320 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



• m 



AN EXAMPLE OF PERSEVERANCE. 



The following is a most remarkable and praise- 

 worthy instance of what perseverance and Indus 

 try, rightly directed, are able to efl'ect : 



Among the graduating class at the last Com- 

 mencement at Williams College, was one by the 

 name of Condit, from New Jersey. The gentle^ 

 man is a shoemaker, married, and has a family of 

 four children. Six years ago, becoming sensible 

 of the blessings of an education, he commenced 

 learning the simple branches, such as are taught 

 in our primary schools. One by one, he mastered 

 grammar, arithmetic, geography, etc., with some oc- 

 casional assistance from his fellow-workmen. At this 

 time he determined to obtain a collegiate education. 

 Without means, and with a large family depend- 

 ing on him for support, he commenced and learned 

 Latin and Greek, in the evenings after his day's 

 labor was over, under the direction of a friend ; and 

 after the lapse of a year and a half, prepared him- 

 self and entered the Sophomore class at Williams 

 College. 



He brought his bench, and his tools, and his 

 books with him. The students supplied him with 

 work ; the faculty assisted him ; and with the fund 

 for indigent students, and some occasional assist- 

 ance from other sources, he was enabled to go 

 through the College course, and at the same time, 

 support his family. He graduated on his birth- 

 day, aged thirty-two. He stood high in his class, 

 and received a part at Commencement, but declined. 

 At the farewell meeting of the class, in considera- 

 tion of his perseverance, talents, and Christian 

 character, they presented him with an elegant set 

 of silver spoons, tea and table, each handsomely 

 engraved with an appropriate inscription. 



Mr. Condit will now enter the Theological Sem- 

 inary at New York, and will, no doubt, make a 

 faithful and popular minister. 



What young man in this country will ever, after 

 such an example as this, despair of obtaining an 

 education ? — Springfield Republican. 



For the New England Farmer. 



REPORT OF A SMALL GARDEN. 



Two outside sections, making about half of the 

 area, were dressed with horse manure and plowed, 

 and planted with potatoes. The central section, 

 formed by two terraces into two parallelograms, 

 made level by deposit of alluvial soil, was spaded 

 ground, manured with a mixture of composted veg- 

 etable and animal matter, and was devoted to beets, 

 onions, parsnips, Lima beans, Walcherer cauliflow- 

 ers, common sweet corn, and a few hills of Mexican 

 corn, with two rows of peas, one of June potatoes, 

 and three hills of squashes. It faces south, on a 

 side-hill, and the natural soil is gravelly. The cau- 

 liflowers and one row of peas — the Victoria Impe- 

 rial, from the Patent Office — were started as early 

 as the season would admit. The cauiillowers were 

 sown in a barrel, filled to near the top with horse 

 manure, covered with a few inches of deposit soil, 

 and afterwards transplanted to hills, in ground lib- 

 erally manured. The growth of all these vegeta- 

 bles was rapid and promising through May and 

 June. Liquid manure, leached through a barrel, 

 was applied to the Mexican corn, and Victoria peas, 

 and the onions. But the drought and intense heat 

 through July brought them a"t length to a stand, 



and daily liberal watering was resorted to to save 

 them. Potatoes suff"ered when in the blow, and at 

 the time for setting tubers. The Mexican corn bore 

 the drought the best ; the common sweet corn was 

 blighted entirely. A copious rain on the 5th of 

 August set forward the growth rapidly. The first 

 pods of Victoria peas filled in June, and were in full 

 yield by the last of the month. On the 16th of Ju- 

 ly, I planted a few of those first ripe, and some of 

 them matured in October, notwithstanding the 

 drought. In favorable seasons, a second crop can 

 thus be raised, but they are not very prolific. 



The Walcherer cauliflowers grew on, with large 

 spreading leaves, but slowly, and yielded a few well 

 developed flower-heads, tender and delicious when 

 properly boiled. But most of the plants were too 

 late to ilower, needing a longer summer. But for 

 the long pinching drought, the result would have 

 been different. 



The Mexican corn is of a very saccharine quality, 

 and how much syrup might be obtained from the 

 stalk is worth ascertaining. I had eight hills from 

 eight kernels, planted two by three feet apart ; and 

 two and three stalks grew from every kernel but 

 one, each stalk bearing two and sometimes three 

 ears from six to ten inches long, and from eight to 

 ten and twelve rows on each. The kernel from 

 which but one stalk grew, yielded the twelve rowed 

 ear. The stalks are a third taller than those of the 

 ordinary kind, and demand a deep soil, richly ma- 

 nured. 



I cultivated the early London cabbage, — seed 

 from the Patent Office, — which headed well, and 

 proves far superior to the York cabbage. 



My potatoes yielded well, but grew in strange 

 shapes, many of them ; for the tubers first set, sent 

 out protuberant adjuncts, of manifold forms. This 

 I attribute to rapidity of growth after the August 

 rains, when the usual time for the regular setting 

 of tubers was past. 



Fall planting of potatoes I again find to be a 

 failure ; and as a substitute, I have begun with 18 

 hills March 1st, 15 hills April 4th, 22 hills April 

 8th, and 14 more, April 17th, on inverted turf, cov- 

 ered thick with mulch of forest leaves, needing a 

 layer of street alluvial besides. These now wait 

 the merciful visits of Providence, till this second 

 day's great snow-storm is over, and till 



"Fair Iris with her braid the welkin dyes, 

 Presage of warmer days and fairer sliies." 



Salisbury, Conn., April, 1857. J. L. 



The Crops. — The accounts of the crops from all 

 parts of the country are every week becoming more 

 favorable. We subjoin a few of the latest speci- 



ens : 



A gentleman who has travelled quite extensively 

 over the Western States, writes to the Cincinnati 

 Gazette, that in his judgment, in Ohio, Indiana, Il- 

 linois and Kentucky, there will be a larger crop of 

 wheat harvested the coming harvest than ever be- 

 fore. 



The Executive Committee of the Kentucky Hor- 

 ticultural Society say that the fruit crop generally 

 will exceed the general average, but that the crop 

 of peaches will be light. 



The Wilmington Gazette states that at present, 

 in Delaware, the peach crop bids fair to be more 

 abundant than it has been for many years. 



