1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



27 



an corn, ■when obtainable in the Arctic regions, 

 is better than fat. 



Your correspondent says something about the 

 teeth — that those of man indicate a mixed diet. 

 This argument, if it proves any thing, proves 

 that we should eat half grass or hay, and half 

 fle&n. Will he, then, adhere to it? Or if man, 

 because he has four sharp-pointed teeth, ought 

 to eat a part animal food, surely the sheep and 

 the camel, that have four sharper teeth than man, 

 ought to eat quite as much flesh, fowl or fish, as 

 the latter. 



That pork and beef eaters are better fighters 

 than vegetarians, I will not now stop to deny, 

 except to say that the Makrattas, the greatest 

 fighters in India, were the most rigid vegetari- 

 ans ; nor that children of one year old sometimes 

 "choose meat ;" nor yet to prove that all the 

 hogs we eat are diseased hogs, and all the men, 

 women and children who eat them are diseased, 

 as the consequence. W. A. A. 



Auhurndalc, Nov. 1, 1S5S. 



and wasteful farmer, if such a man can be called 

 a farmer. A shingle ofl:' here, and there a board 

 hanging by one nail — a door with one hinge brok- 

 en off. I need not quote wnat the wise man has 

 said in regard to a certain character in his day, 

 "I went by the field of the slothful," &c. It would 

 seem that words need not be multiplied to in- 

 duce economy and neatness in farming. A word 

 to the wise is sufficient. Eco>'OMY. 



North Leomin&ter, 1858. 



Remarks. — These are more than hiats- 

 haps they may benefit some of us. 



-per- 



i'or C/ie jS'eiv England Farmer. 

 ECOIf OMY IN FAHMING. 



Mr. Editor : — I was pleased with the recent 

 remarks of your correspondent "Roger," on 

 "neatness in farming." In juxtaposition with 

 neatness is economy in farming. These remarks 

 on neatness led me to reflect on the amount of 

 waste in our farming community. 



In the'first place, I would notice the waste of 

 time — how many hours are passed to no profit, 

 either to body, mind, or estate. When farm- 

 work is not 2'1'essing, time is passed idly away 

 instead of devoting these leisure hours in clear- 

 ing waste land, collecting and placing under cov- 

 er wood which has been broken from trees, and 

 thus liable to become rotten. From an ordina- 

 ry farm, sufficient summer fuel could thus be 

 collected, which would otherwise be lost. 



Waste land ; how much land is suffered to run 

 to Vr'aste on almost every farm. On how many 

 farms do you see bushes and rank weeds by the 

 road fences, perhaps from six to eighteen feet, 

 and thus the stone wall and fences along the 

 farm are hid from view. Bushes are suffered to 

 grow, when a few hours, which are often spent 

 in idleness, would remove, and leave the land 

 free for culture. Stony ground, which is unfit- 

 ted for cultivation could be made to produce a 

 fine growth of wood, and one inch of land on a 

 good farm would not be left to waste. 



In fact, economy and neatness are inseparable, 

 one and the same. Wherever you see a neat 

 farm, be assured the manager of that farm is an 

 economical man ; and, whenever you see a slov- 

 enly farm, you may rest assured that the manag- 

 er of that farm is no economist. 



These remarks will apply to every department 

 of farming. Hov>' many there are who so man- 

 age in the feeding of cattle, swine or poultry, as 

 to waste half their food, and consequently their 

 neat stock are never thrifty, their fovrls, many of 

 them, at least, are unprofitable, they have eggs 

 only half the season, and not abundant even 

 then. Porkers that might be made to weigh 450 

 to 500 lbs., weigh little more than half as much 

 as their neighbor's. 



Again, look at the buildings of the slovenlv 



MAWUBING GRASS LANDS IN AUTUMN. 



^lany of our readers do not seem to be aware 

 that mowing lands, in order to be kept up in 

 fertility and productiveness for a series of years, 

 require some sort of dressing every year or two. 

 They will work hard, and be to great expense to 

 put the land in good order, and to seed it well. 

 They then begin to mow it, and follow it up year 

 after year, taking a heavy crop of hay at first in 

 the summer, and feeding it late in the fall by 

 their cattle. In a few years they find the land "run 

 out" as it is called, and they find it necessary to 

 manure and plow and seed it as before. 



Now it is abundantly evident, that much of 

 the running out may be prevented by a lit- 

 tle seasonable application of fertilizers, without 

 the labor and cost of plowing and reseeding so 

 often. Your land is a workshop or laboratory, in 

 v.'hich certain kinds of raw material, such as ma- 

 nure from the barnyard — or muck or ashes, &c., 

 is manufactured into grass, but it must have the 

 raw material to work up, or your mill will stop. 



We have found by our own experience, and by 

 observing the experiments of others, that the 

 best time to put many fertilizers, such as decom- 

 posed barnyard manure, or composts of different 

 kinds, and even bone dust and plaster of Paris, is 

 in the full, before the fall rains commence. By 

 applying them at this season, the coarser particles 

 become disintegrated and mingled with the sur- 

 face of the soil, and the whole become more in- 

 timately incorporated with the earth about the 

 grass roots, not only stimulating them by their 

 nutritive elements, but also affording protection 

 more or less during the v/inter. 



Every one who has a mowing field that is be- 

 ginning to deteriorate in consequence of the an- 

 nual cropping, and we nearly all of us have, 

 would do well to put on the dressing as soon as 

 may be now, so that they may be benefited by 

 it, not only during the coming winter, but early 

 in the spring. If you cannot do any better, try 

 a few rods and wait the results. — Maine Farmer. 



Leaves .\re Chemists. — Have you ever con- 

 sidered the amount of surface a single tree pre- 

 sents to the atmosphere ? the extent of surface of 

 leaves in a field of corn ? Measure a leaf — take 

 the area of one side, multiply it by two, (the num- 

 ber of sides,) and that product by the number oi 

 leaves on a single tree ! This surface is all neces- 

 sary to the growth of the tree. If you take off a 

 part of the leaves, those which remain grow 

 inoader. They separate from the atmosphere and 



