Vi)?.. XI ». NO. 87. 



AND HORTICULI'L'RAL REGISTER 



213 



For the N. E. FiiiniLT. 



TOOLS. 



It is on (j!<1 adiigo but a true one, that " lie must 

 indeed lio a g.iod workriian wlio can afford to work 

 witli po(ir tools ;" and in none of tlie various de- 

 pnriiiionts of productive industry, we opine, is the 

 triilii of this (lichen more fully and freiiueully veri- 

 fied, than in that of farming. 



To be compelled to labor with a poor tool, is, in 

 our estiiniition, thi; ne plus ultra, the veritable ultima 

 Ihiile ol niial misery. No man can be a good 

 <'hristi;in, a kind neighbor, or a placid, even-tem- 

 peroil p,>ri'nt, whose " Ehcnczer" to adopt a vulgar 

 but not inexpressive synonym, is perpetually chafed 

 and stii,.nlalod to acts of rebehon, by tlie nnnoy- 

 amte inseparable from the fate of being compelled 

 to work with poor tools; nor is it possible for anv 

 oni!, of a benevolent and sympathetic temperament, 

 to obswrvo iiis grievous and incessant perplexities 

 in till.' restless pursuit of his thorny and up-hill vo- 

 cation, without feeling a just contempt for the indo- 

 lence or parsimonious meanness which condemns 

 him to the hapless condition oflaboring with inade- 

 quate tocds. 



We are acquainted with a person who, for years 

 pnsi, li:is madly attempted to manage a not small 

 farm with the assistance of a four-wheeled cart, aa 

 old harrow, and a broken plough. The only ani- 

 mal he " uses " is a borrowed horse, blind of one 

 eye, and lame of three legs, and so reduced in 

 flesh withal as not unfrequently to render his pos- 

 se.ision a subject of clamorous debate between his 

 master and the crows. The legitimate conse- 

 quence of this system of procedure is poverty — for 

 although he is a " respectable citizen " in other 

 points of view, no one is disposed to accommodate 

 him by the loan of tools, or to extend to one who 

 is "inrris every thing," those kindly benefactions 

 for which in his present situation, it would be mad- 

 ness to anticipate a return. With such a farmer, 

 it i.s no w-ondcT if the world sometimes "moves 

 wrong," and the yoke of connubial life, instead of 

 being, as the dreamy ancients denominated it, a 

 "yoke of gold," should sometimes sit upon the 

 wearers with the crushing oppression of a yoke of 

 lead. 



H. D. W. 



Wiiulhnm, Me., Dec. 29/ft, 1840. 



For thr New England Farmsr. 



HOT BEDS. 



Mr Editor — Various experiments have been 

 made in order to prepare the best hot bed. Some 

 cultivators prefer plain horse manure; some mix it 

 with leaves ; some take leaves only. 



Now, sir, being desirous of trying the leaves 

 and having abundance, I wish to know the best 

 method of preparing a hot-bed of oat leaves. WM\ 

 you give directions in your next number, for I wish 

 to start one in February. Can it be done with 

 leaves cmly, or should manure be added ? If you 

 will give me some hints, or if some of your subscri- 

 bers will give an article to the public through your 

 paper, if. woi;ld be a favor to many of your readers. 



O. K. 



[C7"Any one of our friends would greatly oblige 

 us by furnishing ilie intiirmation sought for in the 

 article above. We e.\tract the following paragraphs 



From the Fanner's Cabinet. 



MANURE. 

 Enrich the Soil and Prospen'li/ follows. 

 Mr EorTOR — Manure is the capital of the far- 

 mer, and without it little can be done in tlie farm- 

 ing line to profit. Every one ought, therefore, to 

 be on the alert to increase the quantity. By every 

 means in his power, for there is nothing that com- 

 pounds interest like manure. If any one disputes 

 this, let him make a fair experiment and see if the 

 result don't prove its truth. Take an acre of 

 ground and give it a good dose, and compare it 

 with an adjoining acre, previously in a similar con- 

 dition, and then there will be no mistake. Put in 

 the bottom of the dung-yard some absorbent mate- 

 rial to take up the fluids — occasionally spread over 

 the wholi: surface a layer of earth, sods from the 

 road-side or a ditch bink, and bring in all the 

 weeds, potato stalks, leaves, spent ashes, the ma- 

 nure from the poultry roost, and every <ither oflal 

 material, either animal or vegetable, that can be 

 collected together. Every little helps, and of little 



from the " Voting Gardener's Assistant," which 

 may be acceptable to many of our readers, though 

 they do not meet the inquiry of our correspondent. 

 — Ed. 



" Some gardeners make their beds on the level 

 ground, but it is always safest to make them in pits 

 from eighteen inches to two feet deep. In order 

 to do this, the pits should be dug in autumn, or a 

 heap of dung may be deposited on the groiiiul in- 

 tended for the beds before the fmst sets in, and 

 good earth may be obtained from the pits without 

 any difficulty. 



The frames should be made of good sound planks 

 — the back plank may be two feet wide, and the 

 end ones may be so sloped as to make a fifteen 

 inch plank do for the front. A frame calculated 

 for four sashes of three feet in width by six in 

 length, as above described, should be nearly tliir- 

 teen feet long, and about six broad at the top. 



The frame being set over the pit, and properly 

 fasteneil, the fresh dung should be spread regular- 

 ly in the pit to the di'ptli of twenty to twentyfour 

 inches ; if the dung be in a good beating condition, 

 cover it with six or eight inches deep of moiiJd, 

 then lay on the sashes, and protect the beds from 

 the inclemency of the weather. In two or three 

 days the rank steam may pass off; it will then be 

 necessary to stir the mould before the seed be 

 sown, to prevent the growth of young weeds' that 

 may be germinating ; then sow the seed either in 

 shallow drills or broadcast, as equally as possible, 

 reserving a small quantity of the warm mould to 

 be sown or sifted over the seed.s." 



"In preparing dung or other heating materials 

 for hot-beds, or forcing pits, let it be kept secure 

 from heavy fulls of snow or rain, and frequently 

 turned over preparatory to its being made into a 

 bed. 



Previous to making hot-beds, select a sitiiat'on 

 that is well protected by a close fence or wall, and 

 not in any way connected with any building c.ilcu- 

 lated to harbor rats, mice, moles, &,c., which are 

 very apt to take up their abode in warm dung, to 

 the great injury and sometimes the destruction of 

 the beds. It i.s necessary that the foun tion for 

 the beds be drily situated, and not liable o be in- 

 undated with water from melted snow," 



things great ones are composed. The manure heap 

 is the foundation of all good farming, and those 

 who do not attend to this most essential matter, 

 will fail in propcn-tion to their neglect in all the 

 operations of the farm. It is no small matter to 

 raise 40 to GO bushels of corn to the acre, instead 

 of 20 or 2.5, or other crops in the same proportion, 

 the labor being the same. I have long noticed 

 that thriving farmers go on progressively increas- 

 ing the quantity of ninnure annually, and those who 

 are going down h.ll, are generally preceded in 

 their downward progress by a gradual collapse of 

 the dung-hill. Keep up your manure heap, and, 

 as if by sympathetic action, your purse will swell 

 amazingly. Manure besets grain and grass, and 

 grain and grass beget more manure; and so on to 

 the end of the ciiapter of prosperity. No manure, 

 but little grain or gras.s, and little grain and grass 

 tends to less and less, till the county poor. hou.se 

 seems as if it had seated itself next neighbor to 

 our bare fields. Q. 



From the same. 



THE CABINET. 



Read, and Learn to be If'ise. 



Mr EniTOR — Having been a subscriber for the 

 Farmers' Cabinet from the beginning, I think it 

 right to inform you that I am delighted with your 

 labors. The magnificent style in which the late 

 numbers have been adorned with the portraits of 

 some of the fine.st animals in the country, is abo e 

 all praise. You give us too much for our money. 

 Some single numbeis are worth a whole year's 

 subscription. From what I have said, however, 

 you are not to suppose I wish you to relax in your 

 exertions, but to express a hope that the farmers 

 every where will patronise a work which is so well 

 worthy their attention. Only think of the good 

 done by it to the young people in our families, 

 gills as well as boys, for they all read it with avid- 

 ity, and are doubtless made wiser and better by 

 your labors. The only way in which our agricul- 

 ture is to be improved is by instructing the risinir 

 generation in the principles as well as the practice 

 of the art. 



Old folks are apt to think they know enoiiu-h 

 already, although they may actually be very igno- 

 rant, but the young ones are the stuff that will take 

 a new impression most easily, and there the result 

 of your labors will be most conspicuous. 'J'heday 

 is now gone by, never to return again, I trust, 

 when farmers thought it useless to record their 

 own experience or to read the experience of others. 



We are rapidly becoming a thinking people, and 

 people who reason and think, like to be informed 

 of the reasonings and thoughts of others in the line 

 of their profession. 



Doctors and lawyers have their books, detailinn- 

 the practice and opinions and judgments of those 

 who have preceded them, as well as of their con- 

 temporaries ; mechanics and artists have their books, 

 furnishing all the current improvements in their re- 

 spective occupations ; and why should not farmers, 

 who fiirni.sh siibsisti'uce for the whole of them, 

 have their books too ? Go ahead, tell us all about 

 horticulture and domestic economy, and the princi- 

 ples which govern them, and though some of us 

 perhaps may be conceited or ignorant enough to 

 suppose we want no further instruction, yet I am 

 sure y(mr labors will not be lost on a people who 

 are diily increasing in intelligence, and are annu- 

 ally adding to their wealth. B. F. 



