262 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



cTfnk 



dependence, and have no gi-eater demand on in- 

 tellectual progress than their own. 



We hear objections to the plan we have pro- 

 posed. The ghost of some old Hunks is whisper- 

 ing in our ears that we have laid out too much 

 work. It canH be accomplished without serious 

 interference with the m«re important object of 

 getting '•'■the dollar,''^ — the almighty friend of ig- 

 norance and parsimony. We do not despise "/Ae 

 dollar,^'' but wish we had enough and to spare to 

 many such institutions. It would be a bright in- 

 vestment. But we insist upon it, that man is en- 

 dowed with too high flxculties to be borne down by 

 the grovelling demands of pecuniary gain. He 

 has intellect to appreciate nobler objects than bags 

 of gold or large domains, — a mind that can ex- 

 pand through infinitude, and not only drink in 

 pleasure from all the fountains of nature and art, 

 but can turn the waters of those fountains through 

 the elevated regions of taste and refinement to in- 

 crease, beautify and variegate the products of the 

 earth, and make cultivation a delightful toil. 



It can'l be done. Individuals have their libra- 

 ries, not only in other professions, but in the ag- 

 ricultural, and as long as this is the fact in cases 

 of men whose business occupations are making con- 

 tinual drafts on their time, often bringing toil and 

 fatigue in times when they anticipated leisure, 

 cannot associated effort accomplish the same ob- 

 ject 1 Especially, cannot farmers in whose ordi- 

 nary pursuits the very elements, with whose pow- 

 er he should be familiar, throw obstacles to labor 

 do as much 1 



It is an age when much, very much is saying and 

 doing on this matter of agricultural education ; yet, 

 after all, but very little progre&s seems to manifest 

 itself in the matter. Thus far we may infer there 

 has been more wind than rain in the strong flow 

 of words that have been uttered on the subject. 

 The wind will ere long pass away, and then we 

 hope farmers will take hold of the subject them- 

 selves, assg^t and defend their rights — take the 

 position that God has given them, and resolve that 

 they will be an intellectual and a highly educated 

 class. When they do this, success hitherto un- 

 known, will crown their efforts. w. b. 



Elmwood, Feb. 15, 1853. 



For the New England FarTner. 

 THE SEASON. 



Mr. Editor : — The season up here in the Old 

 Granite State, is about four weeks earlier than it 

 was last spring. The flirmers have commenced 

 plowing and sowing a little, and will finish most 

 of tlieir spring sowing in the course of ten or fifteen 

 days. Winter grain looks as well as it has any 

 spring for several years past. There being no frost 

 in the ground, the grass is quite green as soon as 

 the snow is gone. The sugar season was not as 

 good as it was last by full one-third. I think that 

 we shall have hay enough in this section of the 

 country, as the season is so far advanced that the 

 cattle are out to grass in some places. 



Samuel L. Powers. 



Cornish, N. H., April 15, 1853, 



Spent Tan Bark. — The Pa. Farm Journal tells 

 of a successful application of tan bark, made by 

 mistake to a portion of the editor's garden. lie 

 ordered a certain part to be well spaded and ma- 



nured for beans, but the gardener dag up another 

 plot and applied a heavy coating of pretty well 

 composed tan bark. The soil was a stiff clay, and 

 no other manure was applied or had been to this 

 bed for several years previously. The beans were 

 planted and were the most thrifty and vigorous 

 in the neighborhood, and the stiff soil has become 

 quite mellow, and appears to retain its warmth 

 and moisture much better than any other in the 

 garden. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 INSEOTE—PLUM-TREE WARTS. 



The depredations of insects upon fruits and 

 vegetables may sometimes prompt the fiirmer 

 to wish it were in his power to exterminate their 

 whole race. But, as tlie Creator has granted ev- 

 ery green herb for food to "every creeping thing," 

 no less than to fowls and beasts, as well as nobler 

 man, and has effectually secured them from any 

 such sad doom, we must content ourselves to be 

 fellow-commoners with them, despite all we may 

 wish or do. The fruits, flowers and plants which 

 we claim as exclusively ours, they emphatically 

 declare, by unmistakable deeds, are no less theirs ; 

 for hate and fight them as we may, they will live, 

 beget their progeny, and eat freely what they like^ 

 find it as they may, in the prince's or the humbles-t 

 cottager's enclosure. Choicest fruits, sweetest 

 flowers they love, as decidedly as man. Do they 

 invade our rights? Not so ; they claim instinct- 

 ively, only their own. A vast family is supplied 

 from the same bountiful hand, and it would be' 

 wise for the agriculturist to reflect more upon ol>- 

 vious facts, in the providential arrangements estab- 

 lished between him and inferior orders of animal 

 existence. 



Suppose all insects that annoy us and prey upork 

 fruit trees and cultivated plants were extinct. 

 Then what wouM become of the birds? They 

 would be robbed of their appointed food, and. 

 starved, and their matchless, wild music would 

 greet us at our hard toils no longer. What soli- 

 tude, amid the luxuriant vegetatfon, and bright 

 suns of summer ! Say you, be it sol Our fruits- 

 and grains are safe, from these vile foes. Patience, 

 friend — think again, what result would follow even 

 as to these. Not a blossom or germ would be at- 

 tacked, by a marauder, and all of them would be 

 left to live or die as they might, in unimpeded de- 

 velopment. Think you that your trees would be 

 sure to cast offal! the superfluous fruit, and I'eserve 

 only a quantity which they were capable of well 

 sustaining, and bringing to perfection? Not so ; 

 they would be over-loaded, and your fruit would 

 be smaller and of inferior quality, and at the same 

 time the trees would be greatly exhausted, and 

 perhaps rendered shortlived, by overtasking their 

 vital powers. Their wood and branches must 

 grow annually, and be sustained by the same stock 

 that yields the fruit, and in due proportion to the 

 general demands upon the trees for maturing their 

 present fruit, and preserving their vigor and health 

 for subsequent years. Many lessons the Ruler of 

 Nature teaches us, which through inattention we 

 are wont to overlook. If animals need rest, and 

 can endure only a given amount of labor, why 

 should not fruit trees follow the same law, and be 

 relieved of the excessive burden they would be des- 

 tined to bear, without that kind of pruning, for 

 which certain insects are employed ? I-'Ct us not 



