1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FAR:MER. 



549 



hills overlooking the harbor and ocean in the 

 immediate vicinity of this charming old town. 



To show you that I observe my home habits 

 when I am abroad, I will tell you that yesterday 

 I attended a Sunday School in the old church, 

 and then listened to an excellent sermon in the 

 North Church, by the Rev. Mr. Noyes, upon the 

 text — ''And he was transfigured." I could give 

 you its outlines if I had room. As I am an ob- 

 serving man, and mean to "catch the manners 

 living as they rise," I must note one thing espe- 

 cially comforting to ladies, even if it does show 

 that I had my eyes open in church! I could not 

 help noticing that the men, with their compact 

 legs in their compact pantaloons, sat in the far- 

 ther portion of the pews, and the women in the 

 end next the aisle ! But my letter is too long 

 now, and I must subscribe myself, 



Truly yours, Simon Brown. 



Messrs. Noukse, Eaton & Tolman. 



For the Netc England Farmer. 

 KEPORTS COMPAEED. 



and I am candid to say, after looking every arti- 

 cle carefully over, and reading most of them with 

 some care, the question presented itself to my 

 mind, Does such a report as this, emanating from 

 the government, pay — is it worth the cost ? My 

 answer is, No. Either give the farmers of this 

 great and progressive country something better 

 than this, or stop it altogether, and devote the 

 money which these two hundred and fifty thous- 

 and books cost, to the purchase of the Diosco- 

 rea Batatas, and send each ownur of a farm one, 

 throughout the Union. NOEIOLK. 



King Oak Hill, Oct., 1859, 



For the New England Farmer. 



FACTS FOH THE SCIENTIFIC. 



A neighbor of mine has sown the French tur- 

 nip for several years, with marked success, for 

 the last three years, from the same seed, and has 

 raised a good crop each year. This year he sowed 

 as usual on ground precisely like his former fields, 

 and manured and tended in the same way, and 

 not a turnip from his whole field ! The plants 

 came up and looked finely until July, when they 

 all went — to seed. No root on any plant more 

 than on mustard. A fine lot of good plump tur- 

 nip seed is all he gets for his crop. 

 Mr. Editor:— On the table before me lay two Is there a fixed time in which turnip seeds, 

 Reports on Agriculture ; the title of one is. Pa- j kept well, will mature, so as to invariably go to 

 tent Ofl[ice Report, 1858 — ^Agriculture ; the oth- seed as above, oris this a freak of nature ? Will 



er, New York State Agricultural Report, by B. 

 P. Johnson, Secretary. Just look at these two 



any one give us facts in reply ? 



1 also will state a hydraulic fact or two, and 



books, Mr. Editor; for you have them, and your ask for a scientific answer upon philosophic pi-in- 

 very just and interesting review of the latter in ciples. As is often done, I have water running 

 the i'''arOTer, a week or two since, proves that you j to my barn by syphon from a well 12 rods dis- 

 have digested the contents of one of them, at| tant, and 18 feet deep. It invariably runs well 

 least, and I have no doubt but what you found i from October to the next season of warm weaih- 

 it very wholesome and agreeable food. The er, when it as invariably lessens gradually and 

 question, however, I wish to ask you is. Can you 'stops, and cannot be made to run again for more 

 digest the former — have you a stomach capacious 1 than a day or two, till cold weather sets in. No 

 and powerful enough for that ? I doubt it ; but! matter what the depth of water in ihe well, it 

 we shall see what we shall see. The one is all' i{)iZZ ?io^ run steady in hot weather. When the 

 full, as an e^^ is, of nourishment of the most! force pump is applied, the air or gas (which is it?) 

 interesting and instructive matter, relating to -appears from the upper end, and all is right for a 

 the farm and its management, in door and out. day or two, when it again diminishes till the 

 It is a "complete guide to the carrying on of a^ stream stops entirelj'. As many others in this 

 farm," in all its departments, and that of the region are troubled in the same way, we are anx- 

 highest order. I have read it with all the inter- jious to know the cause and the cure. Is it gas 

 est of a "sensation novel," and the farmers of; formed by chemical action of the water upon the 

 New York may well be proud in being the means, lead in warm weather and not in cold, or is there 

 of bringing out such an instructive book, and some other cause ? What is the remedy ? 



by this means shoM'ing the farmers of other States 

 how they do their business at home. 



But the other Report, book, what shall we say 

 of this ? I have read its first article, on Educa- 

 tion, with some interest, because I have children 

 to educate ; but its exact bearing on the agri- 

 cultural matters of the United States I do not 

 precisely understand ; that, I presume, is of no 

 consequence, provided D. J. B. does. The last 

 article, on Meteorology, by Prof. Henr}-, is well 

 worthy of being digested ; it is good, strong 

 food on the subject of which it treats, though, 

 probably, very few of the farmers in these United 

 States are sufficiently interested in the subject 

 to read his paper. Beside these, there is little 



I also notice in the operation of all hydraulic 

 rams, that at each motion of the spindle valve, 

 the water in the driving pipe is suddenly checked 

 in its downward motion, and is reversed and sent 

 back into the spring or fountain head. Now in 

 all the explanations I have ever read, I can find 

 no mention made of the fact, and much less a 

 reason given for it. In the American Agricul- 

 turist for December, 1858, and in several numbers 

 of the Farmer during the past season, we have 

 an explanation of the Hydraulic Ram, and its 

 operation, but in none of them, nor in any school 

 philosophy, can I find a mention of the fact, or a 

 reason for it. By this I infer that the writers of 

 the above newspaper articles were but superficial 



in the volume of any interest to the general observers of the ram audits operations, as are 

 farming mind, in my estimation. D. J. B. seems too many of our writers for the various agricul- 

 to be the Alpha and Omega of the whole Report, tural papers. What we want is plain common 



