Soil Culture: Containing a Comprehensive View of Agriculture, Horticulture, Pomology, Domestic Animals, Rural Economy, and Agricultural LiteratureWalden, J. H.
Science
Soil Culture: Containing a Comprehensive View of Agriculture, Horticulture, Pomology, Domestic Animals, Rural Economy, and Agricultural Literature
Walden, J. H.
Agriculture -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
This is a hardy biennial vegetable, resembling a small parsnip, and as
easily grown. When properly cooked, its flavor resembles the oyster,
whence its name. Sow and cultivate as parsnips or carrots. It is
suitable for use from November to May. It is better for being allowed to
remain in the ground until wanted for use, though it may be well kept,
in moist sand in the cellar. Care is necessary in saving seed as it
shells and blows away like thistle seed, as soon as ripe. It must be
sown quite thick, on account of its proneness not to vegetate. It should
be more extensively cultivated.
SCRAPING LAND.
This is a process needed only on land that has not been under
cultivation long enough to become level. All new land has many knolls of
greater or less size. As soon as the roots are out sufficiently to allow
it, the knolls should be plowed and leveled with a common scraper. Most
farmers neglect it as injurious to the soil, and too expensive. But when
we consider that rough land never gets well plowed, and that the gradual
wearing away of the knolls will continue their unproductiveness for a
number of years, it will be seen that the cheapest way is to plow and
scrape the land level at once, and thoroughly manure the places from
which the soil has been scraped.
SEEDS.
The best of everything should be saved for seed. Peas, beans, corn,
tomatoes, &c., should not be gathered promiscuously, finally preserving
the last that matures, for seed. Leave some of the finest and earliest
stocks, and from them save seed, not from the first or the last that
matures, but from the earliest that grows large and fair. Save
tomato-seed from those that grow largest, but near the root. Gather all
seeds as soon as mature, as remaining exposed to the weather is
unfavorable to vegetation. Dry in a warm place in the shade, but not too
near a stove or fire. Keep in paper bags, hung in a dry airy place,
beyond the reach of mice.
Trying the quality of seeds is important, as it may save loss and
disappointment, from sowing seeds that will not vegetate. A little
cotton wool or moss in a tumbler containing a little water, and placed
in a warm room, will afford a good means of testing seeds. Seeds placed
on that wool, will vegetate sooner than they would do in the soil. But a
more speedy, and generally sure method, is by putting a few seeds on the
top of a hot stove. If they are good they will crack like corn in
parching; otherwise they will burn without noise, and with very little
motion. The improvement or declension of fruits, grains, and vegetables,
depend very materially upon the manner of gathering and preserving
seeds. Gather promiscuously and late, and keep without care, and rapid
declension will be the result. Gather the earliest and best, and plant
only the very best of that saved, and constant improvement will be
secured.
SHEEP.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account