1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



319 



Ion of soft water for pot plants in arrowing state. 

 A barrel of yellow loam, i bushel of broken char- 

 coal, d peck of guano, is a fine compost for pots or 

 garden vegetables. 



MELON. 



Christiana melon. This fine early yellow fleshed 

 cantelope. Downing thinks was produced from a 

 cross of the citrcm and netted varieties ; it is earlier 

 than the green flesh sorts. 



ASHES, &C. 



Wood ashes and peat well incorporated, is, we 

 believe, as fine a compost for fruit trees generally 

 as we can well obtain. 



SUGAR WATER. 



Sir H. Davy has said that different plants and 

 grapes grow much more luxuriantly when watered 

 with solutions of sugar, than with common water, 

 the two liquids differing in nothing but the presence 

 of carbon in the former, and its absence in the lat- 

 ter. 



QUINCE. 



It is a delusion that these trees want a damp and 

 ehady position, and that they do not require manur- 

 ing. They should be placed in good loam, and the 

 earth to be loosened deeply by the subsoil plow, or 

 trenched by double spading, and well manured with 

 a good compost in the drills. Shorten in the branch- 

 es (i of last year's growth,) give the roots a good 

 drenching with water in setting, leave the soil 

 around the stem concave, place them 10 feet apart, 

 and the rows 12 feet; prune just after the fall of 

 the leaf, or early in March; fork in, late in the fall, 

 3 or 4 shovelfulis of manure; after digging and 

 loosening the soil in the spring, then give the whole 

 a broadcast of salt. 



LEAF MANURE. 



The best manure, says hieheg, (Humus) for any 

 plaiit is the decomposed leaves and substance of its 

 own species ; hence when the small onions, or scul- 

 lions as they are called, are left upon the bed, and 

 turned under the soil, they greatly benefit the suc- 

 ceeding crop. Leaf manure is not, according to 

 him, an entirely vegetable substance, but rather 

 mineral vegetable, as they contain large quantities of 

 earthy matter. An annual dressing of salt in mod- 

 erate quantities, sown broadcast over the whole gar- 

 den early in spring, is beneficial, destroying the 

 germs of insects and acting on the foliage of plants, 

 retaining moisture, &c. Ten bushels to the acre will 

 answer the purpose. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

 The value of products in agriculture in the U. 

 States in 1847 was $700,000,000. 



23.076 persons employed in internal navigation. 

 56.021 " " on the ocean. 



65.255 " " in the learned professions. 



119.5^7 " " " commercial. 



791.749 " " " manufactures. 



While in agriculture, the value of its products in 

 1847 was $700,000,000. 



LIME. 

 A farmer commences with the use of lime on his 

 soil; the first season he sees an improvement; he 

 continues its use for some two or three years, and 

 finds but little if any perceptible change in his crops ; 

 he now cries humbug, this use of lime. Now the 

 truth is, that in his first application, the land was 

 rather deficient in lime only; but in not using oth- 

 er manure in connection, other substances in the 



soil were exhausted ; potash or soda was now want- 

 ed, and hence the constant use of lime only for a 

 series of years will injure and deteriorate the soil. 



WILD GRAPES. 



The question is often asked by the farmer, 

 whether the native grape, if removed to our gardens 

 and subjected to good culture, would not improve 

 in the character of its fruit, and become less austere 

 or foxy. This method was adopted some years since 

 by Professor Gimbrede, of West Point, who collect- 

 ed every known variety from the woods, manured 

 and pruned them with great care, in the hopes of 

 changing or ameliorating their character ; the ex- 

 periment was a failure, although the fruit was great- 

 ly increased in size, some berries being larger than 

 the Black Hamburg, yet the flavor and rough state 

 of the fruit remained the same. 



Yours, J. W. Ives. 



"ROBIN'S COME." 



From the elm-tree's topmost bough, 

 Hark ! the robin's early song, 



Telling, one and all, that now 

 Merry spring-time hastes along ; 



Welcome tidings thou dost bring, 



Little harbinger of spring ! 

 Robin's come. 



Of the winter we are weary. 

 Weary of its frost and snow. 



Longing for the sunshine cheery, 

 And the brooklet's gurgling flow; 



Gladly then we hear thee sing 



The reveille of the spring. 



Robin's come. 



Ring it out o'er hill and plain, 



Through the garden's lonely bowers 



Till the green leaves dance again, 

 Till the air is sweet with flowers ; 



Wake the cowslip by the rill, 



Wake the yellow daffodil. 



Robin's come. 



Then, as thou wert wont of yore, 

 Build thy nest and rear thy young 



Close beside our cottage door, 

 In the woodbine leaves among; 



Hurt or harm thou need'st not fear. 



Nothing rude shall venture near. 

 Robin's come. 



Swinging still o'er yonder lane, 



Robin answers merrily ; 

 Ravished by the sweet refrain, 



Alice clasps her hands in glee, 

 Shouting, from the open door, 

 With her clear voice, o'er and o'er, 

 "Robin's come!" 



Black Ants. — A correspondent asks the follow- 

 ing question : "Will you please ask your numer- 

 ous readers what remedy I can adopt to destroy 

 'black ants ?' " As one of the numerous readers of 

 your paper, allow me to answer the "lady friend." 



Take about a tablespoonful of common red lead, 

 which can be obtained at the painter's, and mix it 

 with a sufficient quantity of molasses to make a thin 

 paste. This will catch a part, and disperse the bal- 

 ance of the trespassers. — Journal, 



{^^ Prosperity is a blessing to the good, but a 

 curse to the evil. 



