1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEIVIER. 



135 



specting the merits of the question between the 

 the parties in this case. But this we do know, 

 that this branch of industry is greatly de- 

 pressed and many establishments are at their 

 wit's end to determine what is best to be done. 

 Some stop entirely ; some in part ; others pro- 

 pose a reduction of wages. So much for the 

 employers. The employed say that the cost 

 of living is so great that they cannot get on 

 with a less price for their services than they 

 have been receiving during the past few years. 

 How are these conflicting necessities to be met 

 and satisfactorily adjusted, is the great ques- 

 tion of the day. Is its solution to be found, 

 as some suppose, in a union of interest in the 

 results of their investments of capital and la- 

 bor? If so, I hope an abler pen than mine 

 will demonstrate the fact in these columns. 

 Let us, Messrs. Editors, have the facts in- 

 volved in this question. K. o. 

 Broad Brook, Oonn., Jan., 18G8. 



J^'or the New England Farmer. 



HOME ABTD ITS SUBROUIfDINGS. 



"O for a land where the sun has smiles, 

 And flowers perennial bloom." 



Who does not love the flowers ? Beautiful 

 stars of the lower world ! They fill the air 

 with fragrance and clothe the earth in beauty. 

 Who that loves the pearly, sparkling orbs of 

 the heavens above, does not love these bright, 

 beautiful things of the earth below ? The sun 

 loves them and smiles on them, and they open 

 their sweet petals to kiss his bright raj's; As 

 they germinate, they drink in the fresh rain of 

 the evening and the nectar dews of the morn- 

 ing, and God blesses them. Their language 

 is silent, yet how eloquent ! In the spring 

 time they remind us of our ingress to mortal 

 life ; in their dissolution, of our egress from 

 mortality to immortality. Their office is to 

 charm and beautify, — to inspire our thoughts 

 and hopes with the beauty of immortal gardens, 

 of perpetual bloom, and to strew our path- 

 way in life with evidences of Divine love and 

 boimty. 



"Earth's smileB — God's kisses." 



I fancy flowers did not exist when God 

 pronounced everything merely "good." 



Now that froiit and snows have come, and the 

 flowers have withered and decayed, come with 

 me, reader, and I will show you where, but a 

 few short weeks ago, all this beauty and love- 

 liness existed. 



A ^^alk in the Garden. 



This little garden contains but one-third of 

 an acre, including buildings. These apple 

 and pear trees, promiscuously scattered about, 

 were set for the purpose of mingling the nsefiil 

 with the beautiful, and making home pleasant. 

 Straight lines are objectionable in a garden, as 

 they produce an unnatural stiffness which 

 greatly mars or destroys floral beauty by a set 

 and rude mixing of colors and habit&. 



Let us go round to the left, or east side, and 

 move around to the west, as I was M^ont to 

 do when the flowers were here, so as to get a 

 view of them on the sunny side. 



This beautiful apple tree on our left I 

 grafted but four years ago, in a seedling stock, 

 one-half inch in diameter, close to the ground ; 

 it is now eleven feet high, and bore me some 

 fine specimens of the Danvers Winter Sweet, 

 the past season. 



Why did I train it so close to the ground ? 

 Because it protects itself from the burning sun 

 in March and April, when the sap is freezing 

 and thawing ; the mulching put about the tree 

 cannot be easily blown away : the winds can- 

 not rack it about, and experience has taught 

 me that this system of training, in this climate, 

 enables the tree to produce much larger and 

 fairer specimens of fruit. The specimens near- 

 est the ground are also least stung by the cur- 

 culio or apple moth. 



You see that 1 have bordered about this 

 tree a circular bed of mixed pansies. The 

 mulching about the tree protects them from 

 the frosts of winter, and shades them in sum- 

 mer, so that they bloom from frost to frost. 



This circular bt.d of dahlias was crowned 

 almost to a cone ; the dwarf varieties were 

 placed at the base, the taller (white,) in the 

 middle, the tallest (large scarlet,) in the cen- 

 tre. At a distan 'c this gave it a majestic and 

 beautiful appearance. 



Opposite, on our right, is a similar bed of 

 Gladiolus of mixed colors, in mass, — red, pure 

 white, with dark thioat, waxen straw with 

 nearly black throat, which was pronounced by 

 many as the roost charming flower in the gar- 

 den. This square bed of everlasting flowers 

 was put in for winter boquets. 



The open space on our right, was made va- 

 cant the pant season by the removal of three 

 plum trees, destroyed by the black wart. I 

 tried many preventives to no ellect. That 

 rose that hangs along the end of the liouse, in 

 a horizontal position, literally co\ercd with 

 blossoms, is the double Queen of the Prairies, 

 which 1 regard as the most stately of all the 

 climbers. 



We have now reached the strawberry bed, 

 twenty by thrty feet, fiom which 1 get about 

 three pecks of beautiful berries every season. 

 They are the Cutter's seedling. I cultivate in 

 hills, as it requires less labor, the- vines re- 

 main longer in a bearing condition, and I get 

 more fruit than by broadcast cultivation. 



These apple trees, standing in this bed, are 

 the red Astrachan, which would wrll repay 

 cultivation if for nothing but the beauty of 

 its fruit. Further on we come to more ap- 

 ples, — Early Harvest, Sweet Bough, Summer 

 Bearmain, and Mother, — all excellent varieties. 



These pear trees standing about us are thu 

 Buerre Superfin, Louise Bonne de Jersey, 

 Bloodgood and Sheldon. The Superfin is a 

 superior pear, and cannot be too extensively 

 cultivated. The Louise Bonne de Jersey, uu- 



