1854. 



NEW ENGLAND PARMER. 



171 



SPIRIT OF THE AGRICULTURAL 

 PRESS. 



HORTICULTURE. 



"The taste for Horticultural pursuits, ' ' says Hov 

 ey's Magazine, "is steadily becoming more extend- 

 ed. AVherever a town or village is settled, even 

 in the remotest sections of our wide country, there 

 may be found neat gardens, filled with the better 

 varieties of our fruits. * * * The great West, 

 where, a few years since, native seedling apples 

 comprised the principal fruit, now claims only a 

 secondary place in the variety of pears, peaches, 

 cherries, &c." 



There are, comparatively, few farms now, that 

 are entirely without some of the better sorts of 

 fruit. All, we trust, have gone beyond that point, 

 when an abundance of the common cider apples 

 satisfied their wants. Most farmers now have a 

 email variety, at least, of the apples suited to the 

 different seasou.s, and so coming into perfection 

 as to aiibrd a supply from September to April. 

 And they are not willing to stop with this, but 

 carefully cultivate the plum, peach, pear, and 

 some of the smaller fruits, the strawberryf cur- 

 rant, raspberry, &c. The cultivation of these soon 

 begets a stronger love for the garden, and thus 

 this delightful appanage of the house has found 

 favor with the farmer, and given a new aspect to 

 rural scenery. The quarter, half, or whole acre, 

 is now often seen filled with choice fruits and 



ing into life and beauty around them, they also 

 cultivate -tlie graces which shall adorn them more 

 than all that wealth can give. In their garden 

 conversations, too, they excite such a love in each 

 other for the beautiful and good, that their whole 

 lives are tempered by the sweet influences of these 

 fresh and impressive employments upon their duc- 

 tile hearts. So, cultivate the flowers. 



WH.'VT SUOULD THE STATE DO FOR FARMERS . 



Such is the significant question asked by the 

 Farmcr^s Companion, published at Detroit. "If 

 the government," it says, "by establishing an ag- 

 ricultural school, can make us better farmers, so 

 that every acre of land yields annually ten dollars, 

 where now it yields five, then we hold it to be the 

 duty of government to establish that school — with 

 our own money, remember — for all the govern- 

 ment's money comes outof our pockets." It then 

 adds, "in 1850, we had 2,000,000 of acres under 

 cultivation in this State. Who doubts, that if 

 the farmers were as well instructed in their bus- 

 iness as the engineer is in his, we could not just 

 as easily make our farms yield at the least $2 

 an acre more, yearly ? * * * It has been 

 thoroughly proved in Europe, and well proved in 

 America, that thorough drainage, on the average, 

 adds thirty per cent, to the crops. In 1850, we 

 raised 5,000 000 bushels of wheat; drained land 

 would have given us 7,500,000 bushels, equal to 

 as many dollars. But as individuals we have 



FLORICULTURE. 



vegetables and tended with considerable skill and' not the capital to drain our lands. " We cannot 

 care. here, give the reasons for these opinions, but en- 



tirely agree with the Companion, that the gov- 

 ernment of every State may do something for its 

 agriculture which will shortly come back to its 

 treasury in a three or four-fold degree, 



MANURE, {not sermons,) in the stones. 

 The Farmer and Artizan, published at Port- 

 land, Me., Marcian Seavv, editor, contains an 

 address by Doct. N. T. True, before the Cumber- 

 land County Agricultural Society, which is full 

 of striking truths. It says : — 



"Almost any granite quarry contains all the 

 mineral elements, and nearly all in the right pro- 

 portion, to form a good soil. Could, then, a piece 

 of granite bo completely crushed and pulverized, 

 it would, at once, form the mineral basis of a 



The same writer says, "if the taste for the cul- 

 ture of plants and flowei-s has not kept pace with 

 that for fruits, it has still made a good advance, 

 especially in the out-door or hardy department of 

 ornamental gardening. ' 



House plants and flower gardens are evidences 

 of taste and refinement. The sweet-scented gera- 

 nium, or a delicate rose, would hardly be expected 

 in the parlor of an irascdble woman, or the daffo- 

 dil, coreopsis, or mourning bride, in the garden 

 of a rude, ignorant and unfeeling man. But if 

 placed there by some friendly hand, they would 

 gradually root out the perverse spirit and kindle 

 in its place sentiments of good-will, affection and 



love. Children, reared among flowers, will feel 8'"'^'^ ^^!(' ''"^ *'".« y^'^H^ V" ^'^^ manner in which 

 Ai.„:_ i.:„ji„:„fl „ rru^^c. :x„ „' u-___ J^"'^ '^^"''^ ^^^'^ Originally formed. But it is nec- 



their kindly influences. That ferocity among boys 

 to torment dogs, kill cats and destroy birds, will 

 be tempered into a healthful princijile of self- 

 preservation, by engaging in the cultivation of 

 beautiful flowers. 



An encouraging feature among the farms is the 

 prevalence of more, and better gardens, in which 

 each has its well-defined limits devoted to a vari- 

 ety of annual and perennial flowers. Here the 

 mother and her children control the operations ; 

 and while they cultivate the delicate plants spring- 



essary that the elements which compose such a 

 soil be in a perfectly soluble condition before they 

 can become food for plants. This is effected by 

 the influence of one element on another. ' ' 



HOW NATURE RENOVATES A WORN OUT SOIL. 



"In this connection, let me call your attention 

 to one of the processes that nature adopts to ren- 

 ovate a worn out soil ; she makes use of a rotation 

 of crops. Suppose we visit tlie plains in Bruns- 

 wick, where tiicre is but little potash in the soil. 

 Well, what is going on there? Nature has plan- 

 ted there during the present century, at least, the 



