1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



491 



in the ground, and rising three feet, with a shoul- 

 dered three-inch round tenon or pivot at the top. 



Two straight, rough, hard wood poles, thirty 

 feet long, eight inches in diameter at the butt 

 ends, and four inches in diameter at the tops. 

 One of these poles is confined on the top of the 

 post, six feet from the butt end by a round mor- 

 tice, three and a half inches in diameter. The 

 other pole is lapped into the first, near their butt 

 ends, made fast by locking, and by a two inch 

 pin. 



The hind wheels of a lumber wagon, fitted on 

 the ends of the poles. 



Crossbar, a rough pole twelve feet long, bolted 

 at each end on the long poles, four feet from the 

 wheel hu1)s. 



Rough pole, bolted on one of the main polos 

 and on the cross bar, to support the whipple-tree. 



An augur hole boi-ed through the forward 

 pole, in which is fastened a rope for confining the 

 pole strap of the harness." 



For the New England Tarmer. 



ON MATURING PLANTS. 



In a comtmmication in your August number by 

 A. G. Cominjj,s, on maturing plants, are many 

 dogmas, which, if true, should not only be talked 

 about by somebod}-, but acted ujjon by all. lie 

 remarks that a soil that contains no carbon in 

 form of vegetable matter or otherwise, cannot ma- 

 ture seed, though a stock may bo produced, and 

 instances the growth of wheat straw with worth- 

 less seed, and extends the same remarks to corn, 

 rye and oats. Where can a soil be found, that 

 any farmer would till, destitute of vegetable mat- 

 ter? Experience shows the uncertainty of a crop 

 of wheat and the certainty of a crop of corn on 

 the same soil. How will Mr. Comings account 

 for this diflerence ! 



He remarks that a good crop of turnips, or 

 cabbage, can be produced with a small amount of 

 vegetable matter in the soil, but that seeds of them 

 cannot be raised on such soil. I would respect- 

 fully ask Avhat are his proofs of this position. 

 My own long experience is, that cabbage and 

 turnip seed can much more certa'.nly be raised 

 than good heads of cabbage or good turnips. In- 

 deed, turnips will often refuse to increase into 

 large good bulbs, and cabbages to head, but seed 

 will the next year be produced plentifully from 

 these worthless turnips and cabbage stumps. 

 Where does the carbon come from that produces 

 these things ? 



He asserts that those plants which produce 

 seed the first year of their growth, and then die, 

 draw away the sul^stance of the roots to mature 

 the seeds, and is the cause of their death. Is this 

 true, or do they die because they have fullilled 

 the law of their being ? Are these not perennial 

 plants that produce and mature their seed from 

 the first and many successive years from the same 

 roots 1 Clover is a well known biennial plant, 

 and its life is limited to that period generally, 

 whether suffered to mature its seed or not, so far 

 as my observation and experience of many years 



indicate. I would ask who has succeeded in pre- 

 serving clover for many years ft a thrifty condi- 

 tion, simply by preventing its maturing its seed. 



Some farmers never plow in grain crops, and 

 yet for many years raise good crops of corn and 

 grain. How is this fact reconciled with his re- 

 marks about seed producing crops exhausting tlio 

 soil, and rendering it necessary to plow in grain 

 crops ■? 



Mr. Comings asserts that some plants do not 

 come to maturity to produce seeds for several 

 years, and classes potatoes among them. He says 

 potatoes before they mature, feed carbon and 

 other elements more largely from the atmosphere 

 and produce large tubers — they appropriate more 

 carbon in the form of atmospheric gas — and that 

 after they become seed producing kinds they pour 

 loss downward into the tubes, and conser[uently 

 an excess of gaseous food is more injurious to them, 

 and they are more liable to disease ; and that roots 

 and seeds do commonly grow at the same time. 

 Now I would inquire where Mr. Comings gets all 

 these facts in relation to potatoes ? I have fre- 

 quently raised potatoes from the seed, and my ex- 

 perience is that several years are required to get 

 a full size of tuber instead of large tubers the first 

 year or two from the seed. Is it a fact ascertain- 

 ed fi-om experience and observation on a wide field 

 that seed producing potatoes are more liable to 

 disease than non-seed producing ones? Some 

 species of potatoes produce no seed from balls — 

 others but few, and others very abundantly ; and 

 this diversity, so far as I have observed, does not 

 at all depend on the time they were first produced 

 from the seed. It is an incident of the variety as 

 much as color, flavor or size. Do not the ball ani 

 seeds of potatoes grow at the same time with the 

 tuber — if not, which grows first ? 



Among other dogmas, Mr. Comings says, that 

 in the period before maturity every plant feeds 

 more from the atmosphere, and at maturity, more 

 from the soil ; — that the growth of grass for a few 

 days after blussoniing, exhausts the soil more than 

 many days of growtli does before the timcof blos- 

 somilig. ' 1 would inquire how these dogmas are 

 proved to be true? Are tlicy drawn from theory 

 or from facts and well conducted experiments? 

 If from experiments, what is the precise number 

 of days embraced in the terms "/<'<'" and '■'■many'''' 

 in the growth of grass before and after blossoming 

 to exhaust the soil to the same extent? 



There are many dogmas pr.)iunlgated l)y agri- 

 cultural writers, that every mai; of experience 

 and observation knows to be without foundation 

 in truth. If writers would be more careful in 

 what tliey assert for principles and facts wo should 

 hear sneers about book farming less frequently 

 thin we do. Rufus McLntire. 



Value of Agricultural Papers. — A subscriber 

 in Connecticut says—" I am much indebted to the 

 Cultivator for remedies which have saved me two 

 cows, thereby saving enough to pay for it a life- 

 time, l)eside the great amount of knowledge ob- 

 tained from it on all other subjects." — Albany 

 Cultivator. 



(i^ Beef cattle now arriving at the Baltimore 

 market are poor in condition, owing to the in- 

 jury done to the pasturage by the long drought. 



