1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



85 



For the New England Farmer. 



REPLY TO "E. E. G." 



BY THE "PEASANT BARD." 



I read your lines, my unknown friend, 



From the beginning to the end. 



Not half the verse that's now-days penn'd 



Is worth the reading ; 

 Scarce could the subject, e'en, be kenn'd 



But for the heading. 



But, sir, I'll bear you witness now, 

 A man may guide the plodding plow, 

 With hands like horn, and sweaty brow, 



Rugged and strong. 

 And yet all gloriously endow 



His day with song. 



Thanks for your kind inquiries; — I 

 Will scribble something in reply. 

 Although small time, just now, to try 



The fine or funny ; 

 For I'm as busy as a fly 



O'er pot of honey. 



I'm well, thank Him who has our keeping. 

 And who, we're told, is never sleeping; 

 In fact, if all, like me were reaping 



Hygeia's plains. 

 The "faculty" would all be weeping 



In doleful strains. 



You ask : — "Potato-digging loon, 

 How cams't thou by so rich a boon, — 

 Namely the Muse's golden spoon — 



At which folks stare ?" — 

 How came we by the sun and moon .' 



Don't know ; — they're tJieie. 



"What do I feed upon .'" — In cliief 

 The best of cabbage, pork and beef ; 

 Potatoes, also ; — to be brief. 



Just come and see. 

 Indulging ever the belief 



I'd welcome thee. 



"My drink ?" — Good friend, 'dye ever see 



A Temp — (hie '.) — ranee So-ci-e-ty .' 



Down with your name, and give that "spree" 



A fair acquittal ; 

 You're answered '. — sober men, like me, 



Are non-committal. 



My sympathies I freely spare 



For all your farmer's toil and care ; 



I knew full well just what they are, 



E'er you made mention. 

 I've done hard work enough to share 



A lib'ral pension. 



'. had I lived when last was blown 



War's trump, and down our gauntlet thrown 



At Britain's foot ; had I but known 



Two week's /parade, 

 As fine a "section" 1 might own 



As God e'er made. 



But, with enough, who should complain? 

 Pipe with me, friend, a cheerful strain, 

 Long live the Farmer, shout amain 



With pow'r of voice ; 

 Be the Lieutenant yet again 



The people's choice ! 



Attention ! brothers of the Plow. 



File front ! — I mark each "soger"' brow ;) 



Halt ! Dress ! — before no king ye bow 



With knees a slappin'; 

 No, sirs ! but all attention ! novf— 

 Salute your captain ( 

 Gill, Nov. 26, 1855. 



BIOGRAPHY. 



We present, to-day, in another part of this num- 

 ber, a short biographical sketch of Frederic 

 Howes, Esq., of Salem, late President of the Essex 

 County Agricultural Society. This tribute to the 

 memory of a good and useful man was adopted by 

 the Board of Trustees of the Society upon motion 

 of our attentive correspondent, J OHN W. Proctor, 

 Esq.,of Danvers. 



Similar sketches of the lives of those who have 

 cherished and promoted the cause of agriculture 

 will be useful in several respects : they will re- 

 call their virtues, for us to copy ; relate to us their 

 principles of culture and their modes of operation, 

 and tend to inspire us with the same zeal and ener- 

 gy which actuated them. We hope, therefore, that 

 our correspondent, and others who have the means 

 at hand, will favor us with concise sketches of per- 

 sons who have been eminent in promoting the in- 

 terest v/hich we believe to be at the root of our 

 national prosperity. 



PHOSPHATES-THEIR USE. 



The following letter from Professor Liebig on the 

 valye of phosphates, cannot be too often read by 

 those who would undei'stand the more important 

 facts connected with agriculture : 



My I)e.\r Sir : — My recent researches into the 

 constituent ingredients of our cultivated fields have 

 led me to the conclusion that, of all the elements 

 furnished to plants by the soil and ministering to 

 their nourishment, the phosphate of lime, or rather, 

 the phosphates generally, must be regarded as the 

 most important. 



In order to furnish you with a clear idea of the 

 importance of the phosphates, it may be sufficient 

 to remind you of the fact, that tlie blood of man 

 and animals, beside common salt, always contains 

 alkaline and earthy phosphates. If we burn blood 

 and examine the ashes which remain, we tind cer- 

 tain parts of them soluble in water, and others in- 

 soluble. The soluble parts are common salt and 

 alkahne phosphates ; the insoluble consists of phos- 

 phate of lime, phosphate of magnesia, and oxyd of 

 iron. 



These mineral ingredients of the blood — without 

 the presence of which in the food, the formation of 

 blood is impossible — both man and animals derive, 

 eitlier immediately or mediately, through other 

 animals, from vegetable substances used as food ; 

 they had been constituents of vegetables, they had 

 been parts of the soil upon which the vegetable 

 substances were developed. 



If we compare the amount of phosphates in dif- 

 ferent vegetable substances with each other, we 

 discover a great variety, while there is scarcely any 

 ashes of plants altogether devoid of them, and those 

 parts of plants which experience has taught us are 

 the most nutritious, contain the largest proportion. 

 To these belong all seeds and grain, especially the 

 varieties of broad-corn, peas, beans and lentils. 



It is a most curious fact, if we incinerate grain or 

 its flour, pens, beans and lentils, we obtain ashes, 

 which are distinguislied from the ashes of all other 

 part* of vegetables by the absence of alkaline car- 



