1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



143 



ered, and a sort of tea-party or pic-nic of half an 

 hour or so, recommended to precede the lectures, 

 by which the sharp corners of unsociability may 

 be rubbed oif. Pity 'tis laboring men cannot be 

 induced to try their hand in literary efforts oftener 

 than they do. The preparation of one address 

 would do any of us more good than the mere lis- 

 tening to a dozen much better ones, by others. 



"S(;7«u/ Maxims in Fanning.'" — Old hints here, 

 to new reformers in our line. 



'•^Susceptibility of Animals to Atmospheric Influ- 

 ence.''^ — Curious fiicts stated on this suliject. Some 

 of them, at least, familiar to the wcatherwise. 



"Gathering and Preserving Winter Fruit.'''' — 

 One of those practical articles, which I value just 

 as highly in print, as I should if the words fell 

 from the lips of the fruit-grower, liimself. My 

 own experience corroborates the principle that 

 "warmth occasions rapid decay;" but how shall 

 a warm cellar be made cool ? 



"Lime, Guano, Bone-dust." — "Lime in agricul- 

 ture." Scientific facts and suggestions. Inter- 

 esting for farmers' use, or ought to be, inquiring 

 what they shall do to improve the soil. 



" Warts on Plum Trees." — Inquiry for a remedy 

 — none found. 



"The Way Russians Treat their Horses.''^ — An 

 article that should be read by all rough,' profane 

 Yankee teamsters, till they are ashamed of the 

 treatment this noble animal receives at the hands 

 of some of them. 



"Honey Bees." — Facts about these patterns of 

 industry — such as, that bees secrete honey, as cows 

 do milk, not cull or gather it, as people suppose 

 they do, from flowers. 



"Raising and Selling Milk." — The dark side of 

 the business, by a Westboro' man, who seconds 

 the motion for a Milk Convention. 



"House Plants." — Girls, this is for you. 



"Plowing Orchards." — This article certainly 

 "plows" a deep furrow into the prevailing notions 

 on the subject, and reverses Mr. Cole's teachings. 

 Hope we shall not have to change our practices 

 in agriculture, as often as ladies do their taste in 

 bonnets. Still we like to hear all sides. Was it 

 not the "pruning closely" — words that make me 

 shudder — and not the "plowing often," that 

 caused the disease 1 



"Apples." — Cautions as to new varieties, and 

 remarks on certain qualifications essential to first 

 rate fruit. 



"Great Yield." 



"United States Agricultural Society." — First 

 meeting, character and objects. 



"Inventory of New Hampshire," "A Beauti- 

 ful Art," and the Last Rose of Summer, bring us 

 to the 



"Bull — Earl of Seaham," who occupies the last 

 page of the first half of the January Farmer. And 

 here I must stop, — with my design of reviewing 

 the whole number, half accomplished ; although I 

 have expended twice the labor that I thought the 

 whole would require. Just look at the articles 

 enumerated — practical, scientific, humane, — j'ct 

 they constitute but the one-twenty-fourth part of 

 a whole volume, i. e., four cents worth. 



And here I wish to make a remark or two upon 

 the weekly Farmer, in which the agricultural mat- 

 ter occupies about one of its four pages. First, as 

 to the liberality of the publishers. Most publish- 

 ers of weekly papers think it all they can afford, 



to pay one editor. If it is a religious paper, and 

 edited perhaps by a clergyman, whose hands are 

 full of professional duties, he is required not only 

 to write and select the matter of a religious char- 

 acter, but also, to "keep the run" of secular af- 

 fairs, from the "doings in Congress," to the latest 

 railroad "accident." The same is the case with 

 political, literary and agricultural papers general- 

 ly. No wonder he fails in some one or more 

 points, when so many tilings are attempted hy one 

 man. The agricultural editor has other duties 

 than those of his editorial sanctum. He should 

 attend agricultural meetings, fiiirs, cattle shows, 

 &c. , &c. Not only this, he ought to go among the 

 farmers, visit them in their fields, houses an(J 

 barns ; beside managing his own farm. Without 

 meddling with the miscellaneous department of 

 the paper, he has plenty to do. Who then shall 

 attend to that? the boys in the printing office? 



Messrs. Raynolds & Nourse think not. They 

 hire a man for this purpose. And may the invest- 

 ment be as profitable to them as it is advantageous 

 to their readers. The weekly Farmer, as to mis- 

 cellaneous reading, condensed, yet comprehensive 

 news items, I regard as a model paper. Here, 

 there is a place for every thing, and every thing is 

 always in its place. But the amount of labor, re- 

 search, and tact necessary to keep them so, week 

 after week, is, I apprehend, generally underrated. 

 The labor of an author — one who "makes pieces out 

 of his own head" — is far better appreciated than 

 that of one who strips facts, thoughts and inci- 

 dents of their unnecessary verbiage, or clothes 

 them in simple attire and arranges them in order 

 for reading or reference. Yet, to the success of a 

 public journal, the faithful performance of the du- 

 ties of the mere editor is not less important than 

 those of the author. 



With such journals, to collect the results of the 

 practices of the best farmers, and the suggestions 

 of the most learned and scientific men in the 

 land, — with most of our highest Universities open 

 to all, for such partial course, if desired, as shall 

 enable students to pursue any branch that may be 

 thought to have particular bearing upon their oc- 

 cupations, is there need of changing the New Eng- 

 land system of common education, to that partial 

 system which would establish one college for the 

 flirmer, another for the merchant, and so on? 



Winchester, Jan., 1853. s. F. 



For tlie Ifew England Farmer. 

 THORN AND QUINCE STOCKS FOR 

 PEARS. 



"Is the thorn as good as the quince to graft the 

 pear into?" No. You ask why; I will give some 

 reasons why I think they are not so good. The 

 thorn when taken from the woods has but very 

 few fibrous roots, and I have found that they were 

 very slow to throw out roots in the nursery ; I 

 have transplanted and after two years grafted 

 them, and the scions would grow very well the 

 first year, and some the second, but die the third ; 

 I have pulled up those that have thus died, and 

 found that they had no more fibrous roots than 

 when I set them out. Of quite a lot that I have 

 tried, I have not got one left. They are as lialile 

 to be attacked by the borer as the quince, and it 

 is almost impossible to find them in tliis vicinity 

 free from this nuisance . I have known cases where 



