34 



Sl)c Jfarmcr's iflo ntljlj) faisitor. 



in"-. They seldom thrive on sugar plums, lo 

 be" men they must rough it; and the sooner they 

 begin the better. Oaks are rooted in wind and 

 storm: oaks, therefore, are trustworthy. Hot 

 house plants come in a few days— and perish 

 accordingly. .,, , „ „ . 



Look about you, and you will hardly find an 

 old rich man who has not been at some period 

 of lite, a bankrupt either in health or piopcrty. 

 Such men have learned by God's providences 

 the value of what they have lost, instead ot be- 

 ing discouraged, have always found themselves 

 strengthened by their fall. 



Disposal of the Filth ol Paris. 



From Coleman's late work on European Agriculture. 

 There remains one establishment to be spoken 

 of, directly connected with, and of great impor- 

 tance to, agriculture, as well as comfort and 

 health ; but which, having no oilier than a disa- 

 greeable interest to many of my readers, I For- 

 worn them at once to pass it over ; though a 

 French writer humorously observes, that "a book 

 written upon assafcetida is in itself no more of- 

 fensive than a book written upon roses." 



This subject considered in a philosophical and 

 practical view, is of the first importance. It 

 would he altogether a false, in truth, a mere af- 

 fectation of decency, to hesitate to treat it as its 

 importance demands. In all the arrangements 

 of Divine Providence, nothing strikes the re- 

 flecting mind with more force than the beautiful 

 circle of mutual dependence and reciprocity in 

 which everything proceeds; so that the humble 

 elements perform their part, and the most eleva- 

 ted and brilliant can do no more; and the part 

 of the former is as essential to the common 

 well-being as that of the latter. 



Look at a heap of manure, composed of every 

 offensive substance which can be congregated 

 together, reeking with detestable odors, and pre- 

 senting a mixed mass of objects utterly disgust- 

 ing to the touch, the smell, and the sight. Yet 

 this is the food of the vegetable world ; contain- 

 ing all the elements of richness, nourishment, 

 health and beauty. All these, the plants know 

 how to separate, to analyze, to digest, and appro- 

 priate, with a skill distancing the sagacity of sci- 

 ence, they will return it purified and sublimated 

 in bread and wine, and oil ; in flowers of exqui- 

 site coloring and beauty ; in perfumes the most 

 odorous which nature's toilette can furnish ; in 

 fruits luscious to the taste ; and, above all, in pro- 

 ducts indispensable to life, and full of health and 

 th. The farmer, standing in his barnyard 



In Paris every species of refuse is husbanded j in one body, which, in the opinion of the Com- 



- . .' ^T /»._•. II..... ..."... n.n.ilj mmrllllta tillfl InilS nl li;i\ lief illTP. 



streng 



knee-deep in its offensive accumulations, may 

 proudly say, " Mere is tiie source of my wealth ; 

 that which has fed my cattle shall now feed my 

 crops ; that which has given fatness to my flocks 

 shall now give fatness to my fields." A mysteri- 

 ous power is ever operating in every department 

 of nature ; suffering nothing lo fail ol its use ; 

 "gathering up the fragments, that nothing be 

 lost;" ami providing for the various wants of the 

 infinitely-varied forms of life, to which existence 

 has been given and from whom, if the Creator 

 should, for one second, withdraw his guardian 

 care, the whole must instantly perish. 



The refuse of a city may be considered as of 

 at least five different kinds; first the ordinary 

 refuse of a house, such as fragments of vegeta- 

 bles, remains of food, hones, rags, and a thou- 

 sand miscellaneous and nameless substances; 

 second, the remains of fuel, such as ashes and 

 soot; third, the refuse of different trades, of 

 workers in leather, workers in bone, workers in 

 horn, soap boilers, glue manufacturers, workers 

 in hair and wood, sugar refineries, and the in- 

 numerable oilier trades always to be found in 

 Ibe busy hive of a city; fourthly, the dung of the 

 domestic animals, cows and horses; and lastly, 

 human odnre, or night-soil. I shall say little of 

 some other substances, which have been used 

 for purposes of manure ; but it is well known 

 that many graveyards have been ransacked for 

 the purpose of gathering up their mouldering 

 relics, and that many hundreds of tons of hu- 

 man bones have been transported from the field 

 of Waterloo, to England, for the purpose of en- 

 riching the cultivation. It cannot be denied in 

 this case lo be a more rational, humane, and 1 

 will add, Christian use, than that to which they 

 were put in the bloody arena, where they were 

 first deposited. 



in the most careful manner. No refuse is allow 

 ed to be thrown into the streets after a very earlj 

 hour in the morning, nor until after ten o'clock 

 at night. This refuse consists of what may he 

 called the house dirt, and is laid in heaps in 

 front of the houses near the gutters. A very 

 numerous class of people, called cliiffonniers, 

 consisting of as many women as men, with deep 

 baskets on their hacks, and a small stick with a 

 hook at the end, carefully turn over every one of 

 these heaps, selecting every article of bone, 

 leather, iron, paper, and glass, which are thrown 

 at once into their baskets, and being carried to 

 their places of general deposit, are there again 

 examined and assorted, and appropriated to any 

 specific, application lor which they may be suit- 

 ed. These persons appear like a most degraded 

 class; they inhabit particular quarters of tl.e 

 city, and the interior of their habitations is sur>h 

 as might be expected from their occupation. 

 The profession descends in families from father 

 to son, and from mother to daughter. They are 

 a most industrious race of people ; and many ol 

 them may be seen, even at midnight, will) their 

 lanterns, taking advantage of the first pickings, 

 and anticipating the labors of the coining morn- 

 ing; ami with the earliest dawn they are sure to 

 be" found at their tasks. No article of food es- 

 capes them ; and they call the street their mo- 

 ther, because she often thus literally gives them 

 bread. Though their occupation is necessarily 

 dirty, yet they are almost always comfortably 

 clad, and are' never ragged. They never beg, 

 and disdain to be considered objects of charity. 

 They are licensed by the city authorities, for 

 which some trifling sum is paid, and for which 

 they must he recommended for their sobriety 

 and good conduct. They have their particular 

 districts assigned them, and are very careful to 

 prevent all foreign intrusion. 



The chiffbnniers having done their work, next 

 come the sweepers and collectors of dirt. Every 

 inhabitant of Paris is required, under a penalty, 

 to have the side walk in front of his place of 

 business or residence carefully swept every 

 morning. The sweepers of the streets of Paris 

 are almost universally women, who, with long 

 twig or birch brooms, sweep the streets tho 

 roughly, and all the accumulations are taken in 

 carts to be transported to the great places of de- 

 posit. The women assist as much in loading the 

 carts as the men. These women appear to work 

 extremely hard, carrying always a long broom in 

 their hands, and a shovel fastened to their backs, 

 to be used as occasion may require. The gut- 

 ters in Paris are washed out every morning, by 

 fountains which are placed in every street, and 

 what these sweepers are not able to collect for 

 the carls, they are careful to sweep into the 

 drains leading into the common sewers. 1 have 

 looked at these people and at the cliiffonniers 

 often with great interest; and, filthy and dis- 

 gusting as their occupation necessarily is, I have 

 always fell in my heart a sincere respect for per- 

 sons who, poor as they are, would be ashamed 

 to beg; and who, by the severest and most use 

 ful labor, are proud to obtain for themselves and 

 their families, though a VPry humble, and honest 

 living. All this refuse is transported to places 

 appropriated for its deposit, where it remains un- 

 til it is decomposed, and is then sold to the 

 farmers for manure. 



A Sample Massachusetts Farmer. 



The Essex Transactions, in the repuil of the 

 Committee on Farms describes one in Alethuen 

 entered by Leverett Bradley, which stretches 

 nearly a mile upon the hank of the Merrimack 

 river. The annual increase of twenty-five tons 

 of hay per \ ear upon ibis farm, shows how much 

 the production of New England may he en- 

 larged by the judicious application of labor and 

 capital. 



The soil is inclining to sand. Probably there 

 is not a rock upon the whole of it too large to 

 be turned out by the plough. The accompany- 

 ing statement of Mr. Bradley shows what it was 

 a few years ago, and what it now is. Probably 

 no farm in the county was more attractive in iis 

 appearance than was this, when your Committee 



mitlee, would produce two tons of hay per acre, 

 on the average, and fifty acres of rye, at that 

 time ready for the harvest, adjoining, which 

 could all he seen distinctly from Air. Bradley's 

 house, without a tree, a shrub, or a stone, to in- 

 tercept the view, is a sight rarely to he met with 

 in the State, ami probably in the county has no 

 parallel. Indeed, very few farms can be found 

 anywhere, which, for beauty of location, can 

 equal this. 



LEVERETT BRADLEY'S STATEMENT TO TIIE COM- 

 MITTEE ON FARMS. 



Gentlemen — The farm which 1 offer for premi- 

 um contains in all about two hundred acres. 

 Twenty-five acres, or thereabouts, are now cov- 

 ered with trees and bushes, which I have not at- 

 tempted to clear. The remaining one hundred 

 and seventy-five acres are now in pasture, mow- 

 ing and tillage, very nearly in the following pro- 

 portions, excepting about two acres covered by 

 the buildings, enclosed as yards, &c, lo wit: 

 seventy acres mowing, fifty rye, fifty pasture, 

 three potatoes. It is five years since 1 commen- 

 ced any improvements. At that lime, the whole 

 quantity of hay cut upon the entire farm did not 

 exceed forty tons. Of this, a large proportion 

 was meadow grass and of a poor quality. About 

 fifteen acres had been kept clear, for the purpose 

 of tillage. The remainder of the one hundred 

 and seventy-five acres was covered with wood 

 and hushes, in a great measure, there being some 

 open laud among them, which was used for pas- 

 ture, — twenty acres, at least, of what is now 

 mowing, would have been considered almost 

 worthless. I have this year about seventy acres 

 in mowing, which has averaged tuo tons of hay 

 per acre. The quality of the hay you can deter- 

 mine, from what jou saw of it in July. About 

 thirty of this seventy acres of grass land, is a 

 reclaimed bog. It has cost me about forty dol- 

 lars per acre to bring the remainder of my grass 

 land into the state which you saw it in, as jou 

 made the examination of ilie farm. 1 have gain- 

 ed about twenty-five tons of hay per year, for 

 four years, and as much in quality as quantity, 

 over the hay formerly cut. 



The rye on my fifty acres, averaged twenty 

 bushels per acre. This land 1 seeded down to 

 grass, and intend it for pasture another year. 

 The. crop of rye and the straw will pay for the 

 labor of reducing the laud to a state of cultiva- 

 tion, and for seeding it to grass. The fifty acres 

 in pasture. I intend to seed in the same manner 

 another year, with rye and grass and alternate 

 from year to year, feeding one year and cropping 

 with rye the next, and I think that I can thereby 

 keep the land up to its present condition. Alost 

 of my rye land, as you perceived, was pretty full 

 of slumps, which gives jou an idea of its former 

 state. The wood which I have taken Irom it 

 has paid me about one thousand dollars above 

 all expenses. My three acres of potatoes gave 

 me an average yield of about seventy-five bush- 

 els per acre. 



There were about three hundred old apple 

 trees upon the farm, all of which have been 

 grafted anew. In addition, I have had put down 

 within the last and the previous year, one thou- 

 sand apple trees and about three hundred peach 

 trees. The produce of my old trees was about 

 fifteen barrels, this year. 



Formerly, I have kept some twenty cows, and 

 sold the milk, a market for which is furnished 

 by the new town of Lawrence. This year, I 

 have no dairy, except for private use— my stock 

 consisting of eight oxen, four horses, and a few 

 small cattle. 



Very respectfully, 



your obedient servant, 



LEVERETT BRADLEY. 



Facts in Pruning. — The action of roots and 

 that of leaves are reciprocal. If yon diminish 

 the quantity of foliage, you will proporlionably 

 lessen the increase of roots. If one hundred re- 

 presents the quantity of roots made by a tree 

 with all its foliage, then fifty will represent the 

 quantity of roots formed by a tree similar to the 

 other in every respect, except in having the pro- 

 duction of foliage repressed, by whatever means, 

 to the extent one half. You will, therefore, per- 



ceive that by summer pruning, both roois and 

 visited it in July. About seventy acres of grass I tops are equally reduced, and that what may be 



