SOME HINTS ABOUT AGRICULTURE, GARDENING, DOMESTIC ANIMALS, ETC.
_Of Soil, Hay and the Grains--Of Vegetables--Destroying
Ferrets, Reptiles, Rats and other Vermin--Flowers, Fruits,
Trees--Timber--Buildings._
1004. _Advantage of Knowing something about Agriculture._--In a work
designed, chiefly, for women, it may seem odd to find farming treated
of, as though they needed such information. But while far the greater
portion of American men[B] are tillers of the soil, it would be
questioning the good sense as well as affection of their wives and
daughters to suppose them indifferent to such pursuits.
The husband will work with more pleasure, when feeling his wife takes
an interest in his employments. The daughter of a farmer should be
ready to read her father's books and papers on agriculture, whenever
he desires it, and assist in the garden, orchard, and among domestic
animals, when such cases are suitable for her.
So, trusting you have a garden-hoe and pruning-knife for your own
use, and can assist in transplanting flowers and shrubs, I shall give
rules for these, and also a few hints on other matters connected with
country life and the economy of farming. These rules are selected,
chiefly, from British authorities. England is famous for its
agricultural science and modes of gardening, and planting trees. Such
knowledge and taste are much needed in our land. But be careful, fair
girl and comely matron, and do not expose your health or injure your
personal appearance while _helping_ in out-door work. A _sun-bonnet
or broad-brimmed straw hat and thick gloves_ should always be worn,
when engaged in such employments.
1005. _Important Fact in Agriculture._--Whatever may be the nature
of the soil, or of the crop cultivated, it should always be the aim
of the farmer to grow full crops. Partial and sometimes extensive
failures will even then but too often occur; but to neglect making
the best known preparations, or only to prepare for half a crop, has
a direct tendency to unprofitable farming.
1006. _Manure for Clover._--Some farmers make it a rule to spread
about fifty bushels per acre of ashes over their clover in March,
which they find, from long experience, to be a good manure for this
grass. Wood-ashes will be useful on any soil; coal-ashes chiefly on
stiff clays. On the stiff soils of some parts of Buckinghamshire,
ashes of all kinds are much esteemed, and have risen to a high price.
1007. _How to preserve Manure._--Put it in heaps, and cover it with
earth two feet deep. Never leave manure in the barn yard; put it all,
year by year, on your land.
1008. _Dr. Taylor's Easy Method of ascertaining the Qualities
of Marl, Lime Stones, or Quick Lime, for the purposes of
Agriculture._--This was a communication by Dr. Taylor to the
Manchester Agricultural Society; the general use of marl and lime as
manures, having prompted him to point out the importance of an easy
and certain method of determining the qualities of different earths
and stones, and ascertaining the quantity of calcareous earth in
their composition; their value, in agriculture, commonly increasing
in proportion to the greater quantity of it which they contain. The
process recommended is thus described:--The marl or stone being
dried, and reduced to powder, put half an ounce of it into a half
pint glass, pouring in clear water till the glass is half full;
then gradually add a small quantity of strong marine acid, commonly
called spirit of salt, and stir the mixture well together. As soon
as the effervescence thus excited subsides, add a little more marine
acid; thus continuing the operation while any of the earthy matter
appears to dissolve; and till the liquor, after being well stirred
and allowed to stand for half an hour, appears sensibly acid to the
taste. When the mixture has subsided, if the liquor above it be
colorless, that marl or lime-stone is the best which leaves the least
in quantity of sediment or deposit in the bottom of the glass. This
experiment is sufficient to determine which of the samples tried is
the most proper for the uses of agriculture: as pure calcareous earth
or lime, which is the earth useful in agriculture, will be entirely
dissolved; but clay or sand will not be sensibly acted on by the
acid. Where great accuracy is required in determining the experiment,
lay a soft spongy paper, of which the weight is exactly taken,
in an earthen colander--for no metallic vessel, or implement for
stirring, &c., must be used in any part of the process--and, pouring
the saturated mixture of earth and acid on it, let all the liquor
filter through, then pour a little clear water over the earthy matter
remaining on the filter; and, when that water has also filtered
through, dry the paper with the earthy matter on it which remains
undissolved, when the deficiency found, on weighing them, from their
original weight, will discover what portion of the marle or lime has
been dissolved in the acid. What quantity of earthy matter has been
dissolved may be made evident to the sight, by gradually adding,
to the liquor which has been filtered through the paper, a clear
solution of pearl-ashes, or ashes of burnt wood; this will occasion a
precipitation of the contained lime or calcareous earth to the bottom
of the vessel, which precipitate must be dried and weighed.
1009. _To preserve Seeds, when sown, from Vermin._--Steep the grain
or seed three or four hours, or a sufficient time for it to penetrate
the skin, or husk, in a strong solution of liver of sulphur.
1010. _Striped Grass recommended for Hay._--The Indian striped or
riband grass, which is cultivated in gardens, would answer admirably
for hay. In rich grounds plants are frequently four feet high;
what a burden of hay would a field so cropped produce! Cattle are
exceedingly fond of it; the seeds are easily saved, so that a person
might soon have enough for a rood, and from that save again and
again, for as many acres as he might choose. It is probable that the
crop might be much too large to be made on the field where it grew;
but if so, it would be worth while to carry part into another field.
1011. _When to cut Rye-grass for Hay._--Rye-grass, if mown for hay,
should be cut when in blossom, and not green. The hay made from it
does not heat or sweat so much, and is very good for horses, but not
for sheep and cattle. If it is suffered to stand too long before it
is cut, the seeds rob the plants of their juices, and leave it no
better than wheat or rye-straw.
1012. _To prevent the Smut in Wheat._--The means (to prevent smut)
are simple; and no other than immersing the seed in pure water, and
repeatedly scouring it therein, just before it is sown or dibbled
in. Whether well, spring, or river water be used, is indifferent;
but repeated stirring and change of water is essential to remove the
possible particles of infection that may have imperceptibly adhered
to the seed; thus purified, the subsequent crop will be perfect in
itself, and seed successively so likewise, if there be no adjacent
fields from whence this contamination may be wafted.
The addition of any alkaline or earthy salt, by increasing the
specific gravity of the water, is of advantage in floating off the
unsound grains, and after the seed is washed, it should be dried
immediately by rubbing it with newly slaked lime.
1013. _Fertilizing Steeps for Turnips, Wheat, or Barley._--Steep
turnip-seed twelve hours in train oil, which strain through a fine
sieve, and immediately thoroughly mix the quantity of seed you would
wish to sow on an acre, with three bushels of dry loamy earth, finely
sifted, which drill (or sow) as soon as possible; and when the plants
begin to appear, throw a small quantity of soot over them.
1014. _Steep for Wheat, Barley, or other Grain._--Put a peck and a
half of wood-ashes, and a peck of unslaked lime, into a tub that will
hold forty gallons; then add as much water as will slake the lime,
and render the mixture into the consistence of stiff mortar. In this
state it should remain ten or twelve hours; then add as much water as
will reduce the mortar to a pulp, by thorough stirring. In this state
fill the tub with water, and occasionally keep stirring for two or
three days. After which, draw off the clear lye into an open vessel,
and gradually put the grain into it: skim off the light grains; and,
after the corn has been steeped three hours, spread it on a clean
floor to dry, when it will be sufficiently prepared for drilling or
sowing. The lye will retain its full virtue, and may be repeatedly
used.
_Remark._--It has been doubted whether steeps are of any use, except
so far as they facilitate the separation of the light grains, and
wash off the seeds of the parasite plants, which are thought to
occasion _smut_, &c. In the best-cultivated parts of Scotland,
seed-wheat is steeped in stale urine, or in a brine made with common
salt, which, by increasing the specific gravity of the water, floats
the unsound grains. The seed is well washed, and then dried, by
mixing it with fresh slaked lime, and rubbing it briskly with a
wooden shovel. The quick-lime and rubbing is thought to assist in
cleansing the seed; but, independent of that, the mere drying the
seed quickly is convenient.
1015. _To sow Wheat to advantage, without laying on Manure._--It has
been found expedient sometimes to sow wheat without laying on any
manure; and, in the beginning of February, to collect twenty bushels
of lime, unslaked, for every acre, and forty bushels of sand, or the
rubbish of a brick-kiln; then, about the end of the month, to slake
the lime, which doubles the measure, and mix it well with the sand,
and, immediately afterwards, to scatter it by way of top-dressing
over the green wheat. As rain generally succeeds, it is soon washed
down to the roots of the plants, and gives them a vigor and strength,
which, to those who never made the experiment, is astonishing. The
lime, sand, and rubbish, are particularly useful in breaking the
tenacity of stiff clays. In a clay soil, where coal was very cheap,
the clay was slightly burned in the field, and spread over the
surface, as the cheapest way of subduing the coarseness and stiffness
of the soil. The refuse or rubbish from mines in the neighborhood has
been burned, and applied with advantage on the same principle.
1016. _Approved method of sowing Wheat on narrow ridges._--The
seedsman should walk up one side of the bed and down the other side,
always keeping his face, and the hand with which he sows, towards
the bed he is sowing; his eye must be continually on the edge of the
opposite interfurrow, and deliver his seed principally on the side
of the bed next to it: as he returns, the sides will of course be
reversed, and the beds become evenly seeded.
1017. _Great utility of sowing Buckwheat._--In light lands, buckwheat
may be raised to great advantage, as a lucrative crop. When
green, it is a fine feed for milch-kine; and when ploughed, is a
fine preparation for the land. It fattens pigs with great economy,
and, passed through the mill, is, with carrot, a capital feed for
work-horses. The seed is excellent food for poultry, and, when
ground, makes good bread.
1018. _To keep Crows from Corn._--Take a quart of train oil, and as
much turpentine and bruised gunpowder; boil them together, and, when
hot, dip pieces of rags in the mixture, and fix them on sticks in the
field. About four are sufficient for an acre of corn.
1019. _Proper Soil for the Culture of Turnips._--Sandy loams, in good
heart, are most favorable to their growth, though they will thrive
well on strong loams, if they are not wet; but, on clayey, thin, or
wet soils, they are not worth cultivating; for, though a good crop
may be raised on such ground, when well prepared and dunged, more
damage is done by taking off the turnips in winter, in poaching the
soil, than the value of the crop will repay.
1020. _Instructions for raising Potatoes to advantage._--The earth
should be dug twelve inches deep, if the soil will allow it; after
this, a hole should be opened about six inches deep, and horse-dung,
or long-litter, should be put therein, about three inches thick; this
hole should not be more than twelve inches diameter. Upon this dung
or litter, a potato should be planted whole, upon which a little more
dung should be shaken, and then the earth must be put thereon. In
like manner, the whole plot of ground must be planted, taking care
that the potatoes be at least sixteen inches apart. When the young
shoots make their appearance, they should have fresh mould drawn
round them with a hoe; and if the tender shoots are covered, it will
prevent the frost from injuring them: they should again be earthed
when the shoots make a second appearance, but not covered, as, in all
probability, the season will be less severe.
A plentiful supply of mould should be given them; and the person who
performs this business should never tread upon the plant, or the
hillock that is raised round it, as the lighter the earth is, the
more room the potato will have to expand.
A gentleman obtained from a single root, thus planted, very near
forty pounds' weight of large potatoes; and, from almost every other
root upon the same plot of ground, from fifteen to twenty pounds'
weight; and, except the soil be stony or gravelly, ten pounds, or
half a peck, of potatoes, may almost be obtained from each root, by
pursuing the foregoing method.
1021. _Use of the Dandelion._--This is an excellent salad, and a good
green. Where it grows as a weed, cover it early in the spring, with
rotten tan, or decayed leaves; it will soon come up.
1022. _Preparations for Carrots and other winged Seeds._--Take two
bushels of dry loamy earth, finely sifted; to which add one bushel of
bran, and a sufficient quantity of carrot seed, cleaned from stalks,
and well rubbed between the hands; all which thoroughly mix together,
and drill (or sow). The carrot seed will stick to the bran, which,
with the earth, will be regularly discharged.
1023. _To raise a Salad quickly._--Steep lettuce-seed, mustard,
cresses, &c., in aqua vitæ. Mix a little pigeon's dung with some
mould, and powdered slaked lime. In forty-eight hours the salad will
be produced.
1024. _Important Discovery relative to the Preservation of
Grain._--To preserve rye and secure it from insects and rats, nothing
more is necessary than not to winnow it after it is thrashed, but
merely separate it from the straw, and to stow it in the granaries,
mixed with the chaff. In this state it has been kept for more than
three years without experiencing the smallest alteration, and even
without the necessity of being turned to preserve it from humidity
and fermentation. Rats and mice may be prevented from entering the
barn, by putting some wild vine or hedge plants upon the heaps; the
smell of the wood is so offensive to these animals, that they will
not approach it. The experiment has not yet been made with wheat and
other kinds of grain, but they may probably be preserved in the chaff
with equal advantage. It must however be observed, that the husks and
corns of rye are different from most other grain. It has been sown
near houses where many poultry were kept, for the purpose of bringing
up a crop of grass, because the poultry do not destroy it, as they
would have done wheat, oats, or even barley in the same situation.
1025. _To preserve Grain in Sacks._--Provide a reed cane, or other
hollow stick, made so by gluing together two grooved sticks; let
it be about three feet nine inches long; and that it may be easier
thrust down to the bottom of the corn in the sack, its end to be made
to taper to a point, by a wooden plug that is fixed in, and stops the
orifice. About one hundred and fifty small holes, of one-eighth of
an inch in diameter, are to be bored on all sides of the stick, from
its bottom for about two feet ten inches of its length; but no nearer
to the surface of the corn, lest too great a proportion of the air
should escape there. By winding a packthread in a spiral form round
the stick, the boring of the holes may be the better regulated, so
as to have them about half an inch distant towards the bottom, but
gradually at wider distances, so as to be an inch asunder at the
upper part; by which means the lower part of the corn will have its
due proportion of fresh air. To the top of the stick let there be
fixed a leathern pipe ten inches long; which pipe is to be distended
by two yards of spiral wire, coiled up within it. At the upper part
of the pipe is fixed a taper wooden faucet, into which the nose of a
common household bellows is to be put, in order to ventilate the corn.
If wheat, when first put into sacks, be thus aired, every other or
third day, for ten or fifteen minutes, its damp sweats which would
hurt it, will, in a few weeks, be carried off to such a degree, that
it will afterwards keep sweet with very little airing, as has been
found by experience.
By the same means other kinds of seeds, as well as wheat, may be kept
sweet either in sacks or small bins.
1026. _To preserve Oats from being musty._--Richard Fermor, Esq. of
Tusmore, in Oxfordshire, has in his stable a contrivance to let oats
down from a loft out of a vessel, like the hopper of a mill, whence
they fall into a square pipe, let into a wall, about four inches
diagonal, which comes into a cupboard set into a wall, but with its
end so near the bottom, that there shall never be above a desirable
quantity in the cupboard at a time, which being taken away, another
parcel succeeds; by this motion the oats are kept constantly sweet
(the taking away one gallon moving the whole above), which, when laid
up otherwise in great quantities, frequently grow musty.
1027. _Easy Method of destroying Mites or Weevils in Granaries._--A
very sagacious farmer has succeeded in destroying weevils, by a
very easy process. In the month of June, when his granaries were all
empty, he collected great quantities of the largest sized ants, and
scattered them about the places infested with the weevils. The ants
immediately fell upon and devoured every one of them; nor have any
weevils since that time been seen on his premises.
_Remark._--The large, or wood-ant, feeds entirely on animal
substances; of course it would not destroy the corn.
1028. _To preserve Carrots, Parsnips, and Beets, all the Winter._--A
little before the frost sets in, draw your beets or parsnips out
of the ground, and lay them in the house, burying their roots in
sand to the neck of the plant, and ranging them one by another in a
shelving position; then another bed of sand, and another of beets,
and continue this order to the last. By pursuing this method, they
will keep very fresh. When they are wanted for use, draw them, as
they stand, not out of the middle or sides.
1029. _To preserve Turnips from Frost._--The best way is to stack
them up in straw in the following manner:--One load of any sort of
dry straw is sufficient for an acre of fifty tons' weight. Pull up
the turnips, top and tail them, then throw them in a sort of windrow,
and let them lie a few days to dry.
First, lay a layer of straw next the ground, and upon it a layer of
turnips about half a yard thick; then another layer of straw; so go
on alternately with a layer of straw and a layer of turnips; every
layer grows narrower, till it comes to a point at the top, like a
sugar-loaf. The last layer must be straw, which serves to keep all
dry. You must observe always when you have laid a layer of turnips,
to stroke or lap over the ends of the under layer of straw, in order
to keep them close or from tumbling out. The heap should be as large
as a hay-cock; the tops may be given to sheep or cattle as they are
cut off.
1030. _Another._--Turnips placed in layers, though not thick,
have been found, after a few weeks, to rot. In some places the
following method is adopted. Lay the turnips close together in a
single layer, on a grass field, near the farmyard, and scatter some
straw and branches of trees over them; this will preserve them from
sudden alternations of frost and thaw. They keep as well as stored
turnips can do. The bare grass is of no value in winter, and may
rather perhaps receive some benefit from the shelter of the turnip.
An immense quantity may thus be stored on a small extent of grass
ground. It is chiefly useful for small farmers, in soils unfit for
the turnip, but who are forced to raise it for milk-cows, or to
support, in the winter, the sheep they feed in the summer on the
commons, and which they keep, perhaps, principally in the night,
on the fields they have no other means of manuring. But it may be
useful, even on proper turnip soils, to save the latter part of the
crop from the sudden frosts and sunshine in the spring, or in an open
winter, which rot so great a portion of it; perhaps a fourth or third
part of what is then on the ground.
1031. _The good effects of Elder in preserving Plants from Insects
and Flies._--1. For preventing cabbage and cauliflower plants from
being devoured and damaged by caterpillars. 2. For preventing
blights, and their effects on fruit-trees. 3. For preserving corn
from yellow flies and other insects. 4. For securing turnips from the
ravages of flies. The dwarf elder appears to exhale a much more fetid
smell than the common elder, and therefore should be preferred.
1032. _The use of Sulphur in destroying Insects on Plants, and its
Benefit for Vegetation._--Tie up some flower of sulphur in a piece
of muslin or fine linen, and with this the leaves of young shoots of
plants should be dusted; or it may be thrown on them by means of a
common swans'-down puff, or even by a dredging-box.
Fresh assurances have repeatedly been received of the powerful
influence of sulphur against the whole tribe of insects and worms
which infest and prey on vegetables. Sulphur has also been found to
promote the health of plants, on which it was sprinkled; and that
peach-trees, in particular, were remarkably improved by it, and
seemed to absorb it. It has likewise been observed, that the verdure,
and other healthful appearances, were perceptibly increased; for
the quantity of new shoots and leaves formed subsequently to the
operation, and having no sulphur on their surfaces, served as a kind
of comparative index, and pointed out distinctly the accumulation of
health.
1033. _Method of stopping the Ravages of the Caterpillars from
Shrubs, Plants, and Vegetables._--Take a chafing-dish, with lighted
charcoal, and place it under the branches of the tree, or bush,
whereon are the caterpillars; then throw a little brimstone on the
coals. The vapor of the sulphur, which is mortal to these insects,
and the suffocating fixed air arising from the charcoal, will not
only destroy all that are on the tree, but will effectually prevent
the shrubs from being, that season, infested with them. A pound of
sulphur will clear as many trees as grow on several acres.
Another method of driving these insects off fruit-trees, is to boil
together a quantity of rue, wormwood, and common tobacco (of each
equal parts), in common water. The liquor should be very strong.
Sprinkle this on the leaves and young branches every morning and
evening during the time the fruit is ripening.
In the Economical Journal of France, the following method of guarding
cabbages from the depredations of caterpillars is stated to be
infallible, and may, perhaps, be equally serviceable against those
which infest other vegetables. Sow with hemp all the borders of the
ground wherein the cabbage is planted; and, although the neighborhood
be infested with caterpillars, the space inclosed by the hemp will be
perfectly free, and not one of these vermin will approach it.
1034. _To prevent the Increase of Pismires in Grass Lands newly laid
down._--Make a strong decoction of walnut-tree leaves, and after
opening several of the pismires' sandy habitations, pour upon them a
quantity of the liquor, just sufficient to fill the hollow of each
heap: after the middle of it has been scooped, throw in the contents
from the sides, and press down the whole mass with the foot, till
it becomes level with the rest of the field. This, if not found
effectual at first, must be repeated a second or a third time, when
they infallibly will be destroyed.
1035. _To prevent the Fly in Turnips._--From experiments lately
made, it has been ascertained that lime sown by hand, or distributed
by a machine, is an infallible protection to turnips against the
ravages of this destructive insect. It should be applied as soon
as the turnips come up, and in the same daily rotation in which
they were sown. The lime should be slaked immediately before it is
used, if the air be not sufficiently moist to render that operation
unnecessary.
1036. _To prevent Mice from destroying early sown Peas._--The tops of
furze, or whins, chopped and thrown into the drills, and thus covered
up, (by goading them in their attempt to scratch,) is an effectual
preventive. Sea-sand, strewn pretty thick upon the surface, has the
same effect. It gets into their ears, and is troublesome.
1037. _Another._--In the gardens in Devonshire, a simple trap is used
to destroy mice. A common brick, or flat stone, is set on one end,
inclined at an angle of about forty-five degrees. Two strings, tied
to a cracked stick, stuck in the ground, with loops at the ends of
the strings, are brought round to the middle of the under part of the
brick, and one loop being put into the other, a pea or bean, or any
other bait, makes the string fast, so as to support the brick. When
the animal removes the bait, the loops separate, and the brick, by
falling, smothers the animal.
1038. _To Destroy Beetles._--Take some small lumps of unslaked lime,
and put into the chinks or holes from which they issue, it will
effectually destroy them; or it may be scattered on the ground, if
they are more numerous than in their holes.
1039. _Another Method._--The simplest and most effectual way of
destroying beetles is by means of red wafers. As it has become usual
to substitute vermilion for red lead in the composition of wafers, it
will be necessary to ask particularly for such as have been made with
red lead. Strew these in the neighborhood of the crevices from which
these insects issue, and their future incursions will be speedily
prevented. Cockroaches may be destroyed by the same means.
1040. _For Destroying Bugs and Worms in Wood._--An eminent physician
has discovered that by rubbing wood with a solution of vitriol,
insects and bugs are prevented from harboring therein. When the
strength of this remedy is required to be increased, there need only
be boiled some coloquintida apples in water, in which, afterwards,
vitriol is dissolved, and the bedstead, with the wood about them,
and the wainscoting, being anointed with the liquor, will be ever
after clear of worms or bugs. The wall may be likewise rubbed with
the composition, and some of it may be dropped into the holes where
these insects are suspected to be harbored. As to the walls, they
require only to be washed over with the vitriol water.
1041. _To Destroy Insects on Wall Fruit Trees._--Take an old tin
watering-pan, or any similar vessel, and make a charcoal fire in it;
add a tube or pipe, made of either tin, leather, or stiff paper, to
the spout, which may be of any sufficient length; then strew some
brimstone, tobacco-dust, fine shreds of leather, &c., upon the fire,
in the pan, and cover the top; having a pair of bellows ready, hold
the wind-flap over the tube or pipe to receive the smoke, which it
will do very effectually when you use the bellows. By this means the
suffocating vapor may be directed through the bellows to any part
of the tree with the greatest ease and facility, and the tree soon
cleared of all vermin.
1042. _To Destroy the Insect which attacks the Apple Tree, commonly
called the White Blight, or American Blight._--To a strong decoction
of the digitalis or foxglove, add a sufficient quantity of fresh
cow-dung, to give it such a consistence as may enable you to apply it
with a painters' brush to those parts of the bark of the tree, which
afford a harbor for this destructive insect. The insect is generally
destroyed by the first application, though in some instances it may
be necessary to repeat it. It has been remarked that the insect never
returns in future years to those parts of the tree which have been
thus treated.
1043. _For Destroying Caterpillars on Gooseberry Bushes._--Take one
Scots pint (two English quarts) of tobacco liquor (which may be made,
where it cannot be purchased, by infusing any kind of tobacco in
water till all the strength be extracted) which the manufacturers of
tobacco generally sell for destroying bugs, and mix them with about
one ounce of alum; and when the alum is sufficiently dissolved, put
this mixture into a plate, or other vessel, wide and long enough to
admit of a brush, like a weaver's brush, being dipped into it; and as
early in the season as you can perceive the leaves of the bushes to
be in the least eaten, or the eggs upon the leaves (which generally
happens about the end of May), and which will be found in great
numbers on the veins of the leaves on their under side; you are then
to take the preparation, or liquor, and after dipping the brush
into it, and holding the brush towards the under side of the bush,
which is to be raised and supported by the hands of another person;
and by drawing your hand gently over the hairs of the brush, the
above liquid is sprinkled, and falls in small drops on the leaves;
the consequence of which is, if the eggs are there, they never come
forward; and if they have already generated worms, in a minute or two
after the liquor touches them, they either die or sicken, so as to
fall off the bush; at least they do so upon giving it a little shake.
If, upon their thus falling off, they shall not appear completely
dead, the bush should be held up, and either a little boiling water
from a watering-pot thrown over them, or a bruise given them by a
spade or shovel; or the earth, where they lie, turned over with a
hoe. This preparation does not in the least injure the bushes.
1044. _To Preserve Flowers, Leaves, and Fruit, from
Caterpillars._--These depredators are destroyed by oils, which close
the lateral pores by which they breathe. For this purpose it is
advised, that on the approach of spring, a cloth, dipped in train
oil, be laid on such parts of the tree in which there is the least
appearance of them.
1045. _Method to destroy or drive away Earth Worms, and other
Insects, hurtful to Fields and Gardens._--Three parts of quick-lime,
newly made, and two parts of soap-boilers' ley or potash dissolved in
water, will produce a somewhat milky liquor sufficiently caustic, and
highly hostile and poisonous to earth-worms and other small animals;
for as soon as it touches any part of their bodies, it occasions in
them violent symptoms of great uneasiness. If this liquor be poured
into those holes, in which the earth-worms reside under ground, they
immediately throw themselves out as if driven by some force, and,
after various contortions, languish and die. If the leaves of plants
or fruit-trees, frequented by the voracious caterpillars, which are
so destructive to them, be sprinkled over with this liquor, these
insects suddenly contract their bodies and drop to the ground. For,
though nature has defended them tolerably well by their hairy skins,
from any thing that might injure their delicate bodies; yet, as
soon as they touch with their feet or mouths the leaves which have
been moistened by this liquor, they become, as it were, stupefied,
instantly contract themselves, and fall down.
1046. _To destroy Earwigs and Wood Lice._--A very simple way of
ensnaring them, and by which they may be taken alive in great
quantities, is to place four inch-cuts of reeds, bean-haulm, or
strong wheat-straw among the branches, and also lay a number on the
ground, at the bottom of the wall. In these the insects take refuge
at day-break, as they depredate chiefly in the night; and any time
through the day they may be blown into a bottle with a little water
in it, and so be drowned. Or, a cheaper way is to burn the straw, and
scatter fresh on the ground.
1047. _To destroy Fleas on Dogs._--Rub the animal, when out of the
house, with the common Scotch snuff, except the nose and eyes. Rub
the powder well into the roots of the hair. Clear lime-water destroys
the whitish flea-worm without injuring the skin or hair. Oil of
turpentine will likewise do so; but if there be any manginess, or the
skin be broken, it will give the animal much pain.
1048. _To clear Gardens of Vermin, by Ducks._--Ducks are excellent
vermin-pickers, whether of caterpillars (such as are within their
reach), slugs, snails, and others, and ought to be turned into the
garden one or two days every week throughout the season. Never keep
them longer in than two or three hours at a time, else they become
indolent. While here, they should have a little water set down to
them, if there be no pond or stream in the garden.
Never turn them into the garden in the time of heavy rains, or in
continued wet weather, as in that case, and particularly if the soil
be stiff, they patter and harden the surface, to the great injury of
small crops and rising seeds.
1049. _The use of Garlic against Moles, Grubs, and Snails._--Moles
are such enemies to the smell of garlic, that, in order to get rid
of these troublesome and destructive guests, it is sufficient to
introduce a few heads of garlic into their subterraneous walks. It is
likewise employed with success against grubs and snails.
1050. _To prevent the destruction of Field Turnips by Slugs._--A few
years since, a considerable farmer, near Bath, observing the turnips
in one of his fields strongly attacked by something, discovered, by
accident, that the enemy was really a slug; and immediately prevented
farther damage by well rolling the whole field, by night, which
killed all the slugs.
N. B. This was the grand secret which was advertised for two thousand
subscribers, at one guinea each, by W. Vagg, _for destroying the fly_
in turnips--which it will _not_ do!
1051. _Method of destroying Insects on Fruit Trees._--Make a strong
decoction of tobacco, and the tender shoots of elder, by pouring
boiling water on them; then sprinkle your trees with the same (cold)
twice a week, for two or three weeks, with a small hearth-brush,
which will effectually destroy the insects, and the leaves will
retain their verdure until the fall of the year.
If used early, as soon as the bud unfolds itself, it will probably
prevent the fly. The effect of tobacco has been long known, and
elder-water frequently sprinkled on honeysuckles and roses, has been
found to prevent insects from lodging on them.
The quantity to be made use of, is one ounce of tobacco to one gallon
of water, with about two handfuls of elder. You may, however, make it
as strong as you please, it being perfectly innocent to the plants.
1052. _To destroy Insects prejudicial to Apple-Trees._--To one
hundred gallons of human urine, and one bushel of lime, add cow-dung
to bring it to the consistence of paint. With this composition anoint
the trees. The month of March is the proper season for applying it.
If the white efflorescence-like substance in which the insects are
lodged, has made its appearance, it should previously be brushed off.
1053. _To destroy wasps on Fruit-Trees._--Wasps, about the month
of July, will begin to swarm about the early fruits; and for their
destruction, phials should be hung about the branches, half-filled
with honey and water, or with sugar and small-beer. These should be
emptied and replaced once in two or three days, otherwise they do not
take so well--these little animals being extremely sagacious, and
disliking the appearance of their own species, when dead.
1054. _Another._--Winter is the proper season to apply the following
solution. The juices are then determined to the root.
Soft soap, two pounds; leaf or roll tobacco, one pound; nux-vomica,
two ounces; and turpentine, half an English gill: boil them in eight
English gallons of soft or river water, to six; and use it milk-warm.
Unnail or untie all the branches from the wall or trellis; brush
every part of the tree clean with a soft brush, such as is used for
painting; then, with a sponge, carefully anoint every branch, root,
and bud; and be sure to rub it well into every joint, hole, and
angle, as it is there the eggs or larvæ of the insects are chiefly
lodged. The rails, spars, &c., of the espalier or trellis, should
also be anointed as above.
This operation should be repeated every winter, some time between
the fall of the leaf and the first of February, as may be most
convenient. The solution is effectually destructive to all kinds of
insects, their eggs or larvæ.
1055. _To kill Reptiles._--Twelve ounces of quick-lime in powder,
two ounces of Scotch snuff, two ounces of basket salt, two ounces of
sulphur vivum, dissolved in ten gallons of water, and thrown on the
insects, either in the liquid or powder, will destroy them.
1056. _To prevent Slugs from getting into Fruit-Trees._--If the trees
are standards, tie a coarse horse-hair rope about them, two or three
feet from the ground. If they are against the wall, nail a narrow
slip of coarse horse-hair cloth against the wall, about half a foot
from the ground, and they will never get over it; for if they attempt
it, it will kill them, as their bellies are soft, and the horse-hair
will wound them.
1057. _To destroy Snails._--Snails are great enemies to wall-fruit;
and any dewy morning you may easily find where they most delight to
breed; but the best way is to find out their haunts in a hard winter,
and then destroy them: they lie much in holes of walls, under thorns,
behind old trees or old and close hedges. If you pluck not the fruit
they have begun to devour, but let it alone, they will finish their
repast on this, before they begin another.
1058. _To destroy the Red Spider, so troublesome in dry
seasons._--The red spider makes its appearance in hot, dry weather,
and is always found on the under sides of the leaves, generally on
roughish leaves, but not always so. It preys on the apple, cherry,
fig, peach, pear, and plum--seldom on the apricot. It is among the
smallest of the acari, and is sometimes not distinguishable without a
microscope. If the back of the leaf be viewed through one, it appears
full of its webs; and if many abound on it, the leaf appears full of
punctures, becomes discolored, and brown on the upper surface, fades,
and falls off.
This insect is more troublesome in dry seasons than in moist ones,
and is wonderfully encouraged by heat--insomuch, that hot-houses of
every description are sadly infested with it. Water, and water only,
is its bane; and the syringe, or the force-pump, the engine of its
destruction. It is not a mere sprinkling that will do; it requires a
forcible dashing to and fro, and that often repeated, to be effectual.
1059. _To destroy Vermin in Granaries and other Outbuildings._--Cover
completely the walls and rafters, above and below, of the granaries,
&c., which are infested with weevils and other vermin, with
quick-lime slaked in water, in which trefoil, wormwood, and hyssop
have been boiled. This composition ought to be applied as hot as
possible.
1060. _To destroy Worms in Gardens._--Water your beds with a strong
decoction of walnut-tree leaves where there are worm casts; the worms
will immediately rise up out of the earth, and you may easily take
and cut them to pieces, and fatten your poultry therewith, or feed
fish in ponds with them.
By laying ashes or lime about any plant, neither snails nor worms
will come near it. As the moisture weakens it, you must, more or
less, continue to renew the lime or ashes.
1061. _To destroy Worms in Gravel Walks, &c._--Pour into the holes a
ley, made of wood ashes and lime; this will also destroy insects, if
trees are sprinkled with it. Salt and water will do as well.
1062. _Usefulness of the Wren in destroying Insects._--As a devourer
of pernicious insects, one of the most useful birds is the house
wren. This little bird seems to be particularly fond of the society
of man, and it must be confessed that it is often protected by his
interested care. It has long been a custom, in many parts of the
country, to fix a small box at the end of a long pole, in gardens,
about houses, &c., as a place for it to build in. In these boxes they
build and hatch their young. When the young are hatched, the parent
bird feeds them with a variety of different insects, particularly
such as are injurious in gardens. An intelligent gentleman was at
the trouble to observe the number of times a pair of these birds
came from their box, and returned with insects for their young. He
found that they did this from 40 to 60 times in an hour, and in one
particular hour, the birds carried food to their young 71 times. In
this business they were engaged the greater part of the day; say
12 hours. Taking the medium therefore of 50 times in an hour, it
appeared that a single pair of these birds took from the cabbage,
salad, beans, peas, and other vegetables in the garden, at least 600
insects in the course of one day. This calculation proceeds upon the
supposition that the two birds took only a single insect each time.
But it is highly probable they often took several at a time.
1063. _To destroy Rats and other Vermin._--Sponge, if cut in small
pieces, fried or dipped in honey, and given to vermin, distends their
intestines, and effectually destroys them. The addition of a little
oil of Rhodium will tempt them to eat.
A better method would be to feed them regularly two or three weeks
in any apartment which they infest. The hole, by which they enter,
being first fitted with a sliding door, to which a long string may be
added; any apartment might thus be turned into a gigantic rat-trap.
1064. _Another Method of Destroying Rats._--Lay bird-lime in their
haunts, for though they are nasty enough in other respects, yet being
very curious of their fur, if it is but daubed with this stuff, it is
so troublesome to them that they will even scratch their skins from
off their own backs to get it off, and will never abide in a place
where they have suffered in this manner.
1065. _To destroy Rats or Mice._--Mix flour of malt with some butter;
add thereto a drop or two of oil of anise-seeds; make it up into
balls, and bait your traps therewith. _If you have thousands_, by
this means you may take them all.
1066. _A Mouse Trap, by which forty or fifty Mice may be caught in
a Night._--Take a plain four-square trencher, and put into the two
contrary ends of it a large pin, or piece of thick knitting-needle;
then take two sticks about a yard long, and lay them on your dresser,
with a notch cut at each end of your sticks, placing the two pins,
stuck on the corner of the trencher, on the notches of the two
sticks, so that one corner of your trencher may lie about an inch
upon your dresser or place that the mice may come to; then let the
corner that lies opposite to this be baited with some butter and
oatmeal, plastered fast on, and when the mice run off the dresser to
the butter, it will tip them into a vessel full of water, which you
must place under the trencher, in which they will be drowned.
That your trencher may not tip over, with a little sealing-wax and
a thread seal the string to the dresser and trencher, and it will
remain in good order for weeks or months.
1067. _New, simple, and effectual Method of destroying Rats._--A
few years ago, the corn-mill at Glossop was very much infested with
rats. A quantity of barley, which lay on the chamber floor was hourly
visited by some of them. The miller one day going to drive them
away as usual, happened to catch one of them under his hat, which
he killed; he then singed all the hair off its body, &c., until
its skin, tail, and legs, became stiff by the operation. In this
condition he set it upon its feet by the side of a heap of barley,
where it stood, with pricked-up ears and tail, for some time; after
this, no rat dared to come near it; and in a short space of time the
mill was cleared of those depredators, and has continued so ever
since.
1068. _To prevent the Burrowing of Rats in Houses._--Rats may be
effectually prevented from burrowing under the foundation of houses,
by making an offset of stone or brick, about two feet in breadth, and
eighteen inches below the surface; and by carrying up a perpendicular
wall from the edge of this offset, to within a few inches of the
ground. The adoption of the same plan _inside_ will prevent the
burrowing of these animals in cellars; for rats always burrow close
to a wall; and finding their perpendicular course impeded, they take
a horizontal direction, as far as the offset continues, when they are
again stopped by the outside wall. Thus baffled, they ascend, and go
off.
Those persons who have suffered in their granaries, ice-houses, and
in the cellars of their dwelling-houses, by the depredations of
rats, will probably deem this one of the most valuable articles of
the present work.
1069. _To keep Ponds and Artificial Pieces of Water free from
Weeds._--At the Marquis of Exeter's seat, near Burghley, there is an
artificial piece of water, about a mile in length, which used to be
so over-run with weeds, that three men were employed constantly, for
six months in every year, to keep them under; in which they never
perfectly succeeded. About seven years ago, two pair of swans were
put on the water: they completely cleared away all the weeds the
first year, and none have appeared since, as the swans constantly eat
them before they rise to the surface.
1070. _Usefulness of Mowing Weeds._--In the month of June weeds are
in their most succulent state; and in this state, especially after
they have lain a few hours to wither, hungry cattle will eat greedily
almost every species. There is scarcely a hedge, border, or nook, but
at this season is valuable, and it must certainly be good management
to embrace the transient opportunity; for in a few weeks they will
become nuisances.
1071. _On the great Increase of Milk from feeding Milch Cows with
Sainfoin._--The quantity of milk produced by cows fed by sainfoin
is nearly double to that of any other food. The milk is also much
richer, and will yield a larger quantity of cream. The butter will
also be better colored and flavored than any other.
1072. _Parsnips productive of Milk in Cows._--Parsnips cause cows
to produce abundance of milk, and they eat them as free as they do
oil-cake. Land, 7_l_. an acre in Guernsey, is sown with parsnips to
feed cattle, and the milk is like cream.--Sheep, when lambing, fed
with them, produce much milk. They are improper food for horses,
subjecting them to blindness.
1073. _Most proper Food for Milch Cows._--Milch cows are infinitely
more profitable kept in the house than out of doors, but they must be
trained to it, otherwise they do not thrive.
The best food for them are clover, lucern, potatoes, yams, turnips,
carrots, cabbages, peas, and beans.
Such cows as those in the neighborhood of London, kept in the house,
and properly fed, ought to yield nine gallons per day, for the first
four months after calving.
1074. _Additional Quantity of Milk to be gained by keeping Milch
Cows in the House._--In the management of cows a warm stable is
highly necessary; and currying them like horses not only affords them
pleasure, but makes them give their milk more freely. They ought
always to be kept clean, laid dry, and have plenty of good sweet
water to drink. Cows treated in this manner have given two gallons of
milk at a time, when within ten days of calving.
1075. _Utility of Carrots as Food for Horses and other stall
Beasts._--Carrots are excellent food for horses, either given alone,
or along with hay, likewise for fattening stall beasts. They make
them eat straw, and very indifferent hay, greedily. If the same be
given to cows, the milk will have a much less offensive taste and
smell than when they are fed on turnips.
_Remark._--It must be noted, however, that carrots, though very
excellent, are a very expensive food. They would not enable a farmer
to pay his rent.
1076. _Excellent Method of rearing Calves, and of preserving the
Cream, and a great Part of the Milk during that Time._--Put some
water on the fire, nearly the quantity that the calf can drink.
When it boils, throw into it one or two handfuls of oatmeal, and
suffer the whole to boil for a minute. Then leave it to cool until
new-milk-warm. Then mix with it one or two quarts of milk, that has
stood twelve hours, and has been skimmed: stir the whole, and give it
the calf to drink. At first it is necessary to make the calf drink
by presenting the fingers to it, but it soon learns to do without
this help, and will grow incomparably faster than by the old method.
This new method is not only a theoretical truth, but its success is
confirmed by experience.
The economical advantages resulting from it are as follows. According
to the old method, a calf intended for slaughter is made to suck for
three weeks, and those intended for agriculture, from six to eight
weeks. Supposing the cow gives only a moderate quantity of milk, the
value of it will amount, in three weeks, to nearly the value of the
calf. If, on the contrary, we rear a calf according to this method,
we consume during the three weeks only three quarts of oatmeal, at
most, and the skimmed milk.
Calves that have been brought up by this method have been always
healthy and strong, and not subject to disease. They are not suffered
to suck at all, but to have the pure milk of the mother to drink
for the first four days, because it has been observed, that the
separation, after four days, is more painful to the mother than when
the calf is taken from her soon after its birth.
1077. _Rules for Milking Cows._--Cows should be milked three times
a day, if fully fed throughout the summer, and great caution should
be exercised by the persons employed, to draw the milk from them
completely, not only to increase the quantity of produce, but to
preserve its quality. Any portion which may be left in the udder
seems gradually absorbed in the system, and no more is formed
than enough to supply the loss of what is taken away, and by the
continuance of the same mode, a yet farther diminution of the
secretion takes place, till at length scarcely any is produced. This
last method of milking is always practised, when it is intended that
a cow should be rendered dry.
1078. _Proper Temperature for a Dairy._--The apartments appropriated
for dairy purposes should, if possible, possess a moderate
temperature throughout the year, and should be kept perfectly
clean and dry. The temperature of about fifty-five degrees is most
favorable for the separation of the cream from the milk. The utensils
of the dairy are best made of wood; lead and copper are soluble in
acid, and highly pernicious; and though iron is not injurious, the
taste of it might render the produce of the dairy unpalatable.
1079. _Method of making excellent Butter from the Milk of Cows
fed upon Turnips._--Let the bowls, either lead or wood, be kept
constantly clean, and well scalded with boiling water, before using.
When the milk is brought into the dairy, to every eight quarts mix
one quart of boiling water; then put up the milk into the bowls to
stand for cream. By keeping strictly to this method, you will have,
during the winter, constantly sweet and well-tasted butter from the
milk of cows fed upon turnips.
1080. _Improved Method of making Butter._--If the dairy consists
of three or four cows, they should be milked in the summer thrice
a day; in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. Each milking
must be kept by itself, in flat wooden vessels, to cool in like
manner; and thus in succession for two or three days, according to
the temperature of the air, the milk thickens, and thence is fit for
churning, soonest in the warmest weather. The quantity of butter will
be generally in the proportion of a pound (twenty-two ounces) for
each ten pints, or five English gallons of milk. In winter, the cows
are to be milked only twice a day, and the milk is to be put into the
churn warm from the cow, where it must stand a day or two longer than
in summer before it becomes sufficiently thick; although to promote
the coagulation, it is sometimes brought near the kitchen fire,
particularly on the preceding night before it is churned; and, in
intense cold, it will be necessary to add a small quantity of boiling
water. The operation of churning is performed with the plunge-churn,
from two to three hours, for thirty or forty pints of milk; and at
the last stage of the process, a little cold water thrown in has the
effect of promoting the separation of the butter from the milk. This
method of making butter has long been practiced in England; it may be
worth trial in America.
N.B.--The dairy-maid must not be disheartened if she does not succeed
perfectly in her first attempt.
1081. _To prevent Cows from contracting bad Habits while
Milking._--Cows should always be treated with great gentleness, and
soothed by mild usage, especially when young and ticklish, or when
the paps are tender, in which case the udder ought to be fomented
with warm water, before milking, and touched with the greatest
gentleness, otherwise the cow will be in danger of contracting bad
habits, becoming stubborn and unruly, and retaining her milk ever
after. A cow never lets down her milk pleasantly to the person she
dreads or dislikes. The udder and paps should always be washed with
clean water before milking; but care should be taken that none of
that water be admitted into the milking pail.
1082. _To mark Sheep, without injury to the Wool._--To thirty
spoonfuls of linseed oil, add two ounces of litharge and one ounce
of lamp-black: unite them together by boiling, and mark the sheep
therewith.
1083. _To improve the Wool of Sheep, by Smearing._--Immediately after
the sheep are shorn, soak the roots of the wool that remain all over
with oil or butter and brimstone; and three or four days afterwards,
wash them with salt and water. The wool of next season will not only
be much finer, but the quantity will be in greater abundance. It
may be depended upon, that the sheep will not be troubled with the
scab or vermin that year. Salt water is a safe and effectual remedy
against maggots.
1084. _To preserve Cattle from Disease in the Winter._--When cattle
are kept out in the winter, it is recommended as an useful practice
to rub some tar at the root of the horn, which prevents the wet from
getting between the root and the skin, and, it is said, contributes
to preserve the health of the animal, and to keep it free from
various diseases to which it may otherwise be liable.
1085. _How to Promote the Health of Farm Animals._--All domestic
animals should be abundantly furnished with salt. A supply kept
within their reach, whenever it can be done, is recommended. Horses
and pigs should occasionally have ashes given them in their food; and
pigs ought at all times, when confined in pens, to be supplied with
charcoal, as, besides being a medicine, it is a cheap and valuable
food.
1086. _Parsley recommended to Farmers to be sown with Rape-seed, as
a preservative against the Resp in Sheep._--A correspondent of the
"Chester Chronicle" recommends to all farmers who sow rape-seed, to
sow with it a small portion of parsley at the same time; this he
pronounces an infallible preservative against the malady well-known
by the name of _resp_, in sheep: he also advises to sow parsley on
turnip land at the time of hoeing turnips. The above correspondent
asserts, that he has pursued this plan upwards of twenty-five years,
and during that time he has never lost one sheep, either in rape or
turnip land.
_Remark._--In some counties, parsley is sown with clover, on the
supposition that it prevents cattle from being bursten, or hoven.
1087. _How to catch Sheep._--Never seize them by the wool on the
back; it hurts them exceedingly, and, in some cases, has been known
to kill them, particularly in hot weather, when they are large and
fat. The best way is to avoid the wool altogether; accustom yourself
to take them by the hind leg, or what is still better, by the neck,
placing one hand under the jaws, and the other at the back of the
ears. By lifting up the head, in this manner, a child may hold almost
any sheep, without danger to the animal or himself.
1088. _Mr. Bakewell's Liquid for the cure of the Foot-rot in
Sheep._--Dissolve four ounces, each, of vitriol and common alum,
three ounces of verdigris, an ounce and a half of white mercury, and
an ounce of white copperas, all finely pulverized, in a quart of
white-wine vinegar.
1089. _Mr. Culley's Red Salve, to cure the Rot in Sheep._--Mix four
ounces of the best honey, two ounces of burnt alum, reduced to
powder, and half a pound of Armenian bole, with as much train or
fish oil as will convert these ingredients into the consistence of a
salve. The honey must first be gradually dissolved, when the Armenian
bole must be stirred in; afterwards the alum and train oil are to be
added.
1090. _A profitable way of fattening Pigs._--Put four pigs in a
sty, for they feed best in company; but if there are too many, they
are apt to quarrel: feed them moderately the first week; and thrice
during the second week, mix with their barley-meal as much antimony
as will lie on a shilling; and the third week, twice give them the
same quantity. I need scarcely observe, it is in powder.
This purifies the blood, gives them an appetite, and makes them
thrive apace.
1091. _New mode of fattening Pigs._--A pig lately gained, by feeding
on Indian corn, in the course of six weeks and three days, the
enormous weight of fifteen stone. This mode of feeding has long been
known to the Neapolitans, whose pigs are so fat, as hardly to be able
to move.
GARDENING.
1092. _Proper situation for a Green-House._--The aspect of a
green-house may be at any point from east to west, following the
course of the sun; or, it may even be a little to the north of east
or west; but only a little, and the less the better, otherwise the
plants will not generally thrive in it, nor will the flowers acquire
their natural colors. A south aspect is to be preferred.
1093. _On preserving Seeds of Plants in a state fit for
Vegetation._--Seeds of plants may be preserved, for many months at
least, by causing them to be packed, either in husks, pods, &c.,
in absorbent paper, with raisins or brown moist sugar; or, a good
way, practised by gardeners, is to wrap the seed in brown paper or
cartridge paper, pasted down, and then varnished over.
1094. _To facilitate the Growth of Foreign Seeds._--Mr. Humboldt has
found, that seeds which do not commonly germinate in our climate,
or in our hot-houses, and which, of course, we cannot raise for
our gardens, or hope to naturalize in our fields, become capable
of germinating, when immersed for some days in a weak, oxygenized
muriatic acid. This interesting discovery has already turned to
advantage in several botanic gardens.
1095. _To plant and make Edgings._--Edgings of daisies, thrift,
violets, gentianella, &c., should be planted in February; but those
of box succeed better, if planted in April or August.
1096. _To train Evergreen and other Hedges._--Evergreen hedges may be
clipt about the beginning, but not later than the middle of April, as
by that time they will begin to grow--and it is proper that this work
should be previously performed. Some content themselves with clipping
but once a year, in which case the end of July, or first of August,
is a better time.
In trimming these, or indeed any hedge intended as a close fence,
they should be dressed up to a thin edge at top, as otherwise they
are apt to get full of gaps below; and the cause is obvious, that the
under part, in square or cut hedges, is too much shaded by the upper
part. Now, by sloping the sides, every part of the hedge is freely
exposed to the air; nor is any part over-dropped by another. A hedge,
intended merely as a fence, need seldom be more than five feet high,
or at most six. Screen hedges may be allowed to run to any height
thought necessary for the purpose; neither is it requisite to trim
them so often as fence-hedges; once a year, or in two years, may be
sufficient.
In the training of any hedge, it should not be topped or shortened,
till it has arrived at a full yard in height; but it may then have
a little taken off the points, in order to make it bush the better,
and shoot afterwards of a more regular height; the sides, however,
should be trimmed from the second or third year of planting, that it
may grow the more complete and close below, for therein consists the
excellence of any fence. It should not in topping, at any time while
in training, be much cut in, as that would make it push the stronger
to the top, to the detriment of the sides. When fence-hedges outgrow
their limits, they must, of course, be cut either wholly or partly
down; but if they be tolerably well kept, it is seldom necessary to
cut them down more than half to the ground.
1097. _How to cut Box Edgings._--Box edgings should be cut about the
beginning of April, or in the end of July. They should, however, be
cut once a year, and should be kept two inches in breadth at bottom;
being tapered up to a thin edge at top; for nothing looks so ill as a
large, bushy edging, especially to a narrow walk. The use of edging
is to separate the earth from the gravel; and the larger they are
allowed to grow, the less effectual they become; getting the more
open below, as they advance in height. Such also harbor snails, and
other troublesome vermin.
1098. _A sure method of curing Gravel-Walks._--Three parts pond-water
to one of brine, from the salting-tub in a family, poured with a
watering-pot upon gravel-walks, will not only kill the moss upon
them, but drive away the worms which make so many holes in them,
and also prevent weeds springing up. This a gentleman lately tried,
who has several gravel-walks in a grove near his house. Since he
moistened his walks with brine--which is now four years ago--they
are incommoded neither by moss, weeds, nor worms. Every autumn he
causes them to be well watered with the brine and pond-water, during
a whole week, to prevent moss; and a week in the spring, to guard
against weeds and worms; besides giving them a sprinkling every now
and then, in the summer-season, when they seem to want it.
1099. _Proper method of laying Carnations._--In summer, towards the
latter-end of June, or any time in July or beginning of August, when
the shoots of the year are advanced to a proper growth, being from
four, five, or six, to seven or eight inches long, which are to be
laid as they grow on the plants, and to remain affixed thereto till
rooted on the ground.
Thus far observed, begin the work by first clearing away all weeds
about the plants, and loosen the earth a little around them, and
if the surface is low, add some mould thereto sufficient to raise
it high enough to receive the layers easily; then begin laying the
shoots one by one; strip off the lower leaves so as to have some
inches of a clear shoot below; and trim the top leaves shorter and
even, and then slit or gash the shoot on the under side; in doing
which, fix on a joint about the middle of the shoot underneath,
and with your sharp knife cut half through the joint, and slanting
upwards; so as to slit the shoot up the middle half an inch, or but
little more; which done, directly lay it, by bending it down to the
earth with the gash or slit part open, making an opening in the
earth, and peg it down with one or two of the small-hooked sticks,
and earth over the body of the layer an inch or two deep, still
keeping the slit open and the top raised gently upright, pressing the
earth moderately upon them; and in this manner proceed with laying
all the shoots on each plant; and when all are laid, give a gentle
watering to settle the earth close about the layers, and repeat it
frequently in dry weather.
They will soon emit roots at the gash or slit part, generally at the
bottom of the tongue, and in five or six weeks will often be rooted
fit for separating and planting off from the parent, so that when
they have been about five, six, or seven weeks laid, you will examine
the progress they have made in rooting, by opening the earth gently
about some of the layers; and as soon as they appear to be tolerably
rooted, let them be cut off from the old plant with a sharp knife, in
order to be timely planted out in nursery beds, that they may root
more abundantly, and get due strength before winter; observing, in
cutting them off from the mother plant, to open the ground so as to
take them up with all the roots they have made, and cut them clean
off beyond the gash; afterwards trim off any naked woody part or
bottom, but preserve all the roots, and trim the long tops a little,
then plant them in nursery rows, six inches asunder, or you may
prick some in small pots, one layer in each, giving water directly
at planting, and repeat it often in dry weather till they take good
root, and grow freely, keeping them clean from weeds.
Those in the nursery beds will, by October, be good strong plants.
The choicest sorts may then be planted in pots, to move under
occasional shelter in time of severe frost, and for which purpose,
either use small pots (32) to contain them all winter, or plant them
in large pots (24 or 16) to remain to flower, observing to take them
up out of the nursery beds for potting, &c., with a garden trowel,
each layer with a good ball of earth about the roots; and having the
pots ready, place a shell over the holes at bottom, and put some
good light rich earth therein; plant one layer with its ball about
the roots entire in each pot, fill up with more earth, and give
some water; you may also at the same time plant some of the more
ordinary or common sorts into flower-borders or beds, to stand the
full weather all the year; but the choicer sorts in the pots may,
in November, be placed close together, either in a garden-frame, to
have occasional protection of the glasses, or mats, in severe frost,
and have the full air in all open weather and mild days, or may be
plunged in a raised bed of any dry compost, raised some inches above
the common level, and arched over with hoop arches, in order to be
protected with occasional covering of garden mats when hard frosts
prevail; but in either method, be sure to expose them fully in all
open weather, as aforesaid.
In the spring, such as have remained all winter in small pots
should, in February or early in March, be turned out with the ball
of earth about the root, and planted into larger pots, to remain for
flowering, giving proper waterings; and those which were potted at
once into larger pots in autumn should now have the earth stirred at
top, taking out some, and fill up with fresh good earth, and give a
little water.
The layers planted in the common borders of the pleasure and flower
garden require no other care than keeping them clean from weeds, and
tying up the flower stalks to sticks when they are advanced long
enough to require support.
1100. _To remove Herbs and Flowers in the Summer._--If you have
occasion to transplant in the summer season, let it be in the evening
after the heat is past; plant and water the same immediately, and
there will be no danger from the heat next day; but be careful, in
digging up the earth, you do not break any of the young shoots, as
the sap will exude out of the same to the great danger of the plants.
1101. _New Method of raising Cucumbers._--From the best seed that can
be got of the common prickly cucumber, raise plants on a moderate
hot-bed, not hurrying them too much in their growth. In May, when
the danger of the frost is nearly over, familiarize the plants, by
degrees, to the air, and towards the latter end of the month plant
them in the open ground against a south wall. Take care not to give
them too much water, as that will injure the fruit. When they have
run up about five feet, they will send forth blossoms, and the fruit
will begin to show itself soon after. The flesh of cucumbers raised
in this manner will be thicker and firmer, and the flavor vastly
more delicious, than those raised from the same seed, but planted in
the ordinary way, and the runners suffered to trail on the ground.
Though a south wall in most gardens, is too much appropriated to
other things, to give room for cucumbers in general, yet in every
garden a few plants may be so trained by way of rarity, and to save
seed, which is found to be greatly improved by this method, so as to
produce much better cucumbers in the common way of raising them. One
or two plants, so raised, will supply a sufficient quantity of seed
for a large garden.
Laying a cucumber or melon-bed with tiles, is also of particular
service in improving the fruit, and giving it a proper flavor.
1102. _To prevent the irregular Growth of Melons._--It is well known
that melons frequently, in certain situations, lose their circular
form, and grow larger on one side than the other, and that those
misshapen fruits are always bad. To remedy this, take a small forked
stick, in proportion to the size of the melon, and thrust it in the
ground as nearly as possible to the tail of the fruit, taking the
precaution to lay a little moss between the two prongs, and suspend
the melon to this fork. In a few days the melon will resume its form,
when the fork may be removed, and the operation is finished. The
quality of the fruit remains unchanged.
1103. _Easy Method of producing Mushrooms._--If the water wherein
mushrooms have been steeped or washed be poured upon an old bed,
or if the broken parts of mushrooms be strewed thereon, there will
speedily arise great numbers.
1104. _To obtain a good Crop of Onions._--In order to obtain a good
crop of onions, it is proper to sow at different seasons, viz., in
light soils, in August, January, or early in February; and in heavy
wet soils, in March, or early in April. Onions, however, should not
be sown in January, unless the ground be in a dry state, which is
not often the case at so early a period of the season; but if so,
advantage should be taken of it.
1105. _The Advantage of sowing Peas in Circles instead of straight
Rows._--It is a great error in those persons who sow the rows of
tall-growing peas close together. It is much better in all those
sorts, which grow six or eight feet high, to have only one row, and
then to leave a bed ten or twelve feet wide for onions, carrots, or
any crops which do not grow tall.
The advantages which will be derived are, that the peas will not be
drawn up so much, be stronger, will flower much nearer to the ground,
and in wet weather can be more easily gathered without wetting you.
But instead of sowing peas in straight rows, if you will form the
ground into circles of three feet diameter, with a space of two feet
between each circle, in a row thirty feet long, you will have six
circles of peas, each nine feet, in all fifty-four feet of peas,
instead of thirty, on the same extent of ground.
If you want more than one row of circles, leave a bed of ten or
twelve feet before you begin another.
For the very tall sorts, four feet circles will afford more room for
the roots to grow in, and care must be taken, by applying some tender
twigs, or strings, to prevent the circles from joining each other.
This method is equally applicable for scarlet-beans.
1106. _To raise Peas in Autumn, and to prevent Mice from eating them
when sown._--The purple-flowered peas are found to answer best for
a late crop in autumn, as they are not so liable to be mildewed as
many of the other sorts, and will continue flowering till the frost
stops them.
Those peas may be sown in July, August, or so late as the first week
in September, if sown in a warm, sheltered situation, and in a soil
inclining to sand.
Soak the peas in warm milk, and after you have drawn the drills,
water them before you sow the peas; it is best to sow them towards
the evening. If the autumn should prove very dry, they will require
frequent watering.
When peas are sown before winter, or early in spring, they are very
apt to be eaten by mice.
To prevent this, soak the peas for a day or two in train oil before
you sow them, which will encourage their vegetation, and render them
so obnoxious to the mice, that they will not eat them.
1107. _Method of cultivating Radishes for Salad, so as to have them
ready at all seasons of the year._--Take seeds of the common radish,
and lay them in rain-water to steep for twenty-four hours; then put
them quite wet into a small linen bag, well tied at the mouth with
packthread. If you have steeped a large quantity of seeds, you may
divide them into several bags. Then expose the bags in a place where
they will receive the greatest heat of the sun, for about twenty-four
hours, at the end of which time the seed will begin to grow, and
you may then sow it in the usual manner, in earth well exposed to
the heat of the sun. Prepare two small tubs to cover each other
exactly. These may be easily provided, by sawing a small cask through
the middle, and they will serve in winter; in summer one will be
sufficient for each kind of earth that has been sown. As soon as you
have sown your seeds you must cover them with your tub, and at the
end of three days you will find radishes of the size and thickness of
young lettuces, having at their extremities two small round leaves,
rising from the earth, of a reddish color. These radishes, cut or
pulled up, will be excellent, if mixed with salad, and they have a
much more delicate taste than the common radishes which are eaten
with salt.
By taking the following precautions, you may have them in the winter,
and even during the hardest frosts: After having steeped the seeds
in warm water, and exposed them to the sun, as already directed, or
in a place sufficiently hot to make them shoot forth, warm the two
tubs; fill one of them with earth well dunged; sow your seeds, thus
prepared, in one of them, and cover it with the other tub; you must
then be careful to sprinkle it with warm water as often as may be
necessary. Then carry the two tubs closely joined, taking care they
cover each other, into a warm vault, or cellar, and at the end of
fifteen days you may gather a fine salad.
1108. _To preserve Strawberry Plants from the Heat of the Sun,
&c._--Sir Joseph Banks, from a variety of experiments, and the
experience of many years, recommends a general revival of the now
almost obsolete practice of laying straw under strawberry-plants,
when the fruit begins to swell; by which means the roots are shaded
from the sun, the waste of moisture by evaporation prevented, the
leaning fruit kept from damage by resting on the ground, particularly
in wet weather, and much labor in watering saved. Twenty trusses of
long straw are sufficient for 1800 feet of plants.
1109. _Directions for managing Strawberries in Summer._--On the
management of strawberries in June and July, the future prosperity of
them greatly depends; and if each plant has not been kept separate,
by cutting off the runners, they will be in a state of confusion, and
you will find three different sorts of plants.
1. Old plants, whose roots are turned black, hard, and woody.
2. Young plants, not strong enough to flower.
3. Flowering plants, which ought only to be there, and perhaps not
many of them.
Before the time of flowering is quite over, examine them, and pull
up every old plant which has not flowered; for, if once they have
omitted to flower, you may depend upon it they never will produce any
after, being too old, and past bearing; but to be fully convinced,
leave two or three, set a stick to them, and observe them the next
year.
If the young plants, runners of last year, be too thick, take some of
them away, and do not leave them nearer than a foot of the scarlet,
alpines, and wood, and fifteen or sixteen inches of all the larger
sorts; and in the first rainy weather in July or August, take them
all up, and make a fresh plantation with them, and they will be very
strong plants for flowering next year.
Old beds, even if the plants be kept single at their proper distance,
examine, and pull all the old plants which have not flowered.
When the fruit is nearly all gathered, examine them again, and cut
off the runners; but if you want to make a fresh plantation, leave
some of the two first, and cut off all the rest. Then stir up the
ground with a trowel, or three-pronged fork, and in August they will
be fit to transplant.
If you have omitted in July, do not fail in August, that the runners
may make good roots, to be transplanted in September; for, if later,
the worms will draw them out of the ground, and the frost afterwards
will prevent them from striking root; the consequence of which is,
their not flowering the next spring; and you will lose a year.
1110. _To cultivate the common Garden Rhubarb._--It is not enough to
give it depth of good soil, but it must be watered in drought; and in
winter must be well covered with straw or dung. If this is attended
to, your rhubarb will be solid when taken out of the ground; and your
kitchen, if a warm one, will soon fit it for use.
1111. _Method of cultivating and curing Turkey Rhubarb from
Seed._--The seed should be sown about the beginning of February, on a
bed of good soil, (if rather sandy, the better) exposed to an east or
west aspect in preference to the south; a full sun being prejudicial
to the vegetation of the seeds, and to the plants whilst young.
The seeds are best sown moderately thick, (broad cast) treading them
regularly in, as is usual with parsnips and other light seeds, and
then raking the ground smooth. When the season is wet, make a bed
for sowing the rhubarb seeds upon, about two feet thick, with new
dung from the stable, covering it near one foot thick with good soil.
The intent of this bed is not for the sake of warmth, but solely
to prevent the rising of earth-worms, which in a moist season will
frequently destroy the young crop.
If the seed is good, the plants often rise too thick; if so, when
they have attained six leaves, they should be taken up carefully,
(where too close), leaving the standing crop eight or ten inches
apart: those taken up may be planted at the same distance in a fresh
spot of ground, in order to furnish other plantations. When the
plants in general are grown to the size that cabbage-plants are
usually set out for a standing crop, they are best planted where they
are to remain, in beds four feet wide, one row along the middle of
the bed, leaving two yards' distance between the plants, allowing an
alley between the beds about a foot wide, for conveniency of weeding
the plants.
In the autumn, when the decayed leaves are removed, if the shoveling
of the alleys is thrown over the crowns of the plants, it will be
found of service.
1112. _Cultivation of Turkey Rhubarb, by offsets._--Slip off several
offsets from the heads of large plants; set them with a dibble about
a foot apart, in order to remove them into other beds; and, in the
autumn, they will be in a thriving state.
1113. _Method of curing Rhubarb._--The plants may be taken up, either
early in the spring or in autumn, when the leaves are decayed, in dry
weather, if possible: when the roots are to be cleared from dirt,
(without washing,) let them be cut into pieces, and, with a sharp
knife, freed from the outer coat, and exposed to the sun and air for
a few days, to render the outside a little dry.
In order to accelerate the curing of the largest pieces, a hole may
be scooped out with a pen-knife; these and the smaller parts are then
to be strung on packthread, and hung up in a warm room, where it is
to remain till perfectly dry. Each piece may be rendered more sightly
by a common file, fixing it in a small vice during that operation;
afterwards rub over it a very fine powder, which the small roots
furnish in beautiful perfection, for this and every other purpose
where rhubarb is required.
An easier and simpler method of drying rhubarb is, after cutting the
root into handsome pieces, to wrap up each separately, in one or more
pieces of whitish-brown paper, and then to place them on the hob of a
common Bath stove. Lemon and orange-peel dry beautifully in this way.
1114. _Proper Soil for the culture of Turnips._--Sandy loams, in good
heart, are most favorable to their growth, though they will thrive
well on strong loams, if they are not wet; but on clayey, thin, or
wet soils, they are not worth cultivating; for though a good crop may
be raised on such ground, when well prepared and dunged, more damage
is done by taking off the turnips in winter, in poaching the soil,
than the value of the crop will repay.
1115. _Preservation of Succulent Plants._--Green succulent plants
are better preserved after a momentary immersion in boiling water,
than otherwise. This practice has been successfully used in the
preservation of cabbage and other plants, dried for keeping; it
destroys the vegetable life at once, and, in a great degree, prevents
that decay which otherwise attends them.
1116. _Various useful properties of Tobacco to Gardeners._--Tobacco
is employed for so many different uses, that there is no person
possessed of a garden but will find both pleasure and profit in the
cultivation of it, especially as it is now at such a high price.
The seed is very cheap, and may be procured of most nurserymen,
and will answer the same end as the foreign for most purposes, and
considerably cheaper.
_Uses to which it may be applied._--1. To florists, for two elegant
annual plants to decorate the borders of the flower-garden; or, on
account of their height, to fill up vacant places in the shrubberies;
or, when put into pots, they will be very ornamental in the
green-house during the winter.
2. Kitchen-gardeners would in a few days lose their crops of melons,
if not immediately fumigated with tobacco-smoke, when attacked by the
red spider; and it is useful to destroy the black flies on cucumbers
in frames.
3. Fruit-gardeners. When peach and nectarine-trees have their leaves
curled up, and the shoots covered with smother-flies; or, the
cherry-trees have the ends of the shoots infested with the black
dolphin-fly; canvas, pack-sheets, or doubled mats, nailed before
them, and frequently fumigated under them, will destroy those insects.
4. Forcing-gardeners, who raise roses and kidney-beans in stoves,
can soon destroy the green flies which cover the stalks and buds of
roses, and the insects which appear like a mildew on kidney-beans, by
the assistance of the fumigating bellows.
5. Nurserymen. When the young shoots of standard cherry-trees, or any
other trees, are covered with the black dolphin-flies, an infusion is
made with the leaves and stalks of tobacco; a quantity is put into an
earthen pan, or small, oblong wooden trough; one person holds this
up, whilst another gently bends the top of each tree, and lets the
branches remain about a minute in the liquor, which destroys them.
6. Graziers, when their sheep are infected with the scab, find relief
from making a sheep-water with an infusion of the leaves and stalks.
Moles, when only a few hills are at first observed, may probably be
soon driven out of the ground, by fumigating their holes.
7. Herb tobacco is also greatly improved by having some of the
leaves, when dried, cut with a pair of scissors, and mixed with the
herbs in any quantity you may think proper, according to the strength
you require, and save you the expense of buying tobacco.
The herbs generally used for this purpose are colt's-foot and wood
betony-leaves; the leaves and flowers of lavender, rosemary, thyme,
and some others of the like nature.
THE ORCHARD.
1117. _To prevent Blossom and Fruit-trees from being damaged by
early Spring Frost._--If a rope (a hempen one, it is presumed) be
introduced among the branches of a fruit-tree in blossom, and the end
of it brought down, so as to terminate in a bucket of water; and,
should a slight frost take place in the night-time, in that case
the tree will not be affected by the frost; but a film of ice, of
considerable thickness, will be formed on the surface of the bucket
in which the rope's-end is immersed, although it has often happened
that another bucket of water, placed beside it for the sake of
experiment, has had no ice at all upon it.
1118. _Chinese mode of propagating Fruit-trees._--The ingenious
people of China have a common method of propagating several kinds
of fruit-trees, which of late years has been practised with success
in Bengal. The method is simply this:--They strip a ring of bark,
about an inch in width, from a bearing branch, surround the place
with a ball of fat earth, or loam, bound fast to the branch with a
piece of matting: over this they suspend a pot or horn, with water,
having a small hole in the bottom just sufficient to let the water
drop, in order to keep the earth constantly moist. The branch throws
new roots into the earth just above the place where the ring of bark
was stripped off. The operation is performed in the spring, and the
branch is sawed off and put into the ground at the fall of the leaf.
The following year it will bear fruit.
1119. _To improve Fruit-trees by attention to the Color of the
Soil._--The color and also the quality of soils have an effect on the
color and flavor of fruits--even on the color of many flowers. The
effects of the color of soils on that of fruits, are most perceptible
on the delicate kinds, such as grapes, peaches, &c.; but to a nice
observer, it extends in a greater or less degree to all fruits. For
instance, if two black Hamburgh grapes, made from the cuttings of the
same plant, shall be planted, the one in a dry, hazelly loam, and the
other in a moist, black earth, the fruit of the one will be brown,
or of a grizzly color, and the other very dark red or black; and the
grape will be more juicy, though better in flavor, than the other
grown in a dryer soil.
1120. _To increase the Growth in Trees._--It may be depended upon
as a fact, that by occasionally washing the stems of trees, their
growth will be greatly increased; for several recent experiments have
proved, that all the ingredients of vegetation united, which are
received from the roots, stem, branches, and leaves of a mossy and
dirty tree, do not produce half the increase either in wood or fruit,
that another gains whose stem is clean. It is clearly obvious, that
proper nourishment cannot be received from rain, for the dirty stem
will retain the moisture longer than when clean; and the moss and
dirt will absorb the finest parts of the dew, and likewise act as a
screen, by depriving the tree of that share of sun and air which it
requires.
A common scrubbing-brush and clean water is all that is necessary,
only care must be observed not to injure the bark.
1121. _To prevent Hares and Rabbits from Barking young
Plantations._--Hares, rabbits, and rats, have a natural antipathy
to tar; but tar, though fluid, contracts, when exposed to the sun
and air for a time, a great dryness and a very binding quality; and
if applied to trees in its natural state, will occasion them to be
bark-bound. To remove this difficulty, tar is of so strong a savor,
that a small quantity mixed with other things, in their nature open
and loose, will give the whole mixture such a degree of its own taste
and smell, as will prevent hares, &c., touching what it is applied
to.
Take any quantity of tar, and six or seven times as much grease,
stirring and mixing them well together; with this composition brush
the stems of young trees, as high as hares, &c., can reach; and it
will effectually prevent their being barked.
1122. _Bad effects of Iron Nails, &c., on Fruit-trees, or
mischievous effects of Iron Nails, in conjunction with Branches
of Fruit-trees._--It often happens that some of the limbs of
fruit-trees, trained against a wall, are blighted and die, while
others remain in a healthy and flourishing state. This has been
hitherto erroneously attributed to the effects of lightning; but,
from closer observation, and from several experiments, it has been
found to arise from the corroding effects of the rust of the nails
and cramps with which trees in this situation are fastened. To avoid
this inconvenience, therefore, it requires only to be careful in
preventing the iron from coming in contact with the bark of the trees.
1123. _To destroy Moss on Trees._--Remove it with a hard
scrubbing-brush, in February and March, and wash the trees with
cow-dung, urine, and soap-suds.
1124. _Necessity of taking off superfluous Suckers from
Shrubs._--Many flowering shrubs put out strong suckers from the root,
such as lilacs, syringa, and some of the kinds of roses, which take
greatly from the strength of the mother-plant; and which, if not
wanted for the purpose of planting next season, should be twisted
off, or otherwise destroyed.
1125. _To cure the Disease in Apple-trees._--Brush off the white
down, clear off the red stain underneath it, and anoint the places
infected with a liquid mixture of train-oil and Scotch-snuff.
1126. _To cure the Canker in Trees._--Cut them off to the quick,
and apply a piece of sound bark from any other tree, and bind it on
with a flannel roller. Cut off the canker, and a new shoot will grow
strong, but in a year or two you will find it cankered.
1127. _A method of curing Fruit-trees infected with an Easterly
Blight._--Where valuable fruit-trees are infected with this blight,
they may, with little trouble and expense be in a short time cured,
by fumigating them with brimstone strewed on lighted charcoal; this
effectually kills it; but the workman must observe to get to windward
of the trees, as the fumes, both of brimstone and charcoal, are very
offensive and pernicious.
Mr. Miller recommends washing and sprinkling the blighted trees from
time to time, with common water, (that is, such as hath not had
anything steeped in it,) and the sooner that is performed, (whenever
we apprehend danger,) the better; and if the young and tender shoots
seem to be much infected, wash them with a woollen cloth, so as
to clear them, if possible, from all glutinous matter, that their
respiration and perspiration may not be obstructed; and if some
broad, flat pans, or tubs, are placed near the trees, it will keep
their tender parts in a ductile state, and greatly help them; but
whenever this operation of washing the trees is performed, it should
be early in the day, that the moisture may be exhaled before the
cold of the night comes on, especially if the nights are frosty; nor
should it be done when the sun shines very hot upon the wall, which
would be subject to scorch up the tender blossom.
1128. _Experienced method of healing Wounds in Trees._--This method
consists in making a varnish of common linseed oil, rendered very
drying, by boiling it, for the space of an hour, with an ounce of
litharge to each pound of oil, mixed with calcined bones, pulverized
and sifted, to the consistence of an almost liquid paste. With this
paste the wounds of trees are to be covered, by means of a brush,
after the bark and other substance have been pared, so as to render
the whole as smooth and even as possible. The varnish must be applied
in dry weather, in order that it may attach itself properly.
1129. _Composition for healing Wounds in Trees._--Take of dry,
pounded chalk, _three_ measures; add of common vegetable tar, _one_
measure; mix them thoroughly, and boil them, with a low heat, till
the composition becomes of the consistency of bees'-wax: it may be
preserved for use, in this state, for any length of time. If chalk
cannot conveniently be got, dry brick-dust may be substituted.
_Application._--After the broken or decayed limb has been sawed off,
the whole of the _saw-cut_ must be very carefully pared away, and the
rough edges of the bark, in particular must be made quite smooth;
the doing of this properly is of great consequence; then lay on the
above composition, hot, about the thickness of half-a-dollar, over
the wounded place, and over the edges of the surrounding bark; it
should be spread with a hot trowel.
1130. _To prune Wall Fruit._--Cut off all fresh shoots, however fair
they may appear to the eye, that will not, without much bending,
be well placed to the wall; for if any branch happen to be twisted
or bruised in the bending or turning (which you may not easily
perceive), although it may grow and prosper for the present, yet it
will decay in time, and the sap or gum will issue from that place.
1131. _To prune Vines to Advantage._--In pruning vines, leave some
new branches every year, and take away (if too many) some of the old,
which will be of great advantage to the tree, and much increase the
quantity of fruit.
When you trim your vine, leave two knots, and cut them off the next
time; for, usually, the two buds yield a bunch of grapes. Vines, thus
pruned, have been known to bear abundantly, whereas others that have
been cut close to please the eye, have been almost barren of fruit.
1132. _The most proper Times when Leaves of Trees ought to be
collected for pharmaceutical and economical Purposes._--It is at that
period when the plant is in full flower, that the leaves possess
their full virtue. They drop off when their particular life has
terminated.
TIMBER.
1133. _To promote the Growth of Forest-trees._--It is highly to
be censured, the neglect of permitting ivy-twines, which grow to
forest-trees, to remain attached to them. Their roots entering into
the bark, rob the trees of much of their nourishment; they in a
manner strangle their supporters, by impeding the circulation of
their juices, and in time destroy the trees. They should be torn up
by the roots, for, if any part of them adhere to the tree, they will
spread, as they obtain nourishment by their adhering roots.
1134. _White-washing the Trunks of Trees, recommended._--Being
one day upon a visit (observes Mr. Northmore, who recommends this
experiment) at my friend's near Yarmouth, in the Isle of Wight, I
remarked that several of the trunks of trees in his orchard had been
covered with whitewash; upon inquiring the reason, he replied, that
he had done it with a view to keep off the hares, and other animals,
and that it was attended not only with that good effect, but several
others, for it made the rind smooth and compact, by closing up the
cracks; it entirely destroyed the moss; and as the rains washed off
the lime, it manured the roots. These several advantages, derived
from so simple a practice, deserve to be more generally known. The
white-wash is made in the usual manner with lime, and may be applied
twice, or oftener, if necessary.
1135. _To cure Wounds in Trees._--Wounds in trees are best cured by
covering them with a coat of common lead paint without turpentine
(for turpentine is poison to vegetation) in the sun, on a fine dry
day.
1136. _Trees for Shade, Nursery Trees, &c._--Forest Trees selected
for shade should be of kinds not liable to be attacked by worms and
insects. The rock or sugar maple is always remarkably free from
worms, and it makes the most dense and beautiful shade of all our
deciduous trees. This is becoming a very popular tree, and we hope to
see it extensively propagated. There is no more risk in transplanting
this than the elm, and the limbs are not liable to be broken by the
winds and snow.
We believe it is generally admitted that transplanted trees succeed
best when their early growth has been in soil similar to that for
which they are destined to be placed permanently. If raised in such
a soil, and transplanted to that which is thin and poor, they seem
to receive a shock from which with difficulty they recover. As a
gentleman once remarked, it is like feeding a calf with all the milk
he will take till he is six months old, and then suddenly turning him
off to live on a short pasture.
Large trees may be as successfully planted as small ones. The mode
and result of an experiment made by Messrs. Pomeroy and Dutton, of
Utica, are thus given: Those gentlemen transplanted trees, comprising
maples, elm, beech, &c., some thirty feet in height, which were
transplanted without being shorn of any of their branches. The
process of removal was as follows:--In the fall, before the frost, a
trench was dug around the trees selected, from ten to fifteen feet in
diameter, and the roots severed. In the winter when the ground had
become solid from freezing, the trees were pulled out by the aid of
oxen and levers, with the mass of earth firmly attached to the roots.
They were then transported erect on a strong sled, built for the
purpose, and set out.
These trees grew in open land, a mile and a half from the city. They
put on their foliage last spring, as if wholly unconscious that they
were not still in their native soil, and the enterprising gentlemen
who undertook this unusual course, are rewarded with shade trees
which by the old practice it would have required twenty years to
produce.
Summer pruning is sometimes necessary in order to give form and
proper direction to nursery trees, and standard trees may need
thinning, in order to expose the fruit to light and air; but in
pruning trees thoroughly, particularly if large limbs are to be cut
off, it is best to defer the business till the last of July, August,
or the former part of September.
Late in summer and early in autumn, the bark does not peel as it does
early in the summer, when it often starts from the tree which is
injured by going into trees and stepping on limbs with hard shoes.
The sap will ooze out of some trees early in summer, which not only
injures them generally, but it often causes the wounded part to decay.
But in late pruning, the wood, when the branch is cut off, becomes
sound and well seasoned; and though it may not heal over so readily
as when cut early in summer or spring, it remains in a healthy state.
1137. _To preserve Wood in Damp Situations._--Two coats of the
following preparation are to be applied, after which the wood is
subject to no deterioration whatever from humidity. Twelve pounds of
resin are to be beaten in a mortar, to which three pounds of sulphur
and twelve pints of whale oil are to be added. This mixture is to
be melted over the fire, and stirred during the operation. Ochre,
reduced to an impalpable powder, by triturating it with oil, may then
be combined in the proportion necessary to give either a lighter
or a darker color to the material. The first coat should be put on
lightly, having been previously heated; the second may be applied in
two or three days, and a third after an equal interval, if from the
peculiar dampness of the situation it should be judged expedient.
_Remark._--It is highly probable (though the experiment has not been
tried) that this composition would be improved by adding a small
portion of the liquid leather, which is now commonly sold in London,
being the refuse of the purification of fish oil by tar.
Where the work will bear the expense, and is not exposed to a heat
of more than 130 degrees of Fahrenheit, the best composition is
the following: Equal parts of turpentine (the fluid resin, not the
essential oil), bees'-wax, black resin and maltha, or coal tar,
boiled together till they cease to rise--that is, till the white
cream or scum proceeding from the separation of the essential oil
disappears. Apply it warm with a turpentine brush--two or three
coats, to cover the cracks or pores left by the brush. This lute was
first proposed by Chaptal, without the addition of the coal tar,
which is a great improvement. A piece of wood covered with three
coats of it, and immersed for two years in water, was found to be
quite dry on cutting off the lute.
Take care not to allow water to fall into the pan, as it would make
the hot materials explode. If the composition catch fire, put on the
cover directly, and remove the pan for an instant from the fire.
1138. _Cause and Prevention of the Dry Rot._--The cause of the dry
rot in wood is moisture; and to prevent well-dried timber from
decaying above or under ground, is done by charring it well.
1139. _Cure for the Dry Rot in Timber, so as to make it
indestructible by Water._--Melt twelve ounces of resin in an iron
pot; add three gallons of train oil, and three or four rolls of
brimstone; and when the brimstone and resin are melted and become
thin, add as much Spanish brown, or red and yellow ochre, or any
other color required, first ground fine with the same oil, as will
give the whole a shade of the depth preferred; then lay it on with a
brush as hot and thin as possible; some time after the first coat is
dried, give it a second. This preparation will preserve planks for
ages, and keep the weather from driving through brick work.
1140. _Method of trying the Goodness of Timber for Ship-building,
used in the Arsenal at Vienna._--One person applies his ear to the
centre of one end of the trunk, while another, with a key, hits the
other end with a gentle stroke. If the tree be sound and good, the
stroke will be distinctly heard at the other end, though the tree
should be a hundred feet or more in length.
1141. _To season and render Green Timber immediately fit for
use._--After the timber has been cut down from the stock, take off,
immediately, both the outer bark and also the inner rind, clean to
the wood; cut it up to the different purposes for which it may be
wanted, whether scantlings for roofings, joists, planks, deals, or
the like. After preparing them for their proper use, steep them in
lime-water a few days, or pay them over with a little of the lime,
along with the water. The hotter it is used after the lime is slaked,
so much the better. Lime-water is made by slaking the lime-shells in
water. This will answer equally well for round trees. The author of
this method says, he has been, for a great number of years past, used
to take down and repair both ancient and modern buildings, in which
a good deal of Scots fir had been used, but he never found one inch
either rotten or worm-eaten, where it was in the least connected with
lime, and kept dry; on the contrary, he found it more hard and firm
than when first used.
BUILDING.
1142. _Artificial Stone Floors and Coverings for Houses, as made
in some parts of Russia._--The floors and coverings of houses, in
some parts of South Russia, are made in the following manner:--For
a floor, let the ground be made even, and some stones of any shape
be put on, and, with a heavy wooden rammer, force or beat the stones
into the ground, continuing to beat the floor till it become quite
even, and incapable of receiving any farther impression. Then run
lime, immediately after it has been slaked, through a fine sieve,
as expeditiously as possible, because exposure to the air weakens
the lime. Mix two parts of coarse sand, or washed gravel, (for there
must be no earth in it,) with one part of lime-powder, and wet them
with bullocks' blood; so little moist, however, as merely to prevent
the lime from blowing away in powder; in short, the less moist, the
better. Spread it on the floor, and, without a moment's loss of time,
let several men be ready, with large beetles, to beat the mixture,
which will become more and more moist by the excessive beating
requisite. Then put on it some of the dry sand and lime, mixed, and
beat it till like a stone. If required to be very fine, take for the
next layer finely-sifted lime, with about a tenth part of rye-flour,
and a little ox-blood; beat it till it becomes a very stiff mortar,
and then smooth it with a trowel. The next day, again smooth it with
a trowel; and so continue to do, daily, till it be entirely dry. When
it is quite dry and hard, rub it over with fresh ox-blood, taking off
all which it will not imbibe. No wet will penetrate this composition,
which, however, after some time, is often painted with oil-colors.
The whole floor appears as a single stone, and nothing will affect
it. The drier it is used, the better, provided that, with much
beating, it becomes like a very stiff mortar, and evidently forms a
compact body. On flat tops of houses, the beetle, or rammers' ends,
must be smaller, to prevent the rebounding of the boards and timber,
which would crack the cement; but, when the thickness of a foot is
laid on, it will beat more firmly. A thin coating of ox-blood, flour,
and lime, being beat in large, strong, wooden troughs, or mortar,
till it can be spread with a trowel, may be used without beating
it again on the floor or house-top; but it must be very stiff, and
used most expeditiously. Even frost will not affect it. With this
composition, artificial stone may be made, rammed very hard into
strong wooden frames of the required shape; particularly to turn
arches for buildings of rammed earth. It is well known, that earth
which is not too argillaceous, with only the moisture it has when
fresh dug, on being rammed between frames of wood, till the rammer
will no longer impress it, makes external walls; but a mass as hard as
stone may be made with a little lime added to sand, horse-dung, and
ox-blood. The more the lime is beaten, the moister it becomes; and
it must contain so much moisture as to become, by beating, a solid
mass, adhering in all its parts, and not remain crumbling, that will
properly set as mortar. If there be too little moisture at first,
it will remain a powder; if there be too much, it will become a soft
mortar. Lime is of no use, mixed with clay or vegetable earths;
which, if well beaten, are stronger without it.
1143. _To cure Damp Walls._--Boil two quarts of tar, with two ounces
of kitchen-grease, for a quarter of an hour, in an iron pot. Add
some of this tar to a mixture of slaked lime and powdered glass,
which have passed through a flour-sieve, and been completely dried
over the fire in an iron pot, in the proportion of two parts of lime
and one of glass, till the mixture becomes of the consistence of
thin plaster. The cement must be used immediately after being mixed,
and therefore it is proper not to mix more of it than will coat one
square foot of wall, since it quickly becomes too hard for use; and
care must be taken to prevent any moisture from mixing with the
cement. For a wall merely damp, a coating one-eighth of an inch thick
is sufficient; but if the wall is wet, there must be a second coat.
Plaster made of lime, hair, and plaster of Paris, may afterwards be
laid on as a cement. The cement above described will unite the parts
of Portland stone or marble, so as to make them as durable as they
were prior to the fracture.
1144. _To increase the Durability of Tiles for covering
Buildings._--The following composition has been found to be of
extraordinary durability, as a glazing or varnish for tiles. No sort
of weather, even for a considerable length of time, has had any
effect upon it. It prevents that absorption of water, by which common
tiles are rendered liable to crumble into dust, hinders the shivering
of tiles, and gives to red bricks a soft lustre, by which their
appearance is much improved.
Over a weak fire heat a bottle of linseed oil, with an ounce of
litharge, and a small portion of minium, till such time as a feather,
used in stirring it, shall be burnt to the degree of being easily
rubbed to powder between the fingers. Then take off the varnish, let
it cool, clarify it from any impurities which may have fallen to the
bottom, and heat it again. Having, in the mean time, melted from
three to four ounces of pitch, mix this with the warm varnish. The
specific gravity of the pitch hinders it from mingling thoroughly
with the varnish, though it even remain so long upon the fire as to
be evaporated to considerable thickness. It is not till the varnish
be cooled, nearly to the consistency of common syrup, that this
effect takes place in the requisite degree. If it be too thick, let
hot varnish be added, to bring it to the proper consistency; if it
be too thin, add melted pitch. Next, put in as much brick-dust as
the mixture can receive, without being made too thick for convenient
use. The finer the brick-dust, and the easier it is to be moved with
the point of a pencil, so much the fitter will it be to fill up the
chinks and unevenness of the bricks, and, as it were, to incorporate
itself with their substance. Prepare the brick-dust in the following
manner:--Take a certain number of pieces of good brick, beat them
into dust, and sift the dust in a hair-sieve. Then, to improve its
fineness, rub it on a stone with water, dry it, and mix it with the
varnish in the necessary proportion. If the brick-dust be naturally
of too dark a color, a portion of some that is brighter may be added,
to make the color clear.
It is to be laid on the tiles in the same manner in which oil-colors
in general are put upon the substances on which they are applied. The
composition must be heated from time to time, when it is to be used.
1145. _Economical Method of employing Tiles for the Roofs of
Houses._--A French architect (M. Castala) has invented a new method
of employing tiles for the roofs of houses, so as to save one half of
the quantity usually employed for that purpose. The tiles are made of
a square instead of an oblong form; and the hook that fastens them is
at one of the angles, so that, when fastened to the laths, they hang
down _diagonally_, and every tile is covered one-fifth part on two
sides by the superior row.
1146. _To improve Chimney Fire-places, and increase the Heat, by a
proper attention to the Setting of Stoves, Grates, &c._--The best
materials for setting stoves or grates are fire-stone and common
bricks and mortar. Both materials are fortunately very cheap.
When bricks are used, they should be covered with a thin coating
of plaster, which, when it is dry, should be white-washed. The
fire-stone should likewise be white-washed when that is used; and
every part of the fire-place, which is not exposed to being soiled
and made black by the smoke, should be kept as white and clear as
possible. As _white_ reflects more heat, as well as more light, than
any other color, it ought always to be preferred for the inside of a
chimney fire-place; and _black_, which reflects neither light nor
heat, should be more avoided.
1147. _To cure Smoky Chimneys._--Put on the top of the chimney a box,
in each of whose sides is a door hanging on hinges, and kept open
by a thin iron rod running from one to the other, and fastened by a
ring in each end to a staple. When there is no wind, these doors are
at rest, and each forms an angle of 45 degrees, which is decreased
on the windward side in proportion to the force of the wind, and
increased in the same ratio on the leeward side. If the wind be
very strong, the door opposed to the wind becomes close, while the
opposite one is opened as wide as it can be. If the wind strikes the
corner of the box, it shuts two doors and opens their opposites. This
scheme has been tried with success in a chimney which always filled
the room with smoke, but which, since adopted, has never smoked the
room at all. The expense is trifling, and the apparatus simple.
1148. _A Preparation to preserve Wood from catching Fire, and to
preserve it from Decay._--A member of the Royal Academy at Stockholm
says, in the memoirs of that academy, "Having been within these few
years to visit the alum mines of Loswers, in the province of Calmar,
I took notice of some attempts made to burn the old staves of tubs
and pails that had been used for the alum works. For this purpose
they were thrown into the furnace, but those pieces of wood which had
been penetrated by the alum did not burn, though they remained for a
long time in the fire, where they only became red; however, at last
they were consumed by the intenseness of the heat, but they emitted
no flame."
He concludes, from this experiment, that wood, or timber, for the
purpose of building, may be secured against the action of fire, by
letting it remain for some time in water, wherein vitriol, alum, or
any other salt has been dissolved, which contains no inflammable
parts.
To this experiment it may be added, that wood, which has been
impregnated with water, wherein vitriol has been dissolved, is very
fit for resisting putrefaction, especially if afterwards it is
brushed over with tar, or some kind of paint; in order to this, the
wood must be rubbed with very warm vitriol water, and afterwards left
to dry, before it is painted or tarred. Wood prepared in this manner
will for a long time resist the injuries of the air, and be preserved
in cellars and other low moist places. It is to be observed, that if
a solution of vitriol is poured on such parts of timber where a sort
of champignons are formed by moisture, and rubbed off, none will ever
grow there again.
By boiling, for some hours, the spokes of wheels in vitriol water,
they are not subject to rottenness in the parts where they enter
the stocks. After boiling them in this manner, they are dried as
perfectly as possible, and then, in the accustomed way, painted with
oil color.
1149. _Cheap and excellent Composition for preserving Weather
Boarding, Paling, and all other Works liable to be injured by the
Weather._--Well burnt lime will soon become slaked by exposure in
the open air, or even if confined in a situation not remarkably dry,
so as to crumble of itself into powder. This is called air-slaked
lime, in contradistinction to that which is slaked in the usual way,
by being mixed with water. For the purpose of making the present
composition to preserve all sorts of wood-work exposed to the
vicissitudes of the weather, take three parts of this air-slaked
lime, two of wood-ashes, and one of fine sand; pass them through a
fine sieve, and add as much linseed-oil to the composition as will
bring it to a proper consistence for working with a painter's brush.
As particular care must be taken to mix it perfectly, it should be
ground on a stone slab with a proper muller, in the same manner as
painters grind their white-lead, &c.; but where these conveniences
are not at hand, the ingredients may be mixed in a large pan, and
well beat up with a wooden spatula. Two coats of this composition
being necessary, the first may be rather thin; but the second should
be as thick as it can conveniently be worked. This most excellent
composition for preserving wood, when exposed to the injuries of the
weather, is highly preferable to the customary method of laying on
tar and ochre.
1150. _To make durable Barn-floors._--A durable barn-floor may be
made of well-burnt polished brick on edge, placed in the herring-bone
form, on a pavement of stone three inches and a half in thickness;
or oaken plank two inches and a half in thickness; or even of
well-tempered indurated loam, of a proper substance, not less than
eight inches, and laid upon dry materials or bottom. Any of them
will make a durable barn-floor, provided it is kept free from wet,
wagon-wheels, and horses' feet. The best threshing-floor for small
farms of 150 acres is made of sound plank. In large farms (say 300
acres and upwards) the threshing machine should supersede the flail.
1151. _The Virtues of Poplar Wood for the Flooring of
Granaries._--The Lombard poplar is recommended as a timber adapted
for flooring granaries, which is said to prevent the destruction of
corn by weevils and insects. Poplar wood will not easily take fire.
1152. _Improved Ventilators for Rooms._--Different methods are
adopted for ventilating, or changing the air of rooms.--Thus:
Mr. Tid admitted fresh air into a room by taking out the middle
upper sash pane of glass, and fixing in its place a frame box, with
a round hole in its middle, about six or seven inches diameter, in
which hole is fixed, behind each other, a set of sails, of very thin,
broad copper plates, which spread over and cover the circular hole,
so as to make the air, which enters the room, and turning round
these sails, to spread round in thin sheets sideway, and so not to
incommode persons by blowing directly upon them, as it would do if
it were not hindered by the sails. This well-known contrivance has
generally been employed in public buildings, but is very disagreeable
in good rooms; instead, of it, therefore, the late Mr. Whitehurst
substituted another, which was, to open a small square or rectangular
hole, in the party wall of the room, in the upper part, near the
ceiling, at a corner or part distant from the fire; before it he
placed a thin piece of metal, or pasteboard, &c., attached to the
wall in its lower part, just before the hole, but declining from it
upwards, so as to give the air that enters by the hole a direction
upwards against the ceiling, along which it sweeps, and disperses
itself through the room, without blowing in a current against any
person. This method is very useful to cure smoky chimneys, by thus
admitting, conveniently, fresh air. A picture, placed before the
hole, prevents the sight of it from disfiguring the room.
1153. _Approved Method of removing Bees._--Set the hive where there
is only a glimmering light; turn it up; the queen first makes her
appearance; once in possession of her, you are master of all the
rest; put her into an empty hive, whither she will be followed by the
other bees.
1154. _Useful Method of preserving Bees._--Instead of destroying
whole swarms in their hives, to get the honey when the hives are
full, they clear them out into a fresh hive, while they take the
combs out of the old one; and they prevent their perishing in winter
by putting a great quantity of honey into a very wide earthen vessel,
covering its surface with paper, exactly fitted on, and pricked full
of holes with a large pin; this being pressed by the weight of the
bees, keeps a fresh supply continually arising. Their most fatal
destruction by severe cold they prevent, by taking as many large tubs
as they have hives, and knocking out the heads, they set the other
end in the ground, laying a bed of dry earth or chopped hay in it,
of six inches deep; over this they place the head knocked out, and
then make a small wooden trough for the passage of the bees; this is
transfixed through a hole cut through each side of the tub, at such a
height as to lay on the false bottom, on which is placed the covered
dish of honey for the food of the bees, leaving a proper space over
this, covered with strong matting; they then fill up the tub with
more dry earth, or chopped hay, heaping it up in the form of a cone,
to keep out the rain, and wreathing it over with straw on account of
the warmth.
1155. _Sir Ashton Lever's method of preserving Birds, Beasts, Fishes,
&c._--BEASTS. Large beasts should be carefully skinned, with the
horns, skull, jaws, tail, and feet, left entire; the skins may
then either be put into a vessel of spirit, or else rubbed well in
the inside with the mixture of salt, alum, and pepper, hereafter
mentioned, and hung to dry. Small beasts may be put into a cask of
rum, or any other spirit.
BIRDS. Large birds may be treated as large beasts, but must not
be put in spirits. Small birds may be preserved in the following
manner:--Take out the entrails, open a passage to the brain, which
should be scooped out through the mouth; introduce into the cavities
of the skull, and the whole body, some of the mixture of salt, alum,
and pepper, putting some through the gullet and whole length of the
neck; then hang the bird in a cool, airy place--first by the feet,
that the body may be impregnated by the salts, and afterwards by a
thread through the under mandible of the bill, till it appears to
be sweet; then hang it in the sun, or near a fire: after it is well
dried, clean out what remains loose of the mixture, and fill the
cavity of the body with wool, oakum, or any soft substance, and pack
it smooth in paper.
FISHES, &C. Large fishes should be opened in the belly, the entrails
taken out, and the inside well rubbed with pepper, and stuffed with
oakum. Small fishes put in spirit, as well as reptiles and insects,
except butterflies and moths; and any insects of fine colors, should
be pinned down in a box prepared for that purpose, with their wings
expanded.
1156. _Birds that have been Shot._--When fresh-killed, observe to
put tow into the mouth, and upon any wound they may have received,
to prevent the feathers being soiled; and then wrap it smooth, at
full-length, in paper, and pack it close in a box. If it be sent from
a great distance, the entrails should be extracted, and the cavity
filled with tow dipped in rum or other spirit. The following mixture
is proper for the preservation of animals:--One pound of salt, four
ounces of alum, and two ounces of pepper, powdered together.
1157. _To preserve Game in Hot Weather._--Game or poultry may be
preserved for a long time, by tying a string tight round the neck, so
as to exclude the air, and by putting a piece of charcoal into the
vent.
1158. _Russian method of preserving Fish._--When the Russians desire
to keep fish perfectly fresh, to be carried a long journey in a
hot climate, they dip them into hot bees'-wax, which acts like an
air-tight covering. In this way they are taken to Malta, even sweet
in summer.