62 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



Hampshire, with editorial comments on "one 

 hundred and eleven Ijushels and fourteen quarts of 

 corn on one acre!" Although the editor has 

 been among the great-crop folks a good deal, he 

 says such a field "certainly would be a sight such 

 as we have never yet been permitted to see." 



MANURES. 



To the farmers of New England this is the 

 great subject for study and discussion ; for, of 

 what use are mowing machines and hoi'se-rakes 

 where grass don't grow, of double plows and bright 

 hoes in a barren field 1 Our old farms must be 

 enriched or our sons will go to the west, to the 

 shop, and store. We want, then, all the aid 

 that science can afibrd, all the teachings that ex- 

 perience in all parts of the world has suggested. 

 Hence the value of an agricultural paper depends 

 in a good degree upon the attention given to the 

 subject of manures. On this principle the first 

 number of the Afon^/i/y Farmer for 1854 is un- 

 usually rich and instructive. On turning over its 

 pages Ave have marked eight articles that treat of 

 this subject. First "Waste of Urine," in con- 

 nection with "Chinese Manures," suggests the 

 means of a great saving in the management of com- 

 mon materials. While "Preparation and Ap- 

 plication of jManure," "Something New — Guano," 

 and "Observations in a Garden," give some hits 

 on the vest-pocket nostrums of the day, they have 

 many suggestions of general application. The 

 great object of the writer of "Manures — Barn 

 Cellars," seems to be to prove that "the guidance 

 of science is preferable to that of unscientific exj^er- 

 ience." I believe they are seldom antagonistic, and 

 ought to be harmonized, not jJut in opposition. The 

 learned professor and the ignorant Chinese, for in- 

 stance, arrive at the same conclusion as to the 

 value of urine. But at this rate ofwriting I shall 

 have to pass over the articles on "Humus," on 

 manufacturing "Superphosphate of Lime," and 

 the inquiry about " Oyster-shell Lime," without 

 comments, although I must say it is a little strange 

 that an article which has been so highly recom- 

 mended and so long advertised as oyster-shell lime 

 has been, should still be so little known as a 

 manure. 



PORK. 



" Fattening Swine" is an article full of practi- 

 cal suggestions of economical ways and means of 

 making Pork, and on pages 39 and 40 are some 

 valuable experiments showing how much pork a 

 bushel of coi'n will make. 



PLOWS AND PLOWING. 



Four articles on the "Double Plow;" one by 

 Mr. Sheldon, who finds tliat two yoke of oxen will 

 plow as easily with a sirfgle plow as three yoke 

 can with the double plow; the other three articles 

 contend that the double plow is worked as easily 

 as the single, at a given depth. With a disserta- 

 tion on "Fall Plowing, &c." by L. Durand. 



SCIENTIFIC. 



"History of Vegetation, No. 2," by "R. H. H." 

 Nature of "Coal Ashes," and the constituents of 

 "Manures" from Johnston, &c. 



SUEEP. 



" Practical Hints in Sheep Husbandry" is an 

 article ajipropriate to its caption, and "Polled 

 Sheep" gives some half-dozen objections to horns 

 on sheep. 



TEMPERANCE. 



The illuminated "Calendar for January" is a 

 temperance lecture that must stir the feelings of 

 those of us who are unfortunately old enough to 

 have our boyish memories printed all over with 

 painful reminiscences of "the times when it was 

 fashionable to drink intoxicating liquors." The 

 editor has drawn a gloomy jjicture of those days ; 

 but that is a fortunate person whose experience 

 will allow him to doubt its truthfulness ; whose 

 boyisli ears have never listened to the ATilgar story 

 and the obscene jest that were repeated evening 

 after evening in those "schools of vice" — the 

 village stores ; and who knows nothing of the 

 privations endured by the family to meet the grog 

 bill, of how the best cow and the best sheep, were 

 selected yearly by the merchant, and driven away 

 to pay for more rum, and of how whole districts 

 might be found in which not a single newspaper 

 was taken, and not one house in four could pro- 

 duce a dictionary. Is the blighting curse of in- 

 temjierance returning 1 



TREES. 



"Trees on Farms," after admitting that scatter- 

 ing trees in open fields in England are "going," 

 advises their continuance particularly in the pas- 

 tures of our dry and scorching summers. 



VARIOUS 



other articles, which perhaps from their individu- 

 ality could not well be classified, richly deserve 

 notice. " Points are Pins" I have read over and 

 over. "Rail Stockholders" ought to be studied by 

 all who own shares or ride in the cars. "Chroni- 

 cles of a Clay Farm" is l)y no means as "heavy as 

 mud." Some excellent hints on the Improvement 

 of "Winter Evenings;" on "Thanksgiving;" 

 on the "Cultivation of Willow," &c. 



A Reader. 

 Winchester, Jan., 1854. 



SWALLOWING A HOESE. 



Mr. Gardner, in his "Travels in Brazil," con- 

 firms the early accounts respecting the size and 

 prodigious swallowing capacity of the boa con- 

 strictor — accounts which certain naturalists, whose 

 researches never extended beyond the galleries of 

 a museum, are in the habit of treating with ridi- 

 cule and unbelief. "The boa," said he, "is not 

 uncommon throughout the whole Province of Go- 

 gaz, particularly by the wooded margins of lakes, 

 marshes and streams. Sometimes they attain the 

 enormous length of forty feet ; the largest I saw 

 was in this place, but it was not alive. Some weeks 

 before our arrival at Sape, the favorite riding horse 

 of SenorLagoeira, which had been init out to pas- 

 ture not far from the house, could not be found, 

 although strict search was made for it all over the 

 hazienda. Shortly after this, one of his vaqueros, 

 in going through the wood by the side of a small 

 river, saw an enormous boa suspended in the fork 

 of a tree which hung over the water ; it was dead, 

 but had evidently been floated down alive by a re- 

 cent flood, and being in an inert state, it had not 

 been able to extricate itself from the fork before the 

 waters fell. It was dragged out to the open coun- 

 try l)y two horses, and was found to measure thir- 

 ty-seven feet in length. On opening it, the bones 

 of a horse were found in a broken condition, the 

 head being uninjured. From these circumstances 



