430 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



producing eggs that ^vill weigh a quarter of a pound 

 each ! When hams are ripe, wouldn't it be a treat 

 to dine mth Mr. Hayes ! 



Far the New England Farmer. 



LITTLE THINGS : 



Or, a Walk in My Garden No. 2, 



As I have extended my walk, I come up to a 

 patch planted with 



SMALL POTATOES. 



I apprehend that your correspondents overlook one 

 important pruiciple in discussing this subject. The 

 potato is not a root, but a tuber, an excrescence as 

 it were from the stock. I suppose it to partake 

 somewhat of the nature of a bulb, M^hich will devel- 

 op itself remarkably under favorable circumstan- 

 ces, essentially the same as any bulbous or tuber- 

 ous plant. All such plants require a combination 

 of the most favorable circumstances for their com- 

 plete development. Plant large tubers and a drought 

 may produce small ones, but I do not see as their 

 capability of reproducing large ones the next year 

 can be seriously impaired ; but follow up the plan, 

 and it must be an exception to nature's operations, 

 if in a series of years the product be not dwarfish. 



I have suffered severely for three years past, by 

 planting small potatoes. It has so happened that 

 we have had a severe drought soon after planting, 

 M'hich has impaired the vitality of the plants exceed- 

 ingly. They came up looking feebly, and never re- 

 covered the shock. The same remark applies to 

 cutting out the eyes. If correspondents will bear 

 this fact in mind, it may reconcile some of their 

 conflicting testimony. 



I remember hearing my father relate an experi- 

 ment which he made about the year 1812. He 

 bought a bushel of potatoes, which were harder to 

 pay for at that time, than twenty-five bushels would 

 be to a young farmer at the present day. He took 

 a pointed penliiiife and cut out the eyes so as to di- 

 minish the bushel about two quirts after the opera- 

 tion, and planted them on burnt land, and harvest- 

 ed thirty-four bushels of handsome potatoes. 



After all, I hke what my neighbor, the Captain, 

 says : "I lilce to plant the same kind of seed as I 

 would raise." 



Possibly you may remember some experiments 

 which I communicated to the Farmer, on protect- 

 ing 



PEACH TREES. 

 I varied the experiment of protecting them last win- 

 ter to ascertain how much exposure they would 

 bear. I tied the limits together and wrapped round 

 them a single turn of furniture matting. One of 

 them had a foot of the top extending exposed above 

 the matting. The trees came out bright as you could 

 wish for, although the thermometer was down to 

 37'^ below zero once during the winter, the lowest 

 ever reached in this place. It was curious to set 

 how effectual the protection was, for the portion of 

 the tree exposed above the matting was killed just 

 to it, and no further. I consider the question set- 

 tled in regard to protecting the peach in this lati- 

 tude, after a trial of seven years. The only ques- 

 tion with me is, how they shall be treated so as to 

 bear. 



A step further brings me to the 



CHERRY TREES, 

 wliich have suffered severely the past winter. There 

 is a lesson yet to be learned in tliis \icinity on this 

 point. It will never do to rely on the catalogues 

 of nurserymen in this particular. We want some 

 varieties that will stand our -winter, without protec- 

 tion. I know of none to be relied on, except the 

 common Kentish or Pie cherry, wliich i^ perfectly 

 hardy here. I wish some correspondent would tell 

 us what to do here in Maine. I was astonished to 

 see such splendid cherry trees in Nova Scotia, while 

 recently there ; they were large, and so glossy that 

 you could almost see your fice in the bark. One 

 man sold cherries from his garden last year to the 

 pretty Uttle sum of one hundred and twenty dol- 

 lars. " N. T. T. 

 Bethel, Me., July 20, 1855. 



For the New England Farmer. 



IHCEEASED ATTENTION TO AGRICUL- 

 TURE, 



And its Connection v^^ith Chemistry, 

 by john goldsbury. 



Agriculture, for a long time, was almost wholly 

 abandoned, and continued to be neglected, till the 

 introduction of the feudal system in the fifteenth 

 century. This gave every man a distinction and 

 rank according to the quantity of land he occupied. 

 Nothing contributed more to give an importance to 

 agricultural pursuits, than the introduction of tliis 

 system, which gave the tenant who cultivated the 

 soil, as well as the landlord who ov^^led it, political 

 pririleges which were enjoyed by no other members 

 of the community. 



Notwithstanding all this, England has done more 

 for the advancement of agriculture, during the last 

 fifty years, than during double the amount of years 

 in any preceding period'of her history. She has al- 

 ways been engaged in war. Her history is made 

 up of little else but accounts of sieges, of battles, 

 and of conquests. While she has been so much en- 

 giged in foreign and aggressive wars, — while, in the 

 language of her own statesman, "she has been car- 

 rying her arts and her arms to the four quarters of 

 the globe," she has left her o«ai soil at home, un- 

 cultivated and unproductive. Witliin the last fifty 

 years, she has given more attention to agriculture ; 

 and her efforts have been crowned with success. 

 She has more than doubled the amomit of her ag- 

 ricultural productions. 



'The same remarks apply as well to the French ; 

 nay, they apply with more force to the French than 

 they do to the English. For the French have had 

 an equal amount of wars to carry on, while they 

 have suffered more from the effects of bad govern- 

 ment. Since the revolution, they have made some 

 advancement in agriculture, but are still far behind 

 Great Britain, notwithstanding they have a climate 

 and soil adapted to every variety of vegetable 

 growth. In all parts of the continent of Europe, 

 increasing attention is paid to this subject. InLom- 

 bardy and Flanders, it is carried to the highest 

 state of improvement. 



In all parts of the world, increased attention has 

 been paid to the cultivation of the soil. In the old 

 and new world, and in both hemispheres, men are 

 beginning to see, that an all-wise Creator has de- 

 creed that plants and animals should derive their 

 subsistence chiefly from the soil, and that all the el- 



