278 



NEW ENGLAND FAJIMER. 



JuiirE 



in raising different breeds of catttle. He was 

 satisfied that the Ayrshire cows were the best for 

 milk, though the Jerseys are as good for butter. 

 An Ayrshire cow will fatten easier when old than 

 a Jersey, and will give two quarts of milk, more 

 per day, during life. He never had raised many 

 horses, but he believed a colt could be as cheaply 

 raised as a calf, and that, after ihe colt is born it 

 costs no more to raise a horse than a good ox. 

 Farmers should have an opportunity to test the 

 colts they raise, otherwise they may sell one for 

 $75 for which the purchaser will get $200. In or- 

 der to have an opportunity to try the speed of the 

 colts raised, there should be a committee of farmers 

 appointed in connection with agricultural fairs, who 

 shall give a proper trial of the horses and colts ex- 

 hibited, as to their speed. If any evil from horse- 

 racing cannot be guarded against, and the whole 

 matter controlled by such a committee from the ru- 

 ral population, then we cannot raise horses. We 

 want horses now that can travel with more speed 

 than formerly ; and we may have horses of the 

 Morgan or Black Hawk stock that will work well, 

 and be good for speed. The speed is, in a great 

 degree, the result of training. 



In conclusion, Mr. Brooks referred to the origin 

 of these Agricultural meetings and the success that 

 has atlended them. They were got up by Mr. Cole- 

 man, the Commissioner of Agriculture in 1839, the 

 first meeting for organization being January 23d, 

 and the first meeting for discussion Feburary 6, at 

 which time the raising of wheat was considered. 

 Since that time the meetings have been held every 

 winter, and have been very pleasant and very useful 

 and instructive ; and never more so than they have 

 been during the past winter, though he was sorry 

 to say the number who have attended them has not 

 been so great as it ought to have been. It falls to 

 my lot, said Mr. Brooks, in closing, to express my 

 thanks -to the messengers of this Hall for the po- 

 liteness and cheerfulness with which they have treat- 

 ed us and waited upon us, and for the kindness they 

 have manifested toward us. It is my duty also to 

 express my thanks to the reporters. I believe the 

 reports have been better made this winter than 

 ever before, and more in conformity with what has 

 been said. It belongs to me also to express my 

 thanks to the Legislature for the use of the Hall. 

 The grant has always been free, and we should be 

 grateful for it. Having commenced our meetings 

 by calling on our most eminent men to preside this 

 winter, we have come down to this evening, and 

 I have to thank you, gentlemen, for your attendance 

 and interest in this meeting. 



The thanks of the meeting were then tendered 

 to the Executive Committee, who, through their 

 chairman, have so arranged matters as to produce 

 the most harmonious results during the entire win- 

 ter. 



The thanks of the meeting were also unanimous- 

 ly given to Mr. Buckminster, the Secretary of the 

 Society, who has been present at every meeting 

 during the winter. 



Mr. Sheldox, of Wilmington, then called atten- 

 tion to the baskets of potatoes which he had brought 

 in as samples of seedlings with which he had been 

 testing his theory of a remedy for the potato rot. 

 They have been raised six years, every winter be- 

 ing kept in the ground, on the idea that light and 

 air tend to produce the disease. That idea seemed 

 to him natural from the fact that the potato in its 

 spontaneous groM'th remains always in the ground. 

 Mr. S. also exhibited another kind — the Danvers 

 Reds — that had been treated in the same way three 

 years, and they likewise were free from the rot. 



Mr. Wetherell moved a vote of thanks to Mr. 

 Sheldon, which waa unanimously carried, for the 

 generous manner in which he had communicated 

 his mode of preserving potatoes, and for the pre- 

 sentation of the samples by which he had demon- 

 strated his theory. 



The meeting was then, without other ceremony, 

 brought to a close, each person carrying away with 

 him a few of the specimens of potatoes presented 

 by Mr. Sheldon, and each one more or less ready 

 to adopt his theory, or to test it at least, with a view 

 to his own full satisfaction. 



[Note. — The constant reader of these articles 

 cannot but be indebted, as well as ourselves, to Mr. 

 Rockwell, the faithful and accomplished reporter. 

 While he has given the ideas of the speaker, he 

 has often done it in a condensed and attractive 

 form, and has thus added a new charm to the in- 

 teresting facts which have been stated. — Editor.] 



For ihe New England Farmer. 



PLANTS SELECT THEIR FOOD. 



One of the most remarkable properties of plants 

 is the power with which they are endowed of select- 

 ing their food. The soil contains various kinds of 

 aliment for vegetation, and the little fibrous roots 

 that fill the ground select from the whole, and suck 

 in through their minute openings just the kind suit- 

 ed to the nature of the plant or tree to which they 

 belong. All plants will not thrive on the same soil, 

 any more than all animals will live on the same 

 kind of food. Grass and grain require a soil that 

 contains an abundance of silica or flint. It is the 

 flint in the straw that gives it its glossy appearance, 

 and renders it stiff enough to resist the wind and 

 storms. 



When grass lodges, it is not, as many suppose, 

 because there is too much of it upon the ground, 

 but because it grows on rich loam or mud that 

 does not contain flint enough for stiffening matter 

 for the stalk. A quantity of sand or gravel spread 

 on such land, remedies the diflSculty, and increases 

 instead of diminishing the crop. Every one has 

 noticed that grass, growing on land where water 

 runs from a gravelly road, has large stalks, and 



