1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



287 



For the New England Fanner. 



LETTER FROM MR. FRENCH. 



DRAwraa Wateb — Hybeid Plants — Breeding Live Stock. 



My Dear Brown : — Charles Lamb once said, 

 that what people call "easy wiiting" is generally 

 very hard reading. Whether this be so or not, it 

 is my prevailing sentiment, just at present, that I 

 shall not put a great deal of hard work into any 

 kind of wilting, till after planting. 



If there is any reader of the Fai-mer who has 

 been shut up the past four weeks in a court-room, 

 with a farm or two awaiting his personal attention, 

 he will sympathize with us, who feel as if the "time 

 to plant" had precedence, just now, over the priv- 

 ilege of talking or writing about it. 



The weekly Farmer of to-day suggests some top- 

 ics, of which a few words may, perhaps, be "fitly 

 spoken,' without the exercise of very hard writing, 

 or, I trust, of very haid reading. 



WATER FOR THE FARM. 



You speak of a "Water Lifter," of which an engra- 

 ving is expected for the Farmer, to be worked by 

 the animal that drinks. It is easy to conceive that 

 such a machine might be arranged, to be operated 

 by the weight of the ox or cow standing on a plat- 

 form at the trough. A man who ever saw your 

 chicken feeder, which so delighted the members of 

 Congress at Washington, when you were nothing 

 but librarian of the House of Representatives, and 

 had not arrived at the dignity of principal editor of 

 the N'eiv England Farmer — a man who saw the 

 door of the corn bin fly open by the weight of the 

 astonished biddy as she was peering round for a 

 hole through which to extract the grain, which she 

 knew was shut up there, never will be surprised to 

 see a cow pump all the water she wants to drink, 

 and a little besides to fill up the can, if she does 

 not afford quite milk enough ! 



Speaking of animals drawing water, of course 

 reminds us of the water ram, which, by the way, is 

 one of the most beautiful and practically success- 

 ful applications of science to everyday life that has 

 ever been discovered. Everybody knows, or ought 

 to know, that this machine, at a very small cost, 

 some eight or ten dollars for the ram itself, wher- 

 ever a fall of four or five feet, with water enough 

 to supply an inch and a half pipe, can be obtained, 

 will throw a certain proportion, say a seventh or 

 tenth of the water, to a reservoir at any desired 

 height above the head of water. I recently saw one 

 in operation at Manchester, N. H., which had worked 

 as regularly as the beating of the human heart, 

 through the whole winter, without cessation for a 

 minute, supplying a household with water which was 

 first thrown by the ram into a reservoir in the attic. 



Where no fall can be obtained and the water 

 must be pumped, windmills have been used, with 

 various success. 



The great obstacle to their use has been, that 

 with sufficient surface of wings to furnish power in 

 a moderate breeze, the machinery is broken by 

 sudden tempests. To obviate this difficulty, vari- 

 ous inventions have been tried, so that the sails or 

 wings may be filled by the wind itself when it in- 

 creases beyond a safe point. 



So far as I have seen, the objection to this power 

 is its expense. The wind is cheap enough, but it 

 has its old trick of blowing "where it listeth," and a 

 somewhat complicated arrangement is requisite to 

 "raise the wind" when it does not feel much like 

 working, and to fetter its pinions, when it gets high 

 and is determined on a blow. However, all this 

 about windmills, is it not already written in the pa- 

 ges of the JVew England Farmer ? 



The best way in the world to have water is, to 

 find a spring high enough, put in an aqueduct of 

 logs or something else that will not give the family 

 the lead paralysis, and "as the boy said of the molass- 

 es" in the Knick Knacks, "liet her run." Water is 

 always willing to run down hill, and has decided 

 objections to the contrary course. My own barn is 

 supplied by a lead pipe from a spring, and my house 

 by iron pumps, in both stories, which draw from a 

 well about ten feet deep. 



In conclusion, let me say to all who are building, 

 that the less machinery is used in conveying water, 

 especially in this freezing climate, the less care and 

 vexation is in store for you. 



MIXING OF PLANTS. 



This number contains an article on the "mixing 

 of potatoes," which I do not propose to criticise, but 

 merely use as a text. 



There are some principles that seem to be set- 

 tled about this matter of Hybridizing, or Cross 

 Breeding. In the blossoms of most plants the 

 seed or fruit is the offspring of the stamens and 

 fistil, which may be considered the male and female, 

 growing in the same flower usually, though some- 

 times in different flowers of the same plant, and 

 sometimes in the flowers borne by different plants or 

 trees. When the female flower is impregnated by 

 the dust or pollen from a male flower of a different 

 species, the product is a hybrid or cross of the two 

 species, partaking more or less of each, the tenden- 

 cy being towards that species which is most perma- 

 nent. Hence plants which are nearly allied will 

 mix in this way, if planted near together. Com, 

 melons, squashes and other annuals will mix the 

 first year, as every body knows ; but nobody ever 

 knew potatoes to mix the first year, or any other 

 year, unless the balls or seeds are planted, becaus 

 the potato is not the fruit or the seed, but in the 

 nature of a root. By planting the balls or true 

 seed of the potato, where different kinds have been 

 grown together, a great variety will be obtained. 

 The seeds of the apple or pear or peach seldom 

 produce their like kind, because their blossoms are 



