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XEW ENGLAND FARRIER. 



Sept. 



here. We are stepping forward toward a 

 temporary decay of what is mortal in our 

 natures, and as we proceed the effect upon our 

 minds should be something like that of the 

 month of September to the candid thinker, — 

 the fulijlment of promises, the fruition of 

 hopes — the era of completeness. Let this 

 view of life become one of habitual thought, 

 instead of that of decay and death, and we 

 become citizens of the new world at once, 

 with new hopes, new powers, and stronger as- 

 pirations after a blessed immortality. 



Such, kind reader, is our lay sermon re- 

 specting some of the things which influence us 

 in the month of September. Let its lesson 

 abide with us during its brief term, and lead 

 us to cheerful views of life and life's duties. 



As business men, we think it proper, as each 

 month dawns upon us, to look forward and 

 ascertain what its demands are, so that all its 

 duties may be discharged "decently and in 

 order." Can it be less a duty in us to give 

 attention to our moral and spiritual needs, and 

 make the pathway to them clear and pleasant ? 

 By no means. He who neglects these, neglects 

 his highest interests in life. 



September, like the other months, calls for 

 a succession of labors. Nearly all the crops 

 are gradually ripening for the harvest. But 

 they do not come all at once. They need the 

 eye of the master to say at what precise day 

 they shall be gathered in. A mistake in these 

 particulars will sometimes make an essential 

 difference in the value of the crop. For in- 

 stance : — Carefully conducted experiments 

 show that wheat harvested several days before 

 it is fully ripe, will give more weight of grain 

 and flour, and that the latter will be of better 

 quality. So that a variation of a few days in 

 the time of harvesting a crop of wheat, may 

 make a money difference of $5, or $500, ac- 

 cording to the amount of the crop. This 

 principle bears upon the crops of the present 

 month. A disregard of many of the items of 

 harvesting which are to occur in September, 

 might swell the amount of loss into a sum as 

 large as the cost of the entire harvesting. 



Gkain. — In getting in any of the grain 

 crops in Autumn, they should be sown sufli- 

 ciently early to allow them to get firmly rooted 

 before their growth is arrested by frost. If 

 the roots get a firm hold of the soil, the plants 

 are not only less likely to be thrown out of 

 the ground by the frost, but they have gone 



down •where they can find nutriment to give 

 them an early and vigorous start in the Spring. 

 The last days of August are better for sowing 

 than the middle of September. 



Harvesting Potatoes — Some say that 

 potatoes ihould be dug just "as soon as their 

 skins will not slip upon rubbing them." Our 

 practice has been, however, to let them re- 

 main in the ground — if not on a wet soil — 

 even into the first week of October. It seems 

 as though no place could be better adapted to 

 preserve them than the beds in which they 

 grew. In such situation they are not crowded, 

 are kept from the light, and in a condition 

 sufficiently moist to prevent undue evaporation. 

 We know they keep perfectly well in the 

 ground through the winter, because we find 

 them there in perfection when ploughing in the 

 spring. 



What are the advantages of early digging 

 and storing those which are intended for winter 

 use? 



Feeding Mowing Lands. — A great change 

 of opinion has taken place in regard to feed- 

 ing the mowing lands in the autumn. Once 

 it was very nearly a common practice with 

 farmers to feed down every acre of their mow- 

 ing fields, so that scarcely a semblance of 

 green herbage was lefD. Of course, when 

 plants are fed off in that way, no proper action 

 can long continue between leaf and root. 

 These are as important to each other as is the 

 branch of the tree to its roots. If this close 

 feeding were to occur all at once, and then be 

 discontinued, the plants might recover them- 

 selves, and be clothed with leaves before ar- 

 rested by frosts. But such is not the case. 

 The cattle like best the short and tender grass, 

 and pass over the field day after day, nipping 

 every green leaf as it appears, cutting off all ac- 

 tion between leaf and root, until the latter gives 

 up the contest and dies out. It dies of actual 

 starvation. It has thrown out leaves over and 

 over again, to the atmosphere, to drink in its 

 life-giving element and pass them down to the 

 famishing roots ; but just as they were accom- 

 plishing this beneficent work, some hungry 

 mouth would come along and devour them. 

 How can any crop grow under such treatment 

 as this ? 



Where the feed is luxuriant it is undoubted- 

 ly best to feed a portion of it off, because if 

 covered ■with deep snows for some weeks, it 



