1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



541 



Taritiet)', unmixed with seedlings or the wild up' 

 right plants which abound everywhere, will give the 

 same testimony. 



When the effects of the low temperature of last 

 Winter began to be seen upon our various hardy 

 trees and plants, I took a stroll of several miles in 

 this neighborhood, to examine them in different lo- 

 calities. The effect upon the common red cedar was 

 very peculiar and destructive, equally so upon low 

 or "high ground. The vitality seems not only to 

 have been destroyed, but the sap entirely dried out ; 

 sometimes a single branch, or the branches on one 

 side, or the top only, and sometimes in a larger col- 

 lection, one-half appeared to be unscathed, and the 

 residue totally destroyed or injured as above de- 

 scribed. But the dead or injured trees are mingled 

 in with the healthy, without any regard to the as- 

 pect or locahty. ' Wm. Lawton. 

 — *4?n. Jlgriculturist. 



MEMOEY. 



Soft as rays of sunlight, stealing 



In the dying day, 

 Sweet as chimes of low bells pealing 



When the eve fades away ; 

 Sad as winds at night, that moan 

 Through the heath o'er mountains lone j 

 Come the thoughts of days now gone, 



On manhood's memory. 



As the sunbeams from the heaven, 



Hide at eve their light ; 

 As the bells when fades the even 



Peal not on the night; 

 As the night winds cease to sigh, 

 VFhen the rain falls from the sky, 

 Pass the thoughts of days gone by. 



From age's memory ! 



Yet the sunlight in the morning 



Forth again shall break, 

 And the bells give sweet-voiced warning 



To the world to wake. 

 Soon the winds shall freely breathe 

 O'er the mountain's purple heath — 

 But the past is lost in death — 



He hath no memory. 



John F. Waller, LL. D. 



For the New England Farmer. 



MANURING IN HILL. 



The secret of success, with the farmer, is to know 

 how to procure and apply manure. On the fertile 

 prairies of the Mississippi Valley, the planter need 

 not trouble himself to supply food for his plants. 

 But in New England it is far otherwise. Without 

 manure, nothing good can be effected.- We may 

 plow and sow, but cannot reap. Hence the impor- 

 tance of this subject, in all its bearings, to the cul- 

 tivator. 



Of applying manures, there are various modes. 

 Farmer Oldschool says he wants the manure di- 

 rectly underneath the plant ; therefore, in planting 

 corn and potatoes, he "dungs in the hole." 



The theory and practice of the new school goes 

 against, this mode. It advocates an equal distribu- 

 tion, over the whole surface, of all the nutriment 

 intended for the crops. 



We had supposed this question virtually settled ; 

 that all "book farmers," at last, admitted the cor- 

 rectness of the distribution theory. But we find it 

 otherwise. In the Connecticut valley, many, and 



we believe a large majority of the farmers, will con- 

 tinue in the old practice, and these men are ready 

 to give a reason for the faith that is in them. 



1. Having but little manure, they must econo- 

 mize in the use of it. They cannot afford to spade 

 it over the whole ground, they must maniure for 

 the crop, and not for the land. 



2. The plant needs artificial stimulus in the ear- 

 ly part of the season. By placing the manure in 

 the hill, an impulse is given, which will last through 

 the whole course. 



Not being convinced by these considerations, we 

 will give our views of the matter. In the growth 

 of the plant, the roots keep pace with the stalk, 

 when the latter is mature, not an inch of ground, 

 within a distance equal to the height of the stalk, 

 will be void of roots or fibres, sent out in pursuit 

 of nourishment for the plant. If there is nutri- 

 ment within this range, it will be taken up and ap- 

 propriated, and all the purposes of the plant served 

 as well certainly, as if the whole were concentrated 

 at a point, answering exactly to the nadir of the 

 tassel. 



When the seed first sends out its radicle, its 

 fibres absorb moisture from the substances with 

 which they come in contact. If it is a shovelful of 

 manure, they will revel in that, for a time. But 

 soon these porous fibres, these rootlets, become 

 roots and take on a woody structure, which fits 

 them to sustain the stalk with its burden. 



These roots, or this portion of the roots, no lon- 

 ger contain absorbent vessels ; and moisture and 

 nourishment must be obtained, if at all, from abroad. 

 A Shanghai rooster would be somewhat discommo- 

 ded by having his feed placed directly under his feet. 

 Not less so would the plant be, which has not, like 

 the fowl, the power of locomotion. Then to con- 

 centrate all the nutriment designed for the de- 

 velopment of the plant about the roots, in its in- 

 fancy, seems to me much like giving to a horse in 

 the morning all the grain intended for the day. 

 Better let it be administered as needed. 



^lanured in the hill, the plant is unduly stimu- 

 lated, during the first of the season. Consequently 

 it lays out more work than it can perform. When 

 rearing time comes, the strength of the plant is ex- 

 hausted, or what is equivalent to it. The absorb- 

 ents have wandered into a region, where there is 

 no nutriment, consequently stalks are abundant, 

 but ears are few. Furthermore, in manuring, re- 

 gard should be had to the land, to the future crops. 

 Manuring for the crops alone is ruinous policy, im- 

 poverishing alike to the soil and the tiller. 



The teamster, who administers stimulating drinks 

 and a goad to his horse, may secure more labor for 

 a few hours, but many days of rest and good feed- 

 ing will be required to make good what he has 

 lost. 



On a piece of land that has recently come into 

 my possession, which was in rye last season, and 

 corn the year before, the place of the hill may be 

 pointed out, as easily as if the corn were now stand- 

 ing. Where the hills were is grass, elsewhere none. 

 Is that good farming? Much like the policy of him, 

 who fed his pig one day, and fasted him the next 

 because he liked a "streak of fat, and a streak of 

 lean." 



In the use of mineral fertilizers, it may be advis- 

 able, in some cases, to make application directly to 

 the roots of che plants, but animal and vegetable 

 manures, and all composts, I think, should be dis- 



