42 





NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



AUGUST 21, 1R33. 



" the ultimate home of all, church-yards and ceme- 

 teries," " convening them into attractive instead 

 of repulsive objects." Dr. Francis recommends 

 the formation id' "an experimental farm, with a 

 gchool I'm- instruction in the various branches of 

 preliminary education and agriculture." Yon 

 have thus, it appears, the merit of originating 

 principles lor others to improve on. 



The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, has 

 made a vigorous essay to connect literary educa- 

 tion with practical horticulture, in its various 

 branches, and these again with a cemetery for the 

 repose of tin; dead. The project is in a course 

 of Successful experiment. At a distance of about 

 four miles from the city of Boston, at a place now 

 called Mount Auburn, a tract exceeding seventy 

 Bcres of land has been purchased, at the cost nl 

 six thousand dolla'S, to which were subsequently 

 added fifty acres, with the design to convert it in- 

 to a garden for the promotion of Horticulture and 

 an ornamental place of sepulture. 



Bome j 1131 and fascinating descriptions of this 

 plaice have been published, the beauty of the site, 

 its applicability to the intended purpose, and the 

 many pursuits to which it may be make subservi- 

 ent. The portion intended for a cemetery was laid 

 off in lots of about three hundred square feet. — 

 One hundred of these lots were promptly disposed 

 of at sixty dollars each, making in the aggregate a 

 sum equal to the entire cost of the first purchase 

 of the land. Through this ground and its magnif- 

 icent growth of forest trees, planted there by na- 

 ture, and now of lofty and luxuriant growth, ave- 

 nues and paths have been opened in beautiful ec- 

 centricity through its rich vallies, around its hills, 

 and into the recesses of its groves, leading now to 

 the botanic garden, now to the orchard, to the 

 flower border, and to the classic, ornamented tombs 

 of the deceased : 



" Were 1, () God ! in rhurchless lands remaining, 



Far from all voice of teachers and divines; 

 My soul would find, in flowers of lliy ordaining, 

 Priests, Sermons, Shrines." 



I could draw your attention more at large to 

 this subject, were I not under the impression thai 

 the publications of the day have not escaped your 

 attention ; among others a late report of the Presi- 

 dent of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 

 detailing the setting out of several hundred forest, 

 ornamental, and fruit trees. Among the seeds 

 sown, he states having received four hundred and 

 fifty varieties, forwar led to the society from South 

 America, Europe, and Asia. The report says 

 "cemeteries, like that of Mount. Auburn, will soon 

 be established in the vicinity of all large cities. A 

 Very magnificent one has been commenced near 

 London. At Liverpool and Glasgow, measures 

 have been adopted for emulating the metropolis ol 

 Great Britain. In Germany several cemeteries 

 have been projected, and we hear that the citizens 

 of New York are determined to follow these ex- 

 amples." 



Whether the Massachusetts Society had infor- 

 mation that private enterprise was busy at New 

 York, to follow or improve on the Mount Auburn 

 plan, I know not; but I should hold it a great 

 evil, were that the case. 



You may possibly have the subject in contem- 

 plation, and to that the Massachusetts report has I 

 trust reference. I can only say that it is worthy 

 of your Society, and must highly redound to its 

 credit and fame, should it rescue the noble design 

 from individual cupidity. 



The visitation of the city of New York by yel- 

 low fever, has probably suggested the first law pro- 

 hibiting interments within the densely inhabited 

 part of the city. The late visitation by Cholera 

 lias suggested the idea of extending the non-inter- 

 ment district. The difficulty of determining where 

 to fix the line, more than any other cause, pre- 

 vents decision. In fact, the city, destined, as the 

 late Governor Clinton observed, to contain its two 

 millions of inhabitants, grows so fasi, it seems as 

 if it would overtake any new cemetery that might 

 be laid out on New York Island, before the same 

 could be enclosed. The unceremonious violations 

 of tin: homes of the dead by the public authorities 

 of I he city have been so frequent, and their repe- 

 titions are so much apprehended, that a disposi- 

 tion extensively prevails to withdraw beyond their 

 reach in the selection of burial grounds. It is 

 certain that no site can be found within the city 

 and county of New York, sufficiently extensive for 

 general purposes, such as contemplated at Mount 

 Auburn, even although the immense expense of a 

 pun base did not interfere. For such a site, we 

 must look to Long Island, or the state of New- 

 Jersey. Tin- attendance of friends at the funerals 

 of the deceased would s Idom extend beyond the 

 church, or the ferry, and would in this way not 

 be very inconvenient. The citizens are liberal, 

 and would feel on such an occasion an unusual in- 

 terest. It is not improbable that one or perhaps 

 two hundred purchasers of lots, at one hundred 

 dollars each, could be easily obtained'. 



The proprietors of Mount Auburn have estab- 

 lished, in the city of Boston, a vault to receive 

 bodies as a temporary deposit, when bad weather 

 or other circumstances prevent an immediate re- 

 moval to their final destination. Here funeral pro- 

 cessions end, and the bodies are in due time re- 

 moved therefrom without parade. The distance 

 from the water's edge at New York to the water's 

 edge near the cemetery, presuming that the sanx 

 wid be adjacent to the landing place, cannot be 

 material, whether the same be three, four, or a 

 dozen miles. 



The resort of the citizens in times of recreation, 

 to such a retreat, would be most delightful ; within 

 it would be no incentive to immorality or excess 

 id' any kind; the visiter might select the solitude 

 of the grove, or the society of the virtuous; he 

 would hud amusement or instruction in every step, 

 in every tree, in every shrub, in every flower, 

 "each leaf a book," he might converse with the 

 learned living, or commune with the silent dead. 



I have far exceeded the limits I proposed to 

 myself, when I sat down to thank the Society for 



i!, i 1 or conferred on me. 1 seek not to direct, 



am unable to instruct; I have yielded to my own 

 zeal,;. ml must seek in it an apology for the unrea- 

 ile length of this letter. 

 I am, with very great respect, gentlemen, yours, 

 very sincerely, Alexander Walsh. 



.1 icon Lor.ii.lard, Esq. President, 

 Benj. Mc Vickar, M. 1). Cones. Sec'y, of the 

 New York Horticultural Society. 



that sowed the red chaff bald wheat last fall aro 

 the gainers, for it is not as much lodged as the 

 flint wheat ; the straw being stiller it has with- 

 stood the winds and rain better, and is likely to 

 yield better than the flint wheat. For several 

 years past the flint wheat has done best, which has 

 induced the farmers to sow it in preference to the 

 red chair. I sowed hut one bushel ol' red chaff 

 wheat last fall, from which I harvested last week 

 fifty dozen large sheaves. The soil was sandy gra- 

 vel and had been clover pasture for two years. I 

 ploughed it up in June with a stiff team, harrow- 

 ed it well in August, cross ploughed it the first 

 week in September, sowed and harrowed ill the 

 seed. We have not been troubled with the insect 

 in the least this season. There were some pieces 

 of the Beaver dam or Mud wheat sown with us 

 last tall, which now promises well, the heads are 

 linger and longer than the red chaff or flint wheat 

 but the kernel not as fine as either. Early sown 

 oats are fine and are now fit for cutting. Barley 

 better than average crops and mostly sound. — 

 Field Beet and Potatoes promise abundant crops. 

 Yours, &c. L. Harmon, Jr. 



Jlhcalland, July 29, 1833. 



HARVEST. 



The past has been a busy week with the Wheat- 

 laud Farmers. They have been engaged in their 

 .. atfields and make but slow progress. The 

 crops are heavy and much lodged. — They will not 

 be able to get through cutting this week. Labor- 

 ers are scarce, good hands get from one dollar to 

 one dollar and a half per day. Those Farmers 



THE TURNIP PLY. 



A board about 18 inches in breadth, and suffi- 

 ciently long to cover four ridges of turnips, was 

 made to run upon wheels, high enough to allow 

 the board to pass over the turnips without touch- 

 ing the tops of them ; the lower side of this hoard 

 was painted with white paint, which the men pro- 

 tided themselves with, and took into the field, and 

 during the night (at which time I understand the 

 fly is more vigorous and destructive than during 

 the day) the instrument was wheeled from one side 

 of the field to the other. The insects, on being 

 disturbed, of course immediately fly or jump up, 

 and stick to the paint ; and 1 was assured that at 

 the end of every set of ridges, the board was al- 

 ways covered with them. The remedy appears 

 to be a very simple one, hut it may nevertheless 

 prove in some measure efficacious. Should that, 

 on further trial, prove to be the case, I shall con- 

 sider myself very much favored in having been en- 

 abled to be the means of its becoming more gener- 

 ally known. — Doncaster Gazette. 



GAMA GRASS. 



To the Editors of the National Intelligencer. 



Gentlemen: For the information of those who 

 wish to make an experiment on the Tripsacum 

 Dactyloides, so fully and favorably mentioned in 

 the National Intelligencer of this morning, under 

 the name of Gama Grass, 1 can inform such, that 

 it is now to be found, growing in abundance on 

 the farm of Mr. K. B. Mason, at the south end of 

 the Potomac Bridge. This plant I discovered se- 

 veral years since, during my botanical rambles, at 

 that place, and then endeavored to draw public 

 attention to it as a valuable fodder, finding that 

 horses ate it in preference to any other food near 

 them. This grass is also valuable in binding to- 

 gether loose blowing sands, and would therefore 

 be of great use on farms bordering on the seacoast 

 and livers which are washed by heavy rains and 

 floods. A. 



August 7, 1833. 



[The respectable author of the above has left at 

 this Office a stalk or two of the Grass which he 

 describes, taken from the island referred to. — Int.] 



