246 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



bites her neighbor, is loss worthy of respect than 

 an honest washerwoman. The profligate noble, 

 though he may wear a dozen orders in his button- 

 hole, is often not really as respectable as the shoe- 

 black that cleans his boots. That which is called 

 "the world" exalts the one and despises the other, 

 but it dots not make tlicni respectable, according 

 t3 the real nieaninji of the word. Their respecta- 

 bility is all a hollow sham, as they themselves 

 frequently feel : and those who worship them bow 

 down to a Fetish, a thing of feathers and tinsel. 

 The selfish, idle drone, who wastes life in his owm 

 gratification, and dissipates the fortune of his prog- 

 eny, is not, and cannot be, respectable ; but the 

 hard-working, self-denying father, who wears out 

 his life to bring up his children, is, even though 

 he be but a day-laorer. Nothing can make Dives 

 fit to lie on Abraham's bosom, while Lazarus is 

 welcomed there, even with the sores the dogs 

 have licked. 



This false view of life, which would measure 

 respectability by a conventional standard, is to- 

 tally at variance with our republican institutions. 

 It creates an '^inipcrium in imperio ;^^ for while 

 the law declares all citizens equal, it erects a so- 

 cial standard which endeavors to ignore that great 

 truth. The coarse, brutal, knavish, profligate, 

 criminal — in short all who fall short of their duty 

 to themselves and their fellow-men — are those 

 who are ''not respectable;" and this, whether 

 they are rich or poor. While those who live hon- 

 estly, and strive to do what good they can, con- 

 stitute what is really the respectable class, irre- 

 spective of the fact whether they eat with silver 

 forks or steel ones. — Dollar Newspaper. 



For the Neiv England Farmer. 



CATERPILLARS. 



This pest of the fruit-grower may now be very 

 easily destroyed, by simply picking oif the eggs 

 deposited on the tips of the branches last summer 

 by the butterfly. They are wax-like in appieai'- 

 ance, and form a suiall ring around the limb, from 

 one-fourth to nearly an inch in length, and about 

 an eiglith of an incli in thickness. It is not one- 

 tenth so much work to remove the eggs as it will 

 be the nests Ity and by. 



Not recollecting to have ever seen any thing of 

 this mode of destroying this pest of the orchard in 

 your valuable paper, T send you the above, which 

 is at your service. Enclosed is a specimen of the 

 eggs attached to the limb. S. Ten'nev. 



West Poland, Mc, March, 1855. 



The Weather in Maine. — The weather here 

 is very cold for the season. The snow is full 

 three feet deen in the woods, and has not began 

 to go off yet. T^he sugar maple refuses to yield 

 its annual harvest, but we hojie warmer days are 

 coming soon. S. Tenney. 



West Poland, Me., March 26. 



Correspondents will confer a favor by writing 

 on one side of the payier only. We have many 

 valuable coiumunications on hand which will 

 bear keeping, and shall have proper attention by- 

 and-by. As far as possible, we endeavor to intro- 

 duce those first which may be acted upon practi- 

 cally at once, at the same time desiring to present 

 a variety of topics. 



MUCK AND GUANO. 



A QUESTION FOR I'ROFESSOR NASH. 



There are few men in whose sound and prac- 

 tical knowledge of the value and effect of ma- 

 nures we have so much confidence, as in that of 

 Pi-ofessor Nash, Editor of the Farmer, published 

 at Amherst. We desire, therefore, to ask him a 

 single question, with a view to making his reply 

 as public as the interrogatory itself. It is this : — 

 What, in your opinion, would be the effect of 

 three hundred pounds of guano upon an acre of 

 good land for the space of five years ? And what 

 the effect of the same monej' cost, say $9.00, of 

 good meadow muck, spread upon another acre 

 of the same kind of land for the same length of 

 time, — both fields to be planted with precisely 

 the same crops, and cultivated and treated every 

 way alike ? 



For the Netv Enf^land Farmer. 



POTATOES-GRASS SEED. 



Mr. Editor: — Having noticed in the Farmer 

 a very interesting article from an old friend, 

 Amasa AValker, Esq., upon his great success in 

 potato growing, I am induced to state the prac- 

 tice of our Long Island farmers in this branch of 

 f\xrmi ig. In the towns of Flushing, Flatland, 

 Flatlnish, &c., raising potatoes is the main busi- 

 ness of many farmers. They market early, ob- 

 tain great prices, deal in peach basket, bushels, and 

 many of them range from two to seven thousand 

 dollars for this crop alone annually. Their prin- 

 cipal variety is Mercer, not unlike your Che- 

 nango in ap)pearance. They use horse manure, 

 plow deep, and, as one farmer said to me, he had 

 raised potatoes fifteen consecutive years on the 

 same piece of land. 



Their practice is to select the largest for seed. 

 They cut off and give to the pigs the "seed end," 

 as it is often called ; cut the potatoes lengthwise 

 into quarters, plant two and a half feet apart by 

 three feet, and hill very little. They say by 

 cutting off the small eyes, they get more pounds 

 of potatoes, and avoid small ones ; four to five 

 large stocks to the hill is all they want. Judg- 

 ing from the large size they were digging, I put 

 them down as the L. L. D.'s of the profession. 



Is this not sound doctrine, and would it not 

 apply to Chenangos, Long Ilcds, and all those 

 long varieties which show a "seed end?" And 

 does it prove any thing in its application to small 

 potatoes ? Small potatoes, planted year after 

 year, prove to my mind the principle of dirarfing. 



I hope ]Mr. VValker and others will try the 

 Long Island experiment, and publish the result. 

 I would suggest the following plan : 1. Plant 

 the large quarters in rows separately ; 2. Plant 

 the "seed end" separately, then there will be no 

 loss of seed, and the difference will be seen; 3. 

 Plant separately the hen's egg size ; 4. Plant sep- 

 arately the next size smaller ; 4. Plant separately 

 the size of a robin's egg. Test the whole experi- 

 ment fairly. No time is lost bej-ond sorting sizes. 

 Results may come that will gratify tlie ambition 

 to raise large potatoes, which is the only aim of 

 the farmer. "Small potatoes and few in the hill" 

 is his abomination. 



