1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



535 



soil, but upon the number of fibres present to 

 absorb it. There may be an abundance of 

 plant food in the soil untouched, for the want 

 of fibres to feed upon it. The more the soil 

 is pulverized, the more these fibres are in- 

 creased, the more food is absorbed, and 

 the more vigorous does the plant become. 

 Pulverization, therefore, is not only advanta- 

 geous previously to planting or sowing, but 

 also during the progress of growth, when cul- 

 tivation by hoeing is applied in the spaces be- 

 tween the plants. 



Pulverization also increases the sponge-like 

 property of soils, so that it takes up whatever 

 moisture comes to it, and holds it, thus ren- 

 dering their humidity more uniform ; and this 

 will be the greatest where the particles of the 

 earth are finely divided, — for gravels and sands 

 hardly retain water at all, — while clays, not 

 opened by pulverization, either do not absorb 

 water, or when, by long action, it is absorbed, 

 they retain too much. 



"Water," Loudon says, "is not only neces- 

 sary as such to the growth of plants, but it is 

 essential to the production of vegetable mat- 

 ters which they contain ; and unless the soil, 

 by pulverization, is so constituted as to retain 

 the quantity of water requisite to produce 

 these extracts, the addition of manure will be 

 in vain. Manure is useless to vegetation till 

 it becomes soluble in water, and it would re- 

 main useless in a state of solution, if the so- 

 lution so abounded as wholly to exclude air, 

 for the fibres, or mouihs, unable to perform 

 their functions, would soon decay and rot off." 



Pulverization, in a warm season, is of great 

 advantage in admitting the nightly dews to the 

 roots of plants. The soil, being fine, takes 

 up the moisture as fast as it is deposited 

 upon the surface, and passes it along, from 

 particle to particle, just as a sponge does, 

 down to the hungry fibres that are on the roots. 

 The operation is the same when a rain falls 

 upon the surface. It is in this way that crops 

 in fields which are in a fine condition are wa- 

 tered and sustained, while those where the soil 

 is left in a compact form, perish through lack 

 of moisture. 



In Bengal, it is said that the farmers con- 

 trive an implement something like our ladder, 

 or two or three ladders, side by side. It is 

 hauled over the ploughed surface to level and 

 pulverize it, and this they call confining the 

 moisture! 



A careful ploughing of lands in the fall, will 

 greatly relieve the spring work, and sensibly 

 increase future corps 



tabits* Oeparlmtttt. 



From All the Year Round. 

 TO A LITTLE HUSWIFE. 



O little Huswife clean and spruce, 



Thy use one heart divines: 

 A rosy apple, full of juice, 



And polish'd — till it shines I 

 A tidy, tripping, tender thing, 



A foe to lazy litters, 

 Ahouethold angel, tidying 



Till all arouLd thee glitters I 



To see thee in thy loveliness, 



So prudish and so chaste; 

 No epeck cpou the cotton dress 



Girdled around thy waist; 

 The ancle peeping white as snow 



Thy tu(?k"d-up kirtle under; 

 Whila shimng aishes, row on row, 



Behind thee, Etare and wonder I 



While round thy door the millions call, 



While tlie great u-arkets fill. 

 Though pu*3lio sorrow stiike us all, 



Sinking, thou workest still; 

 Yea, all thy care and all thy lot 



Is ever, sweft and willing, 

 To keep one little household spot 



As clean as a new shilling 1 



The crimson kitchen firelight dips 



Thy cheeks until they glow; 

 The white flour makes thy finger tips 



Like rodebut's dropt in snow. 

 When all thy little heart 



Flutters in eiultation 

 To compas?, in an apple tart, 



Thy noblest aspiration I 



O Huswife, may thy modest worth 



Keep ever fiee from wrong; 

 Blest be the house and bright the hearth 



Thou blesaest all day long I 

 And nightly, may th , sleep be sound, 



While o'er thee, softly, stilly. 

 The cartiins close, likes leaves around 



The hufehed heart of the lily I 



DOMESTIC ECONOMY; 



OR, 



HOW TO MAKE HOIME PLEASANT. 



BY ANNE G. HALE. 



[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 

 1866, by R. P. Eaton & Co., in the Clerk's Office of the 

 District Court for the District of Massachusetts.! 



FRUITS AND VEGETABLES — CARE AND 

 COOKING. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

 Ripe fruit and the esculent roots and seeds, when 

 fully matured, undoubtedly furnish the best sus- 

 tenance for the human frame. During the sum- 

 mer and autumn the generous earth lays an 

 abundance of these rich gifts at our feet, and 

 while enjoying them then, we are desirous to ex- 



