394 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



beautifully varied tints appear among the leaves of 

 the trees standing in low gi-ounds. 



So the month and seasons roll along, each pecu- 

 liar to itself, and each presenting aspects and fea- 

 tures more interesting at their o^vn proper time 

 than they possiljly could be at any other season ; 

 and all proclaiming the benevolence of that Intelli- 

 gence which has spoken them into existence, and 

 ■which directs them all, even to the tiniest insect 

 that dwells upon the dust of a flower. 



In their succession and varied attractions, we 

 must find sources of gratitude and joy ; learn to 

 avail ourselves of the ojjportunites which they pre- 

 sent for our imj)rovement, and fidly a]3preciate the 

 advantages which they present as they pass along. 



"To me the meanest flower that blows caD give 

 Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears." 



September affords an opportunity for doing cer- 

 tain things which no other month can — there is 

 such an o])j)ortunity. The fanner haraig secured 

 his grain — all but the inimitable Indian corn har- 

 vest — his hay, his winter rye and winter wheat got 

 in, and his piles of loam or muck for ■winter haul- 

 ing got out, can afford to Aisit others and see how 

 they manage their affairs. How wide and deep 

 they plow, and what sort of implement the work is 

 done with — how crops are planted and tended ; how 

 orchards are set and pruned ; how reclaiming 

 and drainage are managed ; how milch cows, horses, 

 oxen and swine appear compared with their own, 

 and lastly, but by no means of the least consequence, 

 how farmer Thiifty's wife manages her domestic 

 concerns, and whether she has not a washing ma- 

 chine, and several other exceedingly convenient and 

 not costly articles of furniture, wiiich his owti has 

 not ! Such a visit of observation as this, would be 

 of a most pleasing as well as profitalde character ; and 

 the ^vife and daughters may profit by it just as 

 much. We hope September will be greatly im- 

 proved by our friends in this manner. 



If ^vinter rye has been omitted, it may answer to 

 get it in early this month. 



Old grass land may be plowed and seeded to 

 grass, though it Avere better done in August. 



Swamjjs may be recltimed and ditching done, 

 where the land is sufficiently dry to admit of oper- 

 ations. 



Meadow muck in abundance should be thrown 

 out ready for ■winter hauUng. 



All the crops should be carefully harvested as 

 they ripen : the potatoes sorted as they are collect- 

 ed, and those intended for seed kept by them- 

 selves. 



Rank weeds that have been overlooked and gone 

 to seed should l)e pulled, dried a little and burnt, to 

 prevent their seeding the ground for another year. 



Cutting the stalks of com is preferable to letting 

 them stand. Cut when the spindle is dead, and 

 the edges of the leaves begin to be dry. 



CORN-CARRYING ON THE RUSSIAN 

 STEPPES. 



In order to judge at what cost the most impor- 

 tant of those exports are thus brought, and in order 

 to enable an inquirer to predict viith any approach 

 to certainty wh;it could be done under the pressure 

 of the most extraordinarj- temjitation from without, 

 let us leave the sLirp stone;*, deep mud, or clouds of 

 dust of Odessa, and examine the tracts along which 

 those long line of bullock wagons come creeking 

 from more northerly directions. I have said that 

 a vast belt of Steppe girdles this coast. We are 

 upon a Steppe. The prevailing color, as far as the 

 eye can reach over the immense plain, is a scorched 

 broAvn. The intense heat and drought have reduced 

 the Ste])]3e to tliis condition, and far beyond the 

 horizon line, and away, verst u])on verst, is the same 

 drear}' looking and ajjparently waste expanse. Not 

 that it is all flat — hills, barren and rugged, diversify 

 the line, and add to its difficulties, in dry weather 

 considerably, in wet incalculably. For look at the 

 gi'ound on which you stand. You are on one of 

 the roads, as they are termed. Elsewhere, a road, 

 good or bad, means something which has been made 

 — a line, upon which has been gathered material for 

 bmding and clasping, and below which there is some 

 kind of draining ; bad or good, the road is, as com- 

 pared with the adjacent land, diy, com])act and elas- 

 tic. Dismiss all such ideas from your mind, or 

 rather drag your limbs for an hour behind that 

 corn-wagon, and such ideas will chsappear of them- 

 selves. Dead and helpless seems that wo-begone 

 track, creaking and drawling over wiiich comes the 

 bullock-wagon — all wood, and built precisely as 

 wagons were built a thousand years ago. The 

 driver sits in front, occasionally lashing the gi'ay 

 bullocks more by way of form than Avith any idea 

 of hastening them, and his massy heard hangs doAvn 

 OA'er a s))ecies of censor, Avhence arise fumes of an 

 unsavoiT kind. But it is not in luxury, or in imi- 

 tation of his eastern neighbors, that the peasant 

 keeps this odor-breatliing vessel under his nose — 

 the contents are an abominable mixture for greasing 

 the wheels of his Avagon, and by Avhich you may 

 trace it tlirough many a yard of tainted air. Why 

 he has jilaced the reeking vessel betAveen his legs I 

 know not, unless it be to remind himself more for- 

 cil:)ly of the necessity of an ojjeration, Avithout the 

 incessant j^erformance of Avliich his clumsily built 

 cart Avould be on fire in four jjlaces at once. Con- 

 trast tliis Avretched macliine Avith the Avell contrived, ' 

 iron mounted cart of the German colonist, a fcAV 

 miles hence. But on goes the Avagoner, jolting 

 and creaking along the imhelpf'ul soil, and singing 

 some of those old airs in which, rude as they are, 

 there is some melody, or saying j^rayers to one or 

 other of the multifarious national saints. On he 

 goes, and so he and his predecessors have gone since 

 corn AA-as groAvn in Russia. Ricketty carts, knotted 

 ro})e harness, droAvsy Inillock, Avretched roads — so 

 craAvls the loaf toAvards the Englishman's table. — 

 Shirley Brooks, a Year in Russia. 



{i^ The Lexington (Mo.) Express states, as the 

 result of a careful inquiry, that the hemp crop of 

 Lafayette county is inferior in quantity if not in 

 quaHty, and that it aaiII perhaps turn out more than 

 than tAvo-thirds or tkree-foiu-ths of the amount 

 usually produced. 



