312 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JuLT 



SO many alterations had been made that he thought 

 the snow would fly before it was done. The build- 

 ing stands near the centre of a beautiful flat of 

 ground, containing some forty acres, a portion of 

 which — that which ascends to the southward and 

 eastward — is covered with bushes and scrub oaks. 

 Here is a fine location for an orchard, after suffi- 

 cient labor shall have been expended upon it. 

 The remainder of the flat, after deducting some 

 ten or twelve acres for avenues and a lawn, may 

 be converted into a beautiful garden for the pro- 

 duction of vegetables for the establishment. The 

 soil is good and contains but few stones, and with 

 proper cultivation may be rendered productive. 

 At the foot of the hill, and across the road lead- 

 ing from the meeting-house to the railroad junc- 

 tion, the soil is light and sandy, as is most of the 

 land in that section of the town. It bears good 

 rye, and with a good deal of manure of the right 

 sort may yield tolerable crops of corn. There is 

 some pasture land upon the hill to the southeast 

 of the house. From the front of the house there 

 is an extensive prospect to the north and north- 

 east of the range of broken highlands that extend 

 along the court^e of the Merrimack, constituting 

 the southern side of its basin, from the mouth of 

 the Concord river to the city of Lawrence, and of 

 North Tewksbury, which lies upon this range. 

 This village has much increased within a few 

 years. It contains several fine farms, and a very 

 pretty church. The fiirm, I think, should the 

 house be filled to its entire capacity, can do but 

 little towards sustaining the inmates. It may 

 yield garden vegetables, potatoes, and milk. The 

 surrounding country finds a ready market at Low- 

 ell and Lawrence, which are but a few miles dis- 

 tant. Boston market must be the ultimate resort 

 for flour, grain, pork and beef. If the good peo- 

 ple of this state are expecting that the farm will 

 contribute in any important degree to sustain the 

 establishment, they will be sadly disappointed. 

 Its support must obviously be drawn from the 

 State Treasury and not from the soil. There are 

 upon the farm some ten or more old apple trees, 

 and with this exception it is very bare of trees. 

 Every thing is to be done to get the farm into 

 proper shape. Fences are to be built, fields to be 

 laid out, avenues to be constructed, drains to be 

 dug, trees to be set out, and years of patient la- 

 bor to be performed in order to develope the capa- 

 bilities of the farm, and produce any satisfactory 

 results. The constant changes to which the force 

 by which all this is to be accomplished will be 

 subject, must increase exceedingly the difficulty 

 of its accouiplishment. By the time a raw hand 

 is so trained that he can understand the direc- 

 tions given him, he will be off, and one still more 

 raw be put in his place. Any practical man who 

 has attempted to carry on labor by such hands, 

 will readily comprehend the difficulties attending 

 it. But perseverance overcomes all things, and 

 in the lapse of years will onvert this into a beau- 

 tiful establishment, which will not only illustjiite 

 the liberality of the State to the needy and home- 

 less, but also the good taste and judgment of 

 those who have had the management of its con- 

 cerns. Yours, &c., J. R. 

 Concord, May 19. 



1!^" Agriculture, like the leader of Israel, strikes 

 the rock — the waters flow, and the famished peo- 

 ple are satisfied. 



CIRCULATION OF SAP— VEGETABLE 

 ECONOMY. 



The circulation of sap in plants has much anal- 

 ogy to the circulation of the blood in man. This 

 is especially true in regard to the action of the 

 leaves upon the sap, and its subsequent altered 

 quality. In the ascent of the sap from the root 

 before it reaches the leaf, it is elevated in the same 

 manner as oil rises in the wick of a lamp. The 

 leaves receive it and throw off an immense amount 

 by evaporation. In this way there is a constant 

 corresponding action between the root which draw8 

 the water from the earth, and the leaf by which it 

 is exhaled. But the leaf also takes in water as 

 well as the root. The most important function of 

 the leaf, however, is that which transforms a por- 

 tion of the water or ascending sap into the pecu- 

 liar juices %f the plant, and sends it back again, 

 circulating it through the vegetable system in a 

 new form ; much as the lungs change the venous 

 blood into arterial. This sap, after passing thus 

 through the leaves, parting there with some car- 

 bonic acid, and receiving other elements from the 

 air, becomes invested with a new character. In 

 some plants whose ascending sap is poisonous, the 

 descending sap, or matter contained in it, is highly 

 nutritious. And it becomes also elaborated into 

 those special secretions known to us in the form of 

 gum, sugar, starch, gluten, oil, tannin, turpentine, 

 wax, coloring matters, narcotic, astringent, fra- 

 grant and acid properties, and the various products 

 of different plants which are nutritive, medicinal, 

 useful in the arts, or destructive to life. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 ORCHARDS. 



Mr. Brown : — The Tree Fever, which usually 

 prevails about this season, has been a little more 

 violent this year than ever before. Trees by loads 

 have been removed from the close comp-Jnionship 

 of the nursery, to scattered situations in remote 

 fields. I sometimes send a thought after those 

 I have slowly reared from the seed, and wonder 

 how they fare in their new localities. Alas ! sir, 

 that I hear occasionally of failure and disappoint- 

 ment. I am not surprised by it. I only am when 

 I hear of young trees doing well under circumstan- 

 ces the most unfavorable. 



I have done a little, perhaps, to induce others 

 to plant orchards, honestly believing by so doing 

 that they would immediately add value to their 

 acres. JBut it has happened that the imperfect 

 manner in which the work has been done, has 

 soon discouraged those who had too little faith at 

 best. 



Orchards are planted every year without due 

 consideration. It is a matter of some importance 

 to the cultivator that he start right in a work 

 which will absorb time and capital for years, and 

 yield a return exactly in proportion to the judi- 

 cious application of his labors. 



With some exceptions will he do better than to 

 select the comparatively level slope south of his 

 buildings for his orchards. Here the north winds 



