246 



THE GEKESEE FARMER. 



as to understaml the reasons of the preference 

 given in many cases, by agriciilturists, to fresh, over 

 rotten, farm-yard manure. The moclianical condi- 

 tion of the ground is, in fact, remarkably altered 

 by the plowing in of jjlants and their remains. A 

 tenacious soil loses thereby its cohesion ; it becomes 

 brittle, and more i-eadily i)ulverized than by the 

 most careful plowing; ami, in a sandy soil, a cer- 

 tain coherence is introduced among its shifting par- 

 ticles. Each stem of the green manure plants 

 plowed in, opens up by its decay a road by which 

 the delicate rootlets of Wheat plant ramity in all 

 directions to seek their food. With the excejjtiou 

 ef their combustible elements, the ground receives 

 from tlie green manure plants nothing which it did 

 not previously contain ; and these of themselves 

 ■would have no et^'ect on the increase of the crop, 

 without the presence in the soil of the necessary 

 mineral food." 



DKAINING WET LANDS. 



Before many years there will be thousands of 

 acres pierced with drains. Hut the inducements to 

 it which make it wise in England and New Eng- 

 land do not yet, generally, exist in the West. The 

 expense of draining one acre would buy two. 

 Many farmers have already more arable land than 

 they can till to advantage. Land redeemed from 

 slough would not pay for itself in many years. 



But although a general introduction of draining 

 would not be wise, there are many cases in which, 

 to a limited extent, it should be practiced. Lands 

 lying near to cities are sutiiciently valuable, and 

 the market for farming products sure enough, to 

 justify the reclaiming of wet ])ieces of land. On 

 small farms of forty and eighty acres, surrounded 

 by liigh-priced lands, not easily procured for enlarg- 

 ing his farm if the owner should wish it, draining 

 might be employed wnth advantage. A man with a 

 small form can affurd expenses for high cultivation 

 which would break a large farmer. 



Some times a large meadow or arable field is 

 marred by a wet slash through the middle of it; a 

 farmer would not begrudge the labor of draining 

 for the sake of having his favorite field without a 

 Idemish. Some times forms are intersected by wet 

 lands, wliich make the passage from one part of the 

 farm to another ditticult at ail times, and almost 

 im|>assable at some seasons of the year. Draining 

 might be resorted to in such a case, not so much 

 tor the sake of the land reclaimed, as for the con- 

 venience of the whole form. 



We know pieces of wet, peaty meadow land 

 lying close by the farm-house, the only drawback 

 to the beauty of the place. A good farmer woidd 

 wish to recover such a spot for the same reason 

 that \w would prefer a handsome house to a homely 

 one — a tine horse over a coarse looking animal — a 

 sightly fence, rather than a clumsy one. There is 

 much strong land — but high, flat, and cold — wliich 

 is wet through all the spring, resisting seed till 

 long after other portions of the farm are at work, 

 and winch would, but for this backwardness, be 

 regarded as the l^est land. If without great ex- 

 pense, such Inn.l could be cured, few formers would 

 mind the trouble or lal>or. 



There are tiiree kinds of draining which may be 

 employed according to circumstances — subsoil- 



plowing, furrow-draining and ditch-draining. — 

 When a soil is underbound by a compact, imper- 

 vious suisoil, all the rain or melting snow is 

 retained in the soil until it can exhale and evapo- 

 rate. For the subsoil acts like a water-tiglit floor, 

 or the bottom of a tub. Subsoil-plowing, by 

 thoroughly working through this under crust, gives 

 a downward passage to the moisture ; water sinks 

 as it does in sandy loams. Nor will such treatment 

 be less useful to prevent the injury of summer 

 drought; for the depth of soil atfoi'ds a harbor for 

 roots from whence they can draw moisture when 

 the top-soil is dry as ashes. 



But there is a limit put to this treatment by the 

 amount of clay contained in the subsoil. It has 

 been experimentally ascertained in England, that 

 when the soil contains as high as forty-three per 

 cent, of alumina (clay) subsoil-plowing is useless, 

 because the clay soon coalesces and is as impervious 

 as ever. In such cases, if the land has a slight 

 inclination in any direction, furrow-draining may, 

 in some measure, relieve it. The ground is marked 

 out in lands as for sowing grain and plowed with 

 back-furrows, throwing the earth toward the cen- 

 tre. The rain and snow will run to either side, 

 and flow otf by the channels left between each 

 strip. This treatment does not relieve the land, to 

 any great extent, of water contained in it, but acts 

 as a preventive, by carrying olf tlie rain and snow 

 before they are absorbed. — E. W. Beecher, in Plain 

 and Pleasant Talk about Fruits, Flowers, and 



Farming. 



■ ■ 



MAKE FARM LABOR FASHIONABLE. 



At the base of the prosperity of aay people lies 

 this great principle — make farm labor fashionable 

 at home. Educate, instruct, encourage; and ofter 

 all the incentives you can offer, to give interest and 

 dignity to labor at home. Enlist the heart and the 

 intellect of the family in the support of a domes- 

 tic system that will make labor attractive at the 

 homestead. By means of the powerful influences 

 of early home education, endeavor to invest jn-ac- 

 tical labor with an interest that will cheer tlie heart 

 of each member of the family, and thereby you 

 will give to your household the grace, peace, refine- 

 ment and attraction which God designed a home 

 should possess. 



The truth is, we must talk more, think more, 

 icork more, and act more, in reference to questions 

 relating to home. 



The training and improvement of the physical, 

 intellectual, social and moral powers and sentiments 

 of the youth of our country, require something 

 more than the school-house, academy, college and 

 university. The young mind should receive judi- 

 cious training in the field, in the garden, in the 

 barn, in the workshop, in the parlor, in the kitchen 

 — in a word, around the hearthstone at home. 



Whatever intellectual attainments your son may 

 have acquired, he is unfit to go forth into society 

 if he has not had thrown around him the genial 

 and purifying influences of parents, sisters, brothers, 

 and the man-saving influence of the family govern- 

 ment. The nation must look for virtue, wisdoin, 

 and strength, to the education that controls and 

 shapes the home policy of the family circle. There 

 } can be no love of country where there is no 1ot« 



