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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



of which will in consequence produce very limited 

 crops. This is ever the case in dry seasons, except 

 perhaps on peculiar soils or meadows subject to the 

 overtlow of streams. 



IIow different tlio case with newlj'-secded fields, 

 and especially where plenty of clover has been sown ! 

 The vigor of the growing crops, the deep green color 

 which it presents, even in the most trying seasons, 

 and especially the abundant yield which it affords, 

 are all convincing proofs of the benefits to be derived 

 from the frequent breaking up and re-seeding of grass 

 lands. "We are aware that there is much diversity 

 of opinion among fanners, as to how far this practice 

 should be carried, and on what soils it is to be prac- 

 tised ; but we think that those who have looked care- 

 fully to the x>rodiict of old and newly seeded fields 

 for a term of years, will agree with us that it is far 

 too frequently neglected. 



Some soils, such as river bottoms and lands subject 

 to overflow, and possibly others, under peculiar cir- 

 cumstances may profitably remain permanently in 

 grass. "With those who advocate such a practice we 

 are not disposed to debate the question. They are 

 frequently, though perhaps not always, right. Other 

 lands, well adapted to grass, if well seeded, may prof- 

 itably be suffered to remain many years without dis- 

 turbing the sod, especially if care is taken to give 

 them an occasional top-dressing Avith manure — ash- 

 es, plaster, or some other fertilizer. The practice is 

 more admissible if the soil, as is often the case, is 

 hard to cultivate, stony, and difficult to secure an 

 even surface by the removal of stones, &c. In such 

 cases perhaps a slight diminution of crop, or an in- 

 creased outlay for manure, can be submitted to, 

 rather than go to the trouble and expense of break- 

 ing and re-seeding. We doubt, however, whether 

 the practice has not obtained of continuing even such 

 lands too long in grass. 



Another class of lands well adapted to grass, but 

 at the same time easy of tillage, are frequently con- 

 tinued in meadow or pasture long after they have 

 ceased to produce a bountiful crop, and when the 

 owner's interest would be much better consulted by 

 a judicious rotation. As a general rule, lands which, 

 at first seeding, will produce two tons of hay per 

 acre, degenerate in a few years to half that quan- 

 tity — when, by breaking up and taking off one hoed 

 crop, and one of small grains, both of which will af- 

 ford a profit, the land may be seeded anew and pro- 

 duce as well as at first. The occupant of such lands 

 is too apt to have a short supply of both straw and 

 grain, and especially of roots, for his stock, when the 

 course we have recommended would afford him just 

 the supply he needs, and enable him to keep far more 

 stock, even were his grass crop no better, which we 

 are not at all prepared to admit. 



But the lands which suffer most for want of fre- 

 •qucnt breaking up and re-seeding, are the dry, grav- 

 elly, or sandy soils, which, although they produce 

 good crops of grass for two or three years when first 

 seeded, soon " run out," and cease to give that boun- 

 tiful return which a judicious system may secure. 

 Such lands are generally well suited to the grow'ing 

 of grain of some kind, and frequently peculiarly cal- 

 culated for a rotation of the various crops in con- 

 nection with clover and timothy. It is this class of 

 soils which demands the adoption of the system of 

 rotation which wo have suggested, and which is now 

 so successfully practised by many farmers in all sec- 

 tions of the country. A rotation embracing four or 

 six crops, of which two or three shall be grain and 

 three or four grass, will secure at all times good grass 

 crops, and at the same time enable the soil to recover 

 from the exhaustion of the grain crops before it is 

 again appropriated to such purposes. We will not 

 now submit any plan of rotation, but every farmer 

 Can judge for himself what system is best suited to 



his soil and circumstances. Our object will have 

 been gained, if we succeed in fixing the subject in 

 the minds of those farmers whose grass crops are 

 this year suffering so severely, and induce them to 

 look for the remedy, in future, to a more systematic 

 and well-digested rotation of crops, and especially to 

 the proper seeding down to grass of their lands in- 

 tended for that crop. The quantity and kind of seed 

 is a subject of importance, and one which may well 

 afford a text for a separate article. — Rural Xeic- 

 Yorker. 



ON THE DIGNITY OF LABOR. 



{From a Sjjcech of the Bishop of Oxford, at ike West- 

 minster Meeting in Aid of the Exhibition of the Works 

 of Industrt/ of all Nations, to be held in 1851.) 



I believe that the tendency of this exhibition is to 

 benefit the working classes. I am not one of those 

 who have any secret misgivings as to there existing 

 any intestine warfare between Christianity and sci- 

 ence or manufactures. I know that there are men 

 upon whose excellence it would be needless for me 

 to enlarge who do entertain such apprehensions. In 

 the quiet of their learned study, conversing with 

 times that are gone by, they are startled by the din 

 of the busy age, as it rises through their windoM'S. 

 They listen with apprehension and dislike to the 

 voice of the age in which their lot has been cast, and 

 they call it a mechanical age, and find with it other 

 such like faults. Now, I do not sympathize with 

 their opinions. I deny, and hold it as unworthy of 

 Christianity to suppose, that there can be any oppo- 

 sition whatever between the fullest development of 

 those faculties with which Almighty God has fur- 

 nished man, and that Christian faith which is to train 

 those faculties to their highest ends. When from 

 these abstract considerations I turn to the actual 

 world around me, and survey these mechanical inven- 

 tions, I see in many instances beneficence marking 

 these very mechanical improvements, and they have 

 a direct tendency to ameliorate the condition of the 

 lower classes of the people, and to brmg within their 

 reach advantages which were before restricted to 

 the richer grades of society. And then, moreover, 

 whefiier we regard the results of mechanical science 

 or the products of art, I think we shall be convinced 

 that there is a connection between perfection in these 

 and the faith of Christianity. As an historical fact, 

 it is plain that there never was a country or a time 

 which could long maintain preeminence in art or 

 science divorced from Christianity. I believe that 

 the history of all countries will show this. 



Look for a moment at the Chinese. We find that 

 nation, so eminently gifted with those special facul- 

 ties which would naturally make them superior in all 

 the mimetic arts, in a state of perpetual stagnation, 

 having lost even the power of using the inventions 

 of former ages. And this is so because they want 

 the spring which Christianity alone can give to set 

 all their faculties in exercise, and to develop them to 

 their highest standard of perfection. I think it, 

 therefore, my part, holding the place which I do in 

 the Christian church, to come forward, not with any 

 secret misgivings ; not with any cold, injurious doubts 

 or hesitations ; but heartily, and I may say, rejoicing- 

 ly, not in spite of my Christianity, to aid according 

 to my powers in the development of science and the 

 mechanical arts. This it is my firm belief that it is my 

 duty to do, and I feel that I am on my right ground 

 when I stand here and address these observations to 

 you. But I feel, moreover, that it is possible a na- 

 tion may be too much occupied with the works of 

 art, and Avith the triumphs of science ; and that in 

 attending too exclusively to these, it may lose that 

 eternal llow of life, without which all external devel- 



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