380 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



said my kind-hearted friend. She answered, in 

 tones expressing the deepest emotion ; "No, sir, 

 God bless you all ; God bless you all" (making a 

 courtesy to the young lady, who had stepped 

 back, and stood sheltered by the curtain of the 

 window ;) "I will play no more to-day ; I will go 

 home, now." The tears trickled down her cheeks, 

 and, as she walked away, she ever and anon 

 wiped her eyes with the corner of her shawl. The 

 group of gentlemen lingered a moment to look 

 after her, then, turning toward the now closed 

 window, they gave three enthusiastic cheers, and 

 departed, better than they came. The pavement 

 on which they stood had been a church to them ; 

 and for the next hour at least, their hearts were 

 more than usually prepared for deeds of gentle- 

 ness and mercy. Why are such scenes so uncom- 

 mon ? Why do we thus repress our sympathies, 

 and chill the genial current of nature, by formal 

 observances and restraints ? — Lydia Maria Child. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 HO"W TO PREVENT BUGS FROM 

 EATING VINES. 



I notice in the Farmer of July 3, that Mr. S. 

 L. Billings, of Rockingham, Vt., has come to 

 the conclusion that my method of preventing 

 bugs from destroying vines will prove a hum- 

 hug; well, it may be a humbug, used in the way 

 he has used it from the tannery. 



I do not use it in the way spoken of by him, 

 but take it fresh from the poultry-house, and 

 dissolve it in rain water, making it, when dis- 

 solved, about as thick as water gruel. I then set 

 it in a sunny location, and it goes through a state 

 of fermentation, and is then ready for use. I ap- 

 ply it once in three or four days, commencing 

 with about three table spoonfuls, and increase 

 the quantity as the vines grow larger. I have at 

 this time 120 hills of squashes, and have not had 

 one vine destroyed by the bugs this season. One 

 of my neighbors, a Mr. Leighton, who has fol- 

 lowed gardening 44 years, now in his 66th year, 

 considers it the best preventive ever used by 

 him, and I must put him down as a practical gar- 

 dener, for his whole life has been spent in rais- 

 ing vegetables for the market. 



It seems to me that if the liquid used by 

 Friend Billings had contained all of its former 

 properties, that justly belonged to it before hav- 

 ing been used for tanning purposes, that it could 

 have been used repeatedly for the same purpose ; 

 but if it did not contain all of those properties, it 

 certainly could not have had the same effect as 

 the liquid used by me. 



I am not opposed to using boxes, providing 

 you do not have a better substitute. My vines 

 are from ten to fifteen inches high, and the bugs 

 have not been more plenty at any time this sea- 

 son, than at the present, and boxes from eight to 

 ten inches high -^vould scarcely cover them. If 

 friend B. will try one hill the next season, fix it 

 up as I have described, and apply it, and does not 

 then change his mind, I will then confess that 

 Vermont bugs, as well as Vermont horses, are 

 hard to beat, and I will never again try to cram 

 a humbug down his throat, which, by the way, 

 Mr. Editor, my name should have been, instead 

 of Crane. B. H. Cram. 



Eliot, July 6, 1858. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 EAGLE MOVSriNG MACHINE. 



Mr. Editor : — Very recently, I obtained a 

 mowing machine of Heath's patent, manufactured 

 by Nourse, Mason & Co., whose works are at 

 South Groton, Middlesex Co., in this State. 



Having closely observed the operation of this 

 and other machines, while on trial in 1856, — sep- 

 arately at various places in the State, and then 

 at the .general trial at Northfield, in Franklin 

 Co., for the premium of $1000, generously offered 

 by the "Massachusetts Society for the Promo- 

 tion of Agriculture," I was very favorably im- 

 pressed with the movement of three of the ma- 

 chines on trial, but with the work of no one was 

 I so much pleased as with that of the Heath Ma- 

 chine, to which was awarded the premium. If 

 any one is curious to learn the reasons why the 

 committee appointed to examine and judge of 

 the merits of the several machines, so awarded 

 the premium, they are referred to the report of 

 that committee, an extract of which may be found 

 in the Report of the Secretary of the Board of 

 Agriculture, page 183, for the year 1856. 



The reasons given in that report were suffi- 

 cient in the minds of that committee, whose spe- 

 cial business it was to attend on the work of the 

 machines, examine their structure, &c., &c., to 

 induce them to award the premium as they did, 

 and they confidently believed that the opinion of 

 gentlemen present on the occasion of the trial 

 (except those interested in other machines) was 

 in harmony with their own. 



I say that I have one of the Heath machines, 

 nor am I unhappily disappointed in the work of 

 it. It does much better than, under the circum- 

 stances, I had reason to suppose that it would. 



Two horses, strangers to each other and to the 

 work, were put to the machine, and a driver 

 wholly unaccustomed to the horses and to the 

 machine, took his seat over the wheel and pro- 

 ceeded to an old field, with not very heavy grass, 

 but hard to cut. The aborigines of this country 

 were perhaps not more surprised Avhen the May- 

 flower landed at Plymouth, than were the villagers 

 of Shrewsbury, when they learned that a moioing 

 macliine had arrived. About two acres were 

 soon cut, to the astonishment of those who wit- 

 nessed the operation as well as those who ex- 

 amined the work when done. 



One man remarked that he "had seen many 

 machines operate at the West, but never saw one 

 do the work so well as that." 



The machine worked among cobble-stones to 

 mow the last two of six to seven acres, without 

 injury to the knives, which were not sharpened 

 till the six to seven acres were mowed — though 

 I would not recommend mowing where the 

 stones are very thick. 



It is very important to have horses for this 

 work that are tempered alike, and that walk 

 alike ; if one is quicker than the other let him 

 be put on the off side, and when the driver and 

 his team become acquainted with each other and 

 with the work, there is no danger to be appre- 

 hended on ground adapted to the use of the 

 mower. 



I am highly pleased with the machine, and 

 think it ^o be an article that will in time come 

 into pretty general use for mowing smooth sur- 



