172 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



For the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 

 The Last Flower. 



BY THE LATE MRS. ElMCE T. DAH1EL9. 



Beneath a branching pine that hung 

 Its tasseli'd boughs against the sky, 



A flowerpt of (he forest sprung, 

 And Heavenward turnd its quiet eye. 



Tho' angry winds the branches toss'd — 

 The (lark cloud pour'd the chilling shower, 



And bilclul deivs, and irlittering frost, 

 i^'ell harmless round tliat shelter'd flower. 



Each blossom of the Summer fields- 

 Each bud of Spring can truth impart. 



But Autumn's lowly wild-flower yields 

 A dearer moral to the heart. 



He, who through blight, and frost, and storm — 

 From baleful dews, and chilling showers, 



Thus gently shields its fragile form, 



Will mind Him of His human flowers. 



Plaster of Paris. We have been lately sur- 

 prised to liear the virtues of this e.\cellent manure 

 doubted ; but vi-hen we came to question the 

 doubter, as to the character of the ground on wliicli 

 it had been used without its good effects being 

 visible, our surprise ceased ; for we learned that 

 it had been applied on low v/et meadow, the very 

 place above all others, where its good qualities 

 would remain inert. If we understand the prop- 

 erties of this mineral, it consists, first, in imbibing 

 moisture from the atmosphere, and secondly, in 

 its afKiiity for, combination with, and power of 

 retaining for a length of time, the ammonia when 

 formed in the soil, so as to give it out slowly, in 

 quantities healthful to vegetation. 



As to its good effects upon the growth of corn, 

 or clover, no otie who may have tried it can doubt. 

 For ourself, we have witnes.sed both in a degree 

 which astonished us, and particularly on the lat- 

 ter crop. On one occasion, we recollect to have 

 used it, at the rate of a bushel to the acre, leaving 

 the best acre in the patch unplastered. At the 

 time we applied it, the part purposely so left, was 

 so visibly su|)erior to the other, that you could 

 discover the difference at once. But when cut, 

 the plastered clover exceeded the other in prod- 

 uct fully 25 per cent. 



Our own experience has taught us, that Plaster 

 can only be applied with decided advantage on 

 soils naturally dry, or made so by draining ; that 

 there, when judiciously used, it is of immense 

 value upon corn and clover, and that it always 

 acts most powerfidly upon ground previously 

 limed. — American Farmer. 



From the Riclimond Enquirer. 



We finish to-day the late proceedings of the 

 "Agricultural and" Horticultural Society of Hen- 

 rico," and do not certaiidy regret the many col- 

 umns whicli^ we have devoted to their publica 

 tioti. We feel so deeply impressed with the truths 

 which are conveyed in the following article from 

 the New York Sun, that we transfer it in txlenso 

 to our own paper. It is better than any we can 

 fm-nish from our own pen. If it can stimulate 

 the taste for agriculture, and the spirit for such 

 associations as have lately assembled in this ci- 

 ty, we shall be amply rewarded for the space 

 which it occupies. It is full of just and solid re- 

 flactions. 



"Agricultural Fairs— TAe ri^ht spirit revi- 

 ving.— Tbe aiuumn of 1841 has been peculiarly 

 distinguished by the attention that has been giveii 

 to the cause of agriculture. The great Fair of 

 the State Agricultural Sofiety at Syracuse, the 

 Fair of the Aiiirri.Mii Iii>tl:ut;- in this city, nu- 

 merous fair.-i (if (•,.ii;ii\ .-.iiii ih s in uiir uu ii 't-'tatc, 

 and of oilier avriMiiiur,! .-,.ri, ii.> ii, tlie SUUl-s ot 

 Massachii.setts, (.'.iiiiniiii-iit, I'cimsvlvania, and 

 sevei-al other States, liave exhibited "products of 

 the soil, and improvements in the mode of cul- 

 tivating it, never before equalled in this country. 

 These assemblages have also been encouraged, 

 attended and conducted by the very ablest and 

 best men in the country, and, we cannot doubt, 

 have sent abroad a spirit that, will exercise a 

 most wholesome influence upon the pursuits, 

 the habits, and character of the people of this 

 country. 



"The natural business of the American peo- 

 ple is agriculture. It is the basis of our wealtli 

 and mdepeiulence. Tlu.s is evident from the ex- 

 tent, fertility, and piofliictivenessof our soil. The 

 national anil individual welliue of our people re- 

 quires that agriculture should keep the position 



which Nature has assigned it, in advance of all 

 other callings. We would not depress manufac- 

 tures and conunerce, but would let them depend 

 upon the products of the soil, and be sustained 

 thereby. It is impossible that they should not 

 be successful to a proper extent, if regulated by 

 that standard. It is equally imiiossible that they 

 should be successful, if regulated by any other 

 standard. 



" It is gratifying, therefore, to see the lively in- 

 terest every where awakeniiis; in the cullivation 

 of the earth. It is an honest, an independent, 

 and a healthy business. It was grossly neglect- 

 ed a few years since ; farms were sold in city 

 lots on speculation, instead of being planted, as 

 they should have been, with corn, potatoes and 

 turnips ; our people were so deluded as to buy 

 grain from the shores of the Black Sea, rather 

 than raise it on their own land. Depravity of 

 morals, commercial ruin and general distress 

 followed as the inevitable consequences ot this 

 great error. We are glad to see the people re- 

 turning home from their wanderings, filling 

 their houses and barns with the products of 

 honest industry, and rejoicing in the sturdy inde- 

 pendence of thrifty farmers. Long may it be 

 before our fertile " potatoe patches" and " cab- 

 bage yards" are again laid waste by being sur- 

 veyed and lithographed into uninhabited cities. 



" It is the duty of the press and of our public 

 men to eucoijrage the movement in what may be 

 considered our great national business, agricul- 

 ture. There is no danger of overdoing it. '^ Who 

 ever heard of overtradiiig in this branch of bu- 

 siness ? No matter how extensive our surplus 

 products may be, there will be a market for them 

 in some part of the world. The business of ex- 

 porting and e^xchanging them will support a vast 

 commercial interest, and u large manulticturing 

 interest will also grow up as a natural and neces- 

 sary incident. But agriculture must take the 

 lead; in it is the origin of all our prosperity; 

 before we begin to trade, we must produce some- 

 thing to trade with ; and we must produce the 

 raw material, before we set up factories to im- 

 prove it. 



" No matter, therefore, how much we stimu- 

 late, by proper means, the cultivation of our soil ; 

 there is uo danger but that commerce and manu- 

 factures will follow fast enough of their own ac- 

 cord. They are more liable than agriculture to 

 e.xcess and over-action. Their results are more 

 splendid, aiul ambitious adventurers are more 

 easily captivated liy them. There is a constant 

 tendency, e-i|i((ially in commercial afliiirs, to go 

 too fast. Ao appnlioiision need, thereibre, be 

 telt lest the business of agriculture should get too 

 liir ahead ; the difficulty is in keeping it suffi- 

 ciently advanced. Let commerce be regulated 

 by it, dealing only in the surplus value produced 

 in the country, and looking to no fictitious and 

 temporary stimulants, and how soon the business 

 of the country would become settled, stable, reg- 

 ular, and permanently profitable. We should 

 hear of no more ruinous revulsions and fluctua- 

 tions, and should have no ti-oubles with a depre- 

 ciated currency." 



Brow.n's A.x.nual.— a very beautiful fifth 

 number of " Brown's Mmanack, Pockel Memoran- 

 dum and Account Book for 1812," has again come 

 to our table, reminding us that the year 1841 is 

 soon to be numbered with the years beyond the 

 flood, and that we are about to "take up an untri- 

 ed nundjcr. If one now had only this Almanack 

 preserved for the last four years, in which was 

 entered in the blank space left tor every day in 

 the year a brief allusion to the events most im- 

 portant to ourselves, to any of our friends, or to 

 the world, that occur every day, how valuable as 

 a guide would this be to the history of that time 

 either to ourselves or to others.' The iier.son 

 forty or fifty years of age who had such a diary 

 to recur to might look back with complacency on 

 a life well spent — might correct his mistakes — 

 learn what were the most valuable efl^orts in the 

 journey of life, and how to amend whatever was 

 bad in iis results. Successive volumes of such 

 memoranda might be valuable not only to the 

 present owner, but to those coining after him. 



In one of Brown's Annual Pocket Book and 

 Almanack, having the ruled blank leaves, the edi- 

 tor of the \'isitor has usually entered those mem- 

 oranda of facts while traveiling in various parts 

 of this State and of New England, from which 



he has spun out essays which he has every reason 

 to believe have been well received by hundreds 

 and thousands vvho have read this paper. En- 

 tering any slight note at the time of observation, 

 We have found no difficulty in afterwards bring- 

 ing to recollection every matter and event neces- 

 sary to illustrate any subject. By the aid of this, 

 we are enabled to fix on the mind those events 

 laid out in the great book of Nature— those every 

 day matters, those wonders seen upon the sur- 

 face and sometimes developed from the bosom of 

 our mother earth, which give to the intellect the 

 power of describing and imparling to others what 

 minht never go under other circumstances be- 

 yond the mind where it was first conceived. 



Brown's litile Manual contains, besides other 

 matters, the usual Almanack for tbe year; and 

 whether the pocket book binding and ruled 

 blank leaves be added or not, this work is of far 

 greater value than the retail price charged for it. 



Large yields of Corn— the Corn Culture. 



We observe in the New Genesee Farmer, the 

 following notices of large yields of corn: 



1. In the proceedings of the Cayuga County ,N. 

 Y. Agricultural Fair, we find that the committee 

 on grain awarded to Joseph F. Osborn, the Jirst 

 premium of $8 tor the best crop of corn, pre- 

 sented by specimens, both in quality of seed and 

 quantity produced, which yielded 144 bushels 11 

 pounds to the acre. 



2. The second |)reinium of $5 for quantity, 

 (121 bu. 15 ll).s. to the acre,) was awarded to Jas. 

 Sherman, of Springport. 



3. In the proceedings of the Genesee County 

 Agricultural Fair, we find that H. Brainard receiv- 

 ed the premium for the best acre of corn, 97 

 bushels. 



4. The editor of tlie Genesee Fai'iiier was in- 

 formed by a Scotch farmer residing in the town 

 of Sodus, Wayne County, New York, that he 

 raised the past season, 400 bushels of Indian corn 

 on 4 acres of land, notwithstanding the dryness 

 of the season. He attributes his success mainly 

 to his manner of planting, and thinks that farm 

 ers generally plant too thinly. His mode is to 

 plant in rows three feet apart, and drop two 

 grains in a place only 15 inches apart in the 

 rows. The variety was the Red Blazed Flint. 

 The soil is sandy, loam. 100 loads of manure 

 were put on the 4 acres. The corn was ripe 

 and cut sufficiently early to sow the ground with 

 wheat. 



5. In the proceedings of the Monroe County, 

 N. Y. Agricultural Society, we find that Robert 

 D. Martin received the fiist premium of $7 lor 

 the best average acre of corn, the average being 

 94 bushels to the acre ; Ebcnezer Gooding re- 

 ceived the second premium, $.5, his average be- 

 ing 90 bushels to the acre ; and Lyman B. Lang- 

 worthy the third, $3, his acreable average being 



C. Abram Cushman, presented a memorandum 

 showing a product of 98 bushels, but as he omit- 

 ted to produce his vouchers, he was not awarded 

 a premium. 



7. In the proceedings of the Oneida County 

 Cattle Show and Fair, the first premium for the 

 best acre of corn was awarded to Julius Curtis, 

 of Westmoreland ; it was 86 bushels 36 lbs. ; the 

 second premium was awarded to Elisha Shaw, of 

 R<une, his crop was 83 bushels 19 lbs. of very 

 good corn. 



There was another acre presented for premi- 

 um by Mr. Stephen Scott, of Lee, 97 bushels 

 40 lbs.; this crop, for some reason not assigned, 

 the committee regret they were obliged to ex- 

 clude. 



Croup. — An old subscriber called upon us yes- 

 terday, and inlbrmed us that, by the publication 

 in our columns a few days since of a very simple 

 and easily attainable remedy for the croup, we 

 had been instrumental in saving the life of an 

 infant of his on Sunday night. The ingredients 

 are, sliced onions, and "sugar laid on the slices in 

 layers— the syrup being administered. He wish- 

 es us to " keep it before the people," as a sov- 

 ereign and almost instantaneous remedy, — JV. Y. 

 Sun. 



A DiscovERr for House-keepers. A cor- 

 respondent of the Boston Transcript says tliat a 

 small quantity of green sage placed in the closet 

 will cause red ants to disappear. 



