328 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jul; 



ment of wheel carriages ; the slaughter and pres- 

 ervation of animal food ; and the measurement 

 of his land by paces and rods comprise an im- 

 perfect list of the arts in the profession of the 

 farmer or of general agriculture. 



The culture of flowers and shrubs evinces no 

 less of art than the astonishing development of 

 grasses, grains and fruit trees. In value, size 

 and beauty they have increased many fold. The 

 poppy, the rhubarb, the peppermint, the caraway, 

 the rose-bush, the pepper, the mustard, the sage, 

 the lavender, the saff'ron, the lobelia, the sun- 

 flower, the pink, the violet and the honeysuckle, 

 each displays the ingenuity and refinement of the 

 agricultural art. Their old kindred in the wil- 

 derness and the plain would seem to have lost 

 all relationship, and to live in comparative worth- 

 lessness. Rural Art. 



April, 1858. 



I^or the NeiP England Fanner. 



THE PROMOTION OF AQRICULTUBE. 



[An Extract from a paper read before a Farmer's Club in 

 , Jan. 21.] 



* * * * To see the condition of our town is 

 easy ; to prescribe a remedy may be more dif- 

 ficult. But however hazardous it may be to em- 

 ulate him, who, when asked, "Can you play on 

 the flute P" replied, "No, but I can tell you how 

 to make a little village become a great city ;" 

 yet every man owes it to the town he lives in, to 

 make the best suggestions that he can to pro- 

 mote the pulilic good. 



A few days since, an eminent citizen caused his 

 name to be forever held in grateful remembrance, 

 by a bequest of $15,000 to our town ; the income 

 of which is to be appropriated to moral and in- 

 tellectual purposes. This noble gift has insured 

 the prosperity of the causes to which it was be- 

 queathed. Now, let some other rich man, or 

 some number of rich men, or even the town it- 

 self, donate a fund, the income of which shall be 

 appropriated to the promotion of agriculture in 

 this town. One-fourth part of the capital which 

 our citizens have invested in bank stocks out of 

 toion, viz., $30,000, would give an annual income 

 of $1800, to be divided in premiums among our 

 farmers, every year through all future time. Let 

 this be done, and this town would blossom as a 

 garden. As a mere money-making stroke of pol- 

 icy, I challenge the suggestion of a better. Ten 

 of our greatest land-holders could to-night make 

 money by donating such a fund to the town. 

 Real estate would forthwith rise in value to the 

 extent of $200,000. $1800 hard, golden dollars, 

 counted out and distributed among our farmers 

 at an annual cattle show day, would have a mar- 

 vellous eff'ect ; the attractions of the West would 

 pale before their glittering light. Li ten years, 

 this town would become as near a city as the 

 business of agriculture would allow. Then would 

 it be, in the words of the poet : 



"A goodly sight to see 

 What Heaven hath done for this delicious land, 

 What fruits of h-agrance blush on every tree, 

 What goodly prospects o'er the hills expand." 



J. R. E. 



^^ IJalVs Hmicl Potver Stump Machine, re- 

 cently illustrated in the Farmer, is for sale at 

 NovMfise & Co.'s, 13 Commercial Street, Boston. 



PASTURE LANDS. 



In the management of pasture lands, it is an 

 excellent plan, where the nature of the ground 

 favors the operation, to free the surface of bushes, 

 stones, stumps, &c., and then plow it carefully 

 once every six or eight years, harrow thorough- 

 ly, and sow on the seeds of such grasses as are 

 found to be best adapted to the locality, and the 

 most valuable as a summer food for stock. 



Herd's grass (timothy) white and red clover, 

 red and brown top, make an excellent stocking 

 for light pastures. The recuperative power of 

 pasture lands is such as to render the application 

 of manures of less consequence than on other 

 lands ; yet it will be found highly beneficial to 

 apply, occasionally, a light dressing of plaster, 

 limC; or what is better still, wood ashes — all of 

 which have a tendency to promote the develop- 

 ment of vegetation in the early spring, as well as 

 to sustain it in seasons of severe and protracted 

 drought. These appliances tend also to bring in- 

 to action the energies of the inert humus con- 

 tained in the soil, and to render the silicates so- 

 luble, and consequently in a proper condition to 

 be taken up by the roots of plants. 



From the inert humus, and certain other sub- 

 stances of a mineral character, the soil of our pas- 

 tures derives the power of recuperation, or self- 

 replenishment, M'hich it is supposed to possess. 

 But it is well enough to remark, that, apart from 

 the phenomena of vegetable growth and decay, 

 in no such power is recognized nature. If we an- 

 nually remove the produce of a field or pasture, 

 without making any retui-ns in the form of ma- 

 nure, we shall necessarily pretty rapidly impov- 

 erish the soil. 



In fallowing — that is, in plowing and harrow- 

 ing land without sowing it — no vegetation is al- 

 lowed to mature ; all that the vegetable powers 

 of the soil produce, is immediately returned to 

 it, and as most plants derive a jjortion of their food 

 from the atmosphere, the air, by this process, is 

 made to enrich the earth. The soil itself also ab- 

 sorbs from the same source a very considerable 

 amount of fertilizing matters in the shape of gas- 

 eous products, and when supplied with materials 

 capable of absorbing and fixing the ceriform prin- 

 ciples which are perpetually present — and in large 

 quantities, throughout this wide-spread and in- 

 exhaustible field of fertility — the accession of fe- 

 cundating matter will be very large, and secure 

 the most favorable results, both to the soil and 

 the succeeding crops. This is, perhaps, one of 

 the most economical and eff'ectual methods of re- 

 plenishment it is possible to adopt. 



But we must not suff"er ourselves to be illuded 

 by the glitter of hypothetical conclusions ; we 

 must attribute results to their legitimate causes, 

 and trace each one, so far as it is practicable for 



