1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



487 



WASHING MACHINE — GARDENER'S TEXT-BOOK — 

 PEARS — PEACHES. 



Do you know of any washing machine that saves 

 enough labor to make it an object to procure one ? 

 Are they preferable to washing fljiids ? If so, why ? 

 Which is the best kind, and how do the floating 

 ball machines work ? 



Is Schneck's Gardener's Text Book better adapt- 

 ed to this part of the country than Buist on the 

 Kitchen Garden ? Do Beurre Clarigeau pears 

 hang well on the tree ? Which is the best kind of 

 early watermelon ? Which the best very early and 

 late peaches ? A Subscriber. 



Filchburg, Sept., 1856. 



Remarks. — Mr. W. Wheeler, of Acton, Mass., 

 is the manufacturer of a washing machine which is 

 constantly in use in our family, and will not be dis- 

 pensed with very soon — so say the women. 



WOOL, potatoes and cheese. 

 A correspondent sends us a letter, with samples 

 of wool, and requests us to see some of the mann 

 facturers, and ascertain what they will pay for 

 2,000 pounds of it ; also, what he can get for po- 

 tatoes, peas and cheese, and who are the honest 

 men to whom he can consign his goods ! Dunder 

 and blitzen ! 0> for the head of a Hydra, and the 

 hands of a Briareus — if we only had them, how 

 we'd make the wool fly ! Wool and cheese, pota- 

 toes and peas. Now we are one of the cleverest 

 and most accommodating persons in the world ; 

 we never could see a child in trouble, but would 

 leave a good dinner to run and tend it ; never heard 

 a maiden sigh, but felt as though we must go and 

 whisper consolation in her ear, and never saw a 

 horse going to market with his master's potatoes 

 and peas, but we had a mind to take a part of the 

 creature's load on our own back. But what shall 

 we do ? A hundred letters a day, sometimes, and 

 only one poor head to decipher them all. Some of 

 them are in the Arabic, and some in the Sanscrit, 

 we suppose, for we don't know what else they can 

 be. Really, good friend, we wish we were a huck- 

 ster or a commission merchant, for your sake ; but 

 as we are not, must refer you to the hosts of either 

 that flock about North and South Market Streets 

 in Boston. One thing is certain, the sample of 

 wool is very fine, and "the manufacturer" may 

 know where to find it by calling at this office. We 

 have no doubt the cheese, potatoes and peas are, 

 also. 



lime and potatoes. 



I have several times noticed that where potatoes 

 are planted on dressing which contains a portion of 

 lime, or old plastering, they are much aff'ected with 

 the rot ; whilst those in the same field where hme 

 is not used, are perfectly sound. Having some po 

 tatoes accidentally left on a board which had been 

 whitewashed, for a few days, on examination 

 found those on the board entirely worthless with 

 the rot, while some in a dish near by, that had oth- 



erwise been treated in the same way, were perfectly 

 sound. Should this save for one of your numerous 

 readers, a single mess of potatoes, my object will be 

 accomplished. A. A. Wells. 



Kennehimk, Sept., 1856. 



ABOUT PRESER\TNG. 



In preserving green corn, mine was put up in tin 

 cans, boiling hot, and sealed while the cans were 

 hot, and yet became sour. I wish you would give 

 us such information as will reach the pockets of the 

 poor. Give us the best receipt for making to- 

 mato ketchup, pickling cucumbers, and you will 

 much oblige many of your subscribers. 



__ A Subscriber. 



CABBAGES STIMP FOOTED. 



Will you, or some of your correspondents, in- 

 form me how to prevent cabbages fioni growing 

 stump footed. Formerly it was a very easy mat- 

 ter to raise cabbages, but of late years, the roots 

 become covered with knobs, which destroy the 

 growth of the top, and prevent their heading. I 

 have tried them on different soils, with different 

 manures, but nothing seems to remedy the evil. I 

 am satisfied the excrescences are not formed by a 

 worm, nor by any particular manure. H. D. J. 



Upton, August, 1856. 



BOYS' DEPARTMENT. 



"WHERE THERE'S A WILL, THERE'S 

 A WAY." 



Henry Burgett was not quite twelve years of age 

 when his father died ; and fast as his tears fell when 

 he knew that his kind papa would be with him no 

 more, he wept, if possible, more violently, when his 

 mother told him they must leave the pretty cot- 

 tage, the only home they had ever known, and that 

 hereafter he was to live with fta-mer Howard. 



"We are poor, Henry," she said, "very poor, and 

 young as you are, my boy, you must now earn your 

 own support. But keep up a stout heart, you can 

 do it. Fie on those tears !" and she turned hastily 

 that he might not perceive the grief that was pierc- 

 ing her own soul. 



Farmer Howard was a hard master, and a sorry 

 time had poor Henry daring the long summer days 

 that succeeded this interview with his mother. It 

 was work, with no relaxation, from the earliest dawn 

 until the twilight had quite faded. Often did his 

 courage fail, and despondency and indolence urge 

 him to stop, but a stern necessity was on him, he 

 must do or starve ; and hence he kept at it, weari- 

 ly enough to be sure, until the last apple was in the 

 cellar, the last ear of corn in the crib, and all things 

 secured against the Avinter, with the most pains- 

 taking thoroughness. 



The winter, tardy as its approach appeared to 

 Henry, came at last, with its three months privi- 

 lege of school, and its glorious long evenings that 

 he might spend as he chose, with no spectres of 

 huge heaps of corn to husk, or vast fields of pota- 

 toes to dig, looming up in the distance. 



How well those hours for study were improved, 

 or how highly prized, the bright light which the 

 blazing pine splinter shed from the attic window, 

 until long jnc-.t the hoar of t\yelve, m'»y\t tell. (A 



