1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



545 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE GARDEN" IN DECEMBER. 

 Our New England climate will preclude 

 much actual labor in the out door garden in 

 December, unless we have cold frames in 

 which we have plants that are being wintered 

 over. These will need looking to, occasional- 

 ly, to see that all is right. Give air in the 

 middle of pleasant days, and see that they are 

 properly protected during extreme cold days 

 and nights. Prepare hot-bed frames, sash 

 &c. ; paint and reglaze old sash, and if you 

 have none make new and have them ready 

 against fpring opens. 



Look to the fiuit and ornamental trees, and 

 see that the mice do not get at them to their 

 injury, cut and clear away all grass, or weeds 

 from around them, so they will have no shelter 

 to harbor in ; see the trees do not get over- 

 loaded with snow or ice ; shake off the snow, 

 gently, from fir and other evergreen trees in 

 the lawn, yard, &c. Look over, and see that 

 the seeds are all well dried, correctly labelled, 

 and stored away safely in paper bags, boxes, 

 «&c. , and that no vermin infest them ; make a 

 memorandum of seeds wanted ready to order 

 early. 



Ihe past season we had, by a few nights 

 slight protection, good ripe tomatoes from 

 our garden as late as the middle of Octo- 

 ber, and green corn good for boiling as late, 

 although the frost had singed the blades of the 

 stalks. For the first planting we had the 

 Mexican sweet corn, which is g lod enough for 

 any one ; this we planted early in May, and 

 had boiling ears in good season in July ; this 

 kind has a small kernel and medium sized ear, 

 but very sweet and good. I then planted 

 Trimbles the 22d of June and began picking 

 it early in August, and in October there were 

 good boiling ears ; this is a larger eared, and 

 kernel vadety, than the Mexican, about the 

 size of the Evergreen ; it is an excellent vari- 

 ety for the garden. I have relied on the Ever- 

 green, mainly, heretofore, which is a larger 

 and later variety and very good, lasting a long 

 time in cooking and eating condition ; but I 

 prefer, for my own eating, either the Mexican 

 or Trimbles, as grown the past season; I 

 think they are hard to be beat. 



Our pole beans, this season run too much to 

 vines, although they bore a fair amount of 

 fruit. I think we planted them too thick, al- 

 though the poles were stuck three feet apart, 

 or over ; beans, squash, cucumbers, and toma- 

 toes grew largely to vines in our garden. 

 Summer crook-neck squash, I have failed to 

 grow good for several years past till this year, 

 when we had nice ones ; heretofore they have 

 turned to hard shell pumpkins-like things, al- 

 though seed was procured from different 

 sources. We also had nicer Citron Water- 

 melons than for some years ; these we shall 

 preserve, usiYig a little green ginger root, 

 lemon, &c. They may be preserved and dried, 

 and make a substitute tor expensive dried 



citron. Strawberries we had many more of 

 than I expected when in blossom, there being 

 so much rain at the time ; grapes were hardly 

 dealt with by the cold of the last winter, kill- 

 ing and injuring the vines ; although I had two 

 Concords that were not laid down wliich bore 

 quite full. My Hartford started only from 

 dormant buds. Currants did not do as well 

 as last year ; the bunches want taking up and 

 dividing, using only the young shoots and set- 

 ting in new ground, deeply worked and well 

 enriched. I have yet to learn that the • 'currant 

 worm" has appeared in this vii-inity — Jong may 

 he be in coming. W. H. White. 



South Windsor, Conn. 1868. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 BRAINS IN FARMING— No. 1 



Not long since, in passing across the meadow 

 of a young Vermont farmer, where old stumps, 

 pieces of rails, sticks, brush, &c. were lying 

 scattered about promiscuously, rendering the 

 use of the mower and horse-rake an utter im- 

 possibility. I asked him the following ques- 

 tion : ' 'Did you know that brains were a capital 

 article to use on a farm ?" His reply was, — 

 "Brains ! what's that?" To present this case 

 as indicative of the average intelligence of 

 Vermont farmers, would not be, perhaps, ex- 

 actly fair ; and yet, judging from careful ob- 

 servation, one can hardly avoid the conclusion 

 that there is more than one farmer among us 

 who does not know brains, much less use them 

 in his farming operations. I hardly know how 

 to account for this glaring fact. 



It is not that Vermont farmers, as a class, 

 are destitute of brains. But the trouble is, 

 most of them ignore brains altogether, and de- 

 pend on muscle alone. There are instances, 

 however, I am happy to say, and they are mul- 

 tiplying gradually from year to year, which go 

 to show that when brain-power and muscle- 

 power come into competition in the manage- 

 ment of the farm, brains are sure to win. Not 

 that muscle can be dispensed with, but brains 

 render muscle more effective and productive. 



There are instances in our State where pro- 

 fessional men, such as lawyers, physicians, and 

 even clergymen have been, and are, the most 

 successful " cultivators of the soil among us. 

 Does any one wish to know the secret of their 

 success ? It is simply this : they put brains 

 into the business. Their employees supply 

 the muscle and they themselves furnish the 

 brains and make every blow tell, if not in pay- 

 ing crops, yet in the permanent improvement 

 of their farms. 



I have never known an instance where a 

 merchant, or a mechanic turned his attention 

 to agriculture and failed of success. What 

 is the secret of this ? It lies in the simple 

 fact that they carry the brain culture, and 

 business habits acquired in mercantile or me- 

 chanical pursuits into their farming operations. 

 If they raise a colt, or a yoke of oxen, or a 



