182 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Apkil 



amount raised, and what it cost to raise each arti- 

 cle, together with the amount of hay cut, the num- 

 ber of acres on which it was cut, also what part of 

 it was meadow, and what part English ; how much 

 meadow land has been reclaimed, and how many 

 rods of ditch has been dug on each farm the past 

 year. In fact, let nothing be left out that is of in- 

 terest to the farmer. Would not something like 

 the above, advance the interests of farming? 

 Concord, Feb. 19, 1857. A Subscriber. 



A horse's stifle. 



Mr. Editor: — I have a colt three years old, 

 that has, in some way, displaced one of his stifles. 

 1 observed it first about ten days ago ; it does not 

 remain out, but slips out at times. I have applied 

 a bath of three parts brandy, and one part oil of 

 spike, added to about the same amount of the ex- 

 tract of white oak bark, boiled strong. I have ap- 

 plied this remedy without effecting a cure. Can 

 you give-a more effectual remedy through the Far- 

 mer, and oblige a constant reader ? 



G. W. Hayes, Jr. 



Dover, JV. //., Ftb. 19, 18u7. 



REMEDY FOR CURCULIO. 



Anything that will prevent the ravages of the 

 curculio must be of great importance. From my 

 own experience, the outer bark or ross of the pitch 

 pine spread around and under plum trees, will ef- 

 fectually do it. The ground covered with the 

 boughs of (he same, will probably be as effectual. 

 I wish your readers would give it a trial. It should 

 be done immediately. John E. Bullard. 



Medfield, Feb., 1857. 



'privet propagated by cuttings. 



Will the privet spoken of in your paper, grow 

 from cuttings, like the currant ? If so, can it be 

 had near Boston ? C. Graves. 



Shrewsbury, Ft., 1857. 



Remarks. — It may be propagated by cuttings, 

 by considerable care, but the best way is by the 

 roots. William Hall, of Bradford, Mass., will fyr- 

 nish it. 



carrots on the same ground. 



Noticing an inquiry as regards the length of time 

 which carrots may be raised on the same ground, I 

 would just state that I have raised the article sev- 

 en years on the same piece of ground, and I under- 

 stand they were raised two years previous to my 

 taking the place ; thus making nine years in suc- 

 cession. The ground has always received a heavy 

 coating of green manure, and well turned under 

 and plowed from twelve to fifteen inches deep; 

 seed invariably sowed before the first of June, and 

 a heavy crop, both in size and number of bushels 

 has always been my reward. c. 



Chester, Ft., 1857. _ 



Mr. Samuel A . King, of Mansfield, has a com- 

 mon native nen, that from April 1st to Dec. 1st, 

 185G, laid 79 eggs, and hatched and brought up 42 

 chickens, which were sold for ten dollars. How 

 many imported hens have done as well ? 



S s. 



EUKAL POETRY. 



jMrs. Kirkland, in the preface to her "Garden 

 Walks with the Poets," makes a very true remark, 

 to the effect that no one who has not studied Eng- 

 lish Poetry, with a direct view to finding out how 

 far it illustrates rural life, would imagine our poetic 

 literature to be so rich in works inspired by this 

 glorious theme. Perhaps this general ignorance_of 

 the extent to which the charms of nature and the 

 lessons and duties of country life have been made 

 the subjects of poetic inspiration, may be account- 

 ed for, by the fact that there are very few long po- 

 ems in the language, whose themes are directly 

 drawn from rural occupations, and whose object it 

 is exclusively to illustrate the operations of nature, 

 and the demands she makes upon those whose lives 

 are past among her beautiful scenes. We have, it 

 is true, several poems of considerable length, from 

 the Bucolics of Virgil, which have become English 

 through Dry den's translation, to the Excursion of 

 Wordsworth, whose principal object it is to de- 

 scribe the manners and occupations of pastoral life, 

 and to illustrate the peculiar charms of a rustic con- 

 dition. But our rural poetry is chiefly rich in less 

 labored productions than these, and its extent and 

 variety are made up from the numberless short po- 

 ems and passing allusions which are scattered all 

 over the literature of every age. The best and 

 truest tributes to the attractions of country life are 

 those that have been used as episodes in illustra- 

 tion of more exciting themes. Certainly no class 

 of subjects can be more various or more entertain- 

 ing than those which appertain to a rural existence. 

 The operations of agriculture, the observations of 

 nature, the pleasure of watching the gradually ex- 

 panding and increasing fruits of the earth which 

 come as the reward of judicious labor, in short, all 

 the occupations of body and mind which are im- 

 posed by a devotion to pastoral pursuits, are sub- 

 jects more worthy of the poet's praise than the 

 workings of human passions, or the strife of kings 

 for worldly power. The gentle and quiet spirit 

 which breathes through those poems which are em- 

 inently rural in their design, is hke the soft music 

 of the summer wind in the pine-tree tops ; and if 

 they sometimes approach to the harshness and force 

 of nature in her wildest moods, it is only when they 

 expose the hoUowness of a courtly life, and inveigh 

 against the follies of the fashionable world. 



We have before us a volume of the "Rural Po- 

 etry of the English Language," compiled and ar- 

 ranged by Prof. Jenks. We have examined its am- 

 ple pages with increasing intei'est, and have had 

 our thoughts newly awakened, by its perusal, to the 

 magnitude of the interests which cluster around 

 the farm, and the beauty and variety of the charms 

 that surround one in the daily performance of its 

 duties. We find gathered in this volume, poems 

 of various length, and from every period of Eng- 



