68 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



should keep an accurate account with their dairies. 

 This might be done with more ease than with their 

 crops. He intended to write more than he ever 

 had done, and he would do it for his own improve- 

 ment, if for no other reason. 



Wm. D. Brown had kept a journal and daybook 

 together in which he noted the day's work, the 

 state of the weather, the state of the season, the 

 times of planting and maturing of crops, of com- 

 menf^ing and finishing haying, and such incidents 

 as interested him at the time. lie wrote some- 

 thing in this book every day — and be thought ev- 

 ery one might steal time to do this. 



J. B. Farmer spoke of such journals as valuable 

 meteorological registers. 



Dr. Reynolds spoke of them as historical docu- 

 ments of great interest to posterity. What would 

 he not give for such a record kept by our fathers 

 for 50 years past. They would contain a history 

 of our families and of the town, intensely interest- 

 ing not only to our posterity, but to the future his- 

 torian. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 A QUERY. 



Mr. Editor : — In the "Farmer's Fireside Talk" 

 of your Essex correspondent, is the following re- 

 mark: "If the stalk is returned and plowed in, in 

 the full or spring, the ground receives back near- 

 ly the value it has given out. It receives the same 

 kind it gave out ; and I think more in amount of 

 fertilizing matter than from a cord of stable mat- 

 ter.^'' I suppose this last word should be manure, 

 when it irould read "stable manure." It is well 

 known that one crop requires a larger amount of 

 one particular mineral substance than another, 

 and that soil "gives out" to one crop more of this 

 mineral, than it does to another. The latter may 

 require more silex than the former. Now if a crop 

 requiring a larger amount of lime is grown on a 

 field, the soil is pi-oportionably exhausted of lime. 

 Suppose this crop to be corn, and that you wish 

 to return to the soil the lime which it has "given 

 out" to the corn. Certainly you must return the 

 "estover" and "plow it in," or return it in 

 some other way. But I would ask your corres- 

 pondent, or "the man I spoke of," if the manure, 

 liquid and solid, produced by feeding upon the 

 •"estover of an acre," would not return to the 

 ground "nearly the value it has given out" of min- 

 eral matter? Docs not the soil receive in this 

 way, the "same kind" that it gave? I suppose 

 that mineral substances, as lime, silex &c., are not 

 digested in the stomach of the animal, and that 

 only a small amount of them is taken into the cir- 

 culation, but that they pass off in the dejections, 

 and may thus all be returned to the soil, and the 

 "estover" be used at the same time as food for the 

 stock. Is not the "same kind" as certain to be 

 returned to the soil in this way, as though the 

 stalk were plowed in, or burned, and the ashes re- 

 turned to the soil? The estover is, when well 

 cured, very valuable and healthy food for cattle, 

 and if it can be made to feed the stock first, and 

 then feed the next crop equally well, it will be dou- 

 bled in value — a matter of some importance. 

 Jan. 1, 1853. j. r. 



For the New Em^land Farmer. 



"THAT IS MY HOME." 



BV A. G. COMINGS. 



Many a farmer manages in such a way that 

 neither his sons nor his daughters can take any 

 pleasure in directing the eye of a stranger to 

 the family dwelling, and saying, "That is my 

 home." 



It is not in the erection of costly and temple- 

 like houses, or ornamenting other buildings with 

 much profitless expense, that "home" is made 

 most beautiful. These costly decorations may ap- 

 pear very splendid at first, but they are of that 

 character which loses beauty instead of increasing 

 it. The mind of youth is reaching forward, and 

 is most pleased with that kind of ornament Avhich 

 every day grows more beautiful. 



Most men, in l)uilding houses, expend much 

 money in making the house showy. One, two, 

 or five hundred dollars spent in this way is a com- 

 mon item in building. But this is all just "pay- 

 ing too much for the whistle." Such beauty on- 

 ly pleases while it is new. The second look at it 

 has no interest. The eye ceases to behold with 

 pleasure whatever, from its fixed character, be- 

 comes familiar and established. Simplicity, order 

 and neatness, constitute the sum of all beauty, in 

 everything which is of a fixed character. 



Let the farmer adopt a different course, and 

 plant around his neat and simple dwelling, one, 

 two or five hundred*dollars' worth of trees, shrubs, 

 vines and flowers, and what a world of beauty and 

 attraction it would present. These- are "tilings 

 of life," and their beauty will be progressive. — 

 When the eye of a stranger shall rest upon it, he 

 will exclaim "how beautiful!" and that lovely 

 daughter, whose presence always gives joy and 

 gladness to the home circle, will be happy always, 

 when she thinks "that is my home." And that 

 noble-spirited young man who would have left the 

 homestead years ago, but for these attractions, 

 will feel a conscious elevation of character, a grow- 

 ing greatness, inspired by the objects with which 

 he is surrounded. It is certainly true that the 

 character of men is shaded by the ol)jects which 

 constantly engage their attention and care. 



There is not another class of men in the world 

 to whom is granted such a privilege of uniting 

 beauty with worth, pleasure with interest, as the 

 farmers. And the most attractive beauty, too, is 

 that which will grow more beautiful and more 

 profitable at the same time. 



The attractions of home are also full of moral 

 power, and social refinement. The eye of love 

 never sparkles with more brilliancy tlum when it 

 is surrounded by the blandest beauties of natural 

 scenery. Earth affords no happier spot tlian where 

 the throbbing, anxious, hopeful spirit of youth is 

 quieted and satisfied. 



The farmers of New England may refuse to 

 gi'atify their sons and daughters, by attention to 

 the rural scenery about their dwelliugs, and see 

 their sons and daugliters become "anxious for a 

 trade," and their daughters determined on "g( ing 

 to the factory," or they may see them wedded to 

 home as to an earthly paradise. And taking up 

 this idea of paradise, it is proper to remark that 

 in the scriptural descrijition of Eden"s paradise, as 

 in every vision of poetic thought, the abode of 

 peace and happiness is in' the midst of rural 

 scenery. 



