58 



NEW EJfGLA^D FAflMM. 



I'Ea- 



But there are other things which the locoiaotive 

 cannot do. A part of the farm-work of this month, 

 IS, to read a great deal froio the best books which 

 treat of your particuhir business. There are plen- 

 ty of books, two dozen of which would be sufficient 

 for a whole town. Among them are Davy's Agri- 

 cultural Chemistry ; The Muck Book ; Rural 

 Economy ; Bridgman's Young Gardner's Assist- 

 ant ; Fessenden's Complete Gardener and Farmer; 

 Nash's Progressive Farmer ; Buel's Farmer's Com- 

 panion; all Downing's works ; Harris's Work on 

 Insects Injurious to Vegetation, and others, which 

 you will find referred to on reading these. It 

 is as important for the farmer to read these and 

 other books of similar character, if he means to 

 understand his profession, as for the lawyer to 

 read Coke upon Littleton, or Blackstone. This 

 reading is an indispensable part of his farm em- 

 ployment, or amusement, and will help to increase 

 his crops as he understands the principles of 

 growth in the plants he is rearing. 



Then another important duty to be attended to 

 in February, is, to see that your ehildren are 

 reaping the largest possible benefit from their at- 

 tendance at school. Feel interested yourselves 

 in the studies they are pursuing ; converse with 

 them often, and impress on then* mrnds the impor- 

 tance of close application and studious habits, 

 while young. They will catch vigor from your 

 kind inquiries, and climb the "Hill of Science," 

 pleasantly in your company. 



When these duties are well discharged, a neiv 

 pleasure will be found in looking after the stock 

 and poultry, in sledding the fuel and timber, in 

 preparing the farm implements, the plow, harrow, 

 yokes, carts, hay-wagons, rakes, scythes, &c. 

 Then the fencing materials must be collected for 

 the hill or river-lot, the posts morticed and rails 

 split, or stones drawn when the snow is thin. 

 Save every moment from spring labor by drawing 

 out as much manure as possible before the ground 

 is soft, and other caress-press upon you. 



AVhat results have you arrived at in your ex- 

 periment of cutting fodder for your stock? lias 

 not your bay of hay reminded you of the widow's 

 cruse and meal barrel, by holding out beyond any 

 former time'! Make your experiments as exact as 

 possible and keep accui'ate accounts, so that your 

 neighbors may have the benefit of them. 



Bear in mind that scions must be cut before the 

 sap moves, and when cut, place them in a damp, 

 cool place, so that they shall not shrivel. 



If you have trees that actually need trimming, do 

 that, too, before the sap moves. Use sharp tools 

 and leave every wound smooth a,nd in a workman- 

 like manner. 



Are your accounts all settled for 1852? Unset- 

 tled accounts arc not pleasant subjects for medita- 

 tion in the beautifvil fields ! 



The time draws nigh when spring work will de- 



mand all your attention ; so let us be up and do- 

 ing-, and ready for "old Sol" by the time he has? 

 warmed the soil aufSciently to receive the seed. 



Fof the New England Farmer. 

 THfi lllOHKrESS OF LAND 



PROPORTIONED TO THE QUAHTITT OF STOCK KEPTy 



Mr. Editor : — Whatever may be said of the im- 

 portance of guano, bone-dust, poudrette and othef 

 natural and artificial fertilizers of soils, it cannot 

 be doubted that, with respect to the great majori- 

 ty of farmers, they must depend, principally if not 

 entirely, on the manures they make upon their 

 own farms. Purchased manures of all kinds are 

 always expensive, and will rarely be o1)tarned to 

 any considerable extent. It behoves the farmer, 

 then, to manufacture all the manure he possibly 

 can, in his own various laboratories. He must 

 keep his cattle o.nd swine constantly at work, and 

 by supplying them with the requisite materials, 

 he m.'^ always make them self-sustaining animals, 

 by the quantities of manure they will create. And 

 as one important means of enriching his farm, he 

 should lieej) as much stock as he can and keep them 

 well, for the law of progress in the case is, that 

 keeping all Ite can will give him the means of keep- 

 ing more. By observing this law, his means ac^ 

 cumulate, and his ability to keep more is continu- 

 ally increasing. It is on this principle that some 

 farmers, in the lapse of a single decade of years, 

 convert a desert into a garden, and on the most 

 stei'ile soil rear up around <^hem a luxuriant vege- 

 tation, and a riehnesa of scenery which "Shen- 

 stone might have envied." While writing these 

 lines, and in strong corroboration of the doctrine 

 here laid down, the following paragraph in a Eu- 

 ropean work fell under my notice, and quoting it 

 endeth this chapter^ 



"The real source o-f the great fertility of the 

 great Lombardian plain is now known to be its 

 high cultivation. In the triangle included between 

 Milan, Lodiand Pavia, each side of which is little 

 more than twenty miles in length, there are, it is 

 estimated, not fewer than 100,000 head of cattle, 

 100,000 pigs, and 25,000 horses, in addition to the 

 human population-. It is to the immense supplies 

 of manure, solid and liquid, obtained from these 

 sources, and not to the refuse of the towns them- 

 selves, that the richness of the soil is mainly attri- 

 butable." D. c, 



Waltham, Jan. 21, 1858. 



* For the Neiu England Farmer^ 



MUOK— THORN AND QUINCE STOCK. 



Messrs. Editors : — I intend in the spring to set- 

 an orchard of early peach and other choice early 

 fruit trees, — my land is a hill of moderate eleva- 

 tion, the soil is rather better than the term "sandy 

 or gravelly knoll" would imply. I have plenty of 

 peat or muck, but not enough that has been ex- 

 posed a sufficient length of time to the atmosphere. 

 I should like to be advised througli your valuable 

 paper, or otherwise, as soon as convenient, what 

 I had better mix with nearly green muck to make 

 it suitable to apply to such land, and for such pur- 

 poses, (a.) 



Is tlie thorn as good as the quince to graft the 

 pear into? We have plenty of them around us 

 growing wild and thrifty. 



