302 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



broad, the muzzle is sharp, the nostrils distended, 

 the jaws distinct and clean, the muscle broad and 

 flat, the blood vessels large and full, the chest 

 broad, the tail flat at the top, broad and tapering, 

 the line of the back is straight and level, and the 

 ribs round. 



Such an animal as I thus have but imperfectly 

 described, evinces a disposition to fatten, and if the 

 suggestions I have thus briefly hinted at be followed 

 by the numerous patrons and readers of your valu- 

 able journal, they v.ill find their yards gradually 

 filled v/ith an improved stock, and their pockets 

 better filled with proceeds of their farm-yard. 



For the New En<^land Farmer. 



CULTURE OF ONIOIIS. 



The minute instructions of your correspondent 

 from Hampshire county, as to raising onions, are 

 worthy of careful consideration, as they a]>pear to 

 be the result of long experience in the culture of 

 small parcels — and not in the culture of acres to- 

 gether, as is practised in the eastern part of the 

 State. Let us analyze these instructions. 



L "I sow on the same ground, year after year, 

 and think it the best way." To this there can be 

 no objection, if properly fertilized ; the onion is a 

 great feeder, and will not mature, year after year, 

 •without something to stimulate or make it grow. 

 Five cords of manure well fined, should be applied 

 annually to the acre — more than this will not be 

 lost. 



2. "Never plow — but stir the land with a spade, 

 only three inches deep." This may do when culti- 

 vating in a small way, but will not do, where an in- 

 dividual hopes to grow thousands of bushels, as do 

 some of my neighbors. 



3. "Uses old manure and very fine." I have 

 found manure well fined, one year old, to do very 

 well. I doubt the expediency of keeping it more 

 than one year, and think the loss would be more 

 than the gain, by so doing. 



4. "Sow the seed in Ihe old of the moon." I am 

 sorry to meet this instruction, because I have no 

 respect at all for it, and think it worse than useless. 

 In these days of the prevalence of spiritual non- 

 sense — when learned professors are found making 

 tables dance — and reverend clergymen take rooms 

 at hotels of doubtful character — and their congre- 

 gations pass resolves of approbation — I am sorry 

 to find our farmers carried away by lunar influ- 

 ences. 



5. "Soak the seed in strong brine, twelve hours 

 to kill the maggot." Of this I say nothing, because 

 I know nothing; it is not the practice in my neigh- 

 borhood, where many onions are grown. 



6. "Cover the seed one inch deep, and press the 

 earth hard." Our machines plant the seed, and 

 leave the earth in easy condition, and the plants do 

 not fail to grow for want of pressure. 



7. "Thin the plants to the distance of three inches 

 apart." This cannot be necessary. The handsom- 

 est field of onions I have ever seen, — there was as 

 many as a dozen to every foot of distance in the 

 rows. They readily find room to grow — and are 

 not injured by crowding a little. S. D . 



.^pril 19, 1857. 



The Cattle Disorder in Europe. — Great fears 

 are expressed in England lest the murrain, which 



is raging among the neat cattle, in that part of 

 Europe lying on the Gulf of Finland, and between 

 that Gulf and the city of Lubec, should be commu- 

 nicated to Europe, and the most rigid prohibition 

 is enforced against the import of cattle, hides, 

 horns or hoofs from the infected district. This 

 disease, which seems to be as fatal and conta- 

 gious as that which has prevailed to some extent 

 among the hogs in the United States, has been 

 prevalent in Silesia, Mecklenburg and part of Hol- 

 stien for two or three years past, and has latterly 

 assumed a type so deadly as to arouse the govern- 

 ments of France, Prussia, and others on the conti- 

 nent, to exclude all cattle or any part of their car- 

 casses from the tainted districts. No such event 

 as this extensive cattle murrain has happened in 

 Europe, in the present age, until now, but in for- 

 mer times such calamities were far from uncommon. 

 Only in the last century Europe was more than 

 once swept by murrains which destroyed the ani- 

 mal food of entire nations. — Traveller. 



BEAUTIFY YOUR HOME. 



Every man should do his best to own a home. 

 The first money he can spare ought to be invested 

 in a dwelHng, where his family can live permanent- 

 ly. Viewed as a matter of economy, this is impor- 

 tant, not only because he can ordinarily build more 

 cheaply than he can rent, but because of the ex- 

 pense caused by frequent change of residence. A 

 man who early in life builds a home for himself and 

 family, will save some thousands of dollars in the 

 course of twenty years, besides avoiding the incon- 

 venience and trouble of removals. Apart from this, 

 there is something agreeable to our better nature 

 in having a house that we can call our own. It is 

 a form of property that is more than property. It 

 speaks to ihe heart, enlists the sentiments, and en- 

 nobles the possessor. The associations that spring 

 up around it, as the birthplace of children, — as the 

 scene of life's holiest emotions — as the sanctuary 

 where the spirit cherishes its purest thoughts, are 

 such as all value ; and whenever their influence is 

 exerted, the moral sensibilities are improved and 

 exalted. The greater part of our happiness in this 

 world is found at home ; but how few recollect that 

 the happiness of to-day is increased by the place 

 where we were happy yesterday, and that, insensi- 

 bly, scenes and circumstances gather up a store of 

 blessedness for the weary hours of the future ! On 

 this account we should do all in our power to make 

 home attractive. Not only should we cultivate such 

 tempers as serve to render its intercourse amiable 

 and aftectionate, but we should strive to adorn it 

 with those charms which good sense and refinement 

 so easily impart to it. We say easily, for there are 

 persons who think that a home cannot be beauti- 

 fied without a considerable outlay of money. Such 

 people are in error. It costs little to have a neat 

 flower-garden, and to surround your dwelling with 

 those simple beauties which delight the eye far 

 more than expensive ol)jects. If you will let the 

 sunshine and the dew adorn your yard, they will 

 do more for you to brighten the landscape and make 

 it agreeable to the eye. She hangs the ivy around 

 the ruin, and over the stump of a withered tree 

 twines the graceful vine. A thousand arts she prac- 

 tices to animate the senses and please the mind. 

 Follow her exsmple, and do for yourself what she 

 is always laboring to do for you. Beauty is a divine 



