356 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug, 



done nothing hitherto, are now sowing, so that 

 wo shall have about the same numbar of acres as 

 in 185-1. IIow much of it will be secured re- 

 mains to be seen, and how we shall get it ground 

 is another question, seeing the mill is on the 

 island of Oahu. 



Had I engaged in the business of wheat raising 

 with the sole or even chief view of making money, 

 I should not be a little mortified, but greatly so, 

 with my want of success, for I have, thus far, 

 failed to clear any thing. !My chief object, how- 

 ever, was to introduce the grain into the coun- 

 try, and persuade my people to cultivate it. In 

 this I have succeeded, and I am more than con- 

 tent. 1 am thankful. One of my people was 

 quite successful the last year, there being less 

 rain on his place than in my immediate neigh- 

 borhood. The same man has some fifty acres, 

 which look exceedingly well. Had the mill for 

 flouring been put at \Vailuku, where it was de- 

 signed at first to place it, so that we could obtain 

 the grinding of our wheat without sending it to 

 sea, I should feel quite whole, after all, on the 

 subject of wheat. I still hope that all in good 

 time we shall have a small flouring mill at that 

 place, where the water privileges are favorable, 

 or perhaps a wind-mill at JMakawao, where we 

 raise the precious grain. 



You know, I suppose, that I am pastor of the 

 church at this place, and that, of course, I have 

 many cares and much labor devolving upon me. 

 My appropriate work I may not neglect for any 

 temporal consideration whatever. Did I not 

 think that my elTorts in the agricultural depart- 

 ment had an important bearing on my ministerial 

 labors in elevating the people from their low 

 condition, teaching them industry and thrift, and 

 giving them stronger motives for exertion of the 

 right sort, I would cease at once all attention to 

 business of this kind. I am, besides, unable to 

 toil as formerly, having a maimed hand. The 

 loss of my right hand thumb does not prevent my 

 writing, though I write with pain, but it prevents 

 my doing a thousand things which 1 have been 

 accustomed to do. I cannot pick up a nail, can- 

 not use the axe, the siiw or the plane, and 

 scarcely the hoe or the sickle. Still, I can over- 

 see the labor of the farm as usual, and can com- 

 mend the cause of agriculture to the increased 

 attention of my people. Our Hawaiian Agricul- 

 tural Society, formed some two yeai'S since, will 

 unite with one recently formed at Wailuku, and 

 there will be an exhibition of some sort in the 

 course of the season. If we shall succeed, you 

 may expect to hear from us all in good time. 

 We on Main find it of little use to belong to the 

 Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society, which holds 

 all its meetings and has all its exhibitions, fairs, 

 &c., at Honolulu. Nothing of the cattle, sheep 

 or swine, nor even of the fowl kind, can we pre 

 sent for competition. It is time that we had an 

 efficient society of our own. 1 have never more 

 deeply felt the dignity and importance of agri- 

 cultural pursuits than I do now. Noble em- 

 ployment ! It is the business which, so far as this 

 world is concerned, makes man a co-worker with 

 God in providing for the wants of his almost in- 

 numerable family. Would that every husband- 

 man felt the dignity of his labor. 



Yours with much respect, J. S. Greex. 



WOMAN. 



BY WILLIAM L K G G E T T . 



No star in yonder sky that shines 



Can light like woman's eye impart ; 

 The earth holds not in all its mines 



A germ so rich as woman's heart ; 

 Her voice is like the music sweet 



Poured out from airy harp alone ; 

 Like that when storms more loudly beat, 



It yields a clearer, richer tone. 



And woman's love's a holy light, 



That brighter, brighter burns, for aye ; 

 Years cannot dim its radiance bright ; 



Nor even falsehood quench its ray; 

 But like the star of Bethlehem, 



Of old to Israel's shepherds given, 

 It marshals with its steady flame 



The erring soul of man to heaven. 



THE TRUE VALUE OE THE MmERAL 



ELEMENTS OF THE SOIL. 



We hear so much said ])y chemists and men of 

 science, about minerals and their importance as 

 fertilizers, that, without stopping to think, we 

 should almost be led to believe that these were 

 the only elements of nutrition needed by vegeta- 

 bles. We are told of the wonderful effects pro- 

 duced by the application of the various salts of 

 ammonia, potash, soda, lime, silex, iron sulphur, 

 ic, to the soil. We are pointed to analyses of 

 vegetables, shewing the percentage of these ele- 

 ments contained in their composition, and we are 

 almost ready to imagine that vegetables may be 

 manufactured in the laboratory, out of the ele- 

 ments. Indeed, we should hardly be surprised to 

 hear, one of these days, that Prof. Mapes had 

 taken out a patent for manufacturing them in a 

 wholesale way. We hope when he takes out his 

 patent for the manufacture of corn, he will give 

 it to us in the shape of the whole grain, and not 

 in the shape of flour, or we shall be very apt to 

 suspect that it contains an excess of superphos- 

 phates'. 



But to be serious, mineral elements are doubt- 

 less of indispensable necessity to the healthful 

 and vigorous growth of plants. They will not 

 be perfect in all their parts without a due pro- 

 portion of such salts as their several constitutions 

 require. But these elements are not all which 

 they require. The staple food of plants, that 

 from which they derive their chief nutriment and 

 support, is the carbonaceous matter, which is 

 called humus or earth, par excellence. This is 

 composed essentially of decayed vegetable and 

 animal matters. These contain more or less min- 

 eral matter which previously existed in the vege- 

 tables of which they were composed when they 

 were in a living state. Bat after all the talk 

 about minerals, the great object of the cultivator 

 must be to obtain an abundixnt supply of decayed 

 straw, leaves, wood, pjat, and the excrements of 

 animals duly mixed and combined, and apply 



