1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



337 



the depth of eight or ten inches, so that two men 

 can plant twenty acres in a day. The Newark, 

 Ohio, Amtrican says that the machine works in 

 that city are manufacturing a steam plow for a 

 Mrs. Spencer, of Virgir.ia, to cost $2000 when 

 completed. Mr. Bronson Murray, of Illinois, has 

 offered a reward of $50,000 for the best practical 

 steam plow. 



For the New England Farmer, 



LOST FERTILIZERS. 



I have often been surprised at the want of com- 

 mon forethought evinced by otherwise intelligent 

 men, in destroying materials adapted to fertilize the 

 soil. In passing the residence, the other day, of a 

 friend who prides himself on being quite an ama- 

 teur at farming, or rather gardening, I saw him 

 busily engaged in raking together the corn-stalks, 

 potato vines, and other litter of the previous year's 

 crops, in order to burn them ! A beautiful, clean 

 looking garden he was going to have ; and besides, 

 the ashes were so beneficial to the land ! Now I 

 do not question the value of ashes on many soils, 

 but 1 undertake to say that the litter thus made to 

 ashes, if spaded deep into the soil, would be, at least, 

 a hundred to one more valuable. And more es- 

 pecially is such a process grateful to a heavy, clayey 

 soil, such as my friend was thus engaged in de- 

 spoiling of its cheapest fertilizer, while he was pay- 

 ing six dollars per cord for stable manure ! 



A portion of my own garden is of the same heavy, 

 clayey soil ; and, after draining it, I have made a 

 practice of spading into it all the vegetable litter I 

 could readily procure, including even small brush 

 and shavings. These things produce vegetable 

 mould, and they make the land light, while but a 

 very small addition of stable manure suffices to pro- 

 duce very heavy crops. I should almost as soon 

 think of burning up my fences in order to produce 

 ashes for my land, as of burning up my garden litter 

 for the same purpose. Very few of the vegetables 

 usually grown in gardens are fastidious with respect 

 to the food they derive from the soil. Almost 

 any thing that will produce vegetable mould, or 

 fermentation, or ammonia, will form soluble mat- 

 ter to be taken up into the growth of plants. 



Another case of neglected fertilization recently 

 came under my observation. I was looking over a 

 small farm not fifteen miles from Boston, which 

 consisted mainly of a hard, gravelly soil, and looked 

 as though the grasshoppers born upon it might 

 reasonably shed tears over their destiny. The pas 

 ture was little else than moss, and the mowing land 

 exhibited Uttle tufts of herdsgrass, indicating the 

 presence of some form of iron in the soil, and the 

 need of some fertilizer, beyond the small quantity of 

 stable manure which the owner was able to expend 

 upon it. That owner looked the picture of discour- 

 agement ; and yet, on one corner of the farm were 

 four or five acres of the very best muck swamp, pro- 

 ducing little except alders, and yet containing the 

 very material best adapted for making the farm as 

 fertile as need be. A load of muck upon a gravelly 

 soil is often more permanently useful than a load 

 of the best stable manure ; and yet there are thou- 

 sands of acres of muck in Massachusetts lung un- 

 touched year after year. It seems as though Prov- 

 idence had scattered these muck-swamps over the 



country on purpose to rejuvenate our worn-out soils, 

 hut as yet, only a small portion of our farmers 

 have learned to appreciate these fertilizing depos- 

 its. "0, muck is too cold for my land !" exclaimes 

 the farmer, who don't believe that anything can be 

 done except in the old way. The idea that muck 

 is too cold has caused many a New England farmer 

 to stumble ; but if any one of your numerous read- 

 ers ever tried the use of muck as a fertilizer, and 

 repented of it, let that man come forward. As 

 Brutus says, "If any, speak, for him have I offend- 

 ed." E. C. P. 

 Somervilk, 1857. 



For the New England Farmer. 



THE OAK PRUNER. 



This insect, which formerly confined it? ravages 

 to the white and some other species of oak, has 

 within a few years commenced its depredations on 

 the apple tree, and threatens to become as formid- 

 able an enemy as the borer, which works at the 

 roots. The eggs are laid on the branches in July, 

 by a brown beetle ; the grubs which they produce 

 eat their way to the pith and form a burrow several 

 inches in length. After attaining their growth in 

 the autumn, they divide the branch at the lower 

 end of the burrow, by cutting away the wood, leav- 

 ing the bark untouched ; they then retire back- 

 wards and the branch is broken by the wind, and 

 they fall to the ground. 



In at\ orchard where I was at work recently, 

 twenty branches, from half an inch to an inch in 

 diameter, were counted on a middle-sized tree 

 which had been severed in this manner; many 

 were noticed on others, and none had escaped their 

 ravages. Should this insect continue to increase 

 in the same ratio that it has since first noticed on 

 the apple tree, it will become a serious impediment 

 to the growth of trees as well as fruit. It is recom- 

 mended to gather the branches as they fall and 

 burn them and thereby destroy the grub. A minute 

 account of the oak-pruner may be found in the trea- 

 tise on insects by Dr. Harris, and it is presumed 

 that which attacks the apple tree is the same or 

 one of similar habits and transformations. 



O. V. Hills. 



Training a Balky Horse. — In India, where a 

 horse becomes stubborn and refuses to move, in- 

 stead of whipping him, as is our custom, or setting 

 fire to straw under the belly, as practised in Eng- 

 land, a rope is attached to his fore leg, and one or 

 two persons go ahead and pull at the rope. It is 

 said this starts the most refractory horse. The 

 .Michigan Farmer says a horse became balky in 

 Detroit a short time since, and neither whipping 

 nor coaxing could make him stir. A rope was fas- 

 tened around his neck, and he was dragged a short 

 distance by another team, but this did not eff"ect a 

 cure. The rope was then taken from his neck, 

 passed between his legs, and fastened firmly to his 

 tail. In this manner he was dragged a short dis- 

 tance, and when the rope was taken off", the hith- 

 erto unruly animal was perfectly obedient to the 

 will of his master. We have seen this method 

 tried, with similar results. — Farmer and Mechanic. 



fi:^ A bad workman quarrels with his tools. 



