16 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



For the Neiv England Farmer. \ plants, asparagus in abundance, -celery , (of splen- 



LYOEUM LECTURES. did quality,) together with almostevery other kind 



Mr. Editor .—The notice from the Committee ^ ^<^g^t^^'« *« ^^ ^^"°^ i*^ the catalogue. His 



of the Board of ^\griculture, in relation to this 

 mode of difiFusing information, is worthy of careful 

 attention. There is scarcely a town or village in 

 the community, where two hundred persons can 

 be assembled, that has not its course of lectures, 

 on some toj.ic or other, during the Avinter. In 

 some of these, the topics are designated by the 

 managers ; but more generally by the lecturers 

 themselves, — and with little connection or order 

 io the arrangement. Such miscellaneous discours- 

 es, with no definite purpose in view, may amuse 

 for the time ; but they never can be so instruc- 

 tive, as a well arranged series of lectures, on a par- 

 ticular suVject. What topic can be of more uni- 

 versal interest than the culture of the soil 1 Al- 

 though all may not engage with their own hands 

 in tilling the ground ; still, all do engage in the 

 consumption of its products, and it will be difficult 

 to find any, high or low, male or female, vfho would 

 not receive benefit from attention to these subjects. 

 If the community should manifest a disposition to 

 encourage such lectures, without doubt, comjje 

 tent lecturers would soon appear ; for in this, as 

 in most other branches of business, there are al 

 ways those who are quite as ready to work with 

 their heads as with their hands. As suggested by 

 the Committee, perhaps the season is too far ad- 

 vanced to admit of full courses the coming winter; 

 nevertheless, three months would be ample time, 

 for hnlf-a-dozen lectures. And I hesitate not to 

 say, that half-a-dozen lectures, well prepared, on 

 agricultural subjects, would leave a more lasting 

 and useful impression, than any course of Lyce- 

 um Lectures that have ever come to my knowl- 

 edge. I am happy to know that the intelligent 

 citizens of the county of Worcester have taken up 

 this subject in earnest, and already engaged the 

 services of Prof. Mapes, who has the reputation 

 of being in himself a complete library of useful 

 knowledge. * 



TWO ACRES. 



The twenty-sixth meeting of the Germantown 

 (near Philadelphia) Farmers' Club was holden at 

 the house of Philip R. Freas, on the 23d Nov. 

 He is the editor of the Germantown Telegraph, a 

 warm and active friend of agriculture, horticul- 

 ture, &c., and the originator of the club. Though 

 his whole plot of ground comprise less than two 

 acres and a half, yet he manages to produce upon 

 it, in perfection, a little of everything. Those 

 who are sighing for more land will do well to read 

 his statement carefully, and inquire whether it 

 would not be wise to cultivate their present acres 

 better, than to add to their number. The repor- 

 ter at the meeting states in the Telegraph that 

 during the present year there was cut two tons 

 and a^quarter of prime hay; there were patches 

 of turnips, carrots, parsnips, beets, cabbages, 

 (three kinds) onions, peas, frcyole and half a dozen 

 other kinds of beans ; salsify, lettuce, okra, corn, 

 (StoweU's Sugar, and Adams') ; potatoes, pump- 

 kins, (three varieties,) squashes, tomatoes, egg 



fruits consist of melons, six kinds of cherries, five 

 kinds of plums, peaches ; twenty-eight varieties of 

 select pears ; twelve varieties of apples ; red, 

 white and black currants ; gooseberries, blackber- 

 ries, and four varieties of raspberries, grapes, &c. 

 &c. In the garden and mansion yard, there was 

 a very choice collection of flowers, among them 

 many select roses and rare vines. The ornamen- 

 tal trees consist of five varieties of the fir ; the 

 Japonica eryptomeria, the Deodar cedar, the Irish 

 yew, and the American arbor vitae ; the European 

 linden, the sugar and silver maples, the English 

 and mountain ash, &c. &c. 



In addition to these, there was a number of 

 beautiful Polish fowls — black, white and spangled 

 — and pea fowls, in the barn-yard — a fish pond in 

 the garden — and a large number of choice fancy 

 pigeons at the house. In all this there is an ex- 

 cellent taste displayed. We noticed that thehonse 

 and offices were lighted with gas, warmed with a 

 heater, and supplied with water from the public 

 works. Baths, hot and cold, have for years been 

 supplied by a reservoir on an elevated back build- 

 ing, holding .some fifteen hundred gallons, wliieh 

 has also furnished pure, soft rain water for various 

 parts of the buildings. 



In the garden is a small green-house, excavated 

 in the ground, say to the depth of three or four 

 feet, framed up at the sides, raised a couple of feet 

 above ground, and covered with glass. In this en- 

 closure or pit, the usual shelves are arranged to 

 receive the pots ; and we are assured by Maj. 

 Freas, that it is the best possible provision for 

 flowers and almost every description of plants in 

 winter. Roses, particularly, flourish in much 

 greater perfection. During the whole of the last 

 unusually severe winter, but a single delicate night 

 blooming jassamine was at all injured by the frost. 



This green-house requires no artificial heat. In 

 the hot-beds, we found cucumbers and cauliflow- 

 ers up, lettuce heading, and spring radishes full 

 grown. We may truly say, in regard to the 

 "Telegraph Farm," that it is a farm in miniature; 

 but in comfort, convenience, and taste, without 

 any large pretension to mere costly elegance, it is 

 a pattern "plantation," and would, in the full- 

 growing season, affjrd compensation for a visit from 

 any of our ponderous farmers. In a word, it is 

 in the strict sense of the word, a home. 



d^" Tuesday, the 28th of December, was one of 

 the mildest winter days we remember ever to have 

 witnessed. The thermometer stood at 60 in this 

 city, from 1 to 4 (j'clock P. M., and the showers, 

 during the day, seemed more like June than De- 

 cember. 



