No. 6.-VOL. 8. AGRICULTURE. AMERICAN FARMER.-BALTIMORE, APRIL 28, 1826. I have said that too much seed cannot be put in the The practice of putting a small quantity of grass seed on ground laid down for pastures or meadows, ground at once. Every body knows what a small is one of the greatest errors in the husbandry of quantity is generally used, and how long it is before our country. On this subject I wish that our far-lands laid down as pastures or meadows come to mers would consult a book published in London, perfection, and how they are injured by grasses of called the Complete Grazier. It gives recipes for spontaneous growth, which ought not to be there; the kinds and quantities of seed per acre proper to but for which the greater part of the surface of the be sown on all the varieties of soils; such as clay, ground is left by the stingy sower. In confirmaloam, sand, chalk, peats, up-lands, mid-lands, low- tion of the propriety of these remarks, I will make further quotations from the Complete Grazier. lands. Os the subject of manufacturing butter I cannot refrain from saying something more. It will be sim-for ply concerning the operation of churning. I last summer visited a farmer near Ithaca, who kept a dairy, supplied by about sixteen cows, and conducted in the manner I have been accustomed to see in Ulster and Orange, as described in my communication for the Plough Boy; the butter from which commanded a higher price than any other in that part of the country. The working of the churn As a sample, I will copy the recipe for an acre Meadow Fox-tail, Ray grass, Rib grass, 2 pecks 2 do. 2 do. I do. 1 quart. pre "The following proportions were sown a few years since by the Earl of Darlington: White, or Dutch clover Rib grass, S 17 lbs. By which means (the soil being previously plough- viz: In the recipes for the various soils, the quantity of Let this was done by a dog. The machinery for this purpose was simple. It consisted of a circular plat-seed is generally about a bushel per acre. form inclined to the plane of the horizon, and mov-be compared with our practice. Here it is proper to be observed, that in laying ing on an axle through its centre. The dog was placed on it near its edge, with a rope fastened down grounds for pasture lands, the English select round his neck and attached to an adjoining fixture. the seeds of such grasses as will come to maturity In this situation, the platform being put in motion, in succession; but I think they carry this scheme is, to make the ground perfectly smooth and level, the dog was obliged to perform the operation of walk- to excess, and that there is no necessity for a mix- and then sow upon every acre the following seeds, ing on it upwards; by which means the motion was ture of such a variety of seeds to be used for these continued, and by means of a simple contrivance purposes. In our country the most esteemed grasscommunicating with the churn-stick, the churning es are-white and red clover, timothy or herds' in this manner was performed and completed in grass, the red top, and foul meadow. With these about an hour; when the dog was dismissed and some other indigenous grasses intermix, the merits ashes thoroughly mixed together, and folds his received his customary reward, a plentiful repast of which deserve to be investigated. Our best on milk, &c. Thus treated, he returned to his la-grasses for meadows are unquestionably the timo- He manures it with a compost of earth, dung and bour with alacrity when it was again required. thy, the red top, and foul meadow. The merits of The churn held of milk and cream put together in this last mentioned grass are not generally known, sheep upon it, &c. The proportion of seed, howit, about the contents of a barrel. I staid during the and I suspect it to be the best, for low alluvial soils, ever, is still too great, though in other respects his process of one churning, and was highly gratified to be found in our country. It appears to me to be management be excellent." with it; and what contributed much to my gratifi- a variety of the red top, Agrostis vulgaris, and cation was the delicious beverage of buttermilk with ferable to it, being more delicate in its structure, and having leaves more slender, longer, and in I have been told by an acwhich the mistress of the dairy treated me. As having not a very remote relation to dairies, greater abundance some remarks on pastures and meadows, will not be quaintance from Orange county, that it is chiefly out of place here. With regard to these, we have used on the reclaimed drowned lands there, and in this country availed ourselves but little of the preferred to all other grasses, and that it yields precepts founded on a thousand years' experience most abundant crops. I know from my own observabeyond the Atlantic, where their value is duly ap- tion for a number of years, that without any artifipreciated, and the fruits of them are fully enjoyed. cial preparation, it has gradually supplanted the There we are taught, that in order to have good coarse aquatic grasses on the lower parts of the pastures or meadows, no pains or expense must be low-lands at Ithaca. There can be no better hay spared to enrich the soil where that is needed, to than that which is made of it. On a rich, moist destroy as far as possible by a suitable course of soil it will grow uncommonly dense, and I should Such appears to be the practice where agriculhusbandry, every weed and plant that previously think would yield as much from an acre as any occupied the field; to have the ground perfectly pul- other of the best cultivated grasses. In order to make a good meadow on a rich soil, I ture has been growing towards perfection, aided by verized by ploughing and harrowing, and then to sow on it a plentiful quantity of grass seeds suited to the would recommend this practice. Destroy all the all the efforts of man, and the acquisitions of scisoil, and of those kinds which have been proved weeds and natural grasses by ploughing, harrowing ence and experience, assiduously and constantly apto be the best for those purposes. The fault I mean and suitable crops. Prepare the ground by suffi-plied for its amelioration, for more than a thousand to find with our practice contrasted with that of the ciently pulverizing it, and then sow on it so much years. Now let the practice in our country be confor How far the grasses of Europe are proper English is this-for pasture or meadow we sow in timothy seed as that the growth from it shall imme-sidered. With the reflection of this light on it, how the spring of the year, on a field of winter grain, a diately cover the ground, at least, as thick as a field most wretched does it appear! small quantity of grass seed, from which we expect of flax. This then will give you clear, abundant our future pastures and meadows, and trust to their crops of timothy, to the exclusion of every other our country, experience must decide. We know branching out in two or three years so as to make grass. Or if the ground be inclined to moisture, that one of our best grasses, timothy or herds' tolerable pastures or meadows. In the meanwhile use foul meadow seed in the same manner; or make grass, cannot be cultivated to advantage in England, other grasses and weeds spring up so as to occupy use of a mixture of timothy and foul meadow; at and sufficient experiments have not been made, or most of the ground; and this is most notoriously all events be not sparing of seed, and immediate if made, not recorded, to ascertain which of the the case in our new country, where the seeds of abundant crops will be the reward. Timothy and English grasses would be an acquisition in our thousands of varieties of plants lie in the ground foul meadow, or red-top, I consider as the best of practice of husbandry. Nor have the proper reready to spring up and overcome the growth of ar- any known grasses for our low-land meadows, and searches yet been made to ascertain what additions tificial grasses. In order to prevent this, the Eng- the more every other kind can be kept out of them may be made to our pastures and meadows, by the lish practice before described is the more necessary the better. Some of the English grasses may be introduction of the grasses on which our cattle subThe aboriginal weeds must first be destroyed advantageously used in laying down permanent sist in their ranges in our forests. For this purpose Red clover is to be or cow, not starved, but with an appetite rather by preceding crops, especially by those which re-pasture grounds; but white clover and timothy I would advise, that a botanist should turn a horse quire the use of the hoe, and then such a quantity are the best in use among us. of clean well selected grass seeds must be sown as preferred for soiling and enriching the ground, sated, into the woods, at a proper season of the will cleverly fill the ground, and in their growth when fallowing is intended. By means of it, with year, and observe the grasses which the animal might be discovered which would make valuable smother every other vegetable. For this purpose the assistance of gypsum, the poorest soils can be would select for his food. By this means some too much seed cannot be put in the ground at once. made valuable. here. No. 6. —VOL. 8. Sweet-scented spring grass, "These are to be mixed together, and about three bushels of them sown on an acre." additions to those used with us for our pastures or meadows. Farmer, on the "Art of Breeding, by Sir John Se-him. But further, what does he mean by the juncbright;" and introduced into the memoirs at the sug- tion of brother and sister not being objectionable? I have met with a remark in some English trea- gestion of a gentleman belonging to the society, Unless the produce upon the whole are equal to the tise on the subject under consideration, that "a who says that the essay "evinces a perfect know- parents, it certainly would be objectionable; and if good pasture is too valuable ever to be broken up." ledge of the art of breeding." As Sir John appears equal, what objection can there be then to their If this be the case, let the man who undertakes to to me to have fallen considerably short of perfec- junction also, under the same restrictions in regard prepare a dairy farm, soliloquize in this manner, tion, in his reasoning on this subject, I thought that to similarity of defect. when he is preparing his pasture fields:-I am it might not be useless to examine into the correct- "Although I believe the occasional intermixture now about doing what is to be done only once ness of a few of his opinions. of different families to be necessary, I do not, by in my life-time, on the farm from which I am to ob- The first sentence upon which I wish to remark, any means, approve of mixing two distinct breeds, tain my living, therefore let no pains or expense be is as follows: "It is not always by putting the best with the view of uniting the valuable properties of! spared to have it done in the best possible manner. male to the best female, that the best produce will both.* If it were possible, by a cross between the I will plough, harrow and hoe my field, and raise be obtained; for should they both have a tendency Leicester and Merino breeds of sheep, to produce such crops on it as are best calculated to destroy to the same defect, although in ever so slight a de- an animal uniting the excellences of both, even every kind of vegetable now growing on it. I will gree, it will in general preponderate so much in such an animal, so produced, would be of little make use of every means that can be contrived to the produce, as to render it of little value." First: value to the breeder; a race of the same descripenrich the ground. I will pulverize the soil, and as to the theory of the matter. What foundation tion could not be perpetuated." Here the writer, level it as much as possible, and then I will make has Sir John for this opinion? Is not the whole art with respect to the perpetuation of the breed so a selection of the best and most suitable grass of breeding founded upon these two plain princi- obtained, besides going contrary to common obserseeds, and sow them in abundance on it, remem- ples-first, that in nature there is a strong tendency vation, contradicts what he says in another part of bering that I cannot sow too much in order to for like to produce like; and secondly, that there is the essay, where he speaks of varieties of domestic have full crops immediately, and to prevent the a slight tendency to change? From which of these birds obtained, and continued, solely by the art of growth of noxious plants; and if any of these principles does the baronet draw his conclusion. man. should notwithstanding spring up, I must go over The probability is, that the greater number of the This subject of breeding in and in, has long been my fields and eradicate them, and in a few years I produce would possess the defect specified in the what a lawyer would call one of the "moot points" will have a good clean pasture, which will last my same degree with the parents; that some would pos- in the theory of agriculture The opinion of the life-time, and be retained in the highest state of sess it in a less degree and some in a greater. But necessity of change, has always been held by many, perfection by means of occasional top dressings, or to refer to experience and practice: Do we really not only with respect to brutes, but also with reby scattering some pulverized gypsum over it, and find Sir John's position to be true? One instance spect to vegetables, and even with respect to man sometimes, perhaps, by a scarification, all which will be sufficient. With respect to sheep, the black himself, As to vegetables, I think that any person will cost me but a trifle compared with the benefits colour in the wool is generally considered to be a who will read a communication on the subject, by defect. Now, all well bred Southdown sheep have the late Joseph Cooper, of New Jersey, published in I will receive from them. The late Gouverneur Morris had several dairy esta- dark faces and dark legs; yet I have never heard of one of the volumes of Memoirs of the Philadelphia blishments on his estate at Morrisania. On the exqui- any breeder expressing an apprehension that the Society for promoting Agriculture, will say that he site flavour of the butter they produced I have often black colour would, in three or four generations, has, at least, made a very strong case against the feasted at his table. In rambling over his fields and extend gradually from the face to the very tip of theory. With respect to the human race, I have visiting his dairies, among the numerous instructive the tail. On the contrary, a black body or a white understood that the opinion is no longer held by observations he made on agricultural subjects, one face would be considered, either as showing a de- modern physiologists. Indeed, we read of a nation was new to me, and I considered it worthy of being viation from the blood, instead of proving that they situated near Mount Lebanon, in Palestine, who remembered, and of having the truth of it investi had been too closely bred in-or else, as an in- have always permitted marriage between brothers gated. It was this "The older the pasture, the stance of the slight tendency to change already and sisters; and yet they are represented by travelbetter will be the milk and butter which it produc- mentioned, and which the breeders are careful to lers as being a very hardy vigorous race. I allude es." Whether this be correct or not, I cannot, counteract. On the next page he observes: "If a to the Druses. CECROPS. from my own experience or observation decide, breed cannot be improved, or even continued in further than this, that some of the most luxuriant the degree of perfection at which it has arrived, pastures about Morrisania, appeared to be very but by breeding from individuals so selected as to aged, and I knew that the butter they produced correct each other's defects, and by a judicious combination of their different properties, (a posi-a value far beyond its general reputation. We find [This grass possesses, as we are inclined to think, In closing this communication I shall make one tion, I believe, that will not be denied,) it follows the following notice of it in Dickson's Farmer's further remark. The subjects on which I have that animals must degenerate, by being long bred Companion. We once saw it growing very luxutouched must be confessed to be important. They from the same family, without the intermixture of riantly at the residence of the late lamented Judge stand related to the essence of our highest interests, any other blood, or from being what is technically Holmes, of Winchester, Va.] the productions of our soil. These are to create called, bred in and in." The most remarkable thing our wealth, and all our enjoyments thence to be about this sentence, is the total absence of all logiderived. They are therefore deserving of a prima- cal connexion between the premises and the conHave the English, who are our clusion. was most excellent. ry attention. CHICORY. CHICORY. This is a herbaceous plant of the succulent pe Before the conclusion can be established, * In a communication from the gentleman who conschool-masters in husbandry, taught us what is it must be shown that there can be found no indivisiders the essay under review as "evincing a perfect suitable to their soil and climate, they have not dual in the particular family under consideration, taught us what is suitable to ours. This is a task exempt from the specified defect; which would be knowledge of the art of breeding," inserted in the belonging to ourselves and deserving of all our ap- for like to produce like; which is false, and would ley blood, in the expectation of obtaining the good to suppose that nature shows an invariable tendeney crossed the broad-tailed sheep with the sheep of Dishsame volume of Memoirs, he informs us that he has plication. Let then every practicable method be also strike at the root of all improvement in breed-qualities of both without the defects of either! A celeadopted for ascertaining what grasses are most proper for the pastures and meadows of our coun- ing, at once. The writer then quotes the practice brated breeder in England, in writing to Sir John, obtry, and what seeds or mixtures of seeds are the of the celebrated Bakewell, who, he informs us, as- serves with respect to this very point. "I have seen most suitable for our various soils. This is a busi- and in. But Sir John gives us to understand, that ment of an object so desirable, as the full attainment serted that he acted on the principle of breeding in much of crossing, but never yet saw the accomplishness that should not escape the attention of our inBakewell was addicted to telling fibs about his stock. of the bad. Indeed, it must be obvious that there is of the good properties in each, without any mixture stitutions, created expressly for the purpose of meliorating the agriculture of our country. Upon what authority he says this, he has not inform- no more reason to expect a perfect union of the forThe following are the articles above alluded to!* Mr. Meynel, and observes: "Mr. Meynel sometimes petuation of a cross so obtained, the writer last quoted ed us. He mentions also a breeder of fox hounds, a mer, rather than the latter." With respect to the perbred from brother and sister; this is certainly what remarks-"I shall inquire, secondly, whether a cross may be called a little close; but should they both be from two distinct breeds can be obtained and continued, very good, and particularly, should the same defects so as to unite in an almost equal degree the properties MR. EDITOR, not predominate in both, I do not think it objectiona- of both; and I am fully of opinion that this can be acIn looking over, a few days since, the Memoirs of from the same family, cannot, in my opinion, be purble: much farther than this, the system of breeding complished;" and he then goes on to mention instances the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society, I observed sued with safety." Here the writer grants that bro- of the American Farmer, from the 1st vol. of the Me[That paper will be published in the next number an essay, which has been transferred to the American ther and sister may be found in the same family, not moirs of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society.] possessing the same defects; the reverse of which ap- Cichorium Intybus.—It is likewise known by the title pears to be implied in the last sentence quoted from of Wild Succory. (To be continued.) ON THE ART OF BREEDING. Philadelphia county. *These will be given in our next. in which it has been done. rennial kind, that has been lately introduced into the manner directed above, little attention is neces- part of three years, particularly in the first autumn. cultivation for the purpose of affording green food sary afterwards, especially when cultivated in the after the barley was cut, when a fine fleece of herfor the summer support of different sorts of live common broadcast method; but where drilled in bage was produced: the two following years it was stock. It seems to have been first fully brought to rows, the use of the hoe will be required to keep mown by the farmer, and fed through the latter. the notice of agriculturists by the experiments and the intervals as well as the plants in the rows clean, It proved by the result that the chicory was always observations of Mr. Young, detailed in his very and the ground well stirred. eaten by sheep, cows, and fatting bullocks, as close useful work, the Annals of Agriculture. The plant Crops of this plant from the great quickness and to the ground as any of the other plants. Though is, however, supposed by Professor T. Martyn, in luxuriance of their growth, are capable of being horses were in the field, no remark was made whehis edition of Miller's Dictionary, to be a highly im- repeatedly cut in the summer months, for the pur- ther it was eaten by them; but in the stable soiling proved variety of common succory; as in its wild pose of soiling horses and other sorts of stock. It they ate it with avidity. state that plant is dry, hard, and without much suc should not, however, be cut more than once or twice Mr. Martin found it an excellent summer pasculence. It is capable of being grown on most of the first season; but in the following summers the turage for store sheep, whether mixed with clover the loamy descriptions of soils, and even in some of operation may be performed three or four times or alone, especially on dry soils and in dry sumthe more light brashy sorts of lands, and other according to circumstances. Mr. Young advises mers, as from its tap root it receives nourishment poorer kinds, but succeeds the most perfectly in four cuttings in order to prevent the stems from from a great depth, affords a large quantity of food, such as are not too much retentive of moisture. running up too much and becoming dry, sticky, and and bears eating close without any danger of The former of the above writers say, that it affords less nutritive. The proper times are to begin about drought affecting it: it should always be eaten close. a large supply of sheep food on poor blowing sands; April or May, and to continue it every other month It may not be proper in feeding pastures, as fat catand that with a portion of cock's-foot grass and bur- till October. tle must have abundance of food; for in such cases net, it will form a layer for five or six years, better Its produce when cut green is large, affording, in it would send up the seed-stalks too much, and they than from trefoil, white clover, and ray-grass. It also Mr. Young's trials, upon the average of four years, would not eat it, and by its luxuriant growth it thrives to much profit on fenny, boggy, and peaty thirty tons to the acre: this is probably, however, might damage the finer grasses. lands; and where clover is worn out, it likewise an- larger produce than the plant is capable in general On a brashy soil, the Duke of Bedford found that swers well. of affording. the produce of an acre sown with this food, the first In respect to the preparation of the soil, it is pro- It is not only in favourable seasons that this year supported seven new Leicester sheep, of about bably less particular than many other similar plants, coarse juicy plant can be made into hay with suc-22 lbs. the quarter, for six months; and is of opinion but answers in the best manner where the land is in cess: nor is it well suited for the purpose, being of that, on the same land, no other artificial grass. a tolerable state of fertility, and has been rendered much greater advantage when consumed in its would have equalled it. in some degree fine and mellow. When it is put in green state. Its produce in this way is stated at with other sorts of crops, the same kind of prepara- from three to four tons the acre. This sort of hay tion must be employed; but when sown alone the is, however, asserted to be nutritious. ground should be rendered fine by two or more ploughings at suitable seasons, according to the nature of the soil, and repeated harrowings. Seed. This is the best when collected from the plants by the cultivator, as, like most other sorts, it is liable to be mixed in the shops. It vegetates in the most perfect manner when new. a There are some other plants occasionally cut and used as a green food for cattle; such as buckwheat (Polygonum fagopyprum,) and winter barley, &c. When left to run up to stem and seed the pro- And it seems probable, from some trials which duce is considerable, amounting in the third year, have been lately made, that the latter, as being exto more than four hundred weight on the acre. tremely hardy, and affording an abundant produce, The most useful application of this sort of crop may be grown with much more advantage as a is probably feeding cows and other sorts of cattle, green food for the purpose of sciling and the supand the soiling of these as well as horses, as it port of stock, than the former. springs more rapidly than either sainfoin or burnet; but it is likewise found to answer admirably for pasturage for sheep; as it is less injured by close feeding than many other plants. SAXONY SHEEP. "SALE OF SAXONY SHEEP. The quantity of seed which is necessary for the At the sale of Saxony sheep, by auction, which acre, must as in other sorts of crops, of course vary "In a comparative experiment made on a small took place at Albany last Friday, seven bucks sold according to the nature of the land and the inten- piece of land of a wet, sandy, friable, loamy soil, at from $150 to $210, and 14 ewes, at the average tions of the farmer; but the usual proportion, whe- with marly bottom, drained, on a cabbage prepara- price of about $60. This price, as appears from ther sown alone or with grain in the spring, is tion, sowed oats with chicory and various other the following article from the Albany Argus, was so from ten to twelve pounds. In the row method of seeds-the oats were mown at harvest, but had only far below what was considered their fair value, that sowing, at the distance of a foot, from seven or been used as the means of laying down: in May, the sale was stopped. eight to ten pounds may, however, be fully suffi- when the grasses were mown and weighed green, cient. As the plant is not of the tillering or spread- those with chicory were most productive. No rain ing sort, a full proportion of seed should, however, fell till the 11th and 12th of July, when it was very to make sale by auction, of a flock of Saxony "An effort was made in this city on Saturday last constantly be put in, that the ground may be well heavy. On the 14th of this month cut the chicory covered with herbage. crop; the others had not any thing worth mowing, with care; and the arrangement of the bucks sheep. The selection, it is said, had been made Time and method of Sowing. In August, cut all again, when the chicory crop had and ewes in eight different pens. The conditions The period of putting in chicory crops must be much the advantage in quantity. In the after-grass-on which they were offered, &c. were considered regulated by the method in which the business is es also, the chicory was the only one productive." judicious, and well calculated to effect a sale. But performed, and the views of the cultivator. When From the whole of the experiment it appears that it is a matter of regret that the proprietors were so it is sown without other sorts of crops, the work may the superiority of chicory in general, over other much discouraged with the bids for the few that be executed at any time from about the middle of plants in general, is very considerable, which is a were struck down, after two attempts morning and March till the latter end of the summer; but with circumstance principally to be attended to. corn it must depend on the season they are put in. As a very large proportion of green food is afford- until to-morrow morning, when it will take place afternoon, as to induce them to postpone the sale It is sown with both oats and barley, but the first ed by this plant at a period, when it is not otherwill obviously admit of the more early sowing. wise easily obtained, its uses in soiling cattle or ani-and the facilities which our inland navigation will near the capitol. When the value of this animal, put into the soil as early in the spring as possible. beasts with tares and chicory, it appears that on From the plant being hardy, it should, probably, be mals, is evident. In a comparative experiment of stall-feeding eight the state, are considered, it will be a source of reafford for its easy introduction into every part of Mr. Young found it less liable to be injured by grain crops than other sorts of grasses, and to succeed putting to tares only from May 25 to June 21, they gret if this first attempt to bring them to the doors gained 49 stones; weighed again 6th July, gained of our agriculturists, should prove so discouraging as 17 stones: on this weighing they were put to chico-to forbid any future effort of the kind." ry, the tares and that both being given to them; weighed again 13th July, only one week afterwards, 8s. 7d. per head per week. and had gained 27 stones, or an advantage of about well with most of them. It is mostly sown in the broadcast method, after the surface has been rendered fine and covered in by a light harrowing. But from its growing with the greatest luxuriance where it is the most open and has the greatest benefit of free air, it is suggested as well adapted to the row method of cultivation. In which case it may be drilled in at nine inches on such lands as are of the poorer kind, and twelve in those that are more fertile, being harrowed in by one bout of the harrow. After-management. Its utility for the purpose of pasturage is fully shown by other statements. On an experiment being made with ten pounds of this seed over five acres, in a good strong wet loamy soil, sown with barley among clover, trefoil, ribgrass, burnet, &c. in order to remark in the pasturing whether sheep and cattle would eat it as HORTICULTURE. SEA-KALE. Directions for cultivating the Crambe Maritima, or Sea-Kale, for the use of the_table. By William Curtis, author of the Flora Londinensis, Treatise on Pasture Grasses, and a variety of works on gardening, &c. The crambe-maritima, is found growing sponta Where the crop has been put into the ground in well as those other grasses; it was viewed during 'neously, though locally, on the sea-shore of our is land, as well as of many other parts of Europe; height, which expanding into numerous branches, and secondly there is no danger of injuring unripe preferring the dry and pebbly to the moist and san- forms a magnificent head of white, or cream-co- or other stalks by the operation of gathering. dy beach. loured flowers, having a honey-like fragrance; these Many cover with large flower pots; or bell shapThis plant is of the same natural class as the cab- if the season prove favourable, are followed by ed earthen pots (fig. 2.) 12 or 15 inches diameter, bage, but differs from it and most of the Tetradyna- abundance of seeds, which ripen about the end of mous plants of Linnæus, in having a round seed August. Fig. 1. Fig. 2. vessel, containing one seed only; it has other gene- As an article of food, the crambe-maritima apric distinctions, some of which are striking and cu- pears to be better known here than in any other (a) rious; its root is perennial, running to a great part of Europe, it is in this country only that its depth, growing to a great thickness, and branching value is rightly appreciated, and its culture truly out widely, but not creeping, in the proper sense of understood, but even here it is as yet far from bethat word, as Parkinson, Miller, and Bryant, have ing an object of general cultivation. described it§: its full-grown leaves are large, equal- Since the above was written in 1799, the sealing in size, when the plant grows luxuriantly, those kale has been introduced into every private garden, of the largest cabbage, of a glaucous or sea-green where a regular gardener is kept, and it is grown hue,, and waved at the edges, thick and succulent for the market by the commercial gardeners of in their wild state, dying away and disappearing London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. Many consientirely at the approach of winter. Seedling der this vegetable equally delicate as asparagus, and a foot or more in height: both which come plants, if raised late in the spring, produce the first and it is raised at one fourth the expense of that cheaper than utensils with moveable tops; others year radical leaves only, the second spring most of plant; because it comes into use one-fourth of the place a long narrow frame or frames of wickerthem throw up a flowering stem, a foot or more in time sooner. It is also much easier forced than any work over each row, and cover it with mats or litculinary vegetable whatever, and no gentleman who ter, but none of these practices are so convenient can afford one load of fresh horse-dung per month and neat, or in the end so economical, as the mode *This herbe groweth at Dover, hard by the sea-side, from November till April, need be without a dish by earthen covers with moveable tops (fig. 1.) and in many other places.-I name it Brassicam Dobri- of sea-kale every day from Christmas till May or Cultivators differ widely in their plan of treating cam, in English, Dover Cole, because I found it first later. this plant: many conceiving that stones, or gravel, beside Dover. Turn. Herb. It would be very difficult to ascertain the precise and sea-sand are essential to its growth, are at the Præter hasee, est etiam perquam pulchra Brassica, period of its being first used with us as a culinary expense of providing it with such, not aware that sylvestris Dioscoridis specie diversa, locis oriunda Anplant: on many parts of the sea-coast, especially of it will grow much more luxuriantly on a rich sandy gliæ maritimis ad Portlandiam insulam. Lob. adv. 93. Groweth naturally upon the bayche and brimmes of Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and Sussex, the inhabi- loam, where the roots can penetrate to a great the sea where there is no earth to be seen, but sand, tants, for time immemorial, have been in the prac-depth, without reaching the water, in which if they and rolling pebble stones, which those that dwell near tice of procuring it for their tables, preferring it to are immersed they are apt to rot; the plant will the sea do call bayche. I found it growing between all other greens; they seek for the plant in the indeed succeed in almost any soil, provided it be Whitstable and the Isle of Thanet, near the brincke of spring where it grows spontaneously, and as soon dry; its luxuriance will depend chiefly on the mathe sea, and in many places near to Colchester, and as it appears above ground, they remove the peb-nure with which the soil is enriched. elsewhere by the sea-side. Ger. Herb. bles or sand with which it is usually covered, to Mr. Thomas Barton, a gardener in Lanarkshire, Grows in many places on our own coasts, as well the depth of several inches, and cut off the young finds the sea-kale does remarkably well on a "pretthe Kentish as the Essex shore, as at Lidde in Kent, and tender leaves and stalks, as yet unexpanded ty strong loam with a loose till bottom." This he Found wild by Hastings, in Sussex, plentifully. and in a blanched state close to the crown of the prepares by trenching and mixing with rotten dung root, it is then in its greatest perfection; when the and vegetable mould. Caled. Hort. mem. vol. ii. p. In arenosis maris littoribus circa Angliam ubique leaves are fully grown, they become hard and bit- 99. fere. Raii Syn. We have not found it growing so ge- ter, and the plant is not eatable; the more curious, Mr. Maher who has paid much attention to the nerally as Ray describes. desirous of having it near at hand, and in their more culture of this plant, and written a valuable paper On the sea-coast, in sandy or stony soils, but not com- immediate possession, have now in many of the on it, says, every thing as to strength, depends on mon; on the shore by East-Castle, Berwickshire, Dr. maritime counties introduced it to their gardens, the dryness of the bottom and the richness of the Parsons. Lighlf. Scot. At Roosebeck, in Low-Furness, Lancashire, Mr. and in Devonshire particularly, almost every gen- soil; and every thing as to flavour, on the manure Woodward: near Mcgavissey, Cornwall, Mr. Watt. tleman has a plantation of it for the use of his table; used being applied in a perfectly decomposed state, it has for many years been cultivated for sale in the like mould:-decayed leaves, he says, are much to Habitat ad littora oceani septentrionalis. Linn. Sp. Pl. neighbourhood of Bath; and my friend, Mr. Wm. be preferred.-Hort. Trans. vol. i. In Prof. Murray's Syst. Veg. the seed-vessel in the Jones, of Chelsea, tells me, that he saw bundles of 'The most useful mode of raising the sea-kale is generic character is thus described, Bacca succa globosa it in a cultivated state exposed for sale in Chiches from seed; it may also be raised from cuttings of the decidua; thus in Gmelin's Syst. Nat. is altered to Peri- ter market, in the year 1753. I learnt from diffe- root, and that with the greatest certainty, but seedcarpium simplex, globosum, deciduum, 2-articulatum, rent persons, that attempts had been made at vari-lings make the finest plants; some find a difficulty in some of the species having been found with two cells, ous times to introduce it to the London markets, making the seeds vegetate, this we attribute to their as the fruticosa; but this plant not having the forked but ineffectually: a few years since, I renewed the being old, buried too deeply in the earth, or sown too filament, fig. 1, so peculiar to this genus, Prof. Murray doubts whether it ought not to be regarded as a Mya- attempt myself, and though it was not attended late in the spring; the most proper time for sowing grum, and thinks that both the genera might, with more with all the success I could have wished, I flatter the seeds is in October or the beginning of February, propriety, be referred to the order Siliculosa, where myself it has been the means of making the plant while the earth for the most part is in a constant every student would expect to find them. so generally known, that in future the markets of state of moisture, and an inch and a half, or two in and Colchester in Essex. Park. Th. Merr. Pin. With Arr. ed. 2. § If the main root, or any of its remoter branches be the first city in the world will be duly supplied with ches, is the proper depth at which they should be divided into a number of pieces, each piece will grow this most desirable article. buried; they rarely vegetate in less than six weeks, blesome weed. if committed to the earth; and as it is impossible to dig It is to be observed, that the sea kale is delicate after being sown even in the most favourable seaabout the widely-extended roots of these plants with-eating only when young, and that it is highly im- sons, and they are known sometimes to remain 13 out dividing many of them, and leaving a number of fragments in the earth; plants unavoidably arise from proved by being blanched; in the cultivation of months or more, without shewing any signs of it; such, around the original, and give to it the appearance this plant it becomes necessary therefore to blanch should the season prove unusually dry, it will be neof having creeping roots; but though in fact they are it before it is fit for the table; to effect this, it must cessary to water them as occasion may require. not so, the multiplication of the plant by the necessary be covered in some way or other, before the flower- It is the best practice to raise your plants imme. process of digging, renders it in some grounds a trou- ing-stem, which constitutes the chief eatable part, diately from seed, on the bed where they are intendand its attendant leaves, shew the least sign of emer-ed to remain; by this means the plant receives no ||Authors describe a variety with jagged leaves, such ging from the crown of the roots. check to its growth. we have not seen, but have frequently raised green The most generally approved mode of blanching This point all are agreed on. The sea-kale does variety from seeds. at present is by covering each plant or stool of buds not transplant well, and grows so rapidly from seed, ¶ Parkinson, perhaps, never committed a more egre- with a blanching pot (fig. 1.) consisting of a top that in forming a plantation nothing is gained by gious blunder, than in the account he has given of this and bottom, and of 12 or 14 inches diameter and transplanting. Transplanting old plants for forcing part of the plant's economy: "the root is somewhat height. When the stalks are supposed sufficiently is a different thing; in that case the roots are to be great, and shooteth forth many branches under ground, blanched the top (a) is removed, and the hand in- considered as bulbs, or store-houses, containing a keeping the green leaves all the winter." Bryant in his Fl. troduced to cut off the stalks; it is then replaced as certain quantity of nutriment. All that is wanted is Diæt. misled perhaps by this account, says, the radical leaves being green all the winter, are cut by the inhabi- before. Two advantages attend this mode; first to make them give out this quantity in the form of tants where the plants grow, and boiled as cabbage, to the dung or other matter usually applied for forcing shoots, to be gathered as they appear; not that they which they prefer them. or blanching does not affect the flower of the kale, should root into, or fix themselves in the soil for fu `ture growth. As soon as they have produced what coli is liable to be entirely destroyed in severe wea- certainty of a quick and uninterrupted draft; secondthey had in store, they are only fit for the dung-bill. ther, but this plant never. If your plants have been ly, the prevention of an accumulation of soot; thirdWhen you have formed your bed, which should blanched by earthing them up, you may now level ly, the impossibility of accident from fire; and fourthbe raised somewhat above the level of the ground, the earth of the beds. and wide enough to hold two rows of plants abreast, the space between each plant in the row fourteen -inches, and between each row a foot and a half; sow (To be continued.) RURAL ECONOMY. SMOKY CHIMNIES. ly and above all, a facility of cleansing by machines, which will altogether supersede the painful necessity of employing climbing boys. Another advantage is also gained with respect to the appearance of the chimnies on tops of houses. The present unseemly shafts, which are frequently raised to a dangerous The following article is, the first moment we come height, may be dispensed with and the tops or teracross it, republished in our columns for the benefit minations of the chimnies completely hidden from of the people of the United States, and if on trial it view. We have seen a model and drawing of the answers the description, we shall think we have been plans, which, at once exhibit the simplicity of the invention; and the only surprise is, that so valuable about half a dozen seeds, as before directed, on each the means of making known, or rather of extending spot where your plant is intended to remain; this the knowledge of one of the most comfortable dis- an improvement in the art of building should so long have escaped the research of those who have expenumber is directed to guard against accidents, every coveries of the times. This same secret however, rienced its necessity. At present, the demand for seed may not vegetate, and some of those that do was substantially known to a certain man who came may be destroyed by the turnip fly or wireworm; here from Utica, and who after practising it with the patent bricks exceeds the power of the patentee should all of them succeed, they are easily reduced success some years ago, on a few houses in town, all to supply; but arrangements are making which it is to a single plant; this reduction, however, need not at once, for some unaccountable reasons, gave it up versal adoption. It may be proper to add, that the hoped will enable builders to bring the plan into unibe made too hastily; during summer your bed of and left the city. If it could be brought into genecourse must be kept perfectly clear from weeds.-If, ral use among us, what a domestic blessing it would for the sake of a more certain crop, you are dispos- be? ed to make your plantation of the cuttings of the From a late London Paper. roots, you must take such as are of the size of the Improvements in the construction of Chimnies. ring-finger, and cut them into pieces of about two Perhaps in the construction of a house, there is no [TO THE EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN FARMER.] inches in length, burying each in an upright posi- part more difficult or liable to so many objections as tion about three inches under ground, in the same the formation of the chimnies, nor is there any part bourhood purchased a set of Iron Castings for a Sir-Some years since a gentleman in this neighkind of bed and at the same distances as you would in which impediments to comfort so frequently arise. Grist Mill to go by animal power, say "a large wheel have sown the seeds; the middle of March will be a There are few who have not experienced the incon- of the spur kind, 24 feet diameter (in sections) with proper season for doing this. Or if, for the sake of venience of smoky chimnies and who have not been the necessary smaller wheels," &c. As I find the wheels forwarding your plantation and gaining time, you put to serious expense-often ineffectually-to re- would answer a valuable purpose in our section of make use of plants instead of seeds, or cuttings, they medy the evil. We are glad, however, to find that should be those of a year old, properly trimmed and a scientific man has turned his attention to the sub- of them, but as I do not know where the person who country, I have some time wished to purchase a set transplanted with care; February and March will be ject, and that after various experiments, he has at sold those I have spoken of is residing at present, I also the most proper months for transplanting of length succeeded in suggesting a plan by which all am entirely at a loss where to procure them, and all these; if their flowering stalks be cut for food the the imperfections hitherto known to exist may be principle is capable of being applied to the tops and bottoms of old flues with great advantage. IRON CASTINGS.-INQUIRY. LADIES' DEPARTMENT. A WHISPER to the Wife. L. ON CONDUCT TOWARDS RELATIONS ACQUIRED BY MARRIAGE. ed, and hence even in point of time, there is little to the judgment of some of the best practical archi-thod of inquiring among your numerous readers, same season, the plants will be liable to be weaken- completely obviated. This plan has been submitted my inquiries on the subject have as yet proved fruitless. I am therefore induced to take this megained by using such, for most of the seedling plants tects of the day, and has received their unqualified where or at what foundry in the eastern or middle in your bed, if they have been properly managed, as approbation; and it is now applied not only to all states can castings of the above description be prowell as your plants from cuttings, will flower, and, the chimnies erecting in the new palace in St. James' cured? of course, be fit to cut the second year. Park, but to the Post Office, and all other public Early in December cover your bed with a thick buildings in progress. The public are indebted to the writer and several of his neighbours. An answer to the above would oblige and serve coat of rotten dung, or leaves; this at the same time Mr. Hiort, the Chief Examiner in his Majesty's Wrightsville, Duplin Co. N. C. that it protects your plants from frost, will bring Office of Works, for this useful invention; and this them forwarder, and add to their luxuriance; about gentleman has devoted much of his time, by evening the middle of February it will be necessary to cover lectures, to explain to builders the advantage and your plants for blanching, the old mode of doing simplicity of his plan, which consists in the substituwhich was to draw the earth up with a hoe over the tion of flues or tunnels of any diameter, capable of crown of the root, so that each plant was covered being incorporated within the usual thickness of A WHISPER TO A NEWLY-MARRIED PAIR. to the depth of ten or twelve inches; some blanched walls, instead of the old plan of square flues. Each it by heaping on the plant sea sand, small pebbles, fiue is surrounded in every direction, from top to or coal-ashes, and others with a large garden pot bottom, by cavities commencing at the back of every inverted, and placed immediately over the plant fire place, and connected with each other. The air stopping up the hole at the bottom; and this last is confined within these cavities is, by the heat of any perhaps the neatest and cleanest mode next to the one fire, rendered sufficiently warm to prevent contwo by covers made on purpose, as already recom- densation within all the flues contained in the same You have now, gentle lady, got among a new set mended, (page 44.) stack of chimnies; and what renders the new inven- of relatives-your relations-in-law; and a fresh field The finest, or at least the largest sea-kale, is that tion more important is the fact that the flues may be of duty is opened to you. There is an old observawhich is produced from seedling plants, the first carried in any direction with as much facility as a tion, that her mother and her daughters-in-law are year of their flowering, as the great produce of the leathern pipe, without, in the slightest degree, devi-natural enemies; and, in truth, I must say there is plant then centers in one flowering stem; afterwards ating from the original circular form. It would be too much reason for the remark. But in this disu the crown of the root rammifying into many heads, a difficult, by mere verbal description, to convey an nion, there are generally, indeed almost always greater number of stalks are produced, which are adequate idea of the whole of the plan; but it is ca- faults on both sides. And why is this?-why need more slender but not less delicate. pable of being made clear to the commonest capa- any fault proceed from you? Why not imitate a When your plants have been covered a month, or city by a few minutes instruction. The work is ac- character so beautifully drawn from Scripture-the six weeks, you must examine some of them, and if complished by the aid of bricks of a peculiar shape, warm-hearted and interesting Ruth? She loved her you find that the stalks have shot up three or four for which a patent has been obtained; and by the departed husband, and because she loved him his inches, you must begin cutting; should you wait till mode of placing those bricks which are numbered mother was dear to her. Friends, country, kindred, all the shoots are of a considerable length, your crop according to a model with which the workman is all were given up for the mother of him she loved. will come in too much at once; for in this plant there provided, a perpendicular, horizontal, or curved What a sweet picture of tenderness and sensibility! is not that succession of growth which there is in shape is attained with the greatest facility, the cir- I confess I never read the story, without feeling asparagus; you may continue cutting till you see the cular form of the flue being still preserved with ma- strongly impressed and interested by it; and, in head of flowers begin to form, and if at this time thematical nicety, without the necessity of cutting a imagination, I see the beautiful Moabitess saying to you uncover it entirely, and let it proceed to that single brick, and the expense will not exceed more her mother-in-law, "Nought but death shall part thee state in which brocoli is usually cut, and use it as than four shillings a foot than is expended in the and me." If you love your husband, gentle lady, such, you will find it an excellent substitute, and common mode for every flue erected. The advan- surely you must love the authors of his being, surethis greatly enhances the value of the plant, as bro-tages which are secured by this plan are-first, the ly you must love the sisters of his youth! |