No. 5. 



Taste around our Farm Buildings. — Grapes. 



145 



its good practical results, to the considera- 

 tion and adoption of tlie turminy community. 

 The prejudice against the use of lime and 

 plaster has been overcome with ditficulty, 

 notwithstanding the striking eflccts of their 

 earlj' application. The objection to those 

 mineral manures, that they would stimulate 

 the soil to a fruitfulness which would soon 

 exhaust it, is not altogether unfounded, pro- 

 vided care is not taken to keep up a supply 

 of other minerals, which are indispensable 

 elements in the basis of the vegetable king- 

 dom. Lime and plaster do not only enter 

 into the composition of plants, but they have 

 an agency in evolving other mineral ele- 

 ments, as well as securing to the soil the 

 ferial constituents, carbonic acid and ammo- 

 nia. Quick lime, however, we should re- 

 mark, expels ammonia, and should not, 

 therefore be mixed with manure, either in 

 compost beds or in the soil. Wlieat crops 

 have been frequently injured in consequence 

 of the dissipation of ammonia by the appli- 

 cation of quick lime witli manure. Plaster 

 has the opposite effect Most of the plaster 

 used on our farms would be first well em- 

 ployed as an agent in fixing the fertilizing 

 gases in the manure. I have known rich 

 loams — soils containing an abundance of so- 

 luble vegetable matter, much injured by the 

 use of fresh lime. But the fertility of fresh 

 Jands, or soils which from any cause, con- 

 tain a large amount of partially decomposed 

 vegetable and animal matter would be in- 

 creased and preserved by the use of plaster. 

 It facilitates decomjxjsition and at the same 

 time fixes the ammonia in the soil. To es- 

 cape any injury from the use of lime as a 

 manure, and to insure its best effects, the 

 safest general rule is to spread it on grass 

 lands and leave it a considerable length of 

 time exposed to the atmosphere. 



Taste around onr Farm Buildings. 



A COPY of an Address delivered at Rome, N. Y., on 

 the Dili of Ninth month last, before the Oneida County 

 Agricultural Society, by Elon Comstock, its President, 

 has been forwarded. The following extracts are made 

 from it, with an apprehension that they may possibly 

 serve as valuable hints to some of our readers— Ed. 



There is great need of improvement in 

 every thing pertaining to the arrangements 

 of our buildings and grounds, including the 

 general plan of the farm, for strange as it 

 may sound to some, there is as much pro- 

 priety in laying out a farm in just propor- 

 tions, and in fields of suitable shape and 

 size, and with direct reference to the conve- 

 nience of approaching the buildings, &c., as 

 there is in bestowing upon the streets and 



public grounds of the village or city, like 

 attention. It costs no more, and not unfre- 

 qucntly much less expenditure, to do these 

 properly, and so as to give the whole farm 

 an attractive and pleasing appearance, than 

 to lay it out in such a manner as to render 

 it repulsive to the man of taste and refine- 

 ment. 



The same remarks will apply with equal 

 force to the erection of dwellings, and the 

 laying out of the garden and grounds in 

 their vicinity. In the country, where land 

 is cheap, the farmer can well afford an acre 

 of ground to devote to the convenience and 

 pleasure of his family, and especially when 

 this same acre maybe made to produce grass 

 equal to any other part of the farm, besides 

 affording room for the trees and shrubbery 

 which should be planted in tlie vicinity of 

 every farm house. An acre of ground is 

 none too much to devote to these purposes, 

 and in making- arrangements for building, 

 the farmer sliould in my judgment, appropri- 

 ate at least that amount, exclusive of that 

 needed for the garden and other useful pur- 

 poses. An acre of ground on most farms 

 will not exceed in value fifty dollars, and to 

 ornament it with trees and shrubbery, may 

 perhaps cost nearly as much more, but when 

 we take into account the produce which may 

 be obtained from it if properly managed, there 

 is really very little loss to the farmer in a 

 pecuniary view. 



Grapes. — As there appears an increas- 

 ing disposition to grow the finer kinds of 

 grapes under glass, allow me to call atten- 

 tion to a very simple method I have seen 

 practiced with success. Your vines being 

 established in some eligible place, dig a pit 

 to the depth of five feet; about the first of 

 March fill it within two feet of the sur- 

 face with fresh horse manure — introduce 

 your vines and shut the sashes close till the 

 heat arises; after the vines begin to break, 

 regulate the heat by admission of air — be 

 careful to cover the glass at night until all 

 danger of frost is past — the moist heat from 

 the manure is far preferable to fire heat — 

 and if the manure is well incorporated with 

 oak leaves, the heat will be more moderate 

 and last longer ; by the time the heat from 

 the manure is exhausted, there will be suffi- 

 cient of sun in this fine climate to perfect 

 the crop. Constant attention, and a know- 

 ledge of the culture of the vine under glass 

 is of course necessary, ten minutes neglect 

 would ruin the whole. — Farmer and Me- 

 chanic. 



Every farm should own a good farmer. 



