1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



77 



of country. Labor has no fixed price. The value slowly and surely the curved finger begins pack- 

 of" laud and the interest on land, is as unsettled i ing hiui endforeuiost down inte the gullet, where 

 as anything can be ; and the value of crops of all | he sinks, inch by inch, till the swelling which 

 kinds depends upon the state of the markets, and, marks liis place is lost among the coils, and he is 

 the facility for transporting the crop to the mar- probably macerated to a pulp long before he lias 

 ket. Still we have made out a rough model, reached the opposite extremity of his cave of 

 which every one disposed to do so can correct, as 'doom. Once safe down, the black murderer 

 the almanacs say, for his own latitude. We [slowly contracts again into a knotted heap, and 

 doubt not that he will find one thing true, to wit : jlies like a boa with a stag inside liim, motionlcf* 

 tliat root crops are among the most valuable of and blest. 



all the products of the farm 



It does not fjllow, we would add, ere we close, 

 that roots are not excellent feed, even though 

 they are of less profit as a crop for mark<^t. It is 



WEEDS IN WALKS. 



The following modes fur preventing the growth 

 worth while to produce many things fin- our owniof "^veeds in gravel walks, are copied from the 



WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 



[Under this title, there is an admirable 'paper 

 in the last number of the North Bri/ish Review J. of gravel. 

 We extract a paragraph in which is given 

 gi'aphic description of a singular worm :] 



use, wliich would not pay if carried off from the I correspondence of the Londoyi Gardener's Chron- 

 ^^'"™* icle, and may prove valuable to some of our read- 



ers — at the proper season : 



In order to prevent weeds from growing on 

 [walks, put a layer of gas-lime under the last inch 

 This also helps to bind the gravel, 

 ai The following is the way in which I managed 

 i walks when I was a gentleman's gardener. In 

 lone situation I held I liad three miles of gravel 

 At all events, whether we are intruding or not, I ^valks to keep in order. In winter, when there 

 in turning this stone, we must pay a fine for hav- 1 was sufficient frost to freeze the gravel in the 

 ing done so ; for there lies an animal as foul and mornings, I emploved the laborers in cleaning the 

 monstrous to the eye as "hydra, gorgon, or chi-Uyalks with a half worn out birch broom, swetp- 

 majra dire," and yet so Avondrously fitted to its I ing backwards and forwards, and tlicn removing 

 work, that we must needs endure, for our ownj^vith a new broom wlmt the old ones took off the 

 instruction, to handle and to look at it. Itsjsurfiice. When the Avalks were covered with 

 name we know not, (though it lurks here under j moss it was scraped off with a hoe before the 

 every stone,) and should be glad to know. It [broom was used. After having pursued this jirac- 

 sccms some very "low" Ascarid or PIanarian;tice for 6 vears, my walks looked as fresh and 

 worm. You see it? That black, shiny, knotted] dean as if they had been newly graveled. Last 

 lump among the gravel, small enough to bo taken ^season very few weeds made their appearance dur- 

 up in a desert-spoon. Look no^, as it is raised, | ing the summer ; by jierforming the operation 

 and its coils drawn out. Three feet— six— nine, 'when frost is on the ground, you not onlv remove 

 at least : with a capability of seemingly endless! all small weeds, but you sw(3»;p off most of the 

 expansion; a slimy tape of living caoutchouc, ! seeds deposited ' there to vegetate the following 



1 summer. If docks, thistles, or dandelions ap- 



pear, cat out their crowns and put a little salt 

 on tliem ; you will not have to repeat tlie salting 

 twice in one place. 



some eiglith of an inch in diameter, a dark, 

 chocolate black, with -pulcv longitudinal lines. Is 

 it alive? It hangs helpless and motionless, a 

 mere velvet string across the hand. Ask the 

 neighboring Annelids and the fry of the rock 



fishes, or put it into a vase at home, and see. It t'w-ts-^t-o-c at-d t-rt iir-cTT c 



lits motionless, trailing itself among the gravel ; im.tUliiU Alii IN Wii^Lb. 



you cannot tell where it begins or ends ; it may Eds. Rural, — Having often read aec<.unt8 ci 

 be a dead strip of soa-weed, ITunanthalia /orea deaths of persons entering wells containing impure 

 perhaps, or Chorda filum ; or even a tarred string, air, and having occasion to dig one the past sum- 

 So thinks the little fish who plays over and overimer, I took the precaution before any (me entered 

 it, till he touches at last what is too surely a the well, to trj' a lighted candle. I found on the 

 head. In an instant a bell-shaped sucker mouth I last morning of digging, the depth beiug about 

 has fastened to his side. In another instant, ! thirty feet, that the candle would not burn lov/er 

 from one lip, a concave dtnible proboscis, just like than ten feet. For the purpose of expelling the 

 a tiipir's (anotlier insUmce of the repetition of'gas, which had accumuhited during t!ie niglit, I 

 forms,) has clasped him like a finger ; and now; first went to drawing the tub, which I used i'or 

 begins the struggle — but in vain. He is beiug idfawing up dirt, up and down the well as fast as 



"played" with such a fishing-line as the skill ot 

 a Wilson or a Stoddartnever could invent ; a liv- 

 ing line, with elasticity beyond that of the most 

 delicate fly rod, which follows every lunge. 



possii)le, but found no benefit from so doing. I 

 then went to throwing water down, but with 

 like result. I had about given up the idea of 

 doinsc any tiling more at my well at present. 



shortening and lengthening, sli[(piugand twining! when the thought struck me that I would try the 

 round every piece of gravel and stem of sea-weed, experiment of letting down fire, never having 

 with a tiring drag, sucli as no Higldand wrist or | heard of such a remedy. I acconlingly jirocured 

 step coultl ever l)ring to bear on salmon or on ja kettle and filled it with light nuiterials, such 

 gi^rout. The victim is tir('<l now; and slowly, as chips and sliavings, hooked it on to t!ie ro]io, 

 ■fend yet dexterously, his blind assailant is feeling 'and h't it slowly down. After remaining a 

 and shifting along his side, till he reaches one [few minutes I drew it up, tried my candle, anu 

 end of him; and then the black lips expand, and found it to burn as bright as on the surface, the 



