550 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



casion we have been relieved from this difficulty, 

 and our attention has been concentrated upon one 

 department, a particular species of domestic ani- 

 mals, — upon the horse whose docility, beauty and 

 usefulness have been admired by the successive 

 generations of mankind — whose kindness, strength 

 and valor have been celebrated in prose and verse, 

 in history and in holy writ. How truly and beau- 

 tifully inspiration describes him on the tended field. 

 " His neck is clothed with thunder, the glory of 

 his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley 

 and rejoice th in his strength. He goeth to_ meet 

 the armed men. He mocketh at fear and is not 

 afirighted, neither turneth he back from the sword. 

 He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and 

 rage. He saith among the trumpets, ha ! ha ! and 

 he smelleth the battle afar off." 



Of this noble animal probably the world never 

 witnessed a better or more extensive exhibition 

 than it has been our privilege to examine on this 

 occasion. 



There have been placed on exhibition about 500 

 specimens of the various breeds, many of which 

 are of great merit and fame. 



In conclusion, permit me to present to the orig- 

 inators and managers of this exhibition, and es- 

 pecially to the good people of the city of Spring- 

 field, my most sincere and grateful acknowledg- 

 ments for their hopitality, and for the important 

 service which you have rendered to this depart- 

 ment of American agriculture. 



Gentlemen, may your present success awaken 

 a laudable emulation in this and other depart- 

 ments of terraculture ; and thus may we go on 

 prospering and to prosper, until all the pursuit of 

 industry and rural taste shall have attained a per- 

 fection never before realized, and shall render the 

 United States of America the most intelligent, 

 prosperous and happy people on the globe. 



Toasts and speeches followed from gentlemen 

 from other States, and the whole affair passed off 

 with great satisfaction to all. We are indebted 

 to the JournaVs report for the extracts we here 

 give. 



The Springfield Republican has some items 

 which wUl interest those who attended the Exhi- 

 bition : 



" The gross receipts of the exhibition were near- 

 ly $10,000, and the sum received will be just about 

 enough to pay expenses. The leading items of 

 those expenses are, the premiums, amounting to 

 about $3000, to which will probably be added 

 many gratuities, over and above this sum, bestow- 

 ed upon fine horses present from a distance ; the 

 erection of the high board fence around the lot 

 and the building of the stalls and seats, which 

 cost S1200 to $1500 ; printing and advertising ; 

 the banquet and the entertainment of invited guests. 

 A large amount of minor expenses, many ofwhich 

 could not have been foreseen, and even now must 

 be indefinitely estimated, were incurred. The 

 Managers were liberal in their arrangements, in 

 proportion aa the certainty of success enabled 

 them to be. The receipts for entrance fees for 

 horses amounted to from $1G00 to $1700, and be- 

 tween $1000 and $1200 were taken for tickets to 

 the banquet. The balance of receipts is from en- 

 trance fees from spectators. 



It may interest oome to know the exact num- 



ber of entries as they appear on the Secretary's 

 books, and we give them : thorough-breds 7 ; 

 stallions 7 years and over 5G ; stallions of 4 years 

 and under 7, 34; geldings 136; breeding mares 

 53 ; breeding mares with foal at side 9 ; matched 

 horses 33 ; fancy ditto IG ; stallions and fillies of 

 3 years IG ; of 2 years 10 ; of 1 year 7 ; farm and 

 draft horses ; ponies 21. The total number of 

 entries was 407, covering, as we reckon it, 472 

 animals." 



For the New England Farmer. 

 A SHORT GARDEN CHAT. 



Mr. Editor : — On this upper, walled terrace 

 ground, four rods long and twelve feet wide, you 

 see fine peach trees, standing upon the north bor- 

 der, all thoroughly mulched in the spring with 

 forest leaves, all seedlings. Their growth the past 

 summer has been rapid and luxuriant. One bore 

 a few fine peaches three or four years since. The 

 next spring I tried the heading- in process, when 

 the buds were swelled full, and it proved a sad 

 mistake. The sap exuded from the leading central 

 twigs cut off, burst the bark of nearly all the 

 other twigs, and formed many deposits of gum, 

 and consequently the branches grew diseased, and 

 the tree was much exhausted. I gave it up as 

 lost the two past seasons ; but this, it has rallied 

 by mulching, and may do something yet. Had I 

 forbore empiric amputation, it would probably have 

 borne generously. The other trees have had two 

 and three years growth, and promise well now. 

 In June their curled, malformed leaves, and their 

 stay in the healthy extension of the branches, 

 foreboded evil ; but in July they cast off their 

 sickly leaves, and grew rapidly the remainder of 

 the season. This phenomenon who will explain ? 

 Besides mulching, I applied urine liberally to the 

 roots. You see, sir, I have no faith in heading-in 

 or beheading peach trees, (a.) 



2. On the south line grew a row of marrowfat 

 peas, and, in lieu of bushes, I framed them up 

 with stakes and strings. On the stakes I nailed 

 cross sticks, four or five inches apart, notching the 

 ends, and placed the stakes four feet apart, fasten- 

 ing them well in the ground. The cross bars 

 were of due length to correspond with the spread 

 of the peas when they grew, and upon them 

 parallel lines of twine were wound from end to end 

 of the row. I am pleased with the result, for I* 

 was saved the annoyance and trouble of a bush- 

 rack, and weeds were easily subdued around the 

 plants, while they rejoiced in having the whole 

 soil for their own use and behoof. They had, too, 

 the depth of one or two feet of alluvial deposit, 

 with which the terrace ground was formed, blend- 

 ed with a liberal supply of muck and pulverized 

 barn manure. A luxuriant growth and an ample 

 yield was the result, and the depth of soil afforded 



a longer succession of peas than I have ever be- 

 fore gathered. 



3. At three feet distance from the peas grew a 

 row of Lima beans, consisting of 21 hills, three 

 feet apart. I used poles of twelve feet length, 

 placing them inclining towards each other, from 

 two adjoining hills, to form a crop midway of the 

 poles ; thrusting down an upright pole bet^^en 

 the hills, and driving the poles to such a depth as 

 to make them firm, I wound a cord firmly around 

 them at their intersection. I did this as a secu- 

 ity against the bending or prostration of the 



