40 



Scalding Seed — Flowers. 



V0L.V. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Scald your Seed. 



Mr. Editor, — How often we see this in- 

 struction given in books ! surely it is not 

 meant that we should scald them exactly ; 

 no, no, I should as soon believe it proper to 

 scald the eggs of my Shakbags and Polands, 

 before placing them under the hens for incu- 

 bation; then why should book-men indulge 

 themselves in such language, and assure us 

 that, the thing has been practised and found 

 perfectly to succeed "! I cannot think it ever 

 will do; to be sure, I have never tried it, nor, 

 in my present temper, shall I ever, but such 

 a notion is calculated to do much disservice 

 to the cause of practical agriculture, depend 

 upon it. I believe and know, indeed, that to 

 steep seed in warm water before sowing is a 

 good plan, and is to be recommended, parti- 

 cularly in hot and dry weather; but tlien 

 there is a difference between staring and 

 being stark mad, and, according to my calcu- 

 lation, those who will scald their seeds will 

 find it out. 



I had written thus far, when I alighted 

 upon the following excellent story, which is 

 peculiarly illustrative of the position which I 

 wish to take ; it is from the " American 

 Farmer," and tells tales, I tell you. 



" Mr. Editor, I was, not long since, con- 

 versing with a very agreeable neighbour of 

 yours, a gentleman of very general informa- 

 tion, and one who has a very pleasant way 

 of communicating what he knows. The con- 

 versation turned, as many have of late, on 

 the culture of root crops — I was lamenting 

 that it was rather late, as I apprehended, for 

 sowing or planting the sugar beet — " not at 

 all," said he, " only be sure, to accelerate the 

 germination of the seed, that you pour bail- 

 ing water on it." Boiling water, exclaimed 

 I"! " Yes," said he, " boiling water." Well, 

 sir, I considered my authority so good, he be- 

 ing a practical farmer, and, as I well knew, 

 eminently successful with root crops — carry- 

 ing off, if I mistake not, some of your pre- 

 miums of the old Maryland Agricultural So- 

 ciety — that I made no further scruple, but 

 went home, and had my genuine imported 

 white beet-seed put into a tub, and boiling 

 water poured upon them ; they were then 

 rolled in lime and mould, so as to prepare 

 them very elegantly for planting; the ground 

 was in beautiful order ; the line was stretched 

 to have the work neatly done, and I was en- 

 joying, in advance, the well-earned approba- 

 tion of your friend Ronaldson, the great pro- 

 moter of root culture. It was true, that from 

 none of my people could I extort even a nod 

 of approbation of the scalding process — the 

 negro woman, a faithful and obliging crea- 

 ture, asked if I did not mean warm water ; 



and there was old Isaac Stevens, of Anna- 

 polis, with all his experience of half a cen- 

 tury as a gardener, even he had never heard 

 of boiling water on beet-seed ! and was afraid 

 it would never answer — it seemed against all 

 nature, and no one gave me the least encour- 

 agement; and, as for an old up-and-down 

 Irish labourer, Tim O'Brien, he swore at once 

 that my neighbour meant to make a fool of 

 me " and sure a man ought to know it was all 

 against rason." Still, said I, my friend is a 

 practical farmer — a premium-taker for root 

 crops, and would not attempt to quiz me in 

 so serious a matter as that of destroying an 

 acre of sugar beet ! To make short a long 

 story, then — not a seed vegetated! while in 

 about half an acre, planted from the same 

 parcel, and not put into boiling water, not a 

 seed missed ! Therefore, never put boiling 

 water on beet-seed! I ought to add, my 

 friendly adviser is a polished gentleman ; a 

 ripe scholar; reads the Reviews; is some- 

 what of a politician; and, withal, keeps a 

 first-rate manager !" John Dorsey. 



Flowers. 



" Flowers, of all created things, the most 

 innocently simple, the most superbly com- 

 plex ! playthings for childhood, ornaments of 

 the grave, and companions of the cold corpse! 

 Flowers, beloved by the idiot, and studied by 

 the thinking man of science ! Flowers, that 

 unceasingly expand to heaven their grateful, 

 and to man their cheerful looks — partners of 

 human joys; soothers of human sorrow; fit 

 emblems of the victor's* triumphs, and the 

 young bride's blushes ! Welcome to the 

 crowded hall, and graceful upon the solitary 

 grave ! Flowers are, in the volume of na- 

 ture, what the expression " God is love" is in 

 the volume of revelation ! What a desolate 

 place would be a world without a flower ! it 

 would be a face without a smile — a feast 

 without a welcome. Are not flowers the 

 stars of the earth ^ and are not our stars the 

 flowers of heaven ? One cannot look closely 

 at the structure of a flower without loving 

 it; they are the emblems and manifestations 

 of God's love to the creation, and they are 

 the means and ministrations of man's love to 

 his fellow-creatures, for they first awaken in 

 his mind a sense of the beautiful and good. 

 The very inutility of flowers is their excel- 

 lent and great beauty, for they lead us to 

 thoughts of generosity and moral beauty, de- 

 tached from, and superior to all selfishness, 

 so that they are sweet lessons in nature's 

 book of instruction, teaching man that he 

 liveth not by bread alone, but that he hath 

 another than animal life." — Zion''s Advo- 

 cate. 



