1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



331 



Other volumes have since been purchased from 

 the funds of the Club, and we have now a re- 

 spectable little library, which has been repeatedly 

 consulted and referred to by those who have ta- 

 ken part in the discussions, and from which a 

 great amount of useful information has been de- 

 rived. 



The discussions have been animated, and have 

 laid bare a vein of thought which has hitherto 

 been little worked. 



Even the ladies, without whose aid no good 

 cause has ever prospered, have been constant at- 

 tendants at the meetings, and have contributed 

 to their interest by reading a manuscript paper 

 entitled " The Fanners^ News." Gentlemen of no 



fjrofessed literary talent have prepared and de- 

 ivered addresses, which, if not in beautiful sen- 

 tences and well turned periods, in practical 

 though and useful principles would bear a favor- 

 able comparison with those delivered at the din- 

 ner tables of the exhibitions of some of our coun- 

 ty societies. At a recent meeting, a full grown 

 apple tree borer which had been preserved alive, 

 and without food, for a period of more than three 

 weeks, was exhibited, and his habits explained 

 by a gentleman present. An antiquated looking 

 spade which had been known among men a 

 hundred years, and which presented a striking 

 contrast to the well-finished implements of mod- 

 ern days, was exhibited by another gentleman. 



But I should occupy altogether too much space 

 should I attempt to tell one-half that is interest- 

 ing concerning this little institution, which has 

 been to us, and something similar to which 

 would be to every neicrhborhood, an invaluable 

 means of acquiring practical information in re- 

 gard to that profession which has been honored 

 by such men as Cincinnatus and Virgil of ancient, 

 and Washington and Webster of modern times. 

 G. A. Adams, Secretary. 

 Hopkinton, May 11, 18.59. 



been placed to the depth of an inch or so ; place 

 it in the tree, and place a small glass globe lamp 

 in the middle of the pan, which permit to burn 

 all night. In darting towards the light, the cur- 

 culios strike the glass, and are precipitated into 

 the liquid, from which they are iinable to extri- 

 cate themselves. — Homestead. 



FARM DRAINAGS. 



TO BAISS POTATOES. 



A correspondent — Wm. Aldridge, of Goreland, 

 Ind. — writing to the Prairie Farmer, states that 

 having noticed how potatoes were interrupted in 

 their growth, and invariably pined away and died 

 if disturbed and bruised when wet with dew or 

 rain, he selected a patch of a potato field, the 

 whole of which was good soil, and in good order 

 to try an experiment. This patch he only plowed 

 once, and then loosened the soil with the hoe 

 ■when the vines were above ground, and in the 

 heat of the day when they were perfectly dry. 

 He never touched them afterward until they were 

 dug in October last year. These vines kept green 

 throughout the season, and the yield of potatoes 

 was very large. The other portion of this same 

 potato field was purposely worked three times, 

 when the vines were wet with dew. These blight- 

 ed early, did not produce half a crop, and the 

 potatoes were of a very inferior quality. The 

 ground, seed, and time of planting in both 

 patches, were the same. — Scientific American. 



CuRCULio. — A remedy for this peet is pro- 

 posed in the Ohio Valley Farmer, by Mr. Wal- 

 ker, of Kentucky. As soon as the fruit is at- 

 tacked, take a tin pan into which soapsuds has 



We cannot too earnestly call the attention of 

 readers to the subject of draining their lands. — 

 We ask them to make a single practical test, in 

 a proper manner, on a small piece of land, and 

 then they will be able to decide for themselves 

 whether draining will not save them a great deal 

 of hard labor, and at the same time greatly in- 

 crease their crops. Believing this ivill be the re- 

 sult, we shall present such portions of Judge 

 French's excellent work on "Farm Drainage," 

 as we think will induce them to commence the 

 good work. 



An acre or two of land which we thoroughly 

 underdrained two years ago, laying the pipes 

 down four feet below the surface, has been affect- 

 ed about as much as though the season had been 

 lengthened some three weeks, or the land had 

 been removed south as far as New Jersey. 



Below we give an extract from the recent work 

 on Drainage spoken of above : 



Drainage is a new subject in America, not well 

 understood, and we have no man, it is believed, 

 peculiarly fitted to teach its theory and practice ; 

 yet the farmers everywhere are awake to its im- 

 portance, and are eagerly seeking for information 

 on the subject. Many are already engaged in 

 the endeavor to drain their lands, conscious of 

 their want of the requisite knowledge to effect 

 their object in a profitable manner, while others 

 are going resolutely forward, in violation of all 

 correct principles, wasting their labor, uncon- 

 scious even of their ignorance. 



In New England, we have determined to dry 

 the springy hillsides, and so lengthen our sea- 

 sons for labor ; we have found, too, in the val- 

 leys and swamps, the soil which has been washed 

 from our mountains, and intend to avail our- 

 selves of its fertility in the best manner practi- 

 cable. On the prairies of the West, large tracts 

 are found just a little too wet for the best crops 

 of corn or wheat, and the inquiry is anxiously 

 made, how can we be rid of this surplus water. 



There is no treatise, English or American, 

 which meets the wants of our people. In Eng- 

 land, it is true, land-drainage is already reduced 

 to a science ; but their system has grown up .by 

 degrees, the first principles being now too fami- 

 liar to be at all discussed, and the points now in 

 controversy there, quite beyond the comprehen- 

 sion of beginners. America wants a treatise 

 which shall be elementary, as well as thorough 

 — that shall teach the alphabet, as well as the 

 transcendentalism, of draining land — that shall 

 tell the man who never saw a drain-tile what 

 thorough drainage is, and shall also suggest to 

 those who have studied the subject in English 



