1855. 



XEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



535 



For the Nete England Farmer. 



WORCESTER SOUTH AGRICULTURAL 

 SOCIETY. 



This Society held its first anniversary- under its 

 charter, at Sturbridge, on the 3d inst. The weather 

 was fine, the show of cattle good, the Uibles hand- 

 somely covered with fruits and various objects of 

 female manufacture, and the whole went off in a 

 very satisfoctory and encouraging manner. The 

 address was by Hon. Amasa Walker ; subject. Home 

 Education of the Farmer. The speaker dwelt 

 principally upon the practicaljility and importance 

 of estiiblishing Farmers* Chil)s in every agricultural 

 town in the commonwealth, for the purpose of es- 

 tablishing courses of lectures and classes for study- 

 ing agricultural works. These he would have united 

 into one great system under the auspices of the 

 State, all acting together, and co-operating for the 

 diffusion of scientific and practical information in 

 regard to agriculture, horticulture, and other kin- 

 dred toj)ics. The subject was examined in all its 

 details, and its feasibility illustrated by analogous 

 examples. The address was listened to with pro- 

 found attention, and seemed to meet the approval 

 of the audience. 



comparison with horses. "We believe that on every 

 farm numbering a hundred acres and upwards, a 

 l)ortable engine could be profitably used. — Scientijic 

 j*4men"caH, 



> AcK>'()WLEDGMi'A'TS. — Our acknowledgments are 

 due Daxiel P. Cobi'KN, Esq., of Tyngsboro', for a 

 variety of apples, as well as ibr a forty-pound mel- 

 on. To Mr. Eluiudge G. Farmer, of West Cam- 

 bridge, for apples, and to several unlcnown persons 

 who have kindly sent us fruits. 



Far the Neir England Farmer. 



REMOVAL OF STUMPS. 



Mr. Editor : — In a recent number of your jour- 

 nal appeared an article approving the use of the 

 stump machine. We have adopted a method in this 

 vicinity for the removal of stumps which I find ef- 

 ficient and profitable. Dig about the stumps to ex- 

 pose the main body, then fill in with dead brush or 

 other dry stuff, and pile fuel about the stump some- 

 what after the manner of preparing a coal kiln ; 

 cover with sods closely and compactly, open a small 

 place and set the wood on fire, and close all up. If 

 properly tended for a few hours, to renew sods and 

 keej) the covering close, the stump will be reduced 

 to ashes fit for fertilizing purposes. 



Every large pine stump which I can treat in this 

 manner I regard worth ai)out a dollar. 



Bangor, Me. Michael. 



A FARM STEAM ENGINE. 

 One of our correspondents — A. C. Ireland, of 

 Chillicothe, Ohio — informs us that a neat portable 

 steam engine, for driving a grain thrasher and 

 separator, has been constructed at the machine shop 

 of Wm. Welsh, of that place, under the superin- 

 tendence of John Ritchie, imd has been in oj)eration 

 since the 5th of hust Julj-, thrashing and cleaning 

 from five to six hundred bushels jjcr day. It is 

 Ciipa!)le of doing more than this, but H. Wiide — for 

 whom it was built — says that this is excellent work. 

 The boiler is tubuLu", the cylinder is of G inches 

 bore and 12 inches stroke. It make 175 revolu- 

 tions per minute, with steam at 40 l!)s. pressure, and 

 does more work than any common thrashing ma- 

 chine driven by eight horses. It is placed on broad 

 tread wheels, four feet in diameter, is easily drawn 

 from i)lace to place by two horses, with the boiler 

 filled, and is very economical in the use of fuel. 

 This engine is capable of dri\ing various agricultu- 

 ral machines and sawing firewood for the family. 

 We have no doubt but portable steam engines will 

 yet come into more general use among our farmers, 

 as they are so convenient and easily managed in 



BOYS' DEPARTMENT. 



THE WORM AT THE ROOT. 



BY UXCLE 1R.\>,K. 



When I was a little boy, I always took a great 

 interest in the plants that grew in my father's gar- 

 den. My father was quite a gardener. The neigh- 

 bors, I remember, used to say that his heart was 

 liound up in his garden. Ever}- morning in the 

 spring of the year, after the plants began to show 

 their heads above the surface of the ground, he 

 might be found among the cucumbers, and the mel- 

 ons, and the jjeas, and the cabbages ; and I learned, 

 after a while, to watch the appearance and gi'owth 

 of these plants A\'ith almost as much interest as he 

 cUd. 



One spring, I recollect, the cucumber plants were 

 quite backward in showing their faces above ground. 

 It grew so late, that he almost despaired of their 

 coming up at all. The weather was too cold, pro- 

 bably, to admit of their sprouting. They came up, 

 however, at last, and looked as finely as if they had 

 ajjpeared at the time when they were first due. 

 They grew fast as soon as the warm weather came 

 on ; and, to my eyes, it was a veiy pleasant sight 

 to see the old oval leaves growing wider and new 

 ones of a different shape coming out, one after 

 another, above them. 



I was a good deal surprised, though, one morn- 

 ing, to see several of these plants looking sickly ; 

 and I was still more surprised the next day, to find 

 them looking worse. Nor was that all the mys- 

 tery. Other plants were, one by one, attacked in 

 the same way, and they, like the first, sickened and 

 died. What was the matter with the cucumber 

 plants ? Were they sick ? Was it a disease that 

 struck them and carried them ott"? 



I went to my father with the inquiry. " It is a 

 worm at the root," he said. I thought he must be 

 mistaken, and told him so. I had pulled uj) some 

 of the plants which were djing, and could see no 

 worm round the roots. There is a large black 

 worm that often cuts off the young cucumber plant, 

 just below the surface of the ground. He does his 

 work as neatly as a man could do it with a ])en- 

 knife. Tliat was the kind of worm I expected to 

 find. But he was not there, and I knew of no 

 other worm that was an enemy to young cucumber 

 plants. But I found out, from my father, at the 

 time I am speaking about, that there is a very small 

 worm who kills the cucumber plant as surely as the 

 black rascal, though he goes at his work in a differ- 

 ent way. He is a very little fellow, and gets inside 

 the root, maizes his home there, poisons the plant, 

 and eats out its very hfe, little by little. 



Now, my dear reader, that is just exactly the way 

 that a certain little w'orm cuts up everything gooil 



