NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Ill 



tenants of the sea. Of these, also, there is one largo 

 division, that lives on vegetables, and supplies the 

 basis of food to the other division, that is carnivorous. 

 Here, again, Ave see that, in the absence oi caniivora, 

 the uncontrolled herbimra would multiply indefi- 

 nitely, until the lack of food brought them also to the 

 verge of starvation ; and the sea would be crowded 

 with creatures under the endurance of universal 

 pain from hunger, while death by famine would be 

 the termination of their ill-fed and miserable lives. 

 The appointment of death by the agency of car- 

 nivora, as the oi'dinary termination of animal exist- 

 ence, appears therefore, in its main results, to be a 

 dispensation of benevolence : it deducts much fi-om 

 the aggregate amount of the pain of universal death ; 

 it abridges, and almost annihilates, throughout the 

 brute creation, the misery of disease, and accidental 

 injuries, and lingering decay ; and imposes such 

 salutary restraint upon excessive increase of nixmbers, 

 that the supply of food maintains perpetually a due 

 ratio to the demand. The result is, that the surface 

 of the land, and depths of the waters, are ever 

 crowded with myriads of animated beings, the pleas- 

 ures of whose life are coextensive with its duration, 

 and which, throughout the little day of existence 

 that is allowed to them, fulfil with joy the functions 

 for which they are created. Life to each individual 

 is a scene of continued feasting, in a region of 

 plenty ; and when unexpected death arrests its 

 course, it repays with small interest, the large debt 

 which it has contracted to the common fund of ani- 

 mal nutrition, from whence the materials of its body 

 have been derived. Thus the great drama of univer- 

 sal life is perpetually sustained ; and though the indi- 

 vidual actors undergo continual change, the same 

 parts are filled by another and another generation ; 

 renewing the face of the earth, and the bosom of the 

 deep, with endless succession of life and happiness. 



HOW TO RAISE GOOD POTATOES. 



My object in writing, at this time, is to give to you 

 ray method of growing potatoes free from the rot. 

 I have practised it two seasons with entire success, 

 and have now six hundred bushels of fine Mercer 

 potatoes in my cellar, and all free from the disease. 



My method is, to plough the ground late in the 

 fall or early in the spring, harrow it smoothly before 

 planting time, then haul out say fifteen tons rotted 

 manui-e, spread it broadcast, then take two horses 

 and a plough, and back up two full furrows, the 

 furrows just meeting in the backing; leave a strip 

 one foot wide, and back up two more ; and so 

 continue till you have completed the lot. Then 

 turn about and sjjlit these double furrows open with 

 a single furrow, then commence dropping your 

 potatoes (pieces of cut potatoes, containing at least 

 four eyes) in the furrow, six inches apart. After the 

 lot is dropped, take your horses and plough, and 

 throw two good furrows, (one round of the team to 

 a row,) just meeting on the top ; dress off the top, 

 clearing the row of stones, clods, &c. ; then sow 

 broadcast five bushels common salt over the groimd 

 immediately after planting ; cultivate well till the 

 plants are in blossom, and you will have a good crop ; 

 never ciiltivate potatoes when in blossom. 



When the crop is ready to gather, clear the 

 ground, take your two horses and plough, turn a 

 furrow from each side of the row : let a boy jjick up 

 the scattering potatoes ; then turn out the row, pick 

 up the potatoes ; then hoe down the ridge ; lastly, har- 

 row over the ground, pick up the remaining potatoes, 

 and the work is finished. The agriculturist must at 

 once observe that, by this process, he gets a broad, 

 loose bed for the potatoes to grow in, also double 

 depth of soil ; then you are certain of good dry po- 



tatoes. I would here observe that potato ground is 

 the very best for producing a good crop of wheat ; 

 and I would advise farmers to grow a greater surplus 

 of this most valuable root. If there is no market, 

 store them, and feed them to your horses, cattle, 

 and hogs ; feed them in your stable through the 

 winter ; give your stock good bedding ; clean out 

 your stables once a week ; make as large a manure 

 heap as possible ; and you will not be troubled with 

 tire potato disease, nor that worse malady arising 

 from always taking out of the meal tub and never 

 returning any ; you will thus come to the bottom. — 

 Ohio Cultivator. 



THE EDUCATION OF OXEN. 



A " Glenburn Farmer," in the Bangor Whig, 

 contends that the practice of testing the merits of 

 working oxen, at cattle shows, by the mere ability 

 to drag the heavest possible burden, is unsatisfactory 

 and unsafe, as not exhibiting the most valuable 

 qualities of the animals, nor showing their most 

 iiseful capacities in the performance of their ordinary 

 work. We annex a part of his sensible remarks : — 



" I would suggest that at the next trial of oxen at 

 the Society's Show, it should be upon a judiciously 

 loaded cart, and that the exercise should consist of 

 drawing, turning, and backing. What the public 

 want in regard to working oxen is, an exhibition of 

 the best trained cattle for farm purposes. Nor is this 

 all. We want to see the man who trained them, and 

 his manner of doing it. We want an exhibition of 

 good teamsters as well as good teams ; for very 

 much of the merit of a yoke or team of cattle belongs 

 to the teamster. And instead of giving all the pre- 

 miums to good oxen, one half, at least, should go to 

 good drivers. No driver, however, should receive a 

 premium for himself or oxen, however good they 

 might be, who used profane language during the 

 exhibition. A rule of this kind would have 

 changed the direction of more than one premium 

 at the late trial. 



" Good teamsters are worth from five to ten dol- 

 lars a month more than poor ones ; and yet, Avith 

 this difference in price, it is very easy to find a 

 hundred, and I believe I might say a thousand, poor 

 ones for one good one. No man can bo a good team- 

 ster who is not a gentleman. He must be gentle, 

 kind, and careful. No good teamster will pixt his 

 oxen to an xmnecessar-y waste of strength, or to \m- 

 necessary jyain by the use of the goad stick, or brad." 



WET LANDS. 



Farmers, as a general thing, are too remiss, says a 

 correspondent of the Gcrmantown Telegraph, in the 

 business of improving their wet lands. In some 

 sections, Avhcre the rapid increase of population has 

 greatly increased the price of arable soils, and their 

 products, we find something like a regular system of 

 drainage adopted, and a very decided and marked 

 improvement in the management of most of the de- 

 tails of the farm, as the inevitable result. There 

 can be no question, that most of our low bog lands 

 possess high value, and arc calculated to become 

 extremely valuable for most agricultural uses, when 

 properly managed and freed from the deteriorating 

 effects of the supernatural waters by which they 

 have been so long submerged. We find that all low 

 lands, Avhich are continually or periodically sub- 

 merged, produce some aqixatic plants, all of which 

 are pennitted to grow and decay without being re- 

 moved. The humus thus produced is consequently 

 allowed to accumulate, and when the Avater is draAvn 

 off, Ave find a deep, rich bed of muck, which is re- 

 plete with the most energetic vegetative principles. 



