NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



479 



"WHAT'S IN A NAME." 



The English language is said to be the most co- 

 pious in the world. For speaking prose or wri- 

 ting poetry — for making love, or making fun — for 

 orations, stories, jokes or epitaphs, no other lan- 

 guage, so say the knowing, can equal ours. One 

 would suppose, that an American who has a defi- 

 nite idea, and desires to impart it, might find abun- 

 dant scope for the most expansive expressions in 

 the vernacular ; and as to concealing thoughts, 

 which the crafty old Frenchman said was the true 

 use of words, what can furnish better material 

 than the ambiguities and half synonymes, half 

 contradictions of a language like ours ; a cross be- 

 between Latin and Saxon, with a touch of Greek, 

 chopped up with thousands of Yankeeisms'? 



Farmers usually, in New England, think in Eng- 

 lish, as they talk, and we opine they understand 

 English much better than French. 



The Fruit Committee of the Massachusetts Hor- 

 ticultural Society probably think otherwise, or they 

 would not christen new fruits sent them for names, 

 in that language. 



We notice among the names recently conferred 

 on an honest, Yankee apple, of no special preten- 

 sion, by that Committee, that of "Api Gros d' 

 Ete," which doubtless, to the Frenchman, conveys 

 a very euphonious indication of some peculiar qual- 

 !' the fruit, but which to us, who deal main- 

 ly in the pure Saxon, only makes "confusion worse 

 confounded." Translating the name according to 

 the smattering of the language we have, it would 

 seem to mean, a small delicate large summer apple 

 — and supposing it to mean anything more con- 

 sistent, how many of our fruit raisers will ever 

 pronounce it ! And then, where's the propriety in 

 confusing French and American fruit in this way ? 

 Let the French pears keep their French names if 

 you please, but let us know American varieties 

 of all fruits by American names. 



Greek is a vei-y convenient language for the 

 doctor, and Latin for the lawyer, but to the New 

 England fruit cultivator, we ask, with Burns — 



"What's a' your jargon o' your schools, 

 Your Latin names for horns an' stools ?" 



One language answers our plain purposes well 

 enough. 



For the New England Farmer. 



WILD CHERRY POISON TO COWS. 



Editors N. E. Farmer : — A farmer in Plymouth 

 County, who keeps a considerable number of cows, 

 informs us of an occurrence which happened to 

 them, in the summer of 1850. The dairy woman 

 complained of the milk. The cream would not 

 make butter as readily as usual. The process of 

 churning became very laborious ; and, in four or 

 five days, two men could not bring the cream into 

 butter in less than an hour and a half, steady 

 work. The owners thought that the evil must lie 

 in the churn, or in the pails, or in the tempera- 

 ture ; but, on examination, nothing was found 



amiss in all these respects. He then concluded 

 that the cows must have eaten some injurious 

 food; and, to ascertain how that might be, he 

 followed them to the pasture. On the opposite 

 side of the wall which enclosed the pasture, was a 

 thick belt, or grove, of miscellaneous trees, bushes 

 and shrubs, with their branches hanging over the 

 wall. He observed that, as soon as tin.- rows were 

 let into pasture, they went to the wall, and greed- 

 ily devoured the leaves and spray "I the wild 

 cherry tree, to the full extent to which they could 

 reach them. He was no longer at any loss to ac- 

 count for the difficulty with the milk, for he had 

 known three coavs killed in one day, by eating the 

 wilted leaves and small branches of a wild cherry 

 tree, which the wind had blown down in the pas- 

 ture. Of course, the cows were immediately re- 

 moved to another field ; and in two or three days, 

 their milk resumed its proper quality. The juices 

 of this tree are supposed to contain prussic acid. 

 Aug. 28, 1852. 



STONES ON CULTIVATED LAND. 



It is an error to suppose that stones should be 

 entirely removed from land which is under culti- 

 vation. The stones which would be in the way of 

 the scythe while mowing, of course should be re- 

 moved, but all the smaller ones should remain ; 

 and if wholly or partially inbedded in the soil, they 

 preserve the moisture during a drought, and thus 

 serve materially to increase the crop. The follow- 

 ing article from the Gentleman' 's Magazine, pub- 

 lished in 1773, is to the point : 



"It has been long known to experienced farmers, 

 that taking away very small stones and flints, is 

 detrimental to plowing lands in general ; but more 

 particularly so to thin light lands, and all lands of 

 a binding nature. It was, however, never im- 

 agined that the damage could be so great as it is 

 now found to be, since unusual quantities of Hints 

 and other stones have been gathered for the use 

 of turnpike and other roads. In the parish of 

 Serenage, in Hertfordshire, there is a field known 

 by the name of Chalkdell field, containing about 

 two hundred acres ; the land in this field was for- 

 merly equal, if not superior, to most lands in that 

 country; but lying convenient for the surveyors 

 of the roads, they have picked it so often, and 

 stripped it of the flint and small stones to such a 

 degree, that it is now inferior to lands that were 

 formerly reckoned not much over half its value, 

 acre for acre. 



"Nor is it Chalkdell field alone that has mate- 

 rially suffered in that county by the above-men- 

 tioned practice ; several thousand acres bordering 

 on the turnpike roads from Wellwyn to Balclock 

 have been so much impoverished, that the loss to 

 the inheritance forever must be computed at a 

 great many thousand pounds. What puts it be- 

 yond a doubt that the prodigious impoverishment 

 of the land is owing to no other cause but picking 

 and carrying away the stones, is, that those lands 

 have generally been most impoverished, which 

 have been most often picked ; nay, I know afield, 

 part of which was picked, and the other part 

 plowed up before they had time to pick it, where 

 the part that was picked lost seven or eight parts 

 in ten, of two succeeding crops ; and though the 

 whole field was manured and managed in all re- 

 spects alike, yet the impoverishment was visible 

 where the stones had been picked off, and extended 



