572 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



pies of fertility rapidly, where no manure is used, 

 and become in a short time covered with verdure. 

 We have known the common yellow sandy loam 

 taken from the pit and spread upon upland mow- 

 ing fields with the happiest results. This loam 

 is full of fertilizing salts, which, upon being 

 brought to the influence of the air and rains, im- 

 part them to the roots of the grass with surpris- 

 ing effect. 



Plaster and charcoal each have a powerful ten- 

 dency to absorb enriching principles from the 

 air, and in all experiments like the one we have 

 suggested, they can be profitably employed. The 

 second year after digging, a very decided im- 

 provement will be apparent, and a single opera- 

 tion will have a decided influence for many years. 



Those who have but little land should attend 

 to this suggestion if they wish to make it highly 

 productive. We have tried it on garden lands, 

 accompanied with thorough draining, and think 

 we have doubled the crop, — using no more ma- 

 nure than we did before the trenching. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE FABMER AND HIS SUBBOUNDINGS. 



I often think, while at work in the fields, that 

 if I am thankful for one thing more than another 

 — in temporal affairs — it is that I was born & far- 

 mer, and the son of a farmer ; that I have been 

 brought up among rural scenes and rural people, 

 and have been taught to labor in agricultural pur- 

 suits, and thus brought into intimate connection 

 with the wonderful and mysterious workings of 

 Nature — the manifestations of the Divine Hand. 

 For I believe it is the farmer's privilege to be the 

 "most amiable, the most comfortable, and the 

 most independent man in the world ;" and that 

 his occupation will admit of more opportunities 

 for thought and reflection than others ; and that 

 it is his duty, as well as privilege, to rise, intel- 

 lectually as well as morally, in his "heaven-ap- 

 pointed employment." 



Do not understand me, however, to despise or 

 disparage other vocations, so necessary to make 

 up the harmonious whole, in the varied round of 

 man's toils, and pleasures, and necessities. But 

 that there is, in the work-shop or manufactory, 

 amid the clink of hammers and din of machine- 

 ry, in the counting-house, or in the routine of 

 the merchant's duties, such an inducement to 

 nealthy thought, and such a field for noble con- 

 templation as is spread out constantly around the 

 "armer, in his free, healthy, out-door employ- 

 ments, is hardly supposat)le. The silent work- 

 ings of Nature's immutable laws, in the mysteri- 

 ous germination of seeds, magic unfolding of leaf 

 and flower, and maturing of vegetation, and all 

 the phenomena of attending circumstances, invite 

 his investigation, and fill him with admiration at 

 their exquisite harmony and beauty of adaptation. 

 With them he has constantly to deal, and in his op- 

 erations it is his study to assist Nature in bringing 

 forth an abundance of things useful to the suste- 

 nance of his race, while she beautifies without 

 instruction, and decks his fields with friendly. 



out-of-the-way flowers, and sprinkles sparkling 

 minerals over the hills. 



A pleasing landscape always meets his eye, 

 agreeable in the diversity of noble mountains, 

 near or remote, undulating woods and open lands, 

 and cultivated acres, and fields of "waving grain" 

 in summer-time, or whatever aspect the chang- 

 ing seasons may present. No brick walls shut 

 in his vision, or contract his horizon, but on the 

 dewy morns of summer it is his privilege to en- 

 joy the extended view spread before him in all 

 its freshness and beauty, to drink in the pure, 

 fresh morning air, often perfumed with the sweet 

 odors of countless flowers, and in his every-day 

 vocations to catch the thrilling music of birds, 

 free as nature's air, in their hedge-rows, or ren- 

 dering him essential service in the orchard and 

 garden, besides ministering exquisite pleasure to 

 his finer sensibilities, if he will but open his soul 

 to their influences. A pure sky is spread above 

 him, across which the white clouds serenely ride, 

 or are suspended in picturesque forms, or in 

 mountainous, silver-crested masses rest on the 

 horizon like old snow-capped monarchs ; and all 

 the grandeur of the rising thunder-storm is his 

 to enjoy, of which the city inhabitant knows but 

 little. 



Everywhere the tendency is to an ennobling 

 influence, and if the farmer is not virtuous and 

 high-souled, if his mind is not cultivated, and the 

 taste for the beautiful, and an inclination to 

 contemplation are not within him, the fault is 

 chargeable to himself, not to his vocation or sur- 

 roundings. Indeed, all those elevating influences 

 that poets have sung of, and learned orators love 

 to tell us of, are constantly surrounding the far- 

 mer. 



It would take a long time to recount all the 

 pleasures the farmer may enjoy if he will ; yet, I 

 fear that the mass of farmers are insensible to the 

 charms of agriculture, and plod on like the ox 

 they follow, as they walk behind the plow, whol- 

 ly unmindful of the higher life they might enjoy, 

 and which no one can do so much towards help- 

 ing him into as himself Perhaps I am telling 

 you, fellow-farmers, an old story; but let it be 

 harped in your ears till you leave the sluggish 

 routine you have followed your life-time, acquire 

 an appreciation of progress and improvement, 

 throw off your narrow conservatisms, and adopt 

 liberal views of life, and you will see then that 

 your occupation is a noble one, and that you may 

 ever make it a delightful one. 



The occupation of the farmer furnishes him 

 with an ample field for practical and sound 

 thought ; a theme for intense study, if he wishes ; 

 for indeed the science of farming is little less 

 than a combination of several of the most in- 

 tensely interesting sciences in nature. The oc- 

 cupation of the farmer may, and should be, an 

 intellectual pursuit ; his leisure moments should 

 be improved in study and reading, and thus he 

 will be furnished with food for reflection, while 

 engaged in the physical labor of the field. Far- 

 mers are, in too many instances, beneath their 

 calling; if not morally or physically, at least in- 

 tellectually. Let faruiers cultivate the mind, as 

 well as the soil. Here is a field productive of 

 the highest pleasures, and conducive to pecuni- 

 ary advancement. 



And now, brother farmers, let us take pride in 



