1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEjVIER. 



455 



doubt whether the immense national bi nefits can 

 be secured v,hh h iLe editor believes will flow from 

 the introduction of the Chinese, who, he says, are 

 exccll( d bv no peopie on the earth for frngaliiy, 

 docility, patent indu-try and aptness. 



It is true that these Chinese may he content 

 with their lot at home, where it is impossible for 

 them to in. prove that lot; hut how ^hall this "con- 

 tent to rtmaia in the posiiion assigned them by 

 Providence" be enforced on ihem and on their 

 descendants here ? How t^hall these "restless aspir- 

 ations" be kept quiet ? If, as the writer of the 

 peragrapli quoted above says in anc^ther connec- 

 tion, "there is somethii g in our construction that 

 will not be content with the pood that the gods 

 provide,' how are we to nip the bui'ding ambition 

 that may start up in thete day-laborers to become 

 landowners? To make the question sill more 

 puzzling to us, the writer sajs, "in truth we be- 

 lieve if Dian were made an archangtl he would no; 

 lose all as-piration." Do tell us, then, how we are 

 to banish it from the breasts of our "cheap and 

 reliaijle labor," whethtr Asiatic or Atiican. 



The wisdom of the agricultural press of the 

 great city c f New Yurk, which has undertaken 

 "to win over our sluggish farm friends every- 

 where lo a wiser econoiijy, to a larger thiift, and 

 to a better practice," is, we presume, competent to 

 the solution of this as of all other problems that 

 may occur to our "sluggish" minds. 



Mowing with a Camel. — Being in the Park 

 in New York, the other day, we saw, — what per- 

 haps few of our readers have ever seen — a camel 

 mowing ! Here one of these humpt d aninrials was 

 harnessed to a lawn mower, which he drew with 

 great steadiness p.nd apparent ease. The haine.-s 

 resembled a breast-plate lor a horse, with the plate 

 resting on his neck in front of the hump on his 

 shoulders, with the shoulder strap under his body, 

 behind his forelegs. He threw his weight into it 

 as the ox does into the yoke. He was not a very 

 large sized camel, but would weigh pirhaps nine 

 hund red pounds. He had mowed an acre or more, 

 cutting the grass very smoothly. There was in 

 the injmtdiate vicinity a flock of beautiful Cots- 

 wold sheep under thtcare of an < Id Scotchman and 

 two dogs; thus indicating to what use the lawn 

 grass would be put in the coming winter. There 

 were some two hunHred of these fine sheep in the 

 floc&. There were also a herd of doer and elk in 

 an enclosure in the Park, which with the sheep 

 and camels have to be fed with hay in the winter. 



Abortion in Cows. — A writer in the Western 

 Farmer advances the theory that this difficulty, 

 which IS becoming a formidable one witli dairy- 

 men in many sections, is owing to a want of phos- 

 phates in the food and water consumed by the an- 

 imal. The avidity with which laying hens eat egg 

 shells and fragments of b' nes, while at other times 

 they do not eat them, and roosters never, and the 



fact that during gestation cows eat bones and 

 boards, are cited in confirmation of the correctness 

 this theory. It is also said that this information is 

 being sold at a hiu'h price as a receipt for a cure of 

 abortion, and that Mr. Lyman B. Sanford of 

 Cherry Flats, N. Y., had used it with perfect suc- 

 cess. For several years his cows had been in the 

 habit of calving prematurely; one year fourteen 

 out of thirty-five, miscarried between the months 

 of January and March. Another gi ntieman had 

 gathered bones and poundi d them fine, and when 

 the cows were salted, put as much bone dust as 

 salt together, and salted once a week. He advises 

 keeping the bone dust from the air, until used, as 

 it will otherwise lose a portion of its phosphorus. 



EFFECTS OF DtlHiV PLOUGHING. 



If yon or some of your correspondents will an- 

 swer the fill' .wing questions you will greatly 

 oblige one of the constant reaJers of your paper. 

 I will give the nature i f the soil experimented 

 upon, tliat you may be able to answer understand- 

 ingiy. 



I have three-fourths of an acre of light, gravelly 

 loam, that has had a coat of manure ploughed 

 into it; every sprin,>^ for four years. Last season it 

 produced a fair crop of g irden vegetafiles. 



Last fall, Horace Greeley lectured before the 

 Bristol County Asricuhural Society, and told us 

 an acre of land with the soil a fO(jt deep, would 

 pri duce as t"U( h as as two acres where the soil 

 was six imhes d ep, and an acre of soil two feet 

 diep, would produce as much as four acres of sojl 

 six inches deep. 



I asked G. G. Godfrey, Esq., a farmer of expe- 

 rience and skill, how I sho.ild get a deep soil, 

 and he told nn 1 would have toploughdetp. Last 

 0>-tober, I ploualied it from fouitetn to sixteen 

 luetics deep, usir g a very large plough and three 

 yokes ot heavy oxen. 



Tiii-< spiinsInaNe ploushed in a coat of manure, 

 ploughir g seven incnes deep, and planted as last 

 ycitr to g^trden vegetables. 



Will tiic ucep plough ng be a benefit or an in- 

 jury t ) mv garoen ? vv ill the six or eight inches 

 of yellow "tree soil," or fiee dirt, I have ploughed 

 up, be a benefit or an i jury ? i-armers here 

 laugh at my experiment m.w ir is aone, but none 

 ot them recommenu any remedy, though they all 

 agree that it wilt prove a great ii jury. 



lias any oiiecoainiitred tnesame blunder before ? 

 (if it is one.) Vvnatwill lie tne result on this 

 year's crop and the future usetuiness of the soil ? 

 VVjiat is the best way to treat it in the luture? 

 These are qucsnonsi shall be glad loseciinswercd. 



Ar the end of the season will forward you the 

 result of this year's crop, and how it compares 

 with last season. Peter C. Thayer. 



Taunton, Alass., June \i6, 18h9. 



Remarks. — We might answer the inquiry 

 of our corresp ndent, whether "deep plough- 

 ing will be a beneht or an injury to his gar- 

 den in a single word ; but the subject is of 

 sufficient importance to call for some details. 

 We plough mainly to pulverize the soil, in or- 

 der to permit a free circulation of air and 

 moisture, for the purpose of reducing it to 

 powder, and to break up the joint action of 

 pressure, and the binding eti'ect of root fibres, 



