1854. 



NEAV ENGLAND FARMER. 



549 



For the New Engrland Farmer. 



FARMER FOR OCTOBER. 



Guano. — A report of some very careful exper- 

 iments with Guano, by Mr. Putnam. My own 

 onions, with tears in their eyes, unite with his in 

 saying that guano does not agree with their 

 stomachs, although some of the doctors said it 

 must he just the thing for their constitutions. I 

 phmted a beJ of top onions in drills over guano 

 well mixed with hen manui-e and soil, and then, 

 with the determination of having a premium bed, 

 it was repeatedly watered with a weak dilation 



thankfully received ; and the assurance of such 

 men that " respectable employment " for females 

 may be found in "dress making," in " manufac 

 turing establishments," &c. will do good. In this 

 neighborhood, nurses readily command from four 

 to six dollars per week, and are often procured 

 with difficulty at any price. Should not this be 

 added to the list of employments for which fe- 

 males should be educated ? 



Fall and Spring iS'ranspIanting . — Whichever 

 way the question of superiority may be finally 

 decided, t!ie fact that both seasons will answer. 



of guano." But I did not got the premium ; forjremains to encourage us to plant both spring and 

 " all through the season they had a sickly look " jfnU, until the question is settled. 

 and a feeble growth. I hope his seventy-five j Manuring Fruit Trees. — Why would not the 

 pounds upon his corn land will give a more favor- j common crowbar answer for making the holes for 

 able report. A fesv missing hills are all the liquid manure, which are bored l)y the machine 



effects I am aTile positively to report of part of a 

 bag put in the hills, on a dry sandy soil. 



Why is the farmer diseontented? — " Because the 

 occupation is not understood," is almost the last 

 reason I should assign. Do not nine farmers out 

 of ten know better than they do — are cramped 

 and hindered liy want of means and time rather 

 than by want of knowledge ? Tell the farmer 

 who has no orchard, no cunnints, no flowers, no 

 wood-pile, no pig-pen, no conveniences at all, that 

 he don't know how to plant a tree or bush, that 

 he don't understand chopping wood, that he has 

 not ingenuity enough to lix up a fence or make a 

 shelter for his pigs, and would he acknowledge 

 that to be the reason of his discontent '? Hard 

 work and small pay at home, an easy life and 

 large wages abroad, seem the alternatives that 

 are constantly before the mind of young farmers, 

 while many old ones believe that almost every 

 body else live easier, more comfortable and gen- 

 teel than themselves. So long as this is the case, 

 BO long will farmers remain discontented, and 

 just so long they have a right to be discontented. 

 Nor will education or science better the matter 

 much. Does the 3'oung man and the young 

 woman rush from the larm" for the factory and 

 shop to find food for fhfl mind ? Do the multi- 

 tude go to California for the deveiop..v.:.nt-, of their 

 intellectual faculties ? So long as the conviction 

 remains upon the minds of farmers that those 

 who leave the business make out better than those 

 do who remain in it, it is pretty much useless to 



preach them into contentment. These things 1 The Useful and the Beautiful. — In this article 

 will regulate themselves. When the trades and [we are told that Downing and others made " a 

 professrons are filled up, or crowded down, to a j very vital mistake, not in the good or bad corn- 

 level with a'^riculture— when people cannot do jiiling of English authors, but in having had any 

 " "■" " .-- 1 . - . ■ . .. . 11 It is not true 



an 

 il 



and otliers, that it is so now. I number of tlie monthly Fanner, in a dissertatiop 



hero described 1 



Honor to the Farmer's Wife. — If " not more 

 than one out of two are capable of managing 

 their part successfully," have not old l^achelors 

 about an even chance, notwithstanding the " im- 

 possible idea ? " . 



About Apple Trees. — Directions for planting 

 and managing. On most " old land " I should 

 recommend, as essential, the use of some kind of 

 compost in planting, to give the tree a start. 

 ]Mud or muck, mixed with ashes, lime, salt, plas- 

 ter, leaves, &c., or piled up alone to " slack," a 

 few months before being used, will put the inches 

 on the ends of the twigs and on the body of the 

 tree, the first year. A groat many apple trees 

 have been " set " within a few years past ; yet a 

 person will see but few thrifty young orchards, 

 in a trip of a hundred miles in any part of New 

 England. 



A Good Garden. — History of a merchant's gar- 

 den. " Ten barrels of good apples for winter," 

 beside lots in the fall ; "all the pears we want ; " 

 " twenty kinds of roses and nearly one hundred 

 sorts of flowers ; " " plenty of the finest plums I 

 ever saw;" "bushels of grapes ; " "potatoes, 

 beets, carrots, turnips, cabbages, onions, beans, 

 peas, corn, cucumbers, melons, squashes, and 

 Dumpkins, as many as our folks want to use, all 

 on less a. — onp-h^lf acre of land, without any 



help but my girls in tuv. a. riQ.-,ni.r.v.or.f " 



Poor old New England ! 

 I 



'^Aiiaruiient. 



level with agriculture — when people cannot do juling ot ii,iigli8li autuors, out in naving nau an; 

 any better elsewhere, they will be content to till | thing to do with them at all. ... It is not tru 

 the soil. Many think that this will be tlie case that English works are adapted to America) 

 soon; some believe, with your correspondent " A 'wants, but just the contrary. "_ In the AjM-i 



City Mechanic,' 



Every one jvill decide for himself. 



Make your Girls Independent.— MuchmKvy and 

 other causes have of late made sad havoc of 

 "woman's rights." xMany of her occupations 

 are gone entirely; and in looking about for sub 



on " What a Garden should be," the same wri- 

 ter, after condemning the " straiglit lines and 

 right angles" of time immemorial, says: "It 

 was reserved for Enghind to suliliinate out of the 

 whole mass of artificial gavdeningj a truer and 



stitutes, it is not strange that she should coca- 1 more natural style." I am well aware that un- 

 sionally interfere with the prerogatives of thejedueated people, like myself, ought to distrust 

 other sex, especially as tall men find it more ! their own " taste " when it differs from that of 

 profitable 'to make bonnets, to bake bread, toithe learned and cultivated. But I iinmt .nmfess 

 measure ribbons, pick up type, display calico, j to a •' taste "' for geometrical regularity and pro- 

 teach children, and be" kitchen corporals," tlian jiortion, and cannot agre.' witii Mr. Downnig in 

 to plow the fields or rear herds. Mr. French's Icommcnding tlie man who threw up potatoes to 

 article will be much read. Suggestions from Iplant trees by, lest his workman sliould fiill into 

 such a source on this important subject will bo the vulgarism of geomvtrieul figures; nor can I 



