1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



39 



ted, and intimate that some farmers spend their 

 evenings here. 



The mechanic might tell of farmers and farmers' 

 boys who pass the closing hours of day, at his 

 shop, growing wondrous wise, over the chess and 

 chequer-board, and unravelling all the mysteries 

 of cards and dice, occasionally relieving the dul- 

 ness of the game by relating some obscene tale, or 

 engaging in vulgar jest, and to this add the home 

 picture, of yawning and dreaming and gaping for 

 something to do, or for bed-time, and we have the 

 whole routine of some farmers' evening employ- 

 ments. We would not intrude upon the sacredness 

 of the domestic circle^ but just draw the veil suf- 

 ficient to discover the misspent hours of dreamy 

 reverie, and to mark the deadening effects of idle- 

 ness. 



But how can the farmer, profitably, spend his 

 evenings? To answer this question, by suggesting 

 how they might be improved, shall be my object, 

 and if I succeed in breaking the spell by which 

 too many are debarred from a fruitful source of 

 happiness, I shall receive my highest reward. 



The past is a vast store-house filled with the 

 wisdom and the folly, the virtue and the vice of 

 generations passed away. To unlock this reposito- 

 ry and become famihar with the recorded page, is 

 a most fitting employment. So long as farmers are 

 susceptible to the influences of good and evil, and 

 capable, with "the rest of mankind," of becoming 

 virtuous or vicious, it will be of importance that 

 the characteristics and progress of truth and error 

 be known, else how shall he imbibe the one, and 

 reject the other. 



To mark the progress of agricultural art and 

 science, to learn the various means by which all 

 strive to gain the same end — an abundant harvest 

 — can hardly fail to interest and improve every 

 "tiller of the soil." 



In the sciences of geology and botany and chem- 

 istry and natural history, what a field is open for 

 the farmer to traverse, and how fitting that he who 

 lives and labors in nature's laboratory, should ac- 

 quaint himself with the objects and operations 

 with which he is surrounded. How can a portion 

 of the long evenings be better occupied than in 

 reading the volumes of Liebig and Grat 1 What a 

 .change would be wrought on the face of New Eng- 

 land, how would the repulsive assume the beaute- 

 ous, if a sense and perception of the beauteous, 

 were cultivated by studying the works of the la- 

 mented Downing. There are lessons of instruction 

 on almost every subject connected with the farm, 

 by Thaer and Dana, together with a host of other 

 kindred spirits, who are sowing broad-cast the 

 fruits of their research and experience. Let it not 

 be said that they "cast pearls before swine." Can 

 anything but careless indifference or culpable neg- 

 lect prevent the devotion of your leisure hours to 

 the acquisition of that knowledge, so capable of 

 contributing to your prosperity and usefulness and 

 happiness 1 



Man alone is a recluse. Society makes J;he cit 

 izen, and the attrition of society wears away many 

 a rough block, that juts out, but to disfigure the 

 structure. It is a happy feature of the day, that 

 association is so often made to supersede, or to 

 co-operate with individual action. It checks the 

 rashness and smoothes the asperities, gives union 

 to effort, and harmony to action. There are med- 

 cal societies and musical associations, teachers' in- 



stitutes and missionary anniversaries, all showing 

 how effective is united effort. Is it not time that 

 farmers catch the spirit of progress, and seize the 

 means of improvement, so profitably enjoyed by 

 their brethren in other fields of labor J What a 

 vast good would be done if an association of far- 

 mers was formed in every town. Not an associa- 

 tion in name only, but a living, acting and work- 

 ing organization ; with its regular meetings for dis- 

 cussions and lectures. It is impossible for such a 

 society to exist long without making its mark. 

 Dreamers will be converted into thinkers, talkers 

 into speakers, and sensual indulgences into active 

 intelligence. **• 



Chester, N. H., Dec^, 1853. 



Remarks. — Most excellent advice ; we hope to 

 see it put in practice in your own town. There are 

 plenty of intelligent persons, and those much in- 

 terested in the Great Art, directly aboi^t yc-u, to 

 form a Farmers^ Club, whose operations shall be of 

 more real value to the permanent prosperity of the 

 town than a donation of $20,000 would be. 



SPIRIT or tkh agricultural 



PRESS. 



Setting Fruit Trees. 

 The question has been very broadly discussed 

 this last fall, whether autumnal or spring, trans- 

 planting of fruit trees is best ? The subject baa 

 been introduced into nearly all .our agricultural 

 exchanges, and we find them generally agreeing, — 



1. That no tree should be set where standing 

 water will cover its roots through a considerable 

 portion of the winter and spring ; leaving the in- 

 ference that the first important operation in plant- 

 ing an orchard is thorough draining if the ground 

 requires it. 



2. That trees may be transplanted with the 

 best success while in a state of repose ; that is, 

 from the time when the leaves have fallen, to that 

 when the ground begins to freeze, and that if left 

 until spring, they must be taken up before the sap 

 is in motion. 



3. That more depends upon the manner in 



which the work is done, than upon the particular 



season. 



Profit of Feeding Corn to Hogs. 



In the Ohio Cultivator, an excellent agricultural 

 journal published at Columbus, Ohio, is an article 

 from the Ohio Agricultural Transactions for 1852, 

 by C. C. Sams, designed to answer the question as 

 to how much pork a bushel of corn will make. 



"It is estimated, from an experiment made by 

 S. B. Anderson, that 100 bushels of corn will pro- 

 duce 1,050 lbs. of gross increase in the weight of 

 hogs. 100 thrifty hogs were weighed and put in^ 

 to a pen. They were fed for 100 days as much 

 corn as they would cat. The average consump- 

 tion was 100 bushels every six days. The average 

 gross increase per hog for the 100 days was 175 

 lbs., or at the rate of 1| lbs. per day. 



It thus appears that I bushel of corn will pro- 

 duce a gross increase of lOi lbs. Throwing ofif 



