66 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



over his soils and crops, enabling him to adapt the 

 one to the other, to supply deficiencies Avhen they 

 become manifest, and to step in at any time and 

 correct mistakes which he may have made at seed 

 time. The disadvantages are, the expensiveness of 

 the preparation, and a want of capital. To pre- 

 pare 80 acres for this mode of manuring, if Mr. 

 Mechi's example of doing everything in the most 

 thorough, durable way, were followed, Avould cost 

 $6000. If Yankee ingenuity could effect the same 

 object at half the cost — a thing more than proba- 

 ble, and if half the remaining cost could be avoid- 

 ed, by selecting land so porous as to require no 

 under-draining — as with more than half of all the 

 land in New England, still the expense M-ould be 

 beyond the means of the majority of farmers ; and 

 there is no use in advising farmers to do what they 

 cannot do. If some retired merchant, who is try- 

 ing his hand at farming, would be willing to draAV 

 something from his easily gotten treasures, for the 

 sake of trying a brilliant experiment, and being 

 applauded or laughed at, as the result might re- 

 quire, it would be well. That miserably poor 

 lands, as were Mr. Mechi's, originally, can, in this 

 Avay, be made to produce astonishingly, is already 

 settled. It remains to be decided whether this 

 mode of eliciting great crops can be made profita- 

 ble, and the man who decides it, will do a good 

 thing for agriculture, and, whether laughed at or 

 praised, will be sure to gain notoriety. Who will 

 try it ? The writer of this believes he could give 

 the requisite information — how to begin and how 

 to proceed ; having examined Mr. Mechi's and Mr. 

 Littledale's works under the most favorable circum- 

 stances. But it might be well for the man who 

 would try the experiment, to run over to England 

 and see for himself. It would be worth an Atlan- 

 tic trip to converse with those men, and to witness 

 their high intelligence and noble enthusiam in be- 

 half of agriculture. They are men who love Old 

 England, but they love America also, enthusiasti- 

 cally, as well they may, for it is their trade with 

 this country that has enabled them to farm in 

 princely style, and that only for their amusement. 



For the New England Fanner. 



FARMEKS' CLUBS. 



Mr. Editor : — The Farmers' dub is an institu- 

 tion which is destined, I believe, to work a great 

 improvemeai, not only in the farms of New Eng- 

 land, but also in the fanners. And herein, perhaps, 

 lies its chief value — that it will inevitably call out 

 and exercise the intellect of the members, develop 

 it, make it more active, and give them the habit of 

 thinking more upon the various topics connected 

 with their occupation. It is a school, — a school of 

 the right sort, where tlie pupils are obliged to look 

 sharply, and with their own eyes, at the various 

 problems set for them to M'ork out. Without 

 ciaiming perfection for all the theories or opinions 

 advanced in these clubs, it is safe to say that much 

 of good, sound, practical common sense is spoken, 

 and many valuable facts in the experience of the 

 members is developed and brought to light, that 

 might otherwise have passed into the chaos of for- 

 gotten things. A man's own experience will be of 

 much more value to himself, even, when he is 

 obliged to analyze it and think upon it, and put it 

 into shape, that it may be seen in all its aspects. 



Without doubt, crude opinions are sometimes ad- 

 vanced, and real experiences sometimes so imper- 

 fectly understood and related, that, they do not 

 teach the truth. All this occurs also among those 

 who are not farmers — among those who are, by 

 themselves and others, considered wise and learned. 

 But the habit of closer observation, which is is stim- 

 ulated by the expectation of being allied upon to 

 relate our experiences ; the habit of keenly scru- 

 tinizing and sifting the theories and practices of 

 ourselves and others, with entire freedom, cannot 

 but aid us in the endeavor after improvement — if 

 in no other Avay, by giAingto our minds an increase 

 of vigor and activity . A man who is thus quick- 

 ened, must make a more intelligent farmer, a wiser 

 and a happier man. JoNATH.\N SnoRT. 



Elm Lodge, Dec. 20, 1855. 



For the TS'euj England Farmer. 



HOW TO KEEP YOUR HOUSE WARM 

 IN THE COUNTRY. 



BY HENRY F. FRENCH. 



Back Plastering — Double Windows — Cold Air not always Pure 

 Air — Furnaces or Stoves, that is the question — Furnaces for 

 Wood — Air-Tights not necessarily Fatal — Primary Schwol 

 Room in Exeter — Practical Objections to Furnaces — Ventil- 

 ation the Main Point. 



In my former article, on this subject, I omitted 

 to allude to one idea, which is all important. It is 

 this, — if you would keep your house warm, make it 

 tight. In building, see that air, as well as water, is 

 excluded, except through proper openings. The 

 cheapest and best mode of rendering the walls of a 

 wooden house tight, is, by back plastering — plas- 

 tering between the studs before the usual lathing is 

 put on. This should be done by furring out, say 

 an inch from the boarding and lathing, so as to 

 leave an air space between the boarding and back 

 plastering, and there will be another air space be- 

 tween this and the common plastering, which will 

 be a far better protection from cold, than solid 

 walls of the same thickness, of any material. 



Next, to make your house tight, put on double 

 windows, upon the rooms usually occupied. They 

 should be made whole, and screwed upon the out- 

 side, rabbeted into the window frames, or otherwise 

 nicely adjusted, with one or more panes in each 

 room, hung jn hinges for ventilation, unless better 

 means are provided. Then by opening the inside 

 sash, and thp single pane of the outer sash, air may 

 be admitted as occasion requires. 



These sugj^estions will, of course, be met, by 

 those who do not think much on the subject, but 

 "only think they are thinking," with the olj5ection 

 that our houses are too tight now for health, and 

 that the very difficulty is that we have not fresh air 

 enough. All this is very true, as to not having 

 fresh air enough, but furnishes do .-eason for admit- 

 ting the winds of Heaven thiough all sorts of 

 cracks, in unlimited quantities. Were one to ad- 

 vise us, because water is essential to health and 

 comfort, in our houses, to leave leak holes all over 

 it, to admit a proper supply, none of us would be 



