NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



207 



TIMELY WORDS. 



Cows — Carrots — Plowing, Deep or Shallow — No better field 

 for ambition than Farming— What helps to make a good 

 Editor — Wordsworth, and the influences of his Poetry. 



The following extracts are from a private letter 

 from our esteemed friend and associate, Mr. Hol- 

 brook. They are partly necessary as an explana- 

 tion, and fit every way for the present moment. — 

 His hints to ourself shall prompt new efforts, but 

 can hardly increase our love of nature ; it already 

 amounts to an enthusiasm which requires the 

 check rein and curb at each returning change of 

 the seasons. Nature, to us, is 



"The Living Page, whose every character 

 Delights and gives us wisdom." 



That Mr. Holbrook is in favor of the carrot for 

 stock, we have no doubt. In an article in the Far- 

 mer of April, 1850, he says, "The carrot gives a 

 better return than almost any thing the farmer 

 raises ; as winter feed, it highly promotes the 

 health and growth of calves, colts and store swine ; 

 cows fed upon it almost invariably do well at calv- 

 ing time, and afterwards give a full flow of milk, 

 yielding the best of butter." 



Our associate will excuse us, we trust, for the 

 unceremonious appropriation we have made of his 

 letter. There is a peculiar fitting and freshness in 

 letters written in this off-hand manner, that often 

 tempt us to use them, although not intended for 

 publication. 



Brattleboro\ April 10, 1852. 



S. Brown, Esq. : — My Dear Sir, — I have just 

 read Col. Lincoln's communication on "Cows and 

 Carrots." Perhaps the man does not live in whose 

 judgment and sagacity in all agricultural matters 

 I more fully confide than in Col. Lincoln's. I 

 know him thoroughly, every way. Massachusetts 

 has not a more sound, thorough, sensible, respec- 

 table and every way worthy man than the Colonel 

 in all her borders. Two years ago, I think, this 

 April, I spent a number of days at his place, in- 

 vestigated his system of Irrigation, accompanied 

 him into Rhode Island to look at the system there 

 practiced, and gave an article to the Albany Culti- 

 vator on the subject. 



If the Colonel infers that I am unfriendly to the 

 raising and feeding of carrots, he is quite mista- 

 ken. I raise and feed considerable quantities of 

 them every year, and have repeatedly written in 

 favor of growing and feeding the crop. On the 

 naked question of the direct effect of carrots upon 

 milch cows, I am of opinion that they do not di- 

 rectly increase the quantity of milk. But they are 

 still very valuable for cows, because they promote 

 a high state of health, strong digestion, and fine 

 appetite, enabling the animal to consume, and di- 

 gest, a large quantity of, and appropriate the milk- 

 producing and nutritious properties of, hay. For 

 brood mares, for colts, for all horses, for young 

 cattle, for hogs, they are excellent. 



Your correspondent, "C," on "Plowing — Deep 

 or Shallow," has, in the main, expressed himself 

 correctly and well. I fear, however, that he too 

 easily excuses shallow plowing. True, young far- 

 mers in debt for their land, and their soil poor and 

 thin, cannot go down at once to nine or twelve 

 inches. But the very best way to pay for their 



farms speedily, and have land left that is worth 

 something, is to plow deeper and deeper every ro- 

 tation, accompanied with high manuring. 1 had 

 this very subject on my mind for an article for you 

 when I received the last N. E. Farmer. Perhaps 

 I shall not now write upon it, as I might express 

 opinions somewhat variant from "C." 's, though 

 probably we might not differ in a conversation on 

 the subject. 



Judging from personal experience, I should say 

 to young men that there is no better field for hon- 

 orable usefulness, or if the person has ambition, 

 there is no surer and quicker road to distinction, 

 than scientific and practical farming, together with 

 a judicious use of the pen upon agricultural . sub- 

 jects. 



1 am pleased to notice, from time to time, your 

 sensibility to the influences of nature. Encourage 

 this inclination, my dear sir, and study nature pro- 

 foundly, if you would be an agricultural editor in- 

 deed — if you would be a man, every way. I pre- 

 sume you have read the poet Wordsworth, over 

 and over again. I read his works more or less 

 every spring ; and can say, with truth, that they 

 are calculated to quicken all the better tendencies 

 of the heart, and to lead one to a closer commun- 

 ion with Nature. 



Very truly, your friend, 



F. Holbrook. 



CHANGE OF GRAFTED FRUIT. 



Some time ago we published a letter from Mr. 

 Jacob B. Farmer, of Concord, in this State, in re- 

 lation to a change in grafted fruit, which he de- 

 scribed. Dr. Holmes, editor of the Maine Farmer, 

 and, by the way, one of the best agricultural pa- 

 pers in the country, has noticed Mr. Farmer's 

 statement, and makes the following remarks in re- 

 lation to a similar occurrence. 



Change of Grafted Fruit. — Does the original 

 stock or tree into which a graft is put ever over- 

 come the graft 1 We believe there are well au- 

 thenticated instances where this has taken place. 

 A few years ago we gave an account of an instance 

 of the kind which Mr. Thomas C. Wood, of Win- 

 throp, related to us as having taken place in his 

 orchard. A graft had borne for several years the 

 true fruit of the graft. The fruit, however, began 

 to change, and in a few years the graft bore an 

 apple nearly or quite resembling that which the 

 tree bore before being engrafted. Mr. W. at- 

 tributed the change to the wood of the stock some- 

 how gaining the ascendency over the graft. Some 

 of our cotemporaries pronounced the whole a "fish 

 story," or at any rate a mistake. 



New Variety of Potato. — A bulb of the pota- 

 to species, which was found growing indigenously 

 in Mexico, was brought to this country some years 

 since, by a gentleman who returned from that 

 country after the war. Several specimens were 

 given to Mr. Andrew Hale, of Alloway, Wayne 

 county, who planted them, and after four years 

 cultivation, has produced a crop that equals in ap- 

 pearance the best approved potatoes. It is of small 

 size, long and not large, resembling the "white 

 Mercer," pretty closely, — with smooth skin, light 

 complexion, and without the deep indention called 

 "eyes," by which great loss is suffered in many 

 kinds. — Rochester Democrat. 



