1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



75 



giin by restoring the stalk to the exhausted soil, 

 as by feeding it ? 



At any farm in this State, a cord of stable ma- 

 nure costs five or six dollars.^ Now by restoring 

 the estovers of an acre, I believe you enrich the 

 acre more than by a cord of manure. You restore 

 nearly all that has been drawn from the soil by 

 the growing crop. The ear, as I said, is drawn 

 h-oin the air, not tlie eartli, and the evaporations 

 of the }ilant are nearly pure water. If, therefore, 

 the stalk is returned, and plowed in in the fall or 

 spring, the ground receives back nearly the value 

 it has given out. It receives the same kind that 

 it gave, and I think more in amount of fertilizing 

 matter than from a cord of stable matter. Of 

 course, if this is so, there is a loss by topping, even 

 without counting the loss of grain." 



This is about what he said on topping, as near 

 as I can tell it. It is curious to me. Now, wheth- 

 er the man is critically e.xact in considering the 

 stalks to be of more value fur manure than for 

 fodder, is what I can't tell, though I suppose ev- 

 ery one must work that out by his own experience 

 and calculation. But it was the way of coming to 

 it, that took me. In fact, I shall be obliged to 

 think there is something in science, after all. For 

 it was his knowledge of the science of the vegeta- 

 ble growth that led him along to reason as he did, 

 and brought iiim right down to the point. There 

 must be some benefit to a. farmer, to have that 

 sort of knowledge, that is certain. Don't you 

 think so, neighbor Brown. w. J. a. b. 



Essex, Nov. 30, 1852. 



Remarks. — Certainly, certainly, friend B.; there 

 is no more doubt on our mind on that point, than 

 there is that tapping the stalk decreases the 

 amount of grain. We have tried both ways, but 

 continue to cut the stalks for two reasons. 1st, 

 Because Ave get on the top stalk a lai-ge amount of 

 the best fodder we cut on the farm. 2d, Because it 

 is so much more convenient harvesting the corn. 



Officers of Barnstadle County Society. — We 

 are indebted to Charles II. Bursley, Esq., for the 

 following list of the officers of the Barnstable Co. 

 Agricultural Society, elected on the thirteenth of 

 October last. 



For President — Charles Marston, of Barnstable. 



Fice Presidents — Enoch Pratt, of Brewster; Walter Crock- 

 er, of Barnstable. 



Recording Secretary— Charles H. Bursley, of Barnstable. 



Corresponding^ Secretary — F. W. Crocker, of Barnstable. 



Treasurer — Frederick Scudder, of Barn.stahle. 



Executive Committee — Matthias HincKley, George Mars- 

 ton, Nathan Jenkins. Nathan Crocker, Frederick Parker, of 

 Barnstable; Thomas L. Swift, Falmouth; C. B. II. Fessen- 

 den, Sandwich; J G. Ilallet, Yarinoulh; William Howes, 

 Dennis; George Copeland. Brewster; Obed Brooks, Jr., Har- 

 wich; David Howes, Chatham; John Kenrick, Orleans; Jas. 

 H. Knowles, Easlham; P. G. Atwood, Wellileet; Solomon 

 Davis, Truro; Thomas I.nthrop, Provincetown. 



Old Apple Trees. — There is a bearing apple 

 tree in Connecticut, alive and flourishing, at the 

 advanced tige of two hundred and fourteen years. 

 It is of the English Pearmain variety, and was im- 

 ported in 1G38, by Gov. George Wyileys, and bore 

 good fruit tliis season, on the "Charter Oak Place,'' 

 now owned by Hon. T. W. Stuart, Hartford. 

 Some of the fruit of this venerable tree was pre- 

 sented to the Connecticut Horticultural Society in 



October last. For more than two centuries have 

 the people been blessed with the fruit of Gov. 

 Wylleys's regard for the welfare of men who should 

 "come after him." Every mtin should set out 

 fi'uit and shade trees, so long as he has the physic- 

 al power to do so, that "future generations may 

 rise up and call him blessed." — Vermont State 

 Journal. 



PAPERS FROM AFRICA. 



Through the politeness of Mr. C. F. Dennett, we 

 have received the Cape Monitor, of the 15th Sep- 

 tember, and The South African Commercial Adver- 

 tiser, of Oct. 2, both published at Cape Town, Cape 

 of Good Hope. Tiie Advertiser contains a report 

 of a public sale of Merino and Thibet Rams, the 

 Merinos averaging $180 each, and the Thibets 

 $155 each. The Monitor conttiius a report of an 

 agricultural Show and Fair at the Cape on the 

 14th Sept. , at which matters seem to have "been 

 managed much as they are with us. The premiums 

 on the horned cattle we notice were $25 each. 



The Advertiser contains an interesting letter, a 

 few extracts from which we give below, which 

 shows what is going on in a portion of the interior 

 of Africa. 



The Orange River Sovereignty, as you are aware, 

 is situated betwean the Great Orange and Vaal 

 Rivers. Sixteen years ago, before the "great 

 trek" of the Emigrant Boers, it was a "trackless 

 desert," a "howling wilderness" — "a land in 

 which, although thinly populated hj skulking 

 broods of Bushmen, and by the starving remnants 

 of nomadic pastoral tribes, which have been broken 

 up by war and violence, no man permanently dwelt, 

 neither was the soil any man's property ;" — a land 

 in which, for hundreds of miles, the eye was not 

 greeted by the smallest trace of human industry, 

 or by any vestige of human habitation — the wild 

 and interminable expanse ever presenting the same 

 appearance — that of one vast uninhabited solitude. 



Such was the picture drawn by the well-known 

 traveller, Capt. W. C. Harris, in 1836 — 7, of the 

 country between the Vaal and Orange Rivers. 



This vast country is divided off into fixrms — I 

 forget the precise number,' but I think somewhere 

 about 1,500, the greater proportions of which are 

 occupied and stocked. 



The most striking feature in the country is the 

 enormous extent of its flats, covered, after passing 

 Smithfield, with thousands of head of game, com- 

 prising the springbuck, blesbok, hartebeest, quag- 

 ga, and wildebeest — and last, though not least, the 

 "King of Beasts," that noble animal "which 

 sweeps the desert with his rolling eye ! ' ' The pas 

 turage of these plains, with the e.xccption of what 

 the Dutch term the "hoogeveld," or "wildebeeste 

 fiats," which are covered with a sour wiry grass, 

 is principally what is termed in the colony "ge- 

 bruken veld," or a mixture of sour and sweet 

 grass. 



But what must before the lapse of many years 

 raise this country to a very important position, is 

 the fact thtit it is well adapted for wooUed sheep. 



The elevation of the country being very great, 

 the winters are cold— the ground being generally 

 c ivered with frost, snows frequent, and the wat- 

 ers — excepting the large running stream — frozen. 



