296 



NEW E N G L 7\ N D FAR M E R , 



MAncH:*0. 1S39 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



From the Baltimore 1'ranscript. 

 WASHING DAY. 



Monday has come ; what means this stir and hurry, 



This noise and liubbub round the town, 1 jiray ? 

 Tile whole creation seems all in a hurry : 



Why, know you not, Sir ? this ia washing clay- 

 See pails and kettles in confusion Hying ; 



With water hy the hogshead cold and hot; 

 Some garments on the line are |)iniicd and drying, 



iSonie in the suds and others /« the put. 



Tiiou hallowed day! and thou, long famous Uitihen, 

 With what eventful doings dost thou teem ! 



Hissing and huhhling, pulling, shaking, switching; 

 Nor is it strange, for all things ^o by scam. 



But look again, with what tremendous splashing 

 Maidens and dames the dirty garments ruh. 



Oh ! there's no beauty like a woman washing. 

 Bending iit grace above a zecll-fillcd tub. 



Oh ! what vast cleansings, o'er how vast a region, 

 Arc going forward on this far-famed day : 



Woollen and fla«, with cotton clothe?, a legion. 

 All find a hand to wash their stains away. 



Hut wo to those who without rhyme or reason, 

 Weglect tlicir Washing when the weather 's fair; 



Like other idlers they may lose their season. 

 And 80 Oil Sunday have no clothes to wear. 



(From Illinois and the West'.)' 



ILLINOIS. 



Much hm been said and written about the face 

 of country, cliniato, soil, &c., of Illinois, but after 

 all, no true impression has been conveyed to east- 

 ern people thereof. For my own part, I found my- 

 self quite at fault, although I liad taken especial 

 pains to inform myself both by reading and con- 

 versation with those who were well acquainted 

 therewith. And I believe it beyond any one's pow- 

 er to give any description of the face of the coun- 

 try, which shall convey anything like an adequate 

 idea to a stranger. It is pcrfectiy unique — totally 

 unlike, in general and iu detail, anything in New- 

 England. It is called a level, flat country, and it 

 is, compared to the eastern states, but not as level 

 as it has been described. Its prairies, in particu- 

 lar, have been represented as e.\ceedingly flat and 

 even, and we have supposed an area of from ten to 

 fifteen or thirty miles of an unbroken plain, with 

 no elevations or depressions, more than are met 

 wifli on our extensive salt marshes. But the coun- 

 try is all unequal — not precipitous — and the prai- 

 ries present a continual change of tables and 

 sloughs, wliilo the timbers are broken by high 

 knolls and deep ravines. Besides, I had supposed 

 that the tables in the rolling prairies all ran in par- 

 allel lines and equal distances frum each other, 

 whereas they are of all sizes and sliapes, and lay 

 in every direction in the same prairie, thereby af- 

 fording a greater variety, and greater facilities for 

 cultivation, etc. etc. The timber on the " bottoms," 

 is dense and heavy, and tangled with a most luxu- 

 riant growtli of vines, shrubs, briars and rank grass. 

 These bottoms are on all the rivers and creeks, 

 skirting the prairies and making beautiful belts 

 in every direction through the country. I'esides 

 these, there are " barrens," or " oak openings," as 



they are called, which are composed of large trees 

 of the various kinds of oak, hickory, maple, elm, 

 &c. These trees are quite sparsely scattered 

 around, making a most beautiful park, entirely free 

 from under-brush, and tlie ground is covered with 

 a luxuriant growtli of grass and flower.s. The 

 openings are all on unequal — nay, broken ground — 

 high abrupt hills and gentle swells, alternated by 

 deep precipitous ravines or most picturesque val- 

 leys of perfectly easy access even with a carriage. 

 Nothing can exceed the beauty of tliosc unique 

 forests — no art of man's device could have accom- 

 plished on so grand a scale a work so perfectly 

 splendid and enchanting. The soil of these bar- 

 rens is a fine silicious loam and not more than from 

 eight inches to eighteen in depth, but rich and well 

 adapted to produce the lighter grains and corn, with 

 a careful culture. The secret of the openings lies 

 in the annual con lagrat ions which pass over all 

 the prairies and barrens of the west. This yearly 

 burning consumes all the new trees and shrubs, 

 and leaves the ground entirely un incumbered. The 

 old trees, likewise, are annually diminishing in 

 number. Scarcely a tree but is marked wiih fire, 

 and when once the bark is penetrated by the fire, 

 and the wood of the tree scared, the fire takes a 

 readier and deeper hold thereon, until at last it 

 overpowers and destroys it, and the tree falls with 

 a startling crash, and generally consumes before 

 the fire dies out, unless a violent rain extinguishes 

 it, and leaves it for food for the next annual pas- 

 sage of the devouring element. I beheld many 

 a line of ashes, marking the spot where the entire 

 trunk of a massy oak was consumed the previous 

 autumn. 



These barrens are the resort of birds of various 

 note and plumage, and all the wild animals found 

 in this country, such as wolves, deer, foxes, rabbits, 



&C.&C. 



The "bluffs" are abrupt elevations, generally in 

 the immediate neighborhood of, and are to be 

 found, I believe, on all the rivers and on each side. 

 Generally they approach the river, but upon one 

 side in a place, while on the opposite lie the heavy 

 timbered bottom lands from a mile to si.x in width. 

 In the course of twenty, sixty, or an hundred miles 

 the bluffs and bottoms change sides — or, to speak 

 more accurately, the river changes to the other 

 side of the bottom, which is bounded on each side 

 by these bluffs. These bluffs are fromone hundred to 

 two bundled feel high, intersected with deep ravines 

 at right angles to the river, and are composed of 

 limestone, which often forms bold perpendicular 

 cliffs of great height and regularity. Tha bluffs 

 are generally crowned with " oak openings," and 

 present to the traveller as he passes up and down 

 the river, a most picturesque and charming scene. 



And what shall I say of the prairies — those im- 

 mense sea-fields, clothed with their heavy robe of 

 green, and dotted and slashed with gold and azure, 

 vermilion and oraii^e, white and violet, reflected 

 from flowers of every size and shape, bewildering 

 the traveller with their intense beauty, their rich 

 and endless variety. 



The praries are of two kinds, and are distin- 

 guished as rolling and flat. The rolling prairies 

 are gently and irregularly undulating, having 

 swells of twenty to s.xty feet liigh, and of all 

 lengths and breadths ; between which are sloughs, 

 called in the dialect of the place " sloos." They 

 are low and swampy, and are of the same character 

 of similar places in New England meadows called 

 runs. If a small ditch be carried through these 



"sl'jos" a fine running stream will be produced, 

 which will last nearly or quite the year round, 

 afi^ording plenty of water for catt'e. There is 

 scarcely a prairie without this kind provision of 

 nature. These prairies are beautiful to the eye of 

 a stranger, but their unbroken monot(my tires the 

 senses, especially when covered with the decayed j 

 growth of the former summer, clothed with a gar- , 

 ment of snow, or blackened by the recent confla- 

 gration. E.\travagant stories of the luxuriant 

 growth of the grass have been circulated at the 

 east, as indeed everything pertaining to this won- 

 derful country has naturally enough assumed an 

 exagirerated tone. In the bottom prairies, the grasi 

 occasionally reaches the top of a man's head as he 

 sits on his horse — a rank coarse grass unfit for the 

 purposes of feeding — but in the common open 

 prairies from two to three and a half feet is a fair 

 average ; in the sloughs it often e.xceeds this by a 

 foot or even more. 



These prairies, as well as tlie barrens and bot- 

 toms, att'ord e.xhaustless ranges for cattle, horses, 

 and swine, and the prairies abundant grass for the 

 scythe, all without cost or labor of fencing. The 

 prairie grass is coarse, but greatly loved by cattle, 

 and makes, when well cured, an excellent fodder 

 for the winter. 



\VI!«SiitP'.S >VI{SERIBS, BRIGTON. 



Just received from England and France, a rare collection 

 pi Plants, viz : 



Pears, Plums, Peaches. Apricots, Gooseberries, Pear 

 Stocks, Purple Ueach, English Elms, Japan Jingo Trees. 



Striped, Myrtle leaved, Gold inargineii, and Weeping 

 slripetl tJox Trees. 



Common silver leaf. Fine do. do., Upright Golden, Smnolh 

 leaved Golden, Balance do. do , Plain Screw do. do., Camel- 

 lia leaved do , Marginal and Hedgehog Hollies. 



Portugal, English, Long narrow leaved, and short do. do. 

 Laurels. 



Azaleas, Rhododendrons, Thorns, Eglantines, 100 varielit ;> 

 new Koses, Oranges, Camellias, and various kinds ol Green- 

 house Plants. 



Orders will he promptly executed and forwarded to any 

 part of the country. 



Orders may he left with JOSEPH BRECK & CO. or for- 

 warded hy m'ail to Messrs. WINSHIP, Brighton, Mass. 

 Brighton, March 4. 



BRUSSA. MULBERHY SBBD. 



We otTer for sale a small quantity of Brussa Mulberry 

 Seed, hy the pound or ounce, which may be relied on as true 

 and genuine. U'his variety of Mulherry is much superior to 

 ihe Morus Multicaulis, lor this climate, heing perfectly 

 hard,' : said to he even more hardy than the common while. 

 JOSEPH BRECK & CO. 



PUflT AND OB.\"A.nE.\TAI. TREES, SlULBER- 

 RIKS &c. 



Nursery of }yilHain Kenrick. 



The Catalogue of Fruit and Ornamental Trees for 1S39 is 

 now ready, and will he sent to all who apply. It comprises 

 a most extensive selection of the superior varieties of Pears, 

 Apples, Plums, Quinces, Goosehcrnes, Raspberries, Cur- 

 rants, Strawberries, Grape Vines, &c. The stock ol' Cher- 

 ries and of Teaches now ready is particularly large. Also, 

 Ornamental Trees, Shrubs, Roses, lloncysucliles, Pceonies, 

 Dahlias and other Herbaceous Flowering Plants. 



10,n0H Cockspur or Newcaslle Thorns. 



in.uOO Buckthorns. 



Morns Multicaulis, and other Mulberries; the trees genu- 

 ine and Hue, at prices fair, and varying with the size, and 

 the quantity which may he desired.' 



Fruit and all oiher trees, when so ordered, will he secure- 

 ly packed for safe transportation to distant places, and or- 

 ders promptly executed, on aj'plicaiion to the sul>scriber. 

 WIT.TJAM KENRICK. 



Nonantom Hill, Newton, near Bnttiui. 



J.nnuarv 30, IS39. 



THE NE^V ENGLAND FARMER 



Is published every Wednesday Evening, at S3 per annum 

 payable at the end of the year — but those who pay within 

 sixty days from the time of subscribing are entitled to s de- 

 duction of 59 cents. 



TUTTLE, DENNETT A.tD CHISHOLM, I>RINTFB», 



17 SCHOOL «TUI!RT BOSTO.V 



