56 



Farming. — Lucerne. 



Vol. V. 



Farming- 



The good old-fashioned industry in tilling 

 the soil is 'again getting to be a favourite with 

 the public. The depression in most kinds of 

 business has compelled a great many to resort 

 to farming as the surest means of procuring 

 a subsistence, if not to increase their wealth. 

 But there are) yet multitudes who must 

 enter upon this business or be compelled to 

 go hungry. While farming is being vigor- 

 ously pursued, mechanics and other classes 

 will be encouraged to engage in their seve- 

 ral trades, and, by rigid economy, and the pur- 

 suit of a snug business, we may, after a while, 

 be able to outlive our present difficulties, oc- 

 casioned by a deranged currency. 



A farmer has constantly open before him a 

 field of enterprise. His fields need secure 

 fences and careful cultivation, and to be con- 

 stantly renewed by the application, in eome 

 form, of manure. He should be constantly 

 anticipating his work and so preparing and 

 arranging it, that no time be uselessly wasted. 

 The rich return of a good orchard and of 

 fruit-bearing shrubs, should early claim his 

 attention and vigorous efforts. Farming, if 

 it is not the most profitable business in the 

 world, may, and should be so conducted as to 

 secure the most of earth's comforts to those 

 engaged in it. It may be carried on so as to 

 present the most attractions, — the most to 

 make one happy and contented at home of 

 my business in the world. 



In order to this, however, a farmer must 

 exercise the active mind of an engineer. To 

 raise good crops will undoubtedly be his first 

 object, and in proportion to his success in this 

 department should be his efforts at raising the 

 best stock, and fruits. If he be really a pru- 

 dent man and an observer of human nature, 

 he will also attend to the means of promoting 

 his own and his family's happiness by having 

 a comfortable dwelling, not expensive, but 

 snug, neat and convenient ; in a good position 

 and with architectural proportions. The out- 

 buildings should be arranged with regard to 

 good taste and convenience. Near the dwell- 

 ing, shrubbery and trees should be planted ; 

 and not remotely from the house, should be a 

 garden well cultivated and well stocked with 

 fruit-bearing shrubs. In order to arrive at a 

 desirable result, the farmer when he begins 

 should commence in the character of an en- 

 gineer, and after repeated examinations should 

 fix upon a plan of what he intends his farm, 

 iuildings, &c. should be, and every post he 

 sets, and every nail he drives, should have 

 reference to this plan, and as time passes his 

 plan will be constantly developing, and he 

 and his children will be saved the mortifica- 

 tion of seeing a haphazard jumbling of build- 

 ings, fences, trees, &c. A farmer's home, 

 since there the most of his time must be 



spent, and to which he should be strongly 

 attached, ought to be the pleasantest spot to 

 him of any on the whole globe. And why 

 may it not be, since he can arrange as he 

 pleases ? There are a great many difficulties 

 to struggle with in subduing nature and mak- 

 ing a good farm, but these difficulties are not 

 enhanced by attention to the things we have 

 mentioned, but rather lightened by the new 

 hopes and happy anticipations which such a 

 plan gives birth to. — Bangor Courier. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



• 



Mr. Editor, — I wish to inform you some 

 little of my farming, which is, however, not 

 very extensive. I have sowed lucerne three 

 difierent seasons, and have not yet succeeded 

 in obtaining a crop; it has always come to 

 nought. The first I sowed was in the fall, 

 after I had sowed my winter grain: that 

 came up, but died away during winter; the 

 spring following, I cleared away a garden 

 which had a good rich soil, ploughed it, put it 

 in good order, and sowed lucerne-seed in it; 

 it came up fine, and in four weeks from the 

 time it was sowed it measured 17 inches high, 

 (7 soioed some timothy along with it) : in five 

 or six weeks after the lucerne was sowed I 

 had to mow it, so as to keep the weeds down ; 

 the lucerne grew again during the summer; 

 but the spring following, not a stem or stalk 

 of it was to be seen, but the other kind of 

 clover and timothy. I sowed several other 

 pieces last summer, and all came to nought ; 

 last spring I prepared two pieces of ground ; 

 one was old soil, limed and dunged, the other 

 was new ground, and sowed lucerne on the 

 two pieces, quite thick : all came up finely, 

 and grew well for some time, then began to 

 get red and yellow at the tops and die away. 

 Having now lost about $15 for lucerne-seed, 

 being induced to try it, from seeing such fa- 

 vourable accounts in the Cabinet, I have done 

 with it. 



I have raised sugar-beets for several years, 

 which have done very well ; my ruta baga 

 also. I am an old farmer, having followed 

 the business for upwards of forty years, and 

 during all that time have only had smut in 

 my vvheat one year ; and then but very little 

 in one kind of wheat ; and this year I have 

 seen but a very few heads of smut, in one 

 kind of wheat, which kept green for some 

 time after the other was cut. I would like 

 to know the cause of smut in wheat. Sorne 

 of my neighbours have very much of it in 

 their best wheat. Perhaps some of^ your 

 farming correspondents may give us informa- 

 tion respecting it, and show us a way to pre- 

 vent it, &c. before the time of seeding. 



John Beeker. 



Spring Mill, 3d August, 1840. 



