1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



3$ 



never makes mistakes. The blade of wheat nev- 

 er produces a kernel of rye ; the pear on a quince 

 stock produces pears. The leaves are the labora- 

 tory of nature — they prepare the sap for the va- 

 rious products of vegetation, and perform the of- 

 fice of lungs. Water and ammonia are decom- 

 posed in the leaf, and oxygen and nitrogen thus 

 obtained. The mineral kingdom, he said, furnish- 

 es nutriment to the vegetable, and the vegetable 

 to the animal. Carbon is the most abundant ma 

 terial used. Carbonic acid when not mixed with 

 a due proportion of air is fatal to animal life ; but 

 from this poison is elaborated by the leaf, the very 

 food by which all life is sustained. He then spoke 

 of the abundant supply of carbon in the immense 

 coal beds and in primeval vegetation. 



He then briefly spoke of th'e influence of the 

 solar light. Sunlight is the motor engine by which 

 the vegetable machinery is kept in motion. Oxy- 

 gen the great analytical power in nature ; its afiin 

 ity for certain substances occasions the most intense 

 and ceaseless activity, of which he gave examples. 

 He then made some general remarks upon the 

 modes of cultivation — soils and plants suited to 

 each— elements needed for rapid development 

 easiest and cheapest modes of supplying them, 

 and closed with some observations upon a proper 

 education for the farmer. 



The lecture was highly interesting, instructive 

 and useful, and among the best we have ever lis 

 tened to before that Lyceum. We do not hesitate 

 to recommend it to those wanting a lecture for ly- 

 ceums, farmers' clubs, or any gathering where the 

 practical and useful is preferred before the miser- 

 able speculations so frequently uttered in these so 

 cial gatherings. 



FARMING. 



If one-half the zeal, energy and expense that 

 blots so many gazettes with low and coarse abuse, 

 setting the whole community by the ears for the 

 vain and paltry purpose of a few demagogues and 

 office seekers, were bestowed on the advancement 

 of agriculture ; if the people were half as ambi- 

 tious to improve and beautify their fields, as they 

 are to settle the affairs of the nation ; and half as 

 angry with thistles, thorns and poor fences, as 

 they are with their political opponents, who pro- 

 bably wi.sh as well to the country as they, we should 

 have more productive fields, less complaints of 

 poverty, more ability to be chai'itable and munifi- 

 cent, and abundantly more good feelings. From 

 Pittsburg to New Orleans the son plows as his 

 father did before him, and the great mass of far- 

 mers are as stationary in theory as they are in 

 practice. Nine in ten believe at this moment, that 

 book farming is the mere useless, visionary dream- 

 ing of men that know nothing about practical ag- 

 riculture. 



We would tell them that England is the gar- 

 den of Europe simply because almost every acre 

 of the ground is cultivated scientificallv, and on 

 principles which have been brought to the test of 



toll them that New England, of whose soil and 

 climate tliey are accustomed to think as consigned, 

 by Providence, to sterility and inclemency, is the 

 garden of the United States, only because the in- 

 dustrious and calculating people do not throw 

 away their efforts in the exertion of mere brnte 

 strength — but bring, mind, pain, system and ex- 

 perience to bear upon their naturally hard and 

 thankless soul. 



On every side the passing traveller sees verdure, 

 grass and orchards in the small and frequent en- 

 closures of in)perishablerock, and remarks fertility 

 won from the opposition of the elements and nature. 

 After an absence of ten years, on our return to our 

 country, we were struck with this proud and noble 

 triumph conspicuous over the whole region. 



The real benefactors of mankind, as St, Pierre 

 so beautifully said, are those who cause two blades 

 of wheat to mature where one did before. The 

 fields ought to be the morning and evening theme 

 of Americans that love their country. To fertilize 

 and improve his farm, ought to be the main object 

 of the owner of the substantial soil. All national 

 aggrandizement, power and wealth may be traced 

 to agriculture, as its ultimate source. Commerce 

 and manufactures are only subordinate results of 

 this main spring. 



We consider agriculture as very subsidiary not 

 only to abundance, industry, comfort and health, 

 but to good morals and ultimately even to religion. 

 We shall always say and sing, "Speed the plow." 

 —Rev. T. Flint. 



CHANGE OF TIMBER FROM CLEAR- 

 ING LAND. 



There are few things connected with the nat- 

 ural history of trees or plants more surprising or 

 that has occasioned more speculation than the 

 changes that not unfrequently take place in the 

 growth of timber after clearing, from what it was 

 before that operation. So inexplicable is this 

 change in many instances on the commonly re- 

 ceived principlesfof vegetation, that it has been ad- 

 duced by the believers in the doctrine of sponta- 

 neous production as one of the strongest support- 

 ers of their system. We think, however, that sin- 

 gular as the phenomena may be, its solution can- 

 not requii'e a supposition so unpliilosophical. 



In the Southern States, where the timber is prin- 

 cipally pine, when that is cleared off, a growth en- 

 tirely different, and composed of such as was un- 

 known to the place before it, springs up ; and this 

 when cut offis not unfrequently succeeded by new 

 varieties, or perhaps by a return to pine. Lands 

 covered with oak and chestnut, or such timber as 

 shoots up from the stumps of cut trees, do not 

 change the timber except in a small degree ; it is 

 on those lands covered with timber that requires 

 to be propagated by seeds that this change is most 

 apparent. Everybody must have noticed in what 

 numbers a species of wild cherry will spring up 

 where the forests are cut down, or are propagated 

 by winds, though that particular kind is rarely or 

 never found growing in the unbroken forests. 



More than thirty years since, a part of our farm 

 was cleared of its timber, a dense growth of ma- 

 ple, basswood and elm. A small piece of per- 

 haps half an acre was separated from the rest by 

 I narrow ravine after being cultivated three or 

 four years, and part of it planted out as a nursery 



the most rigid and exact experiment. We would lof fruit trees ; it was left to itself. It was soon 



