1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



73 



"HOME SICK FOR THE COUNTRY." 



Since the Almij:hty placed our first parents in the garden cf 

 Eden, a passion and Uive for the cuuntry has been natural to 

 the heart of man. A correspondent of the Knickerbocker 

 gives vent to this feeling as follows : 



" For my part, I am weary of city life, and sigh for the Great 

 Mother. I see the wavini? of trees, but they are rooted in a 

 church-yard, or srow between flag-stones. I hear the notes of 

 singing birds, but they are pewter canaries at sixpence apiece. 

 I am tired of water running up and down leaden pipes, and 

 throuu'h cocks and filters ; I want to see it rise like a Naiad, 

 dripping from the well. I am haunted of ' stoops,' and have a 

 sort of green sickness for porches clambered over with greenery. 

 I wish for other flowers than artificial, and desire to look upon 

 rain not as an incjinvenience, but as a blessing to the crops. 



" I'd kind o' like to have a cot 

 Fixed on some sunny slope ; a spot 



Five acres, more or less, 

 With maples, cedars, cherry trees, 

 And poplars whitening in the breeze. 



" 'Twould suit my taste, I guess. 

 To have the porch with vines o'erhung. 

 With bells of pendant woodbine swung ; 



In every bell a bee ; 

 And round my lattice window spread 

 A clump of roses, white and red. 



" To solace mine and me, 

 I kind o' think I should desire 

 To hear around the lawns, a choir 



Of wood-birds singing sweet ; 

 And in a dell I'd have a brook, 

 Where I might sit and read my book. 



" Such should be my retreat. 

 Far from the city's crowds and noise ; 

 There would I rear the girls and boys, 



(I have some two or three,) 

 And if kind Heaven should bless my store, 

 With five or six or seven more, 



How happy I should be ! " 



PULVERISED PEAT. 



A most important discovery has been made by 

 an eminent agricultural professor of chemistry, 

 that iiuely pulverised peat will effectually deodor- 

 ise the most offensive putrid matter, and destroy 

 the most fcctid odors ; in fact, that it possesses 

 the wonderful disinfecting properties of charcoal, 

 that by mixing it with common niglit-soil in 

 about equal proportions, one of the most valuable 

 manures is made, and proved by experiments not 

 inferior in results to the best South American gua 

 no. It may be made at all seasons and stored 

 away for use, or the land dressed with it immedi- 

 ately. This valuable manure may be used as a 

 top-dressing, or drilled, or dropped in with the 

 seed, at tlic rate of from 700 to 800 pounds per 

 acre, and it may be applied Avith l)enelit to every 

 kind of crop. It may be sown with the seeds of 

 all green crops, and it will push thcni into early 

 and rapid growth. It will also bo I'ound highly 

 serviceable in all garden crops, shrulis, and llower 

 beds. If the limdy pulverised peat be strewn over 

 the floors of stables, piggeries or cow houses, witli 

 a very liglit covering of straw over it, it will ab- 

 sorb and retain all moisture, disinfect the building 

 of every noxious gas so injurious to cattle, and by 

 its mixture with the excreta from the animals, 

 for immediate use. Sheep folded upon it at night 

 would produce wonderful and most important re- 

 sults to fanners in the vast production of valuable 

 manure. Finely pulverised peat also supplies 

 the ready means of removing all nuisances, there- 

 by promoting the public health — and many years 

 cannot elapse before this important discovery will 



be adapted to convert all the noxious matter of 

 the country into solid portable manure, without 

 any offensive odor, instead of being carried into 

 streams and rivers, vitiating the water we drink 

 by polluting it with animal and vegetable matter 

 again, by evaporation, impregnating the very at- 

 mosphere we breatiie and producing an actual loss 

 of the most valualde materials to the agriculture 

 of the United Kingdom, whicli, if taken in 

 the aggregate from all available resources, can 

 scarcely be estimated at less than 10,0(10,000/, 

 sterling, annually. Further details cannot now 

 be entered upon, but it may be remarked: — let 

 every cottage be possessed of this cheap and valu- 

 able article, finely pulverised peat, and his garden 

 may vie with the ))e8t in produce and verdure ; 

 he may thoroughly manure his own ground and 

 have a large surplus to dispose of to his more 

 wealthy neighbor. Let every small householder 

 see to it, and produce a portable, inodorous, and 

 valuable manure, saleable in every locality. From 

 the palace to the hovel the same means arc avail- 

 able, but where water closets, cess-pools, sewers, 

 &c., have to be contended with, time will be re- 

 quired to effect the necessary changes ; yet, in the 

 nineteenth century, surely, our enlightened age, 

 with these startling facts before us, will never 

 long permit the foundation of such vast w'calth to 

 the country to be floating in the ocean. These 

 remarks are only the outline of this important 

 discovery. — Gardeners'' Chronicle. 



VOYAGE AROUND A PUDDING. 



Dr. Bushwhacker folded his napkin, drew it 

 through the silver ring, laid it on the table, fold- 

 ed his arms, and leaned back in his chair, by 

 which we knew there was something at work in 

 his knowledge-box. "My dear madam," said 

 he, with an aboriginal shake of the head, "there 

 are a great many things to be said about that 

 pudding." 



Now, such a remark at a season of the year 

 when eggs are five for a shilling, and not always 

 fresh at that, is enough to discomfort anybody. 

 The doctor perceived it at once, and instantly 

 added, "In a, geografhkal point of view, there 

 are many things to be said about that pudding. 

 My dear madan," he continued, "take tapioca 

 itself; what is it, and where docs it come from T' 



Our eldest boy, just emerging from chicken- 

 hood, answered, "85 Chambers Street, two doors 

 below the Irving House." 



"True, my dear friend," responded the doc- 

 tor, with a friendly pat on the head ; "true, but 

 that is not what I mean. Where," he repeated, 

 witli a ({uestioning look through his spectacles, 

 and a Bushwhackiau nod, "does tapioca come 

 from?" 



"Rio de Janeiro and Para !" 



"Yes, sir ; from Kio de Janeiro in the south- 

 ern, and Para in the northern part of the Bra- 

 zils, do we get our tapioca ; from the roots of a 

 plant called tiie Mandioca, botanically the Jat- 

 iropha Man i hot, or, as they say, tiie Cassava. 

 The roots are long and round, like a sweet po- 

 tato ; generally a foot or more in length. Eve- 

 ry joint of the plant will produce its roots like 

 tiie cuttings of a grape-vine. The tubers are 

 dug up from the ground, peeled, scraped, or gra- 

 ted, tlieu put in long sacks of flexible ratan — 



