1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



151 



Mr. French said that Liebig also said that 

 every plant contains enough to re-produce itself. 



Mr. Flint, Secretary of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture, moved that the thanks of the Society be 

 tendered to Mr. Wray for his interesting re- 

 '^arks. Carried. 



The Chairman then announced that the subject 

 of discussion at the meeting next week would be 

 "The preparation and application of Manures." 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Many favors of our attentive correspondents 

 have been received, which we cannot lay before 

 the reader in a single sheet. Among these are 

 "Ci-ojjs on Peat Meadows," "Witch Grass," 

 "Sawed Shingles," "Crows," "A Day at Brigh- 

 ton," "How to Prevent Hard Times," "Egyptian 

 Millet," "A Fai'mer's Club," "Real Estate in Rut- 

 land Co., Vt." "Value of Mucli," "Analysis of 

 Soils," "A Plea for the Robin," "Leaves from a 

 Lady's .Vote Rook," "Salt Marshes," "Young 

 Men on the Farm," "Laying down Inundated 

 Lands," and many other articles. 



These articles are all of a practical character, 

 most of them written by persons occupying and 

 laboring on the farm, and who are qualified to 

 speak from an experimental knowledge of the 

 matters they discuss. Others are from ingenious 

 and observing mechanics, who have too much 

 sympathy with the world to hide the light which 

 they are able to reveal : while some are gradu- 

 ates of our best universities, gentlemen who have 

 not only qualified themselves to decide with just 

 discrimination, to investigate with sound judg- 

 ment, and to make such researches in our beauti- 

 ful and attractive art as the common farmer can 

 scarcely be expected to make, but whose love of 

 the garden and the farm have scarcely known a 

 limit, and whose practical operations have gone 

 on even-handed with their untiring investigations 

 and experiments in the soil itself. Besides this, 

 there are occasional articles written by women of 

 great intelligence, of close observation, and of 

 much practical skill in horticulture and all that 

 relates to the orchard and garden, added to those 

 femenine graces which seldom fail to excite a 

 love of the moral and beautiful in the young, and 

 obliterate from their hearts a too common aver- 

 sion to the farm. It would afford us pleasure, 

 if it were proper, to mention the names of sev- 

 eral such, and briefly sketch some of the benefits 

 which they have conferred upon those whose 

 occupation it is to cultivate the soil. If anything 

 can iiipart value to an agricultural periodical, it 

 must be such concise and practical articles as 

 these ; they are worth infinitely more than length- 

 ened and finely-written essays, fresh and vigorous 

 as they are from active hands and warm hearts. 



We trust there will be no diminution of such 



healthy articles — the pure gold from the mine, 

 and it shall be our care to communicate them to 

 the working world in due season, on the fair 

 pages of the Farmer. 



It gives us pleasure to acknowledge our obli- 

 gations to as able and intelligent a corps of wri- 

 ters, both male and female, we believe, as ever 

 occupied the columns of any newspaper in New 

 England. 



To Prevent Rabbits from barking young 

 fruit trees, give the body of the young tree a 

 thorough rubbing with soft soap. This not on- 

 ly prevents the rabbits from barking them, but 

 it protects them against insects, takes all the 

 rough scales off", softens the bark, and renders 

 them much more thrifty than they would be oth- 

 erwise. This simple recipe will be of vast value 

 to the farmers in many parts of the West. — 

 Greasing will prevent rabbits from barking fruit 

 trees but it will also injure the tree. — Maine 

 Farmer. 



BOYS' DEPARTMENT. 



THE SCHOOL-HOUSE. 



Scuffling should never be attempted nor per- 

 mitted in the school-house, Avhatever the tempta- 

 tion may be. When a tempting chance is pre- 

 sented to knock off a playmate's cap, or knock an 

 apple or snowball out of the hand, or do anything 

 else that might by possibility result in a scuffle, 

 you must not do it. Scuffle to your heart's con- 

 tent at the right time and place, — but the school- 

 house is not the right place, nor study hours 

 the right time. And you must not play at hop- 

 skip-and-jump on the seats and desks. There 

 is no good reason why you should take liberties 

 in the school-room that would be improper in the 

 parlor at home. Some scholars have the habit 

 of dropping their apple cores and the crumbs 

 from the dinner basket upon the floor, and throw- 

 ing away pieces of bread on the floor with th« 

 butter side always doAvn, and of dripping the wa- 

 ter from their slates to the floor, and the disgust- 

 ing habit of spitting on the floor. You must do 

 no such thing. With the best judgment, and the 

 utmost care, the atmosphere of a school-room is 

 unhealthy ; and every pupil, and every other per- 

 son who goes into a school-house, should cheer- 

 fully do all that can be done to preserve the 

 beauty and purity of the entire premises. And 

 if anybody is so abusive as to bring tobacco into 

 the school-house, and the teacher does not per- 

 emptorily prevent it — or if anybody brings to- 

 bacco there at an evening or Sunday meeting — 

 go to the trustees with a complaint ; and if they 

 do their duty they will put the tobacco-users out 

 of the house with as much promptitude and as 

 little ceremony as we drive the cat out of the lar- 

 der, or a pig out of the garden — or a skunk out 

 of the cellar. And if the trustees have a noisome 

 chew in the mouth and a filthy pipe in the pock- 

 et, and therefore do not heed your complaint, go 

 to the chancellor for an injunction against the 

 nuisance. 



As it is of great importance that the ground 



