318 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JtTLT 



111 ' 



time ill contact with water, and the latter is filtered 

 away, it is found to contain appreciable quantities of 

 the phosphates of lime and magnesia. The same 

 result is obtained when the water is freed from 

 carbonic acid by long boiling. By filtering water 

 for months through the same mass of bone-dust, 

 it was found constantly to contain these earthy 

 phosphates, and their quantity even appeared to 

 increase in proportion as the organic matter of the 

 bones became putrid in consequence of its long con- 

 tact with water and air, and the water flowing off 

 became turbid and offensive. This fact seems to 

 have some practical value in agriculture, as it 

 shows that, without any artificial preparation, the 

 earthy phosphates maybe extracted from the bones 

 and introduced into the soil in a state of solution, 

 perhaps exactly in the quantity necessary for their 

 appointed functions, and that in the employment 

 of bone-dust as manure, all the preparation neces- 

 sary, is perhaps to lay it in heaps during the sum- 

 mer, and keep it constantly moist. — Prof. Wholer, 

 in Liebig's "jlnnalen," 1856. 



HOME INDUSTRY. 



Mrs. S., of Mansfield, a quarter of a century ago, 

 in six months from the first of March, earned $85 

 by making straw bonnets, and received the cash ; 

 and besides this, she took care of her family of 

 young children, doing the cooking, washing, milking 

 two cows, making the butter for family use, taking 

 care of a hog, the chickens, &c., all during the ab- 

 sence of her husband, whose business required his 

 temporary residence in another State. 



Another instance of a wife not many miles from 

 Boston, during the absence of her husband to fulfil 

 a railroad contract, who by her skill and industry 

 paid all the bills of the family expenses, and had a 

 surplus to add to his lucrative gains on the contract. 



By palm-leaf braiding, in Western Massachusetts, 

 another wife supported the family, besides doing 

 the housework, leaving the whole earnings of her 

 husband's labor to go toward paying for their farm, 

 for which they were in debt. 



And another still, with the assistance of a girl 

 about 18, did the cooking, washing and mending 

 for a dozen or more laborers, and took care of the 

 milk of 30 cows. 



Similar instances of by-gone days, of not very 

 ancient times, might be greatly multiplied, to show 

 that our mothers and grandmothers were patterns 

 of industry, worthy of being imitated by the wives 

 and daughters of the present age. But fashions and 

 customs change. Then it was respectable to be skil 

 ful in all the domestic arts. Now it is boast-worthy 

 to be ignorant of all these things. Then the cloth 

 of which much of the domestic apparel was made, 

 ■was the product of the hand-loom. The flax and 

 the wool were the product of the farm, and the 

 cloth of domestic industry. Now there are wives 

 and daughters who do not know how to make a 

 shirt for a husband or a brother. Then a divorce 

 case was scarcely heard of. At a recent Court in 

 Worcester county, says the Worcester Transcript, 

 forty-two bills for divorce were on the calendar. 



Times and customs, it will be observed, have ma- 

 terially changed, whether for the better or worse 

 let the reader judge. One thing, however, is cer 

 tain ; our grandmothers cuuld make better bread 

 of corn and rye than their granddaughters, with 



the aid of an Irish domestic, can of good Genesee 

 wheat. This ought not so to be, but sour, pelleted, 

 saleratus-scented, stained stuff called bread, demon- 

 strates that however skilfully the wife may thumb 

 the piano-forte, she never did learn '^^art of bread- 

 making, nor of good housewifery. — Loston Tran- 

 script. 



Fur the New England Farmer. 



ITEMS. IN AGRICULTURE, &c. 



SWEET POTATOES. 



Allinson, of New Jersey, sets the small tubers 

 under glass, early ; after sprouting, places but one 

 plant in a hill made flat or saucer form ; after they 

 begin to run, place drift sand around to prevent 

 evaporation and retain heat. The urine of the cow 

 contains the 14 ingredients found in the sweet po- 

 tato, while the dung, according to Leibeg, contains 

 but 5 of these. 



IRISH POTATOES. 



Knight, of the London Horticultural Society, says 

 that by taking off the flowers of this root as soon as 

 they appear, the crop of the tubers or roots will be 

 increased one-quarter. 



GRAPES. 



The roots of the vine will follow manure deeply 

 buried, and are thereby retarded in their spring 

 growth. Underbill, an extensive grower of the Isa- 

 bella grape at Croton Point, buries his A7ree< manure 

 very deep ; thus the full stimulus of heat does not 

 reach their roots until late in the season, and thus 

 the energies of the vine are not directed to the 

 making of wood, but fruit. The first pushing of the 

 vine being independent of the roots. 



SALT AND LIME. 



Pell, the extensive grower of apples in New York, 

 says that he has found a composition of one part 

 salt and two of shell lime a capital manure for al- 

 most every crop of fruit, grain or vegetables. 



PLL'M WARTS, &C. 



The human stomach accommodates itself to vari- 

 ous articles of food ; a Greenlander would not starve 

 if shut up to train oil alone ; but plants are not so 

 accommodating, they are more restrictive. The 

 peach tree, plum, &c., need the right elements in 

 the soil for their perfect growth. It is likely that 

 the excrescence upon the plum, the bitter rot in the 

 apple, and the cracking of the fruit of the pear, re- 

 sult from the lack, or the exhausting of some con- 

 sistent elements of food essential to healthful growth 

 and perfect development. 



SULPHATE OF IRON. 



Gris's method to restore vigor to sickly plants is 

 to take 3 to 4 drams of sulphate of iron (green 

 copperas) to a quart of water, to water roots, \ of 

 a dram for showering the leaves; with 1 ounce of 

 copperas we prepare 16 quarts of the solution for 

 application to the leaves. The French physicians 

 have used iron as a remedy for chlorosis in man. 

 Scoria or blacksmith's cinders have been used 

 around the pear tree with marked success. Proba- 

 bly the eflect of hanging old horse shoes upon the 

 limbs of trees for the prevention of insects, has re- 

 sulted from the gradual miiigling of the oxide of 

 iron with the soil at the roots. 



GUANO. 



A heaped table-spoon full of Peruvian to one gal- 



