, by encouraging and excit- ing their ambition. One hour’s instruction by con- versation, is worth two by reading, upon the same su ject. In vain you toil to become rich, if your children are not educated properly, to take good care of it af- ter you are dead. In our children we live again after we are dead, and all the good there is in acquiring more wealth than is necessary for our support, is to 1 THE farmer’s manual. enal ’ us to educate them in such a manner, as to gi'-e rhein the means of improving to the best ad- vuiUige lie surplusage of our earnings, and thus cotitiniie the family name with respectability, to the latest generation. No man was ever too old to learn ; and a correct expansion of the rain5, .hd information of the un- derstanding, is more prerious to the owner, than sil- ver, and renders him more valuable to the communi- ty, than gold. FEBRUARY. Your stock are now snug and warmly housed ; your beef-cattle, cows, sheep and working cattle, are re- gularly fed with potatoes, or carrots ; your clover is at proper times regularly apportioned in your racks, with straw, that your stock,, by passing from rack to rack, may feed on clover and straw alternately, as they choose. Your threshing is now progressing as fast as possible, and every possible opportunity im- proved to finish your sledding for the next season. Your hemp and flax, are also the objects of your particular care ; get them forward as fast as possible ; the market, and the spinning-wheel, will now begin to urge the work. Every cent you save in domestic manufactures, is three cents gained ; first, from its extra durability, and next, from the saving of your money, and above all, the promotion of domestic in- dustry. One piece of handsome domestic manu- facture, will go further to raise the reputation of the young ladies, than the most expensive foreign dress. If you have stored more turnips than are suf- ficient for the use of the table, give them to any stock that will eat them, except your sheep; give to them potatoes, but not turnips, at this season ; they will injure their lambs. It will be needless to give any directions for the preservation, and manage- THB farmer’s manual. 121 mentof weak and feeble iambs ; the best nursing for such lambs is, by keeping the ewes well, either upon your best English hay, particularly rowen, with potatoes, carrots, or white beans; these will ensure you strong lambs, with a plenty of milk, and save all the trouble of nursing. Should any one be so unfortunate as to want the proper means of ensuring strong lambs, as above, or neglect a proper use of such as he may have, (for even barley, oats and corn, will answer as substitutes for the potatoes, carrots, or white beans, if given in small quantities, so as not to excite fever, and thereby cause ticks, and the shedding of the wool,) let him remember that such weak lambs should be treated, in all respects, as if they had been drowned, and you would restore them to life. Apply gentle and regular warmth ; give warm milk, frequently, in small quantities, (the milk of the sheep is best,) and if the ewe has milk sufficient for its support, you may generally raise them ; but if not, they generally die. It is more work to nurse one such lamb for 24 hours, than to feed regularly 100 sheep for the same time ; take your choice. Your breeding sows are now about to bring your pigs for the next season; keep them well, and in good flesh, but not fat, and salt them often to prevent their eating their own pigs, which often happens if they are too fat, and you neglect to give them salt. Now is the time to lay a proper foundation for your pork harvest, and in order to show you the value oi this part of good farming, I will at this lime lay be- fore you sundry extracts upon this important subject. Extract from the Boston Centinel, March, 1319. “ AU Europe boasts of Leaden-Hall*^ ; But Yankee products beats them all.” “ Day of fat things . — Of the numerous improve- ments of which our country can boast, that made in • Noted flesh-market in Lon Ion, 11 1522 THE farmer’s manual. rearing hogs, is perhaps the most extraordinary ; and ought to confer on the individuals who have been in^ strumental in introducing and promoting, in our coun- try, breeds so capable of improvement, the proud title of Public Benefactors. This remark occurred on learning, that, during the last week, one of our merchant victuallers purchased no less than sixty thou- sand weight of pork, principally raised in New-Hamp- shire and Vermont. We saw about thirty of the hogs which composed the purchase, and which, for whiteness of flesh, smallness of bones, thinness of skin and ears, and plumpness of body, could not be exceeded. Some of them, we learn, before they were slaughtered, could scarcely see, were unable to rise upon their hind legs, and were fed in a recumbent posture. We were told by the drovers, that a far- mer, in one of the upper towns in New-Hampshire, had in his pen twenty pigs, which, when slaughtered, are supposed to weigh eight thousand weight ; and that one of his neighbours has twelve others, which are supposed to weigh six thousand weight.” From the last Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal. “ One of the most successful experiments in Agri- culture that we have ever known, is that of the Alms- house Farm, in Salem, which is under the care of Mr. Paul Upton. “ This farm consists of about 35 acres, (as we are informed,) and was, two years since, in a state of na- ture, and very rough land. It has been brought too, and the produce during the year 1818, was as fol- lows, viz. pork killed, weighed seven thousand nine hundred and sixty pounds. Twelve live pigs, sold for thirty-two dollars. On hand, fifty-seven pigs. Corn, four hundred bushels. Potatoes, two thousand two hundred and fifty bushels. Turnips, nine hun- dred bushels. Three tons of squashes. Fifty tons THE farmer’s manual. 123 of pumpkins, together with all the common summer vegetables for the Alms-house. We doubt whether any farm in the United States, has produced more, in proportion to its size ; and it IS a proof what well directed industry can effect.” South-Berwick Mammoth Hog. “ February 17, 1819.— Mr. David Nichols, a worthy member of the Society of friends, has this day killed a hog aged 21 months, 13 davs, half blooded, of the Newbury whites ; his girth 6 feet 5 inches ; unusually short in proportion to his size ; weighing with the rough fat 670lbs. precisely ; having gained at least I lb. per day since he was littered; he was sold for 12 1-2 cents per pound.” Kennebunk Paper. Poughkeepsie, Dec, IG, 1818. “ We learn that five hundred and twenty-five wag- gon loads of pork were brought to this village on Sa- turday last, which will prooably give our farmers 1^15,000.” Mammoth Hog. “ A hog was lately killed by Capt. Joel Lull, of Windsor, Vermont, which weighed 582lbs.; only 19 months old.” Instances of the improvements of our country in Agriculture, might be thus extended to a very great length ; but these would only swell the expense ot this woik unnecessarily. The above are sufficient to show what has been done, and what may be done again, by every farmer who is in earnest about his farm, and will learn how to work it right. You see that upon the Salem farm were raised about eight thousand weight of pork ; besides live hogs marketled, and fifty-seven reserved for stock the next TfiE rARillER’s MANUAL. 124 season ; also, 400 bushels r» corn. You also see, at the same time, more than two thousand bushels of potatoes. These, when boiled, produced the pork; this again, produced the manure, which in its turn, will produce corn again, and, at the same time, raise the productive value of the land ; and thus you see how my former remarks (under the articles. Manure, and Stock) are verified. The size of this farm, also, shows how great wealth, with a little expense, can be drawn from a small farm, with proper manage- ment. The profits and the reputation, arc worthy of the first attention. Cut your cions for grafting, from such fruit as you wish to propagate ; be snre to select from the ends of the most thrifty, and best bearing limbs, upon the most thrifty, and best bearing trees, and of the last year’s growth only, excepting so much of the growth of the preceding year, as may be sufficient to fix in the earth to j)reserve them moist; let this be done by lying in separate bunches, the several kinds, with la- bels, and fix the bunches in the ground, in some dry part of youi' cellar, where they will stand secure until wanted for use. If the weather is warm at the close of this month, fotnmcnce the pruning of your orchards and fruit- trees, generally. Cut off all the old dead limbs from youi- old trees ; but preserve the young shoots ; diey will come forward and bear, when the standing parts of your trees are dead. When you trim your young trees, cut ofl' such limbs as incline to droop, are defective, or intersect each other; ^ little atten- lioii in pruning your fruit-tress, will carry them up in a handsome, regular shape, and both improve the • juantity and quality of your fruit and your tillage un- derneath. To effect these two objects, it will be- come an object of your attention to accompany your trimmer, and both watch and direct his trimming; a person on the ground can gcacrally judge better than me upon the tree. I neyd OQt repeat, that your orchards THE EARMEk’s manual. 125 are objects of prime importance upon your farms, not only for the revenue which they afford, but for the ex- pense of rum, and other liquors, which your good ci- der will save, and for the saving, more especially, in your time and doctor^s bills, in using cidiir in the place of rum, or other ardent spirits. I am sensible that all arguments against the use of rum and tobac- co, are lost upon those who have long been accustom- ed to their use ; but 1 hope to be believed, by those whose habits are not irrevocably fixed, when I sayj that I have in the course of my life used both rum and tobacco, and for many years hate disused both, with a full conviction, that my health is better, and my strength more permanent and durable when 1 la- bour, than when I used either — mark the difference of expense — yes, of useless expense — an expense that would pay the taxes and clothe the families of many farmers, and how much more, 1 dare not say — let such farmers calculate, and see for themselves, if they dare look the evil in the face. All this, and more too, your orchards will remedy, with one barrel or two of good malt or hop beer, for the warmest of the weather. Try this mode as I do, and if you find me in an error, correct my error, and I will yield to your better judgment. But if you are satisfied with the improvement, let this waste of money, which costs you so much toil and sweat, be placed at such inter- est as shall ensure a quiet life, a trancjuil old age, and a happy and peaceful death. Neither of these were ever obtained by rum and tobacco, nor ever will be. For remarks on your other fruits, see Gardening. Here let m'e repeat again the remarks I made in Jaiuiary, upon education. The news-papers arc the great vehicles of general information ; they give us a general knovvledgo of men, their political connec- tions and movements; their commercial relations, agricultural improvements, &c. To understand pro- perly this important source of information, a general knowledge of Geography is absolutely necessary. 11 * iae THE farmer’s manual. This may now be easily acquired by the assistance of the small school Geographies, with their Atlasses, which cost about 75 cents ; and thus your winter erenings may be converted to the pleasure and im- portance of acquiring the valuable science of Geogra- phy, so that when you read in your news-papers the events, occurrences and transactions of foreign na- tions, you may, by the assistance of these school maps, bring those countries before you, and thus render them as familiar to your minds as the towns, or societies, in which you live. In this way, this news- pa per foreign intelligence will be both interesting and useful. In this way, the general instruction of your families will be greatly improved, and a free and pleasant social intercourse heighten the enjoyments of a w'inter’s fire-side. The study of Astronomy and Natural Philosophy, shbuld also make up a part of these useful and social enjoyments. Philip’s Lec- tures on Astronomy, and Blair’s Grammar of Philoso- phy, are cheap and valuable books adapted to the capacities of children as well as men, and will im- part all the knowled|;e upon these important subjects, useful or necessary in common life. This system of instruction your children cannot obtain in your com- mon schools; but with your encouragement and as- sistance, they may become ambitious to obtain it, and by a proper spirit of emulation, they may be made to excel in these sciences; this will not only render them familiar to your own minds, and thus become a source of enjoyment to you, but they will afford you the lasting satisfaction of witnessing the improve- ments of your families. In this way, a laudable emu- lation amongst children of the same family, and of the same neighbourhoods', may be excited, and thus the most valuable improvements of the mind become the medium of the most social and familiar intercourse. It must be understood, that the farmers of all coun- tries are the pillars of the State, and that the wealth, support and well-being of all communities, depend on THE rARUER’s MANUAL. 127 them. It must also be remembered, that virtue, indus- try, economy, and a well informed mind, constitute the basis of their wealth, strength, or influence, and re- spectability ; and that the want of any one, or all of these virtues, will subject them to the cunning, in- trigue, arts and duplicity of such ambitious specula- tors of the community, as are more knowing ; such as infest all communities, and feed on the labours, and depend on the virtues of others, to maintain and sup- port the interest and tranquility of a State, which their own pride, indolence and vices would otherwise ruin and destroy. Farmers, let me repeat again, you are the lords of the soil and the pillars of the State, spare no pains to give to your minds that expansion, which alone can be derived from an enlarged education, that you may become the guardians of the State ; that the liberties of your fathers may be preserved inviolable, and transmitted down to your children to the latest gene- ration. In the course of the successive months, I have en- deavoured to place before the farmer the most valua- ble and useful crops, with the best practical modes of improving those crops, with a general reference to their use at this season of the year, both in feeding and improving stock. It has now become your care to convert to the best use and profit, every article that will promote the growth, and better the condition of your horses, cat- tle, sheep and cows. Give out all such coarse fod- der as you design for feeding, before this month is out ; when the spring opens, it will become useless excepting for litter, and to this use, all should be ap- plied, that can possibly be spared: Every load of manure you can possibly make, becomes better to you than so much value of cash in the bank ; because the next crops will pay you a much greater interest, and the increased value of your lands, by the means of this manure, will render this better than compound interest. Here let me repeat again, apply every dry 123 THE farmer’s manual. substance you can collect and spare lor litter for your stock, it will not only keep them warin, and thus save hay, but be the means of giving life and vigour^ to all parts of your husbandry, by the manure it will The long winters of New-England are generally considered as being a great damage and expense to the farming interest generally ; this is true to all such as choose to make them so ; but directly the reverse to all such as consult their true interest. Our nor- thern winters are not longer than are best for the improvement of the mind, education of our children, cultivation and improvement of our stock, threshing out our grain, dressing our hemp and flax, making and collecting manures, the provision of fencing stufl, fuel, &c. together with the promotion and enjoyment of that social intercourse, which is the life of society, the en- livener and polisher of manners, and the basis of the good order and best interest of the community. Now IS our time to combine all these advantages, and reap the benefit of them. Let the merchant and the artist boast of their nice calculations, their stocks in business well laid in, and contemplate their profits, amounting to vast store.s of wealth, in expectancy ; the success of all their schemes, and even their own jjcrsonal support, depend on the farmer. As well might the Apiarian conslimct his splendid hives, and slock them well with bees ; if the fields yielded no blossoms for their support, his stock would all perish; his fine calculations would all fail, and his vain expectations end in disappointment. Just so the calculations of the merchant, the artist, and even the government, and tlie nation itself, all would fail, without the labours of the husbamiman, and the blessing of God, to crown those labours with success. These are the plain practical truths of common sense, and common experience ;.let me call on every description of character in the community, and say, THE rAKMER’s MANUAL. 129 thou art fed and clothed, and warmed from the field — venerate the plough. Farmers, I have before remarked, ye are the lords of this lower creation, and 1 have shown you this by clear demonstration ; reverence yourselves, by your industry, economy, temperance, sobriety and punc- tuality; with all the Christian virtues ; and you will compel the world to reverence you. Should any one order, rank, station, or individual in society, withhold from you the tribute of respect, justly due to your rank, and worth in society, let him alone; reflection will correct his error. Let no advantages of im- proving your knowledge in the science of husbandry, escape your attention ; apply this improvement in knowledge, to the improvement of your farms, by lit- tle and little, as circumstances, and your means may afford you opportunity ; a well directed industry, with the blessing of God, will enable you to surmount all difficulties, and will make you both rich and inde- pendent, and your families after you. Remember ihe Salem Alms-house Farm ; the example is before you, go and do likewise, and become the Paul Up- tons of your country. Under such husbandry, the merchant will flourish ; the artist, and the labourer will flourish; the agriculture and commerce of our country (those handmaids of nations) will flourish ; our country will become the garden of the world, and America the store-house of the world. Enjoying, as w’e do in America, the advantages of every clime, which constitute the delight of the temperate zone ; blest, as we are, with a variety, and fertility of soil, unrivalled in the geography of nations; together with the privileges of civil and religious liberty, unparel- lelled in the history of nations ; let ns remember that the eyes of God, and of the world are upon us; in jiroportion to the distinguished magnitude of our pri- vileges, so let us fill up our duties to ourselves, to the world, and to our God. Let us keep free from debt, and once more J say, we are of all men the most happy and independent. GARDENING MARCH. In New-England, we are excluded, generally, from our gardens, by the frosts of winter, from the middle ofl^ecember, to the middle of March, and often from the first of December, to the first of April. Whenever the frost subsides, we begin to prepare our hot-beds for the purpose of forcing vegetation, and in the following manner. Hot-Beds. Mark out your bed, to the size of the frame you design to cover it, which is generally six feet in length, and three in breadth, covered with glass set in sashes of 12 panes each, of 7 by 9 glass. These sashes are hung with hinges upon the back side, to admit of their being raised up, and let down in front, at pleasure. The front side of the sashes to incline from the back side about six inehes. The frame, or box is tight upon all four of its sides, and generally, about 12 inches high in front, and 18 inches on the back side. Dig your bed thus marked off', and cover it with litter from your horse-stable ; stamp down your seve- ral layers, until your bed is raised to the height you wish, then cover the bed with a layer of rich earth, from 6 to 12 inches thick, and set on your frame ; in 8 or 10 days, it will generally be ready for planting, THE farmer’s manual. 131 if the weather is mild. If the fermentation is too powerful, and the heat too active, give it air by rais- ing the lights in your frame, until you have obtained a right temperature; (which you may determine by placing your hand upon the bed, or even thrusting your hand into it.) You may then plant your early cucumbers, radishes, sallads, &c. ; these plants will soon come forward, and may be transplanted on to other hot-bcds, not so powerful, or promiscuously, into the garden, and covered with other small frames, of 1,2, or 4 panes of glass according to circum- stances, and the remainder may stand for use. These plants may be brought to perfection, generally, about one month earlier than in open ground. Asparagus may be forced in hot-beds to advan- tage, in the following manner. Draw, or dig from your asparagus-bed, as many roots as will fill your hot-beds, and set them in rows that will admit the hoe between, and from one to three inches asunder in the rows, (roots of four years old, and that have never been cut, answer best ;) cover with your frame, and when you pick for use, cut within the ground. Peas. Prepare your pea- ground as soon as the frost is out, by digging and raking, until it is completely pulve- rized ; if your soil is weak, manure with live or leached ashes, or chip-dung, and rake it in ; then plant your early hotspurs in double rows, 4 or 5, or even 6 inches asunder, and set your peas by hand, about half an inch distance in the rows ; cover light- ly, and press down the surface of the earth upon the rows with the hoc. Hoe them gently as soon as they come up, and when you set your brush for support- ers, set one row in the centre between the double rows. Be sure to select for this crop the driest and warmest soil in your garden, particularly, such as is secured from the north winds, by a tight fence, or a w’all. 1»2 THE farmer’s MANHALt When your hotspurs are up, plant, in the same way, early turners, nonpariels and marrowfats. Sic. in succession, and in this way, you may continue your peas until autumn. Cabbages. Select from your cellar the best of your cabbages with heads, and set in some secure place, to stand for seed; set different kinds remote from each other, to prevent their mixing their seed at the time of blos- soming. Set, at the same time, your best cabbage- stumps for early sallad and greens. If your ground is moist, set fleet ; but if it is dry, set deep ; say six inches or more. APRIL. Remove the covering from your strawberries, and hoe them lightly. When your early planted peas are all up, continue to plant marrowfats, or other rich peas, and go on to bush your early peas as directed before. Set rareripe onions ; sow late onions ; and plant, at the same time, beets, carrots and parsnips, for sum- mer’s use ; sow sallads and radishes with your on- ions, they will be fit for use when your hot-beds are done. Cover your asparagus-beds with rich manure, (if you neglected it in the fall,) dig over the surface lightly, and rake it until the earth is mellow. Set garlics, plant scarcity, or mangel wurtzcl, sow cabbages, turnips, radishes, ew intruders are sometimes murdered, by a general assault. For safety, two or three may be introduced, and their re- ception will decide what is best. When the season of fecundation and gathering food are over, the work- ing Bees assemble, and commence a general assault upon the drones; drag them out of the hives, and de- stroy the whole, by a general slaughter. Thus the whole system of nature is finished for the season, in the community of the Bees. 152 niE farmer’s jianuai.. CHAP. IV. On the common Bees, The term common Bees, working Bees, or mules, will apply to ail the others in the swarm, excepting the queen and the drones ; because they form the mass of the community, and do the labour, by laying in stores for the hive, and nourish the brood, and are neutral in their propagation. Much curious hypothe- sis has appeared amongst Apiarians, upon the order and regularity in apportioning the employments and tasks of labour in the community ; but this is now ge- nerally exploded, and each Bee is left to the govern- ment of his own instinct, in apportioning and per- forming his several duties. The whole field of nature abounds with the inex- plicable mysteries of providence j and the Bee, by her wonderful sagacity, has unlocked one of those myste- ries, by extracting honey from plants, and flowers, and converting it to the support of herself, and the use of man ; but how this honey is produceil in the opera- tions of nature, in the growth of the plants, and how the Bee extracts it in exclusion to the other juices of the same plants, is all inexplicable to us, and is one, amongst the millions of nature’s works, to show how little of nature man can know. . 1 slialj continue this chapter with a description of the Bee by Mr. Huish. “ In regard to the physical descri|nion of the Bee, the most remarkable parts of it are the head, the breast, and the belly. On the former afe observed two wonderful eyes placed in the side, two anlennaB, two hard teeth, or jaws, which play, on opening and shutting, from the left to the right. These teeth enable it to collect the wax, to knead it, to construct the cells, and to remove from the hive every obnoxious thing. Below these teeth we observe a (iroboscis, which has the appearance of a thick fleshy substance, of a very shining ches THE farmer’s manual. 153 nut colour. This substance i: sary to substilule a new dwelling in place of the hollow tree of the forest ; hence the reason why hives were first made of a sec- tion of a hollow tree. The difficulty of obtaining this, 166 THE farmer’s manual. led (o the expedient of weaving the straw hive, which continues in common use to this day. The many objections which have arisen to both these hives, have led the Apiarians, through nice and curious re- search, to ascertain the best materials for construct- in_^ the hives for Bees, and tlic best forms to con- struct those materials into, to obtain the greatest pro- fit from the labours of the Bee, with the least ex- pense to ourselves, and loss and damage to the Bees: for the solution of this question, we must resort to the experiments of the Apiarian. Happy would it be for us and them, if their labours could furtiish an an- swer to the inquiry promptiv ; but unfortunately this is not the case, their owti expjeriments have deceived them, and this shouhl lead us to be cautious that they do not deceive us. Mr. Hui.sh admits, that no seri- ous objections can lie against straw as a material for the construction of bee-liives ; but objects only to the common form, viz. the bdl-hives, as being un- healthy to the swarms, and difficult to extract any portion of the honey from, without sufibcating the Bee.s, which he very justly abhors : he therefore ex- plodes the bell shaped hives. Our author goes on to object to the glass hives, constructed to gratifj the enripus, as bring unfriendly to the labours of the Bee. He adds, “ I have kept ghi->s hives of every sort in hopes to obliiin some clue to the development of their secrets ; but 1 candidly' confess, that light was no sooner admitted, than the utmost confusion prevail- ed in the hive, in that particular part ; and the Bees were seen running about in the greatest consternation ; consequently I never attained to the knowledge of a single operation of the P<'cs by means of a glass hive. I (iiPreforo call in question all facts stated as the dis- coveries of a glass hive. Although the Bee will work in any hive, of any sh qie, yet the choice of that shape is of impcriatirr to the health and profit of ynnr Bees. 'I'he great Itody of the people continue the common hive, and the common practice of smo- THE farmer’s manual. 16T ihering the swarm, when they take their honey — both are bad ; and the latter is not only bad, as being unprofitable, but absolutely cruel, and unne- cessarily so. To remedy these evils, the Apiarians in all countries have been led to the iinprovemenf, both in the form of the hive, and method of dividing the profits of their lalioiirs with the Bees, and yet preserve the swarms. H.\()py for the cause both of interest and humanity, they have succeeded. Had these Amateurs been agreed in one result, as being the best of all their experiments, I might now say so, and close this chapter with their joint recommenda- tion ; but their decisions are so various, it may be useful to sketch a few of their improvements, as ex- emplified in the form of their hives. The storying system has been, and is now, greatly apftroved in F ranee, and was invented by Gelieu ; yet this system has its opposers now, even in France, and with some severity. All are agreed, that the sto- ryirig system has its advantages, as well as some dis- advantages ; yet one thing is certain, it divides the labours, or profits, of the Bees, without injury, or dis- turbance, to their lives, or labours. This system has also been strongly approved and recommended by Bonner, in Scotland ; also by Ducouedic, of the C.inton of Maure. This is the common straw hive placed on a pedestal, or table. The Bees it contains were a swarm of the 21st of June, 1812. In this state, they passed the summer, autumn, and winter, and on the 21st of March, 1813, it would be nine months old. On the 21st of March, 1813, the first story will be added to it, and this is called a Scotch hive, in compliment to Bon- ner. This hive will remain in the slate of a sin- gle story, for an entire year, to the 21st of March, 1814. If the population of the hive has been consi- derable, and the season favourable, during the first year, it may be expected in the second to throw off one or two strong swarms. On the return of the 14 158 THE farmer’s manual. spring, 1814, this hive will be 21 months old; nine months as a simple hive, and twelve with one story. It commences, on the2l<;t of March, 1814, its pyrami- dal form, at the age of 21 months. These three hives are plastered with mortar, or clay, at their junction, by which they appear to form but one distinct hive, and the Bees can only enter and depart at one open- ing in the lower story. By means of holes bored in the top of the lower stories, the Bees can pass from’ one story to the other freely. This colony will exist in the state of a two storied hive from the 21st of March to the 21st of September of the same year; it will then be 27 months old. Several swarms will have been obtained through all the different stages, from the single one, to the pyramidal one. The swarms of the latter are considerable ; especially those of the second and subsequent years. They generally weigh from twelve to twenty pounds. On the 21st of September, as soon as the drones have been destroyed by the Bees, you may remove the first story of the colony ; it will be found full of wax and honey, without Bees and brood ; the honey will be of the present year, as the Bees will have consum- ed that of the preceding years. When, on the 21st of September, the first story is removed, the hive will cease to be pyramidal, and will return to its for- mer state of two stories ; in this state it will pass the 6 months of autumn and winter, but on the return of March, another story must be given to it, and it again becomes a pyramidal hive. The Bees of a pyramidal hive never perish with hunger, nor cold. It is too rich to want provisions, and too numerous to be ef- fected by the severity of winter, and by their heat, they bring forward their spring brood one month earlier than a single hive. Such is the character given by Ducouedic of the storied hive. Let me re- mark that their swarming one month earlier in spring than the single hive, is no small advantage in the es- THE farmer’s manual. 159 timation of all such as are acquainted with the value and economy of Bees. An advocate of the storying system says, “ No cause exists why a certain number of stories should not be placed, for several months, and even for a year; that much is gained by it, provided, for this period of time, the boxes are made of a convenient and proper size,” &c. To this system, Mr. Huish is lengthy and particular in his objections ; the amount of which is, that the flat hives used in this process, are injurious to the health, and even life of the Bees, and principally on account of the moisture which the swarm emits by perspiration, being collected upon the tops of fhe hives, and there being condensed by the influence of the cold air, falls again upon the Bees, and occasions their worst malady, the dysentery. These vapours, Mr. Huish found actually frozen to a sheet of ice in the top of one of his glass hives, in the hard winter of 1014, and at once concludes this vapour to fee both noxious and destructive to the swarm. He then proceeds, “ Hives with convex tops conduct this condensed vapour down the sides of the hives, and thus screen the swarm from the falling drops, and preserve them dry.” The writer con- cludes this chapter with the following description of a hive of his own invention, for his own particu- lar use. which pleased him, and has the strength ot his recommendation added to its value. “ Having now examined the different hives which are now in use in this country, (England,) and upon the continent, it barely remains for me to describe the hive,' which, although its general principles are of an early date, yet its improvements have been entirely suggested by myself. As it has always been my invariable study to preserve the lives of these valua- ble insects, and, at the same time, to reap the great- est possible advantage from their labours, the se- lection of a proper abode for them, was a matter of no secondary consideration ; for on this must depend 160 THE farmer’s manual. ;he success of the undertaking. My first object was to select those materials which 1 judged most suita- ble for the purpose, and, after repeated experiments, I was convinced that none were more suitable than straw. This I know is denied by Huber; but I must be allowed, in this instance, to differ from that cele- brated jipiarian. The shape of the hive was my next consideration. [ had been so often defeated in my expectations regarding the deprivation of the common straw hive, and especially by the sticks with which they are superfluously furnished, to keep the honey from falling, that 1 was persuaded it was a shape suited only to the use of those persons who suffocate their Bees ; but to the deprivator, it was the most inconvenient and unmanageable sort that could be devised, li was a flower-pot which first gave me an idea of the shape, and which appeared to possess peculiar advantages. It would, in the first place, su- persede the necessity of stidcs, for the comb then acting like a wedge, being larger at the top than the bottom, would not fall on to the board. One only method now presented itself of extracting the comb, and this was at the top; and this I knew could not be effected, it the combs were all constructed in one mass, upon one basis, which is common to the gene- rality of hives. I reflected that a Bee will never work upon an unstable foundation, and that my plan wouhl succeed, if I could insert some network be- tvyeen the pieces of wood. Having obtained seven pieces of well seasoned wood, about one and a half inch broad, and about a quarter of an inch thick, I laid them equidistant on the top of the hive; and having fastened them to the outer band which serves as their basis, and covered them with network, oyer which 1^ placed a circular board, the whole size of the hive. 1 then divided the circular board into five pieces, which are attached to each other by hinges ; each one can be opened; separately upon occasion. To obviate the objection of this THE farmer’s manual. I6i flat lop, (on account of the moisture as before notic- ed,) I made six holes in the top board, and closed them with plates of tin, perforated with small holes. The whole 1 covered with a convex straw cover, constructed in the .same manner as the hive. This guarded the swarm from moisture, without and with- in. Whenever I require some honey-comb, at any season of the year, 1 open the top, by removing the cover, and take out one of the side boards, (as above,) cut off the comb, and replace the board again, as before, or clap in another of the same di- mensions, if the Bees prove troublesome. This operation is quick done, without disturbing the mid- dle combs, and often without the loss of one single Bee. In the month of August, 1810, 1 obtained from one of my hives 18lbs. of oeautiful honey-comb ; by the l*0lh of September, the void was filled again, and I took out lOlbs. more, leaving a sufficiency to sup- ply the swarm through the winter. This hive will never require any enlargement to give the Bees more room; this may always be done by extracting the comb as above. It opens the whole interior ot the hive for your inspection, whenever you wish to search the hive for moths, mice, or other destructive evils to your Bees.” Mr. Huish goes on to observe, that from his expe- rience in the management of Bees for more than twenty years, from his very extensive correspond- ence and personal acquaintance with most of the learned Apiarians in Europe, he concludes that no form of hive can be constructed, which will ensure great harvests of wax, honey and swarms. These are chimerae which it is in vain to pursue, because the whole depends upon the sea.sori, the face of the coun- try, and the general supply of honey ; all which, have a peculiar influence on the fecundity of the queen Bee. To these causes it must be ascribed, why the mode of treatment ivhich answers well this year, will not answer well the next, or js so variable under the 14i* •iHE FARMEk’s MANUAt. Itii! .lamc ap|)earances. This difference of seasons has occasioned all the various construction of hives, which serve only to show, that the Bee will work in any hollow vessel, that will conceal her from view, and guard her from the weather. To illustrate this fact, 1 have sketched the form of several different hives, as well as to illustrate a more important fact, that every system is bad, that destroys the Bees to rbb the hives, and that all the systems are good, which preserve the Bees, and divide their labours for the use of man, without injury to the swarms ; but more particularly to show, that the storying system, IS one of the best inodes, and that his new invented hive is the very best*. CHAP. VI. On the position of the Apiary, or Bee- House. This is the place where the hives are assembled, whether in the open air, or under cover, called the bee-house. In southern countries, Mr. Huish ob- serves, the aspqct should always be to the east, to give the Bees the first light of the dawn. In nor- thern countries, the aspect should be between south and east, to enjoy the morning dawn, under a shelter from the north winds. In England, he observes, the aspect is often in all directions, but adds, they should be secure against the winds. The hives should al- ways stand upon a right line, in a single row ; that rows one above the other do well, but seldom when double u|)on the same shelf — as they are more ex- posed to robbery from each other ; that the Bee, in * Qu^re. Whether the new invented hive of the author, with its convex top, might not be applied to the storying system, and thus ccmnlete its peidection. It may be worth an experiment. THE farmer’s manual. Itici his flight from the hive, generally takes an elevation of 45 degrees with the horizon, therefore, the hives should stand low, say two feet from the ground. This elevation will gvard the Bees against the mois- ture of the ground, the toads, mice, ants. Sic. and prevent their gaining such an ascent in their flight, when they swarm, as to prevpnt their lighting, and thus occasion their loss to the proprietor. To esta- blish this remark, Mr. Huish cites a memoir address- ed to the Society of Agriculture of Paris, illustrating the fact. He then observes, that the board on which the hive stands, should be carefully secured against warping, as the wasps, &c. will rob the hives at such openings, under the bottoms of the hives, and that every shrub, plant, or weed, should be cleared away from the Apiary, that can obstruct the flight of the Bees, or give the mouse, the ant. Sic, access to the hive; that great cleanliness should be observed in and about the Apiary, generally. He concludes, that the neighbourhood of large towns, and large rivers, are unfavourable situations for an Apiary ; the first, from the destruction the Bees suflfer from smoke, the swallows, particularly the chimney swallows, and the last, from often being drowned in their flight, from high winds, &c. He recommends an open country, a tree air, an eastern aspect, security from winds and moisture, Sic. as being essential to the position of an .Apiary. CHAP. VII. On ihe Enemies of the Bees. Man, the worst enemy of the Bee ; where he uses the smothering method of robbing the hives; yes, man, that boasted child of reason, for whose enjoy- ment the Bee toils through her life, to draw from na- 164 THE farmer’s manual. lure, nature’s choicest nectar ; man, ungrateful man, in wanton spite of all his boasted reason, robs the Bee, and makes her life the forfeiture. But I forbear, man is now becoming more civilized ; the researches of^he Apiarian have not only taught him how to share with the Bee the rich rewards of her toils, without destroying her life, or even abridging her enjoyments, but how to promote the enjoyments of the Bee, and become her protector. The mouse, of all kinds, the rat, the toad, and the ant, are amongst the common enemies of the Bee. The attention of man, in fixing his Apiary, may guard the Bee, generally, against these common ene- mies ; but birds, which also are generally the enemies of the Bee, who catch him, and devour him in his flight, are out of the reach of man. and generally go unpunished; except the king-bird and wood-pecker, who hover about the Apiary, to feed on the Bees, they may be carefully watched and destroyed. The spider, also, is an enemy to the Bee, the same as the bird, not to feed on the honey like the mouse, and the ant, but to entrap the Bee in his web, and feed on him. The spiders enter the hive when the weather is cold, and the Bees have lost their energies, spin their web, and thus obtain their prey. The wasp is, also, an enemy of the Bee ; he surveys the hive in summer, and wherever he finds a crevice, enters and robs the hive, and feeds on the honey. The wasps collective- ly, sometimes attack weak hives, the same as robbing. Bees, and rob the swarm. Mr. Huisb adds, I do not know a move efficacious method of destroying wasps’ nests than sulpliur. The wasp, the humble Bee, and honey Bee, all feed upon the same food ; for this rea- son, the two first should be driven as much as possible from the neighbourhood of the Apiary, particularly in September and October, when the herbage of the fields fails, they then are driven by hunger to rob the hives. Watch your Bees close at this season, or they may THE farmer’s manual. 165 be ruined before you are aware, and thus your hopes of the season be blasted in autumn. The toad is the natural enemy of Bees, as of the wasp, and common fly, and will catch them indis- criminately, particularly in warm weather. He should be driven from the vicinity of the Apiary. A little gar- lic rubbed about your hives, will guard them against the ravages of the ant. The moth is an enemy of the Bee. It is the ca- terjiillar, which, in a certain state, gnaws our trees, books, paper, &c. Strong hives can protect them- selves against the moth ; but weak hives are some- times injured and ruined. The moth, in the butterfly state, infests the hives in April and October, and by her dexterity deposits her eggs amongst the comb, and dies. From every egg a smooth caterpillar bursts forth of a pale white, its head brown and sca- ly. It encloses itself in a little web of white silk, which it attaches to the combs, and in which it finds its food by iirojecting its head beyond its case. When the food around it begins to fail, it prolongs its silken web, which, though a mere thread at the be- ginning, becomes almost insensibly as large as a quill. This insect, having attained its growth, submits to the metamorphosis common to all caterpillars ; it quits its residence, retires to one corner of the hive, or de- parts from it ; spins a white covering, emerges as a butterfly, copulates and re-enters the hive to deposit its eggs as before. I have been the more particular in describing this insect, because, next to man, he is the most destructive enemy of Bees. Mr. Huish states with confidence, that in sixteen years, the moth has destroyed more than a fifth part of his hives an- nually. Mr. Huish continues the subject of the moth much more extensively, both as to its manner of laying its eggs, in and out of the hive, and the manner by which they are introduced carelessly by the Bees into the hive, where they are hatched with the other eggs ; the substance upon which the moth 166 THE farmer’s manual. feeds in the hive when grown, &c . ; but as all this can- not be of great importance, I pass it over, and notice the practice of some persons who surround their Apiary with torches in the evening, in order to de- stroy the moth, by singing his wings, together with the objection to this, as being alike destructive to the Bee, who will be drawn out upon the wing by the same light that destroys the moth. Mr. Huish thus concludes, “ A remedy against this insect is very dif- ficult, and the only adij^ice I can give on this subject, is, that whenev'er you suspect your hives are devour- ing by the moth, join your Bees to another hive, and thus save the little which remains. If your Bees become inactive when other swarms are at work, and continue so 10 or 15 days; no lime is to be lost in examining your hive, where the ravages of the moth will appear. Save your Bees if possible by removal to another hive ; all their labours are lost in that hive.” The death-head spinx, or hawk-moth, is a great butterfly, and belongs also to the family of phtEicnoe. It is one of the most formidable enemies of the Bee ; it alarms them very much, and sometimes in one night, will rob a hive of a great portion of its store. This butterfly emits a sharp and plaintive sound, which, with the spot on its breast, rudely representing a death’s head, give rise to, its name. It feeds on the leaf of the potatoe, and appears in the month of September. It is confounded with the bat, because of its size, and of its flight at^ the same lime. As soon as the Bees perceive its approach, they are all in commotion, and retreat into their hive. Mr. Hu- ish notices some remarks of M'. Lomebard upon the curious defensive position of the Bees, by way of se- curity against this enemy, which 1 shall pass over, together with Mr. Huber’s remarks upon the same vi- sionary scheme. Mr. Huish notices no particular remedy against this insect. The Bear, the Fox, and the Badger, are all THE farmer’s manual. 167 the enemies of Bees. One trait of sagacity in the Bear, mentioned by the Abbe Della Rocca, deserves some notice. “ The Bear seldom at- tacks a hive openly, from fear of its stings ; but he will in the most gentle mahner take a hive in his paws and carry it out to the first river, or pond, and plunge it, until the Bees are drowned, and then feed on the spoil. The proprietors, therefore, in those countries infested with Bears, attach their hives to walls, and other places, for their .security against the Bear.” The sparrow and the lizard are also enemies of the Bees, and must be carefully watched. 1 cannot too strongly impress it upon the minds ol every Apiarian, who wishes to reap any profit from his hives, to be constantly upon the alert, to effect the destruction of those enemies by which his pro- perty is so materially injured. Let him remember, they carry on their depredations in secret, and that in this instance, as well as in every relation in life, a false security, is the most dangerous situation in which a person can repose. CHAP. VIII. On (he Maladies of Dees. On this .subject, Mr. Huish acknowledges great dif- ficulty, both in discovering the maladies of the Bee, and the remedies ; but adds, if you have many hives, and any one becomes sickly, remove it as soon as pos- sible, that it may not infect the remainder. If you have few hives, you may attempt, first to investigate the disease, and next its cure. Mr. Hui.sh slates, that the dysentery is one of the most common as well as fatal diseases ot the Bee; and that the mark of this disease is the excrement voided by the Bee at the 168 THE EARHEr’S HANUAt. entrance of the hives, in spots, like linseed, nearly black, and of an insupportable smell, and that this malady is contagious. The Bees, when afflicted with this disease, destroy each other by contaminating their wings with this excrement, and thus stop the organs of perspiration. The cause of this disease is by some ascribed to new honey, when eat in winter ; by some to the deficiency of propolis, or bee-bread ; and by others, to the flowers of the elm and lime, from which they extract their honey. These, and several other causes, have been named by various writers; but they do not appear to be agreed in any one ge- neral cause of the dysentery. Many remedies have been prescribed by various authors, for the dysente- ry ; but, adds Mr. Huish, I consider it incurable ; al- though its prevention may be effected. As soon, therefore, as I perceive any of my hives affected with it, I give them a little of the following composition, which has invariably checked the malady, when given in the early stages. Rule. To a quart of white wine, add a pint of honey and two pounds of loaf su- gar; put the whole into a tin sauce-pan, and let it boil gently over a slow fire, skimming it at different times, until it is reduced to the consistency of syrup. It may then be bottled, and put into the cellar, and kept cool for use. Whenever it is used, if must be gently heated, until it partakes of the consistency of honey. Mr. Ranconi, an Italian author, recommends fresh urine, placed on j)latcs near the hives, for the/ use of the Bees. He also recommends white wine boiled with an equal quantity lof loaf sugar, with an addition of cloves and nutmegs, as doing well. Also the bark of pomegranates, pounded and mixed, with honey and sweet wine, as being conducive to the health of the Bee. Mr. Duchet recommends good old port wine, mix- ed with honey. Mr. Wildman recommends fine salt, as a remc<]y, to be placed on the bee-stand where they may eat it at pleasure. THE farmer’s manual. 169 M. Le Abbe Bienaime recommends oat-meal in the dysentery. Mr. Huish approves of all these remedies, and adds, great care should be taken to keep the hives as clean as possible during the prevalence of the dysen- tery amongst your Bees. Mr. Huish observes that the antennae of the Bee are sometimes diseased, and turn yellow, attended with some swelling ; but considers the disease as slight. He also notices that Bees sometimes have the vertigo, for which no remedy had been discover- ed ; but this was never general in hives, and not very serious in its consequences in the sivarms. The abortive brood, gilthough not an epidemical disorder, is still very injurious in its effects upon the Bees. Two causes produce this effect; I. When the Bees have given the larva improper food ; 2. When the worm is placed in the cell with the tail to- wards its mouth. In thjscase, the young Bees, inca- pable of estrication, die and putrify. The Bees ge- nerally remedy the evils of this putrefaction, by re- moving the abortive brood; but should this accident take place in winter, the infected combs may be cut out when the hives are examined in the spring. The tops ol the cells, when sound, are convex and yellow- i.sh ; when abortive, concave and blacki.sh. CHAP. IX. On the Brood. Having described the origin of the Bees, the na- tural constitution of the queen, and of the drones, J now proceed to tieat of their brood. By the brood, we understand the three different states of the eggs, worm and nymph, and it is on these states, that the prosperity, the conservation, and multiplication of the 15 170 THE EARMEr’s manual. Bees depend, for the establishment of the new colonies. In the chapter entitled. Enemies of the Bees, may be seen what a field of destruction constantly awaits this most valuable insect, from their common enemies ; but the accidents, or casualties of life, together with the common diseases of the Bees, open another extensive field of mortality for their destruction, so that, whe- ther at home or abroad, asleep or awake, the Bee may truly be said to be in the midst of death: all this is highl) to be regretted by the friends of the Bee. To counteract these evils of extermination which surround the Bee, nature has rendered them vastly prolific, and fixed in their breasts an indisso- luble bond of union. Their broods are very numer- ous, and they, like the Chinese, never emigrate, by deserting their swarms ; when a swarm is once form- ed, they never dissolve by desertion. 1 have noticed that the Brood all spring from the eggs which the queen Bee deposits in the cells, and that their number always corresponds to the exact number of cells. These eggs are broad at one end, and pointed at the other ; at the end of three days they are hatched, and a worm appears at the bottom of the cell. In this state, it is termed larva, and re- tains one position in the form of a ring, without mo- tioti, yet replete with life. At the end of five or six days, it envelops itself in a wjiitish silken film, and changes into a chrysalis. In this state, it is called a nymph. These wonderful chatiges are common to all classes of the fly, as well as the Bee, and take their rank amongst the mysteries of nature. “ The Bee in its state of nymph is enveloped in a jiellicle, so delicate and fine, that its six legs may be distinct- ly seen arranged under its belly, and its proboscis bent, in its whole length. The Bee in this state is while ; in the sequel, all the parts of the body gra- dually become covered, and insensibly develop them- selves, and become perfect on the 21st to the 23d day. The drone takes its flight generally on the THE farmer’s manual. 171 27th; the queen about the I6th. These develop- ments are slowest in small swarms, or in temperate seasons, and are suspended during the cold weather. The young Bee makes use of its teeth to liberate it- self from its prison, and to break the envelope ; this is an operation very difficult to the young Bees, and cannot be effected by all. The Bees, like all other animals, express great affection for their young, un- til they are come to maturity to support themselves, they then become indifferent. As soon as the young Bee obtains the use of his wings, he flits away into the fields, and commences the labours of the swarm : the old Bees proceed immediately to cleanse out the cells they have left, by removing the film, &c. and thus prepare them for eggs again, or honey.” The Bees are irascible, directly in proportion to the quantity of brood in the hive, and at this time, they should not be disturbed ; when the brood dimi- nishes, their agitation subsides, and when it comes to maturity, they become tranquil again. Mr. Huish enters into an elaborate discussion of the question, whether any food is administered to the brood when in the state of larva, as is questioned by some ; and if any, whether it be pure honey, or ho- ney and ffirina, as is the opinion of others; but as he concludes with this remark, “ the truth cannot be po- sitively ascertained,” and then assumes a decision, by way of analogy from the butterfly and other insects. 1 shall wave that part of his discussion, and enter up- on the next chapter. CHAP. X. On the Combs of the Bee. Immediately when a swarm of Bees take posses- sioa of a hive, they begin to clear and cleanse it 172 THE farmer’s manual. from all obstruclions ; even the ends of straws that project in the interior of a new straw hive, are all removed, and often with groat trouble. To remedy this, every new hive should be smoked, and cleansed, and rubbed with a stilT brush, until it is quite smooth, before it is presented for the use of the swarm. It is universally admitted by all Apiarians, that the Bees employ no other substance for the foundation of their combs than propolis, although the ancients, even Pliny, has furni^ied them with two others of an unctuous, pithy nature, more adhesive than ju-opolis. On leaving the parent hive, the young swarm are provided with ,all the requisites for their now labours, with food for .several days; and when they take possession of their new habitation, their activity and order are truly striking. Some cleanse the hive, others close up every crevice where the lightcan penetrate, others coiistruct the combs, whilst others repair to the fields, and collect the necessary materials; thus all is action aod order, amidst the busy hum. The Bee always begins her labours at the top of the hive, and generally in the middle; thus they lay their foundation for the deposit of the eggs of the queen, around which they construct the ceils for the reception of honey, and the whole fabric hangs sus- pended in air. They attach their combs with such a viscous glue, that they are always firm, and were never known to fail ; and to diminish as much as possible the weight of their edifice, they give the least possible thickness to their cells ; but, at the same time, they strengthen the .entrance of their cells by a border of wax; this part being most ex- posed to sufl'er from use. This border, also, serves to assist in /retaining the honey, and thus discloses the fact, that the Bee possesses a pei’fect knowledge of the laws of fluids; by the assistance of this bor- der, the cell can be filled with honey even to a coa- vex form, and thus being covered by a pellicle of wax, THE farmer’s manual. 175 may be secured for winter against the eft’ects of the moisture. The Bees construct several cells at a time, parallel with each other, all attached to the roof of the hive, and perpendicular to its base. The spaces between the combs are always sufficiently wide for two Bees to pass freely, these are the streets of their city ; perpendicular, not horizontal. Every comb is com- posed of a double row of cells, which are placed back to back, having one common base, and their figure is an exact hexagoiL Pappus, the famous geo- metrician of antiquity, demonstrated that this figure possesses the double advantage offillinga space, with- out leavitig any vacuum, and of enclosing the largest space in the same circumference ; and it is most wonderful, that the Bees have chosen, amongst an al- most infinity of figures, the only one which could ex- actly fulfil the essential conditions to which their na- ture restricted them. The figure of the base is a pyramid of three lozenges, formed perfectly equal. The four angles of these lozenges are again so hap- pily combined, and their opening is in such proper tion, that the wax is used with the greatest possible economy, and in such a manner, that any other lo- zenge composed of any other size, would not yield the same results. Samuel Koenig, who made use of the analysis of infinite units, to resolve this problem, which was given him by M. Beaumur, arrived, after all his calculations, at the mere result furnished him by the Bees. The choice of the figure is, however, not surpassed by the astonishing manner in which they construct all the sides of the hexagons, all the lozenges of their bases, and all the angles of the lo- zenges. The thickness of each of the combs is ra- ther indefinite ; it may, hcnyever, be stated in the ag gregatc at one inch, the upper is, however, generally' larger. The depth, then, of each cell, is aoout half an inch, and the breadth is constantly two liyes, two fifths, invariably, the world over, wherever Bees arc 15 * 174 THE Parmer’s uanual. known. Independently of the kind of cells which are the most numerous, others are constructed of a size rather larger, which are appropriated to the re- ception of the eggs from which the drones are to spring. The Bees, in the construction of the cells, regard particularly these two combinations, that of the size, and the number of Bees to be produced, or generated. The cells of the drones differ in tlieir depth and breadth, but they have in general a regular diameter, which is three lines and a half ; from which it appears that twenty of the drone cells would cover a space of five inches, ten lines, whilst twenty cells of the working Bees cover a space of exactly four inches. All this labour is performed with so much skill and firmness, that three or four of these sides placed on each other, do not exceed the thickness of common paper. A different species of cell is also constructed, destined to be the cradle of the queens. The architects now abandon their ordinary form of building, and construct the cells of a circular and oblong figure, which possess much solidity. One of these cells will weigh as much as 100 or 150 of the commoa cells. There is less economy used in their construction ; the wax is used with more profusion ; the exterior is waved ; in fine, they are really royal cells. They are trifling in number compared with the other cells. A piece of honey-comb is one of the wonders of art, produced by the powers of instinct, and may be considered as a masterpiece of nature. Even man himself, with ail his boasted reason, must bow with profound deference to the superior industry, econo- my, sagacity, political harmony, and order of the Bee. CHAP. XI. On ihe particular substances which are found in a hive. In the front rank of these substances, stands pro- polis ; for with this, they stop all the crevices of the THE farmer’s manual. 17A hive, lo exclude both air and light, and with this, they attach their cells to the surface of the hive. Propolis is a resinous substance, soluble in spirits of wine, and oil of turpentine; in this state, it is an excellent substitute for the varnish which is used in giving the colour of gold to silver, or to fin, made into tinfoil. It is very useful to expedite the matu- rity of abscesses ; its vapour, when in a consuming state, gives great relief to coughs, if inhaled into the lungs. Crude wax, or bee- bread, is the next sub- stance worthy of notice ; this is the farina of plants, collected by the Bees, for the various purposes of the hive, and constitutes one of the elements of wax. Farina, also, forms the chief element of propolis, by a process which it passes through in the stomach of the Bees ; yet propolis is not wax, although very si- milar, because propolis is much more glutinous and fragrant than wax. Propolis has been analyzed by M. Vauquelin in the 'Anals De Chimie, 1802 , and 1818 , and in the Bulletin de Pharmacie, by M. Ca- det. By distilation, a very sweet essential oil is ob- tained ; if it be placed on burning coals, it emits an odour similar to that of aloes ; it mollifies, and in this state, it cannot be broken until it is stretched to the fineness of a thread. M. Lombard says, “ That a perfect ignorance prevails, regarding the matter of which propolis is made, or whence the Bees extract it.” CHAP. XII. Oh Pollen, or Farina. Botanists designate by the term pollen, or farina, that fecundating dust which hangs on the stamina of all flowers, and which the Bees collect and transport to their hives, in little balls, or pellets, attached to 176 THE farmer’s MANUAL- tiie cavities of their hinder legs. The Bee roams from flower to flower in quest of this substance, and never quits the species of flower on which she first alights, until she has collected her load, and returned with it to her hive, where she is unburthened of her load, by the attending labourers. This is performed with their teeth, and the treasure deposited in a cell, and pressed close with their hinder feet. This pol- len, or farina, is placed at the bottoms of the cells, until they are about half full, and then covered with honey until the cell is filled; this secures the pollen from both air and moisture ; and thus, by their won- derful sagacity, they screen their food from the two elements, which, if they found access to it, would sour and destroy it. This perishable property in farina, shows, also, that it is not wax, although it is the substance from which wax is made, for wax is imperishable, either from air, or water; wax is solu- ble with heat, pollen is not; wax will float on water, but pollen sinks in water; all these particulars show, that pollen is not wax, yet all Apiarians are agreed, that wax is the result of certain operations which pollen undergoes by the management of the Bees, yet they are not agreed how' this is performed ; the Bee has never disclosed the secret, and probably never will. All are agreed, that farina is converted into wax, by the mouth of the Bee, and many, that the digestine powers of the stomach are brought into action to aid the process ; hut, even here, all becomes conjecture again, and the question is left as undeter- mined, as how the leaf of the mulberry is converted into silk, by the mouth and stomach of the silk- worm ; so much behind the curtain, and so concealed from the research of man, are these two useful, common and valuable operations of nature. The use of pol- len as food for the Bees, and more particularly for the broods, may be illustrated more fully by the fol- lowing fact. “ Mr. Huber had a stock of Bees in a glass hive, with twelve partitions; the queen of THE TARMEr’s manual. 177 which was barren. The cells were destitute of pollen, and possessed some honey. On the 16th of July, he removed the queen, as well as all the fiariiti' is, ex- cepting the 1st and 12th combs, the cells of wl j; h were occupied with eggs and larva, of all ages; tli.' cells in which pollen were perceived, were cut nut, and the hive was closed again with a grate. On the i 7th, the Bees appeared to tend their young; on the 18ih, after sunset, a great noise was heard in the hive ; the shutters were opened, and it was remarked, that the whole community was in a tumult; the brood combs were abandoned; the Bees gnawed the gratings of their enclosure, and were sot at liberty. Night soon compelled them to return to their combs, order was restored, and the hive was closed as formerly. On the 19th, the sketch of two equal cells, was seen dis- tinctly. At evening, as before, the Bees recommenc- ed their tumult, and were let loose, and again return ed to the hive as before, and it was closed. On the 20th, being the 6th day of their captivity, the brood was examined, in order to di.scovcr the cause ol this periodical agitation of the Bees; the hive was car- ried into a chamber, the windows of which were closed, the Bees were set at liberty, and it was dis- covered that the royal cells had not been continued ; not a single egg, nor larva, were to be lound ; all had disappeared ; the, larva had perished front hun- ger. Can this be supposed to arise from any other cause than the absence of pollen? To ascertain this fact, it was oidy necessary to carry them some pol- len, and observe the result. For this purpose the Bees were restored to their prison, after having sub- stituted new combs, containing eggs and young lar- va, in the place of those which hud perished. On the 22d, the observation was made, that the Bees had fastened their combs, and fixed themselves on the new brood ; some fragments of comb were then given them, in which some other Bees had stored some pol- len, and they were placed openly on the stand of 178 THE farmer’s manual. the hive. In the course of a few minutes, the Bees partook of the pollen, devoured it greedily, attached themselves to the cells of the young larva, into which they entered head foremost, and remained in them for a greater or less time. The hive was gent- ly raised, and the Bees which devoured the pollen were powdered, and it was observed that the Bees which were powdered returned to the pollen, and then again repaired to the brood, and entered into the cells of the larva. On the 23d, the royal cells were begun. On the 24th, it was observed that all the larva had some mucous matter upon them, that some of the cells had been lately closed, and that the royal cells had been elongated. On the 26th, two royal cells had been closed during the night. On the 27th, full liberty was given to the Bees ; the mu- cous matter was still found in the cells, which con- tained larva, and a greater number had been closed with a covering of w'ax, and on opening several of them, the larva were found spinning their cocoon. After this experiment, no further doubt can be enter- tained, that the pollen was the food of the young Bees, and it was the deficiency of this substance that ^used their death, and the evident agitation of the Bees, during their former captivity.” CHAP. XMI. On Wax. We have before observed, that propolis is not wax, neither is pollen, wax ; but that both form the basis of wax, through the operations of the Bees, which are inexplicable to us. The great variety of sentiment upon this subject, began as early as the days of Aristotle, and continues down to our times, and will most probably continue. Messrs. Huber THE FARHER’s manual. 179 and Blondelu, have both attempted to show from e;c- j)eritnents which appeared satisfactory to them, that the Bees jiroduced wax from honey only. M. Bon- net and M. Diichot have attempted to show, that the wax of the Bee is only an exudation of honey from the stomach of the Bee, and the scales of the body; and they cite as proof, the small particles of wax found on these parts of the body of the Bee. M. Ber- nard lie Jussieu, a man of science, has undertaken to show that wax forms a constituent part of farina, or pollen, by swelling the seeds of pollen in water until they burst, and disclosed an unctuous matter, which constitutes the wax of the Bee ; also, that aromatic trees and shrubs, exude from their pores, foliage and flowers, an unctuous matter, which is the genuine wax of the Bee. Instances of the wax-tree in Louisiana, and Carolina, arc cited ; but as these are wholly ir- relevant, I shall pass them over, and conclude as be- fore, that the modus operandi of the Bee in forming her wax, has never been discovered. The reality of bees- wax, its utility in common life, its advantages in commerce, iSic. are familiar to all, and within the limits of almost every member of the agricultural community to partake of its benefits, both for fiublic and private use ; and it is with a special reference to these benefits, that I have been induced to make these extracts public. CHAP. XIV. On Honey, This interesting chapter not only embraces the subject of honey as the essenti.d and component part of all plants, as well as the food of Bees, and the luxu- ry of man, but also the subject of the honey-dew which has so much excited the speculations, and in- 180 THE farmer’s manual. quiry of the curious, as well as of all classes of socie- ty. I ^hall qiioie this chapter at large, and give full scope to the reasonings of the writers, for the pur- poses of general instruclion, “ Honey is a guin- mv, sacrharitie. fermcitative substance, and the im- mediaip prinriple of all vegetation, wdAouJ dislinclion. This elcinentary substance appears destined to the nourishment of all plants, and particularly in their infancy, in the same manner as milk is destined to the nourishment of the^oung viviparous animals. It is found in all flowersT but principally in the single ones ; its presence is afterwards perceived in all fruits; it shows itself i?i the humble flowers of our meadows, in the ears of corn in our fields, and in the leaves of the trees. It exists in the roots, as wed as in the body and bark of all vegetables ; it exudes from the trunks of trees ; finally, it appears to be the soul and vital prin- ciple of all plants. On losing this jirinciple, the plants generally decay, and it is the perioil of their existence. Even the aliments of the human body are impregnated with this fluid, and the Bees know how to obtain it from almost every substance. It is still, however, but a gummy, saccharine substance, which must pass into the stomach of the Bees before it is converted into honey'. As the productions of nature are infinitely varied, so the honey, its consis- tency, taste and colour, vary according to the produc- tions of each country. The same species of flowers yield a diflerent kind of honey according to the dis- tricts, and the greater or less humidity of the season. Even honey of different qualities is extracted from the same hive : that in the cells, in which there has been no brood, is less acrid ; the honey of the swarm is superior to that which has been exposed for one year to the vapours of the hive ; and the honey of the spring is superior to that of autumn. The honey extracted from flowers is the nectar which they enclose, and which was so much boasted of by the ancients, who formed from it the celestial beverage of their gods, THE farmer’s manual. 181 to which they gave the name of ambrosia. Honey is particularly to be ascribed to the circulation of the sap at the return of spring. Like the other produc- tions of the Bee, Naturalists have differed as to the origin of honey. Some moderns, led away by vul- gar opinion, have thought that honey is a moisture in the air, or a dew, which falls upon the flowers and leaves of trees, and no where else. It is not a diffi- cult matter to convince those persons of their er- ror, who ought, in the first place, to consider, that dew and rain are very injurious to honey, as they di- lute it, and prevent the Bees from finding it. It is on a close and sultry day that the Bees find the richest harvest of honey. If dew were the principle of it, the Bees would find it indiscriminately upon all flow- ers and vegetables ; this is not the case, as confirmed by experience; and besides, how many flowers are there, which being in themselves fertile in honey, and having an horizontal or perpendicular inclination to the earth, consequently do not allow the dew to be received into their orifices. It is, therefore, most consistent with reason and experience to suppose, that the honey-dew is an exudation of the vegetables themselves, or a sensible transpiration of that sweet and mellifluous juice, which, having circulated in the different parts of certain vegetables, separates itself, and bursts c|uite unprepared, either at the bottoms of flowers, or at the upper parts of the leaves, and in some plants appears in great abundance. The pri- mary destination of this mellifluous liquid, or honey- dew, appears to be the nourishment of the fruit in its infancy. But an objection here presents itself; why are the male flowers, which never produce fruit, also provided with this honey ? Linneus himself was aware of this oHection, and could not solve it to his satisfaction. The utility of honey to the flowers, and the reason of its being accorded to them by the Author of nature, arc but imperfectly known to us. No Botanist has as yet given a direct and convincing 16 183 THE farmer’s manual. elucidation of it, nor has demonstrated either its destination or utility, in the vegetable economy of flowers. On this account, the solution of this question appears to be wholly abandoned to the researches of our successors. From the supposition that honey transpires from the plants and trees, by the action and admixture of heat and humidity, our surprise need not be great to find it at the bottom of the nec- tarium of the flower, which is the proximate part to the bark or peel, and it.piay, therefore, be easily con- ceived, why, in certain days, it is abundant, in others, scarce ; because it follows the motion, more or less strong, of thejsap. Also, why certain vegetables sup- ply a greater quantity than others; because they are more favoured with a soft humidity, and are more abundant in sap. Why the honey possesses quali- ties so various in difl'erent climates ; from the diver- sity of the vegetables. Why the cold rains, north winds, frost and snow, are unfavourable to honey; because they impede the circulation of the sap. Why this mellifluous liquid can abound without dew, pro- vided the sap circulates freely ; why, with an ardent sun, the harvest of honey can be great, when the ve- getables are full of humid juices, and why, during ex- cessive heat, honey is scarce ; because, from the avi- dity of the soil, all the vegetable juices are checked in their circulation. It is evident there are two kinds of honey, the one contained in the nectarium of flow- ers, and the other an exudation on the leaves of trees. The oak and the laurel, are particularly abundant in the latter, and on the first view, it appears paradox- ical, that the juice of a plant which is so very dele- terious should produce an exudation of a saccharine and wholesome nature. This cirpumstance has been one great ground on which certain persons found their argument, that the saccharine matter observed on the laurel, cannot possibly be an exudation from the plant, but must have fallen upon it in some other shape. The homogeneousness of this liquid, is an- THE EARMEb’s MANVAL. 183 other argument against its being an exudation, un-- less it can be proved that the sap of all plants is ho- mogeneous, and this 1 believe the most hardy dispu- tant will not attempt- to do. It is certain that the most credible writers on this subject, men of science and knowledge, have maintained that they have ac- tually witnessed the fall of this honey-dew ; and Mr. Ducarne, one of the most intelligent of those writers, thus expresses himself upon the subject.” “ You know what that honey is which the Bees collect with so much ardour in the flowers, but you do not know, perhaps, that there arc two kinds ; one, which is the real honey, is a juice of the earth, which, proceeding from the plants by transpiration, is col- lected at the bottom of the nectarium of the flowers, and is thickened afterwards; it is, in other words, a digested and refined sap in the tribes of plants ; the other, which is called the honey-dew, is an effect of the air, ora species of gluey dew, which falls earlier or later, but generally during the dog-days. This dew lights upon the flowers and leaves of plants and trees; but the heat, operating upon it, coagulates and thickens it, whilst, on the other hand, the honey which falls on the flowers, is preserved a ntiuch longer time. It is said that an abundance of this dew ren- ders the Bees idle, and makes them careless of col- lecting the common honey from the nectarium of the flowers. I however, never saw them collect it, but upon the flowers. One great disadvantage, there- fore, of this honey-dew is, that if the season be fog- gy and moist, and especially if attended with smml rain, this rain, or the too great humidity of the air, corrupts it, and forms a composition very inferior to the honey of the first species, or to that which has not undergone this adulteration. Those persons who have not viewed the honey-dew fall, as 1 have done, assert that it is nothing more than the juice, or sap of the plants, which, in hot weather, experiences per- haps a greater fermentation, by which it is forced 184 THE TARMEr’s manual. through the leaves. In contradiction to this, I assert, that it is perceived much better in the morning, be- fore the sun has been able to dry and harden it. These persons are, however, deceived. I have not only seen this honey-dew fall a hundred times in small rain on the leaves of the ash, but I have also .shown it to others, and the globules were most dis- tinctly to be perceived.” Mr. Huish objects to this hold assertion, that honey-dew never appears in moist weather, and is the result only of sultry heats : and adds, I have long adhered to the opinion, that the honey-dew dispersed upon the leaves of trees, was only an exudation, although the globules scarcely bore any resemblance in form to each other, but were rather in imitation a species of rain. On exa- mining more particularly diflerent trees, on which the honey-dew was apparent, chance led me to the dis- covery of an holm-oak on which the honey-dew had recently appeared, and in its primitive form, which is that ol a transpired humour. The leaves were co- vered with several thousands of globules, or small round and compact drops, without, however, touching or intermixing, similar to those which are seen on plants after a thick fog. The position of the globule seemed to indicate, not only the point from which it exuded, but also, the number of pores or glands of the leaf in which this mcllihuous juice had been iire- pared. I assured myself, that the honey-dew pos- sessed the real colour of honey, which of itself, was sufficient to decide on its origin without removing the doubts, which a contrary prejudice establishes. The honey-dew of a neighbouring bramble had not the same distinct appearance ; the little globules had no doubt commixed, or being united to each other, either by the humidity of the air, or by the heat which had dilated and extended them, they formed large drops, or broad layers, the dried matter of which, had become more viscous. It is under these latter forms that the honey-dew tg commonly per- THE farmer’s manual. 186 cuived, and our surprise need not be great, that exu- dation is not suspected to be the cause. In the sea- son when I remarked the honey-dew upon the ever- green oak, in globules, this tree bore two sorts of leaves ; the old ones, of a close tissue, like those of the holly, or those trees which, on the approach of win- ter, do not shed their leaves ; and (he new ones, which were yet tender, and which had shot forth only a short time. The honey-dew appeared constantly only on the leaves of the year old ; the leaves were, however, still covered with the tufts of the new shoots, and consequently sheltered from all species of rime, ordrisling rain, which might have fallen upon them ; this is a convincing proof, that the honey-dew is not foreign to the leaves on which it is found, and that it never appears in any other place, as the new shoots of our cvcr-grcen oaks, which ought to have been touched the first, as being the most expos- ed, did not exhibit the smallest drop. The same sin- gularity struck me in regard to the honey-dew of th?. bramble, although, by the conformation of this shrub, all its leaves are exposed nearly alike to the air, or to the dew, which should fall in a vertical direction. The honey-dew appeared only upon the old leaves, the new ones had not a greater quantity than the new shoot of the oak, whicn has just been mentioned. It is probably only the long exposure to the air, per- haps to its intemperature, and especially to the sun, which ought to be regarded as the true agent of this secretion. To elucidate this subject still further, the plants or shrubs of different species in the vicinity of which the honey-dews appear, and of a nature less suitable to the formation of the juice of which 1 am now speaking, do not carry the least vestige of it. This honey never appears on the rocks, or stones, un- der the trees on which it is found, which is a fresh proof, that this species of liquid manna does not fall from the air like rain, as it would then diffuse itself on all bodies indifferently, and would not appear sole- J86 THE EABMER’s MANCALi ly on certain vegetables, and even on some of their parts to the exclusion of others. The only objection to tiiis theory (and I must acknowledge, that the ex- perience of the most able Naturalists is against me,) is, that the dew is attracted by some bodies, whilst it is not by others ; but it is known that this phenome- non which often rises from the earth, always floats in the air, where it always obeys the least breath, and the weakest attraction, and often attaches itself to the upper as well as th^ lower parts of the leaves of trees. If It fell like rime, it would moisten indifie- rently every object. The acceleration of its fall, would enable it to surmount the obstacle of the weak repulsions, which it would find in its course- The circumstance, however, that favours in the greatest degree the illusion of the pretended fall of the honey- dew is, that it is only the upper part of the leaves which is moistened with it. It has been seen, also, that the moisture appears only on certain leaves, that is, on the new ones and those that are the least ex- jtosed, and this attraction or attachment is not the ef- fect of chance ; it is further known, that it is on the side of the leaf where the pores are not open and dis- linguishahle that the greatest exudation takes place. It is there that the excretory vessels unite, by which the humour of the plants escapes in the same manner as the absorbents, which serve for their nutrition, in Attracting the water of the rain and vapours which are diffused in the air. If the different proofs be now collected, which have been advanced, it may be con- sidered as undeniably proved, that the honey-dew ex- udes from the leaves of certain trees, and does not fall from the atmosphere. CHAP. XV. Oft Szvarmt in general. 1m the spring, when a hive is over stocked with young Bees, a particular period arrives when they THE farmer’s manual. 187 seek for a new habitation. A swarm, therefore, is nothing more than a colony of Bees which are for- saking their native home in quest of another place of residence. This change of abode now becomes ne- cessary from their obedience to nature’s law, increast and multiply, and is absolutely necessary to the pre- servation and support of the whole, as well as the ge- neral principle of increase. One of the fundamen- tal principles amongst Bees is, that tlie small hives (all other things being equal) generally swarm, one, two, or three days sooner than the large ones ; 1st, from the want of room ; 2d, from their increased heat in bringing forward their eggs. The time in which Bees swarm differs in ail countries. Mr. Men- tille says, they swarm in the Isle of Cuba throughout the year, and Don Ulloa says, they cast their swarms every month, and sometimes double. In Europe, generally, as in America, they cast their swarms in the spring and summerj according to the state of the season ; the warmer^he climate or weather, the ear- lier they swarm. As soon as a young queen has emerged from her nymphal state, she hetiomes capable ot laying eggs, this is never done in the mother hive, but always in a new habitation. The Bees rally around their queen, and conduct, or follow her to some secure re- treat, where she may' deposit her eggs to lay the foundation of a new swarm. This retreat being se- cured, she deposits her eggs as before stated, and thus lays the foundation for a new swarm the next spring. Several important things are now necessary to be understood, and carefully attended to, as the sure signs of their being about to swarm. 1st, An extraordinary number of Bees which hang in clus- ters about the hives. 2d, An apparent idleness Biinongst the Bees. 3d, A particular noise of chip, chip, made by the young queen, two or three nights before they swarm. 4th, An unusual bustle amongst the drones. 6th, A sudden silence succeeding a vio- 188 THE farmer’s manual. lent uproar. 6th, The continual motion of the wiiigS of the Bees which stand at the entrance. 7th, Vio- lent commotions at the entrance of the hives, and the Bees crowding out in great numbers. Although these are certain indications of swarming, yet they some- times take place at other times, when they do not swarm. The time of swarming is critical, and must be carefully attended to; the least neglect may occa- sion the loss of a swarm. The profits of a swarm are worthy of the highest attention ; but the pleasure to an Apiarian is highly gratifying. The buz of con- fusion that accompanies a swarm when they quit the mother hive, and rise into the air in quest of their new abode, fills the Apiarian with anxiety ; but the calm of order, which follows when they light, fills him with joy, and their safe deposit into their new habitation, affords him the highest gratification. The question, whether the Bees send out a scout to disco- ver a proper place for their new habitation before they swarm, may be answered by th# following extract of a letter from Mr. Knight, addressed to Sir Joseph Banks, which is inserted in the philosophical trans- actions of 1807. Thus says .Jan de Crevecceur in his leUers Du Cutivatciir Americaine ; “ One of the problems most difficult to solve, is to know when the Bees will swarm, and whether the swarm will re- main in the hive provided for them, or escape, to es- tablish themselves in the cavity of some hollow tree; for when, means of their emissaries, they have cho- sen themselves a retreat, it is not possible to retain them in any hive you may select for them. 1 have many times forced swarms into hives, which 1 had prepared for them, but 1 always lost them towards night; at the very moment when I least expected it, they flew away to the woods.” It is only by a particular management that a swarm of Bees can be reconciled to a hive, when a distant domicil has been chosen. If they desert their hive soon after swarming, they must be pursued, and their THU farmer’s manvau 189 new abode discovered if possible, and the Bees must be hived again, and confined in the hive two or three days, with some feeding, until the queen begins to lay her eggs, then the swarm may be considered as se- cured. Dubost in his works on Bees asserts, that he has seen a collection of Bees enter an empty hive in the morning, and before night of the same day, a strange swarm from some foreign Apiary, enter the same hive and take possession, and that the same facts have been noticed by other Apiarians. One of the greatest errors of the cottager in the manage- ment of his Bees, is in giving his swarm old and de- cayed hives ; these hives are generally infested with those insects which are the enemies of the Bees, and ruin their swarms. Jt seldom happens that the first flight of a swarm is to any great distance, but it ge- nerally alights upon some neighbouring tree, or bush. Every exertion should then he made to hive it, for it will not tarry more than two or three hours, especial- ly under a hot sun ; and when it is hived, it should be covered with a sheet, or table-cloth, to shield it from the heat of the sun. The best mode of hiving your Bees is, either to cut oflT the bough on which they hang, and place it under the hive, either in your Apiary, or upon a table near to it, or place the hive under the bough when taken oflT, and shake off the Bees into the hive. Many persons perform this ope- ration, without any safe-guard to their persons, but I would recommend some covering, that will guard the head, and particularly the face and eyes, the hands and legs ; that for the head, may be of canvass placed over the hat, which will extend it from the face beyond the reach of the stings of the Bees, and it must extend down so low, as to tie around the body, and be closed upon the back, so as to exclude the entrance of the Bees. This covering will give confidence, which is one of the requisites in handling Bees. Bees should never be breathed upon at the entrance of the hive, this irritates them. If they are 190 THE FAHMEr’s manual. blown upon with a bellows, it exasperates them. A great light dazzles them ; hence the reason why they can be better managed in clear bright weather, than in cloudy weather. In swarming your Bees, let your dress be of some light colour, and guard the hair and the eyes particularly, for these are the objects they aim at in their wrath.' If the swarm are restless after they are hived, you may suspect the queen is lost, and the Bees will soon return to the mother hive. If you examine the parent hive, and obtain a supernu- merary queen, and introduce her into your new hive, she will be well received, and all will be tranquil, and the swarm will hum with joy. Whenever a swarm divides itself into several clusters, it is the ef- fect of several queens in the hive, they should be im- mediately joined, and the Bees will destroy all the supernumerary queens, and the one joint stock will greatly exceed in value any number of small ones. If such a divided swarm should be one of your first swarms, and you should wish to multiply your Bees by keeping them separate, spread a sheet upon the f round, invert your hive in which your Bees have cen hived, and by a smart knock upon it, the Bees will all fall upon the sheet, they will not fly away, but will separate themselves into as many groups as there are queens, and each group will cluster round their queen ; you may then hjve them separately, and place tjltm at a distance from each other; the con- fusion' which this process may occasion, will subside in one night, and all become tranquil again. If your swarm is hived in the morning, which is the usual time, the hive must not be moved until evening, to give opportunity to the stragglers to come in. The place of swarming, will be the resort of the Bees for several days. If you neglect to remove your swarm at evening, let it remain five or six weeks, that the combs, \vhich are very tender at first, may acquire strength, so as to bear moving without injury. Whenever your swarms fly at a distance from your THE farmer’s manual. 19t Apiary to swarm, you may collect them into a bag, somewhat like a jelly-bag, the same as you would collect them into your hive, by cutting olF the bough, thrust it into the bag, and tie it close; when you ar- rive at your Apiary, then hive them in the usual way. Some rub their hives with aromatic herbs, and in Italy and France, they rub the hives with the leaves of onions, and garlics ; and the^hoted Apiarian Con- tardi says, “ The Bees accustom themselves to this odour for the want of a better but L’Abbe della Noua says, “We should refrain from approaching our Bees when we have touched onions, or eaten cheese, for both will excite their acrimony.” The best test of the value of a hive of Bees is its weight, and this can only be correctly ascertained, but by weighing the hive without the Bees, or one of the same size and structure, and then, by weighing them both together. The best swarms are from 5 to Gibs, they sometimes weigh 8lbs., but this is rare, and are not desirable, as they impoverish the parent hive too much. 5000 Bees, generally weigh a pound, a good swarm of 4lbs., consists, therefore, of 20,000; the quantity of honey such a swarm carries with it to be- gin a new colony, is generally about 4lbs. The signs attending the flight ot the second swarms at the time of swarming, vary from those of the first. Wildman says, the second swarms appear generally about ten days after the first, this is not ab*olutely correct; I have known them often swarm on the in- termediate days, from the 4th to the 10th, and some hives do not throw a second swarm, and this may be ascertained upon examination of the hives, when it appears that the combs are bare and destitute of Bees, when the supernumerary queens are dead be- fore the hive, and when the Bees tear from the cells the nymphs of the drones, no second swarm is then expected ; but if the Bees leave 3 or 4 queens alive in the hive, there is some chance of a second swarm. These particular examinations are not common to all 192 THE farmer’s manual. proprietors of Bees ; 1 would advise generally, that the hives be watched from the 4th to the I2th day af- ter they have cast their swarms, and if none appears by that time, it may be concluded thh, and se- lect only the following ; “ As the majority of the hives which are tormented with robbers are weak, and in want of proviiions, it would be well to give them some food in the evening, after sunset, securing, at the same time, the enirance ol the hive, against the admission of strangers, otherwise you will in- vite further pillage. Kemove the hive, at the same time, into some close roonr, with a window to the south, and continue to feed them three or lour days. 204 THE FARHEr’s manual. when you may open the window, and let your Bees pass out and in at pleasure, when the weather is fine, if the robbers appear aj^ain, close the window, and when the robbers are gone, admit the stragglers of your swarm ; continue to feed, and you may save your hive. It is a good precaution to place an emp- ty hive in the place of the one you thus remove, it will deceive the robbers.” CHAP. XXIV. On the advantages which accrue to the State and indi- viduals /rom the culture of the Bee. It is a notorious fact, that England pays annually to the north of Germany 40 or £ 50,000 sterling for the produce of the Bee, which could be saved by a small expense by her own peasantry. Even in Ame- rica, we are so regardless of the profits of the Bee, as to import honey in hogsheads from the island of Cuba and elsewhere. No country possesses greater advantages for the culture of the Bee, anrl perhaps no country has so grossly neglected it. Mr. Huish, after having gone over a cornplete system for the ma- nagement of the Bee, observes, “ I consider that 200 hives may be managed by one person, with some slight assistance, during the swarming season. Some French aut.hors eulogize the skill of M. Prouteac, who had constanlly under his care from 5 to 600 hives ; this is rare, and perhaps the only one. I will state the profits of five years, on a fair and equitable scale, making, at the saine time, fair and ample al- lowance for the losses, which, even the most skilful Apiarian cannot prevent. I will suppose a person to buy a swarm in 1812, for which he pays one guinea. In the month of May or June, his hive swarms, and in about 10 days, it swarms again, this is called a cast. His Apiary now consists of three hives, from one of which, (the cast,) it will be most THE EARMEr’s manual. 205 prudent for him to take the honey, and the Bees be joined to the strongest stock-hives. Suppose the casts weigh 15!bs., say twenty-two shillings; thus, in the first year, he has received back the price of his original' hive, and doubled his stock. The second year, his two hives produce him four swarms and two casts; let him sell the honey of his casts, at 15 shillings each, which will give him 30 shillings, and add the swarms to his stocks. He has now four good stocks ; at the end of each year, let him weigh his hives, and lake, out all the comb over 30lbs. ; say lllbs. a year from each hive; this gives him 40lbs. of honey-comb, at l«6 gives him three pounds ; this added to the profit on the two casts as before, gives four pounds ten shillings. The third year, his four hives produce four swarms, and four casts; he goes on as before, and on the fourth year, his Apiary consists of eight stocks. At the begin- ning of the fifth year, his Apiary has increased fo 16 slocks. I will now calculate the actual profit. Dr. 1812, To 1 swarm, - £ 1 10 1813, To 2 new bee-hives, 0 4 0 To 2 new stools, - 0 4 0 1814, To 4ncw bee-hives, 0 8 0 To 4 new stools, -080 1815, To 8 new hives, - 0 16 0 To 8 new stools, - 0 16 0 1816, To 16 new hives, 1 12 0 Ta 16 new stools, 1 12 0 1817, To 32 new hi >es, 3 40 To 32 new stools, 3 4 0 To lOlbs. sugar for fcciling Bees, - 0 6 8 To20ql3. ale, at 6rf. 0 10 0 To incidental expen- ses, ---- - I 10 £ 15 6 8 ■Qr- 1813, By one swarm, £ 1 10 By one cast, - - 0 15 0 By lOlbs. honey fr. the first swarm, 0 15 0 1814, By two swarms, 2 2 0 By two casts, - 1 10 0 By 201hs. honey fr. the two swarms, 1 10 0 1815, By 4 swarms, - 4 4 0 By 4 casts, - - 3 0 0 By 401bs. honey, 3 0 0 1816, By 8^'arms, -880 By 8 casts, - - 6 0 0 By 80lbs. honey, 6 0 0 1817, By 16 swarms, -16 16 0 By 16 casts, - -12 0 0 IfiOlbs. honey, - 12 0 0 £ 79 10 Deduct - - 15 6 8 Actual profit, - £ 63 14 4 18 206 THE farmer’s manual. The profit which is obtained from the Bee, stands in no proportion to the little trouble and time required in their culture, and this is sufficient to induce those who estimate things properly, to give a preference to the culture of the Bee, above all other agricultural pursuits, especially as no sacrifice of time or proper- ty are required, and no extensive capital necessary. As a proof of the importance attached to the culture ot the Bee, Wildrnan quotes a modern author, who affirms, that when the Rogians took possession of the Island of Corsica, they imposed a tribute of wax on the inhabitants, to the amount of 200.000 pounds an- nually ; supposing the Island retained the same quan- tity, that would give 400.000 pounds per annum made in one Island by this wonderful insect. The known proportion of wax to honey in a hive, is as 1 to 15 or 20; then multiply 400,000 pounds by 15 or 20. we have G or 8 millions of pounds of honey, independent of the wax as above; what a source of wealth fpr Corsica, and all countries which will profit by the im- provement. 1 have before me a French news- pa per of the 20th of September, 1787, which states, under an aiticle, dated Hanover, August 30th, “ The culture of the Bee is a particular object with the Hanoverians; the produce of wax thi.s year is estimated at .300,0001bs. ; this, multiplied by 15, gives 4,500,000lbs. of hoiiey ; a most incredible quantity to be collected in globules by a particular species of insect.” The 'rurks* derive great profits from the culture of the Bee. The im- mense quantities of wax the Europeans annually draw from Smyrna, Salonichi, and the Morea, are well known. Paysonnec, on the commerce of the Turks on the Black Sea, says, Wax is the most important article in the commerce of Moldavia and Wallachia. Speaking of Bulgaria, he says. An immense quantity of wax IS exported from Bulgaria; it is yellon, and of an excellent quality. I'he Bee nourishes wi II in all parts ol the world, in China, Siberia, Lapland, THE farmer’s manual. 207 and in the West- Indies, and thus offers its labours to all classes of men without exception. The immor- tal Linneus. in .speaking of the Bee, says, “ It is not yet di tennine 1, if the Bees, and other insects, which feed on honey, occasion any injury to the little em- bryos, or cause any obstruction to their generation, by imbibing the nectar of the flowers.” Since it is so well known that the Bees afford such immense prolii to the cultivators, tvith so little expense and trouble, and without the least injury to the most deli- cate parts of the vegetable kingdom, it must be ow- ing to a want of knowledge, or a want of attention, that America derives so little share from the profits of this wonderful insect. CHAP. XXV. Directions for the purchase of Hives. There is no commodity in which a purchaser can be so easily deceived as in a hive of Bees, and it is only the experienced Apiarian who can detect the particular defects. The value of a hive can only be known by a minute and close examination of its inte- rior. If the exterior be sound, the interior may be bad ; the combs may be black and ill flavoured, which is always the case in old hives. When the age CHAP. XIH. On Wax.— Analogy between wax and propolis. — Import- ance of wax as an article of commerce. --Various opin- ions of the qualities of wax. — The experiments of Hu- ber examined.— Extract from the Memoirs ofBlondelu on the nature of wax.-— Opinion of Bonner on the origin of wax. — Examination of the opinion of M. Jussieu. — Description of the wax-tree of America and China, 178 CHAP. XIV. On Honey. — Its general history, — Origin of it, — Differ- ence of opinion as to its origin, — Varies according to the climate of a ‘country. — The honey-dew. — Examina- tion of its nature.— Considered as an exudation from the plants. — Primary destination of honey. — Two kinds of hone)'. — Opinion of Ducarne on the fall of the honey- dew-— The honey-dew on the oak and the bramble, not the same. —Opinion of the ancient Naturalists.— De- scription of the honey-dew, examined hy M. Bossiers du Sauvages and Ducouedic, .... 179 CHAP. XV. On Swarms in general.— Nature of a swarm. — A small hive generally swarms before a large one.— Time of swarming generally varies in different countries. — In Cuba the hives swarm throughout the year.— In Eng- land, in May and June. -'-No Queen no swarm. — 'The first swarm the produce of the eggs of the preceding year.— Signs of a swarm.— Implicit confidence not to be placed in them.— Person to be appointed to watch.— CONTENTS. ^•20 Description of a swarm leaving the hive. — Question dis- cussed whether the Bees send out a scout.— Confirmed by Mr. Knight.-— Opinion of St. Jean de Crevecoeur.— - Duchet.-— Ducarne. — Dubost.— New hives to be kept in readiness for the swarms. — No specific 'rules for hiving a swarm.— Depend on circumstances. — Description of the dress to be used when hiving a swarm.— Me- thod to be adopted with a swarm having no Queen. — .'swarms divided into clusters.— -Junction of swarms.-— .Method to be adopted In that case.— Practice of the ancients to induce tliq Jees to enter the hive.— i he value of a swarm determined by its weight.— becond swarms. — Signs of them. ---Supernumerary Queens massacred. — Second swarms seldom worth preserving.— Method of uniting swarms.— Food to be given to a swarm in rainy weather.— Virgin ,warms.— Clustering Bees.— Artificial swarms.— Differ- ent methods.— Method of obtaining Queens.— Suggested by Ducarne, . . . . ... isG CHAP. XVF. ' 0.V THE METHOD OF PREPARING HoNEV AND WaX FOR MAR- KET.— Situation of the place for the manipulation of the honey.— Implements required for the purpose.— Me- thod of extracting primary honey.— Particular rules to be observed. T--Method of obtaining secondary honey.— The operation not to be performed in cold weather. Pbe instruments to be used, to be taken to the Apiary for the use of the Bees.— Directions for the same.— Rules for the preservation of honey. v-Proporlion of ho- ney and wax.— -Adulteration of honey,. — T wo methods of discovering it.— Rules for choosing honey.— Medicinal properties of honey, 193 CHAP.^XVn. •Jjr THE CAUSE OP THE MORTALiTv OF Bees.— T wo kinds of mortality.— Cold not injurious to Bees. — Error of keep- ing Bees warm in winter.— Travels in Rus 8 ia.-*-Bees kept fn Siberia.v-Never die from cold.— Travels in Lapland.— Experfment to determine the interior tempe- rature of a hive in this country.— More hives destroy- ed by heat than cold.— Hives ruined by the too great influence of the sun.— Method af averting it.— Danger COWTENTS. 221 to a hivo from humidity. — Bees to be prohibited to leave the hive in time of snow. — One of the causes of mortality. — Famine the cliief cause. — Ducarne’s me- thod of immuring Bees. — Precautions to be used in weigh- ing hives. — Danger of famine may be averted. — Hives to be weighed a second time in January. — Food to be regularly administered, . . . ■ CHAP. XVIll. On the life of the Bee, and period of duration of a HIVE. — General estimate of the life of the Bee. — Opin- ion of Reaumur. — Experiment by which the life of the Q.ueen has been ascertained. — Its duration beyond four years. — The longevity of a hive difficult to be determin- ed. — The causes thereof. — Duration of hives in the Archipelago. — The age of a hive may be determined by the combs. — Hives may be preserved by paint, 197 CHAP. XIX. On the deprivation of the Hives, and whether it is BETTER to SUFFOCATE THEM, OR TO DEPRIVE THEM OF A PART OF THEIR HONEV AND WAX. — Question consider- ed. Proce.ss ofthe deprivation of a hive. — Instructions to be observed. — Seasons of the year in which it is to be performed. — ^\'arious opinions thereon. — Depriva- tions easy in the author’s hives. — Calculation of the comparative profit of hives suffocated, and deprived. — Transversing of hives not beneficial. — Deprivation by the storying system — The bell-shaped hive improper for deprivation. — Disadvantages ofthe storying system. — The system of suffocation examined. — Examination of the oproioo of La Grende. — His erroneous calcula- tion, ........ 190 CHAP. XX". On the manner of feeding Bees. — Seasons for feeding. — Food to be given at intervals. — Too much food not to be given to a weak hive. — Danger thereof. — Feeding of Bees not to be deferred until they are in actual want. — Materials proper for food.— Honey alone inju- rious. — Recipes for food.— Manner of supplying the l^ives. — Salt to be mixed with the food. — Ciuaiitity of 222 CONTENTS. food consnmed by a hive in a month. — Treacle to be used instead of sugar, ..... 200 GHAP. XXI. On tjie establishment of H;ves, the Bees of which HAVE PERISHED BY ACCIDENT, OR THROUC.H WANT. — ^Ge- neral custom adoiited . with perished hives. — Error thereof. — Eggs left in the cells in a fecundated state. — Method of managing a hive under simil.ir circumstan- ce.s. — regenerated hive not to be placed in the Apia- ry. — Reason thereof. — aV(j_^warm to be expected from it. — The contrary affirmed by Ducoueilic, . 201 CHAP. XXII. On the custom of transporting Hives from pcace to PLACE, for the purpose OF FRESH PASTUI\,AGE, ACCORD- ING TO THE PRACTICE OF THE AnCIENTS AND MoDERNS. Profits attending the removal of hives to the vicinity of heath. — Custom of removing hives in Egypt describ- ed. — 'J'he same practice by the Greeks and Chinese. — Manner of transporting the hive.s in France. — Rules laid down by M de Bom ire.— I'he different systems of re- moval examined. — Examination of the transversing of hives. — Contradictory statements of the quantity of ho- ney and wax in a hive. — Increase of the weight of a hive on being removed to the vicinity of a heath. — General recommendation, . . ' . . 202 CHAP. XXIII. On THE ROBBERIES OP BeES, AND THE GENERAL METHOD OF PREVENTING THEM. — The Pee the natural enemy of the Bee. — Weak hives only suffer from pillage. A popu- lous hive often in want of provisions. — Resorts to rob- bery — A hive defended winktyTrom pillage, if infested with the moth. — Different causes of pillage. — After rain pillage most frequent. — Two seasons of pillage in the year. — Symptoms of an attacked hive. — Regular visits to be paid to the hives in the robbing seasons. — Me- thod of discovering young Bees from robbers. — Plan to be adopted with a weak hive. — Food to be given to weak hives. — An artifice to be adopted to mislead the Bees. — Instructions respecting a neighbouring Apia- ry, 20 .'! CONTENTS. 223 CHAP. XXIV. On the advantages which accrue to the State and in- dividuals FROM THE CULTURE OF Bees. — Importance of the wax and honey trade to this country. — Degraded state of the culture of the Bee in this country. — Calcu- lations on tlie profits of an Apiary for five years.— Tlie common straw hive a great impediment to the culture of the Bee in this country. — Advantages of their culture. Immense quantity of wax and honey produced in the Island of Corsica. — Extract from a French news-pa- per. — Great quantity of honey and wax produced in Hanover. — The Bee much cultivated in Turkey. Couynerce of Moldavia, VVallachia, &c. in Wax. DouDt of Linneus, ...... 204 CHAP. XXV. Directions for the purchase of Hives. — Caution to pur- chasers. — Presence of mind to be observed. — 'I’he in- terior of a hive to he examined first. — An old hive to be rejected. — Signs thereof. — A number of Queen cells a sign of the oldness of a hive. — Proper seasons for the purchase of hives. — Signs of a thriving hive. — Hives not to be purchased in the immediate vicinity. — 'I'he weight the best criterion of a hive. — Precautions to be used in this respect.— Method of transporting a pur- chased hive. — Proper time for the same, . . 207 CHAP. XXV 1. On the countries most beneficiallv situated for the culture of the Bee, and the number of Hives each CAN support. — The southern countries most advanta- geous to Bees. — Opinion of La Gienee on the number of hives a country can siijiport. — 'I'he same examined. — A country not to be overstocked witli hives. — Number of Bees to be kept in a district, according to its fer- tility, 208 A CHAP. X-XVII. On the distance which Bees fly for food. — Import- ance of the question. — Ms solution most necessary. — Various opinions concerning it. — Huber’s decision upon 224 COBTENTS. the subject. — Curious circumstances attending an excur- sion to the Isle of Man, . ... • • 208 CHAP. XXVIll. On the manufacture of Mead, 209 t w ■ ■tef- 0 r ( • y 0 ^ '