306 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



ter, and of course full. The end of the platform 

 next the well is slightly elevated. The trough 

 stands at this end of the platform, but not attached, 

 and at a convenient height. When an animal ap- 

 proaches the trough, he walks along the platform, 

 which soon begins to sink, bringing up the bucket, 

 and discharging the water into the trough. An 

 air-cushion under the platform regulates its de- 

 scent, so that the platform descends slowly, and 

 without jar or noise. Cattle generally do not no- 

 tice or regard the descent of the platform, at the 

 first trial of it, and the shyest become accustomed 

 to it in a very few days. 



For the New England Farmer. 



GARDENING BY A MECHANIC. 



Mr. Editor : — Having been a subscriber to your 

 valuable paper for a number of years, I would now 

 add my testimony to that of many others, to its 

 usefulness. There are many persons, like myself, 

 who cannot devote much time to the culture of the 

 ground, the treatment of live stock, or the rearing 

 of poultry, yet, by attention to the valuable hints 

 given by yourself and correspondents, may so econ- 

 omize time as to have all the comforts that these 

 give, without any very great tax on their various 

 callings. My object in writing is not so much to 

 show off any little success I may have had in vari- 

 ous experiments, as to encourage humble mechan- 

 ics, like the writer, to draw around them as many 

 of the luxuries of life as nature designed they should. 



A few years since, I purchased a piece of ground 

 which had some years previously been used as a 

 garden. It had been allowed to run wild ; conch 

 grass and other troublesome weeds had got the up- 

 per hand. In the fall, I hired a man for a co"bple 

 of days, and, with my own time, put in tolerable or- 

 der a piece of ground 60 by 120 feet. How I pro- 

 ceeded, I will now state, and hope you will apj)rove 

 or condemn, as the course followed deserves. I dug 

 a trench at the upper part, about 2-i feet deep by 

 2 feet wide, removing the earth from the first trench 

 to the bottom part of the ground to be worked. I 

 then turned the weeds from the next two feet, into 

 the space dug, then raked the stones dug up into 

 it, and placed on top about a foot of such manure 

 as I could command, viz., litter from the cow, 

 mixed with that from the fowl-house and ash pit, 

 and some sea-weed, and then filled up from the 

 next trench. In this way I went over the whole 

 space, and the next spring when the frost was gone, 

 the ground was in a fit state for growing anything. 

 The result was, I had the earliest vegetables of the 

 neighborhood, and an astonishing crop for so sr^all 

 a piece of ground. Two years since, I trenched 

 again, and with the same results ; the trenching, 

 however, was not so deep. The crop raised being 

 more than needed, I laid off" one-third in a flower 

 spot. The ground sloping a little ; I chose the upper 

 part for several reasons ; first, it would be the dry- 

 est, second, it would catch the sun the earliest, and 

 lastly, i)assers-by would have the best chance of 

 seeing it when there was anything worthy of their 

 attention. This last arrangement has greatly in- 

 creased my labor ; I am repaid, however, when I see 

 the pleasure it gives my own family and neighbors. 

 It is a fine thing to give children, early, a taste for 



flowers ; it shows itself in a variety of ways vastly 

 beneficial. My little flower-garden I may say some- 

 thing about shortly ; you require brevity, so I must 

 finish with the vegetable portion. 



Seeinjf some remarks respecting liquid manure, 

 I thought I would try one-quarter of the garden 

 with it. But in order to tell you how I procured li- 

 quid manure, I must describe my ash-pit ; a hint for 

 others may be obtained by my doing so. At the top 

 of my lot are the barn, fowl-house, and wood-she J, at 

 end of which is a pit, with dry wall planked over the 

 When excavating for the pit, &c., I came to solid 

 rock at about 4 feet ; having nothing to prevent my 

 going back, I run the pit under part of the wood- 

 shed, and having a hatch there, as well as in front, 

 house-slops, ashes, &c., could be thrown in either 

 place. The whole mixing together, but little un- 

 pleasantness arises when clearing it out. Last 

 spring, alter I had my pit cleared, a rain storm 

 came on, and surface water oozed in from behind. 

 The moment I saw this, I thought I could test your 

 recommendation, and, after allowing the water to 

 remain a short time, I had it bailed out and thrown 

 over the portion of ground betore referred to, about 

 a week before sowing the seed. In this space, I 

 planted beets and onions, and set out cabbage plants. 

 Each of these grew beautifully ; there were less 

 weeds than in any ojher part of the garden, and I 

 did t.ot lose a plant from the grub. This spring I 

 had the pit cleared again, and have now about 3 

 feet of liquid manure in it. Now I want to know, 

 whether it would not be better for me to use this 

 for all my vegetables, or, if not for all, on what 

 spots ? Whether I could safely use it round plum 

 and apple trees, an J over strawberries ? I was very 

 much troubled last year with the wire-worm among 

 my flowers. Do you think the liquid would pre- 

 vent its injuries ? Would you advise me to try it on 

 rose-bushes? Our gardens down here, in many in- 

 stances, made a poor show of roses, the leaves being 

 fairly used up with lice. By the way, I saw it re- ' 

 commerded in the Farmer last year, to try hard- 

 wood ashes on the leaves and round the roots of 

 rose-bushes. I tried it on several bushes with good 

 results. I also saw it recommended somewhere, to 

 apply salt to the roots of plum trees. Would you 

 advise me to try it ? and if so, in what proportion? 

 Fearing to trespass further at present, 1 remain 

 Yours, &c. A. J. R. 



Halifax, JVova Scotia, Jipril, 1857. 



Remarks. — Use your liquid manure on all your 

 plants, — flowers and all. Two quarts of sa.i to a 

 plum tree will be sufficient at one time. Ashes 

 sprinkled freely upon rose-bushes immediately after 

 a shower, or when wet with dew, is one of the best 

 remedies for lice. We shall be glad to hear from 

 you again. 



Singular Animalcule. — There are facts and an- 

 alogies tending to show that a peculiar state of ac- 

 tivity may enable infinitesimal quantities of matter 

 powerfully to affect the senses and the health. We 

 eat animalcules by millions in the bloom of a plum, 

 we also inhale them by millions, (as Ehrenberg has 

 shown,) at every breath, and they neither affect our 

 senses nor do us appreciable harm. Yet there is 

 an animalcule which haunts cascades, sticking by 

 its tail to the rocks or stones over which the water 

 rushes, and which, when put into a vial with above 



