DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



have been excellent ; and bating the oc- 

 casional loss by insect depredations, and a 

 touch of a nameless blight, all have reaped a 

 quid pro quo for labor bestowed. For one, I 

 can truly say, that it has been a season of pecu- 

 liar pleasure and satisfaction, although physi- 

 cal labor has been more severe than for forty 

 years before. 



Permit mc, in usus loquendi, to say a word 

 or two to those who like myself have been 



Pent up in cities' murky g;loom, 

 Brealliing infection, 



and to lure them into rural places, where alone 

 can health and cheerful mind attain the acme 

 of God's paradise on earth. 



For several years past my passion for garden- 

 ing has been confined witliiu narrow bounds. 

 Fruits, flowers, vinery and conservatory, have 

 occupied but a few perches of land. Lately, 

 having purchased a suburban residence of some 

 five and twenty acres, within two miles of the 

 city, I have, thanks to a kind providence, learn- 

 ed to walk again — aye, and to work too — en- 

 joying the elastic influences of healthftil exer- 

 cise, with the accessories of a sound and natural 

 appetite. Here we enjoy the luxuries of home- 

 made butter, fresh eggs, wholesome and nutri- 

 tious vegetables, luscious fruits, and a happy 

 thankfulness that onr lot has been thus cast in 

 pleasant places. 



My lands had once been in a high state of 

 cultivation, but for some years past most shame- 

 fully abused. Burdock, and a host of mongrel 

 grasses, weeds, grubs. Sec. had taken posses- 

 sion. The trees were mossy, and had been 

 starved into bare existence. What a picture! 

 and yet, who would not envy my position? Be- 

 lieve me, and I doubt not you would respond to 

 the truth, that to create, to replant, and to re- 

 juvenate such a place, Avatching grateful earth 

 put forth her latent energies ; to guide and di- 

 rect each branch and twig, and turn the neglect- 

 ed sward into velvet lawn, is productive of far 

 greater happiness to the lover of rural labors, 

 than the possession of a finished place, where 

 nought was left to do. 



]\[ost fortunately the soil, which varies from 

 sandy loam to a stiff clay, had never been stir- 

 red beyond the depth of a few inches, and my 

 design in these desultory ramblings, is to relate 

 some of my experiments and their results. 



Intending to appropriate the larger portion 

 of the plot to fruit culture, the first instru- 

 ment purchased was a subsoil plow. This tool 

 strikes at the root of all evil, and has, wherev- 

 er used, done wonders. As Rome was not built 

 in a day— for want of time — neither have I 

 subsoiled all my land ; yet desiroxis of testing 

 the efficacy of each experiment, I applied it 

 to alternate lands, and with the aid of the 

 common plow, I have thoroughly worked seve- 

 ral acres, from 17 to 20 inches in depth. Thus, 

 with the design of getting the soil in good heart 

 and tilth before planting, I put in root and hoed 

 crops. 



The surface was mamrred in this wise : — 50 

 loads stable manure, 10 loads leached ashes, 10 

 loads limed hair from the tannery, and 100 bush- 

 els rectified charcoal per acre — all of which was 

 well and thoroughly incorporated to the depth 

 of eight or ten inches, with a scattering of air 

 slaked lime upon the surface ; the latter more 

 particularly to meet the appetite of the grubs. 

 The result has been, that potatoes, corn, cab- 

 bage, carrots and oats, were in wciglit, as two 

 to one in favor of the subsoiled land. These 

 crops never showed the least wilt in drouth, nor 

 lost color until the ripening process. 



How little is known of the true value of this 

 limed hair and refuse charcoal — articles readily 

 procured in large quantities, in nearly every 

 town, for the carting, and which are frequently 

 buried in sunken holes to get rid of them. I con- 

 sider the hair nearly as rich in the same consti- 

 tuents as ground bones, (which, with us, are 

 very expensive,) containing largely, nitrogen 

 and ammonia, besides being rich in phosphates, 

 and withal readily decomposing, not a vestige 

 being left in its former state at the close of a 

 season. For grape and fruit culture generally, 

 it is invaluable. 



Of charcoal, enough lias been said through 

 the pages of the Horticulturist, to assure the 

 most skeptical of its intrinsic virtue. But, says 

 a novice, your charcoal is ruined by the uses to 

 which it has been applied; in rectifying spirit, 

 it is so perfc'ctly changed by the absorption of the 

 essential oil, that it has lost all power of far- 

 ther absorbtion as a deodoriser? This is non- 

 sense in tlie extreme. Charcoal is indestruc- 

 tible nearly, and loses none of its v 

 properties to the gardener by such use. 



