NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



333 



beneath. The cluster of bright red berries is 

 scarcely inferior to that of the cone of the Mag- 

 nolia umbrella, and although somewhat bitter, 

 they are, in autumn, "the favorite food of the Band- 

 Tailed Pigeon." There is no douht, but that it is 

 as hardy as the common Dogwood, and more de- 

 serving of cultivation. It has been raised from 

 seeds sent over to England, but the plants are yet 

 small. s. p. F. 



Danvcrs, April 23, 1852. 



[to he continued 1 



agent, prices, and a more particular description of 

 the machine. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 BARRE, MASS. 



Friend Brown : — This finds me in the fine town 

 of Barre. It is a good farming township, especially 

 in the south part. I have had a good opportunity 

 to examine some of the best farms here, and find 

 them to compare favorably, with any farms in the 

 State that I have seen. I have been much pleased 

 with Dr. J. N. Bates' place. Dr. Bates is secre- 

 tary of the Worcester West Agricultural Society ; 

 he is a practical physician, and a fine agriculturist. 

 His place is very finely situated on the west side 

 of the common, and extends back to the south and 

 west, embracing forty acres of the best of land. 

 He has now on his place, about four thousand fruit 

 trees, mostly young trees, of the best quality that 

 can be produced. Among other things that at 

 tracted my attention, was an artificial trout pond, 

 fed from a fine spring ; this pond is about twenty 

 feet square, and walled up all around, leaving places 

 for the fish to go under. The doctor raises his fine 

 pan fish, as well as his poultry and swine. He 

 thinks that most farmers might raise their own fish 

 in the same way, by a very little trouble and ex- 

 pense. The doctor is a strong man in the agricul- 

 tural community, and is chosen one of the dele- 

 gates to attend the agricultural convention at 

 Washington. 1 find very many farmers in my 

 travels that think in order to be a good newspaper 

 farmer a man must be worth some ten thousand dol- 

 lars, or in other words rich. This is a great mis- 

 take, and should be eradicated from the minds of 

 farmers, especially the younger ones, who are soon 

 to take the places of their fathers. The young man 

 in my opinion, can enter upon the labors of farm- 

 ing with better hope of success than the merchant 

 or mechanic. Let our young men come up to the 

 work, scientifically, energetically, and a new era 

 will open up in the department of scientific agri- 

 culture. J. Robinson. 



Barre, June 5, 1852. 



McCokmick's Patent Virginia Reaper and Mow- 

 er. — The attention of those having large crops of 

 grass and grain to get in is called to this impor- 

 tant machine. We have never seen the machine 

 in operation, but have examined fields where the 

 grain has been cut by them. On one field, where 

 the owner informed us he cut twenty-one acres 

 the first day he used the machine, the work had 

 been performed in the most thorough manner, 

 saving, it was stated, an amount of grain equal to 

 the wages of the cradlers in cutting the same quan- 

 tify. 



In an advertisement in another part of this num- 

 ber, the reader will find the name of the general 



For the New England Farmer. 

 WHAT KNOWLEDGE IS MOST VALUA- 

 BLE TO THE FARMER? 



Mr. Editor : — It has been to my great gratifi- 

 cation and instruction that I have, from time to 

 time, in a long course of years, read the columns 

 of various of the agricultural journals of the coun- 

 try, and studied the important knowledge with 

 which they are filled. The benefit which has been 

 derived from them to the working farmers and to 

 the country is beyond calculation. They have 

 evidently infused into the farmer the conviction 

 that he had been long toiling in such a mode that 

 comparatively little profit resulted from his labors. 

 He has become impressed with the "sober second 

 thought" that he was not, as he had formerly im- 

 agined, in fact possessed of the whole knowledge 

 of his art. He has been made to realize, and to 

 confess to himself, that the mystery of farming in- 

 volves something more than the handicraft of the 

 business, and that though he may have a great 

 skill and adroitness in the manual and mechanical 

 routine of the farm, he may still be very unskilled 

 in this art, the greatest as well as the most useful 

 of all pursuits. This conviction has filled him with 

 the desire to obtain the requisite knowledge. It 

 has been manifest, from the discussions had at the 

 State House during the past winter, that there is 

 a determination to have the proper knowledge 

 placed within the reach of the farmer. Those dis- 

 cussions, and the writings upon the subject which 

 have come under my eye, have suggested the ques- 

 tion, What is the most important knowledge to 

 the farmer? 



It seems to be assumed generally by writers and 

 speakers upon the subject that the science of chem- 

 istry includes all the kaowledge that is involved 

 in agriculture, and I have even heard it plainly in- 

 timated by the speakers that a chemist is, of 

 course, a scientific agriculturist. Now I think 

 thei'e is a great error in this. Chemistry, so far 

 from being the whole sum of agricultural knowl- 

 edge, is not even the most important of the sci- 

 ences involved in it. The first knowledge neces- 

 sary to the farmer is that of the elements of which 

 the vegetable structure is composed. That knowl- 

 edge is not any part of the science of chemistry. 

 The structure of plants, whether we refer to the 

 elements or to the mode of their composition and 

 growth, is taught by vegetable physiology, not by 

 chemistry. It is true that the chemists science, 

 (if every physical analysis is chemistry,) may be 

 applied to this, as to other matters in the material 

 universe, and may be used to ascertain by analysis 

 what the several elements of a plant, as of any 

 other composite body, may be : but in this particu- 

 lar application it is only a part of the other sci- 

 ence, physiology. The second inquiry is, in what 

 manner the several elements may be introduced in- 

 to its organism and made a part of the plant. This 

 is purely a question of physiology, not of chemis- 

 try. It is to be determined by a knowledge of the 

 structure of the plant, and of the functions of the 

 several parts. This will show by what mode the 

 plant is enabled to appropriate its food and to as- 

 similate it to its system. It would be useless that 

 a farmer should know only what kind of food, 



