NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



455 



of Wisconsin, the upland or dry rice of Europe, 

 rather, perhaps, to be named with the cereals, the 

 arracacha esculenta, cultivated in Colombia, whose 

 root is said to be equal to the potato: these and 

 manj' others might, on trial, be found to furnish 

 very agreeable and wholesome additions to the 

 stock of food used for human sustenance, or some 

 of them more profitable for feeding the animals of 

 the farm than those in present use. And as cul- 

 tivation is constantly introducing new varieties, 

 some of the vegetables of the kinds now cultivated 

 here, may be found in improved varieties among 

 foreign farmers. In France they have a variety of 

 the squash with red flesh, called the portmanteau 

 .Squash, very large and full, and the sweet squash 

 of Brazil, flesh whitish, very sweet. In the same 

 manner also, improved varieties of many of the 

 most esteemed vegetables now forming apart of our 

 daily regimen may be introduced into our culture. 



I have seen described fourteen varieties of bald 

 wheat and nine of bearded, of the common kind 

 or triticum vulga re at present growing in France. 

 In England, I think there are more. Perhaps the 

 number of varieties in this countr/is not less. But 

 it is still not unlikely that some kind may exist in 

 some of the countries of Europe or elsewhere, su- 

 perior to the best of ours, or better adapted to our 

 soils. The English wheat is generally more pro- 

 ductive than ours. This cannot be due to the soil, 

 for the best soils in the West are wheat grounds. 

 In Kent and some other counties of England, if I 

 mistake not, Mr. Coleman reports over sixty bush- 

 els to the acre. It is true "he says other fields in 

 immediate neighborhood yield less than half of the 

 others, but he more than hints that this is owing 

 to bad or negligent cultivation. If some kind of! 

 wheat should be found so adapted to our sjils as 

 to make Massachusetts a wheat growing State, and 

 instead of 2,300,000 bushels of corn and 30,000 

 of wheat, the amount of her-present product, to 

 produce the same amount of corn, and 2,000,000 

 bushels of wheat, which would be about in propor- 

 tion to the yield of those two grains in New York, 

 the difference in extent of territory being consi- 

 dered, it would be a very good increase of the agri- 

 cultural wealth of the State. 



I am aware that many persons will look upon 

 the suggestions which I have made in this and the 

 preceding communication, as unworthy of atten- 

 tion, because the result of attempts to introduce 

 new and unknown products or animals into use 

 must be uncertain, and may be therefore wholly 

 profitless. But we cannot estimate the advantage 

 that might ensue from the addition of only one 

 plant or one new variety, that should be more pro- 

 fitable or better adapted to the sustenance of man, 

 or for use in the arts or rural economy, or better 

 suited to the soil and fitted to promote the indus- 

 trial interests of the State, than any now known 

 with us.. If only one new vegetable should be ob- 

 tained which should prove as valuable as Indian 

 corn, wheat, or the potato, or if a new variety of 

 either of these should be found entirely superior to 

 those we have; if old hard-faced Massachusetts 

 could be converted into productive wheat lands, or 

 if her pasture grounds could be doubled in capacity, 

 such results would be worth a much greater effort 

 and expense than is to attend their importation 

 and experiments to ascertain their value or their 

 tillable quality. w. j. a. b. 



Essex, Aua;., 1852. 



ANGRY WORDS. 



PV D. C. R. 



Angry words nre lightly spoken, 



la a rash and thoughtless hour; 

 Brightest links oflife are broken, 



By their deep, insidious power. 

 Heat's inspired by warmest feeling, 



Nc "er before by anger stirred, 

 Oft are rent past human healing, 



By a single angry word. 



Poison-drops of care, and sorrow, 



Bitter poison-drops are they, 

 Weaving for the coming morrow 



Saddest memories of to-day. 

 Angry words ! O, let them never 



From the tongue unbridled slip; 

 May the heart's best impulse ever 



Check them ere they soil the lip. 



Love is much too pure and holy, 



Friendship is too sacred far, 

 For a moment's reckless folly, 



Thus to desolate and mar. 

 Angry words are lightly spoken, 



Bitterest thoughts are rashly stirred, 

 Brightest links oflife are broken, 



By a single angry word. 

 Bloom:iburg,Fel>., 1852. 



Dollar Newspape; . 



AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. 



BY JOSIAH HOT.nROOK. 

 No. III.— ELEMENTS OF ROCKS. 



Rocks are the oxides of metals. Silex, the most 

 abundant ingredient in rocks, mountains, and 

 soils, is the oxide of silicum. This oxide consti- 

 tutes nearly one-half of the solid matter of our 

 globe. It is the principal element of quartz, in all 

 its varieties, which are exceedingly numerous, and 

 some of them very beautiful. Quartz is the only 

 mineral found every where. Sand is pulverized 

 quartz. Pebbles are fragments of quartz, rounded 

 by attrition. Gunflint is quartz, breaking with a 

 conchoidal (shell like) fracture. Jasper is red 

 quartz, with a fine compact texture. Amethyst is 

 purple quartz, frequently found in six-sided crys- 

 tals, which is the common shape of quartz in its 

 different varieties. Agate is clouded quartz in nu- 

 merous varieties, some of which are much used for 

 watch-seals, finger-rings, breast-pins, and other 

 ornaments. Cornelian is a quartz of fine texture, 

 and of a yellowish red color. Chalcedony, blood- 

 stone, catseye, and many other gems, are varieties 

 of quartz. 



Most, perhaps all, the gems used in the breast- 

 plate of Aaron the high priest, were quartz of dif- 

 ferent textures, colors and hues. The precious 

 stones presented by the Queen of Sheba to the 

 King of Israel were probably quartz. The stones 

 mentioned in the Book of Revelations, as forming 

 the streets of the New Jerusalem, with all the 

 gems referred to, were but varieties of the stones 

 used for paving our streets, and of the earth 

 mowed by the plow and the hoe of the farmer, and 

 of the dirt carted for filling our docks. 



The coloring matter giving most of the beautiful 

 hues to gems, and an endless variety of colors 

 to quartz, is the oxide of iron. The oxide of sili- 

 cum and the oxide of iron are hence united in this 

 same most abundant mineral in the world. 



Next to quartz, felspar, or clay formed by the 

 decomposition of felspar, is the most abundant ele- 

 ment for soils. This, too, is composed of several 



