384 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



injure the passage to the stomach, as when fed on 

 very short hay or straw. 



In answer to your correspondent I would say, 

 I think a machine "with a fly wheel, and taking 

 in a generous mouthful, cannot be worked with 

 ease by one man." I intend to manufacture for 

 delivery in October, a machine with a cross-cut 

 motion, cheap, simple, and one that will cut 

 through a sheaf at every stroke of the knife. 



L. Ferky. 



East Hamfton, June 18, 1853. 



MUCH LABOR ON LITTLE LAND. 



The Farmer^ s Companion, in an article on Small 

 Farms, marks out the following course for the far 

 mer of small capital to pursue : 



You have 100 acres clear, 50 of which you keep 

 as pasture and for meadow. Make up your mind 

 to work only 25 acres ; the other 25 being put down 

 to clover and timothy, as you best can. You have 

 manure enough in and about your farm for six 

 acres. This year, haul that on to your land, plow 

 it and put in corn ; with a little ashes, and, ifyou 

 can get it, slaked lime or phister to every hill. — 

 Plow twice as deep as usual ; and drag twice as 

 long, with a long-toothed drag, till the land is like 

 a garden. If you have got 35 bushels of corn t( 

 the acre before, we can warrant you now 70 or 80 ; 

 for you cultivate and hoe the corn twice as mud 

 likewise. You double your crop at a very little in 

 creased cost. Having no more manure, you must 

 depend on deeper plowing and better dragging for 

 the other 10 acres for this year ; not forgetting to 

 sow a little more seed than usual, if it is oats or 

 barley. In the fall, sow wheat where the corn 

 was, with the same care ; and next spring, ma- 

 nure the next six acres for corn. Yes, but you may 

 manure 10 "or 12 acres ; for you have had 25 

 more acres for hay, or oat straw cut green for fod 

 der, and can keep 25 more cows through the win- 

 ter ; and knowing the value of the manure — that 

 it is as important to you as the very soil itself — 

 you will take much better care of it. 



Thus, every two or three years, all your land 

 will get a dressing of manure, and every year you 

 will have a diffrfrent crop on it. Every year it 

 will improve, and you grow rich, with about half 

 your work. But after a while sow a few acres of 

 this land witli clover and timothy, and break up 

 as much of your old grass. Y(ju will get doubly 

 the crop of hay on the new piece, and a good crop 

 of grain on the old piece. In one word, of all 

 men in the world, a small farmer should work a 

 small piece of land; work it thoroughly well; 

 keep all the stock he can to make manure ; keep 

 the manure dry, and he will not be a small far- 

 mer long. We have tried it and we know it. For 

 the rest, take and read a good formers' newspaper. 



WAR. 



All wars are demoralizing and ruinously espen 

 sive, — they blunt the feelings, repress the senti 

 ments of love and mercy, and turn men into hunt 

 ers' of each other more furious than the beasts of 

 prey. 



Standing armies, the great provocatives of war, 

 should not be allowed in times of peace. Let those 

 in power so govern as to gain the hearts of the 



people, and in those hearts they will find the na- 

 ti(m's bulwark of safety when dangers threaten. 

 With these willing hearts, and their energetic 

 hands, the raw materials of the mine and the for- 

 est would be transformed into engines of destruc- 

 tion, or arks of safety, with more wonderful rapid- 

 ity than any of the transmutations wrought by the 

 magic influence of Aladdin's lamp. Gnarled oaks, 

 pigs of iron, and bars of copper, fields of hemp, 

 and rivulets of turpentine, would be changed, 

 swifter than vision of alchemist of old ever saw, 

 into the means of aggression or defence. 



Those hearts, stimulated by the spirit of liberty, 

 by a love of country, of home and our institutions, 

 would be stouter than the ribs of oak and iron 

 themselves, and unconquerable, so long as their 

 cause is just. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 



Mr. George J. Colby, of JanfsviJle, Vt., in- 

 quires : — "Why could not the price of the Osier 

 Willow be quoted with other products of the firm. 

 I think there are many engaging in the business 

 that would like to see the prices of the imported 

 and American article. 



If there are any of your correspondents engaged 

 in the cultivation of the willow, I wish they would 

 tell us with what success." 



Mr. T. C. Branch, of Cornwall, Vt., in reply to 

 the inquiries of S. G. B. in a late number of the 

 Farmer, says that the bottom of the post may be 

 framed into a sill or a pin inserted in it which will 

 prevent its being raised by the frost. He would 

 cut alder bushes after they are done growing ; has 

 seldom known them to sprout when so cut. 



Mr. Horace II. Winchester, of Mar/6oro', Vt., 

 says that cows afllicted with garget may be cured 

 by a few doses of the root called garget. 



This remedy has been often mentioned in the 

 Farmer, and is probably used to some extent 

 throughout New England ; but it very often fails 

 to perform the cure. 



"J. D.," East Barnard, Vt., says the best way 

 to set posts to prevent the frost from throwing 

 them, is to dig a hole 2 feet deep, 18 or 20 inches 

 across, and fill up within 6 or 7 inches of the top 

 with small stones, then drive tight with the head 

 of an iron bar, then fill the remainder with tan 

 bark. lie would cut alder bushes in the latter part 

 of August. 



Another writer, "S. W.," agrees with "J. D.," 

 that the earth must not come in contact with the 

 posts. He says "alders should be cut in winter 

 when the ground is frozen, and they will die with 

 a very little sprouting. I have long been used 

 to them, have cut them in the full of the moon, 

 in August, and at various other times, and care 

 not whether the sign is in the head or heart, they 

 will sprout unless cut as above stated." 



