AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



^ 



JUJ1U.ISHKD liY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Aoh.cultural WAnEHo.sE.) 



vol.. xvm.j 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUG. 7, 18:39. 



[NO. 5. 



N. E. FARMER 



[For ihe New England Fanner.] 



THE SEASON— MEADOW LANDS. 

 Mr Colm.^n — With us, an unpleasant mowintr 

 :s a matter of so rare occurrence, that when one 

 nakes its appearance we are confident that some 

 •og in the wealher, or perhaps more properly in 

 )ur3elves, is amazingly out of place, oi- it would 

 lot be so. We are willing to say that there is 

 nuch differenct in mowings, and to this difference 

 hey may perhaps owe some of their charms, and 

 he very contrast which one o-ives to the other, to 

 IS makes them b ^autiful ; as for instance, after a 

 Iry time, what can be pleasanter than to awake and 

 learthe rainpatteringagainst one's windows, while 

 he stillness which may long have held the air iij 

 urance, has been broken by rougl) winds, that 

 lake the forest leaves tremble on their branches, 

 r shake the limbs of the old oaks as if they inspire 

 lem with a belief that all nature was created foi 

 ctivity. All this is necessary as well as verv 

 leasant. .Man must have exercise or he becomes 



puny, diseased being, both in body and mind, 

 'he beast of the field and the fowl of the air will 

 ot for a long time put themselves down to rest in 

 uiet dormancy, but indulgi? in stillness only when 

 itigue requires it. They are things of active hab- 

 s, and nature has endowed them with power to 

 ractice their own gymnastics, which is manifested 

 y their skipping upon the hills, racing in the val- 

 ■ys, or sailing through the air. But vegetable na- 

 iro possesses not within itself this power ofchano-- 

 ig place to impart muscular energy, consequently 

 iture, like a nursing mother, supplies the defect. 

 id while the rough winds become subservient to 

 e exercise of the tall old trees of the mountain, 

 e gentle breeze sighs playfully among the small 

 les of the forest, which they shelterr or sweeps 

 ndly along over the tender productions of the 

 ■ain field and the meadow, giving health and 

 rength to the subjects of its influence. 



July thus far has been the bettu rrul of ourideas 

 'a beautiful month. We have had the gentle 

 ower, and the rain in torrents, sometimes so great 



seriously to injure the roads, as if it would try 

 e Wnrl.-o r^r ■„=,.,__ .K„ K,:i J _._.^. ., ,. ■' 



around and beneath us, is a tine picture of rural 

 beauty, for while the mountain's side is rich in the 

 loveliness of its emerald shield, dotted here and 

 there with the tall stump of some old tree, whose 

 sear and yellow leaves a long time ago may have 

 fallen for the last time to the earth, leaving itself to 

 stand only as the remains of another age, with the 

 tnll chesnuts hanging out their blossoms of pure 

 white, give a variety to the woodland scenery; — 

 while the valley, beautifully sprinkled with groves, 

 whose sires like those of their occupants, have pass- 

 ed away, leaving to them the inheritance which 

 they once so proudly claimed— are fringed with 

 the meadow, ready for the scythe, or the grain 

 field ripening for the sickle, or perhaps the corn 

 field, dressed in the rich coloring of healthful veg- 

 etation, waiting the influence of our golden summer 

 sun to mature it to a golden harvest, with a multi- 

 tude more of lesser but essential and smiling beau- I 

 ties, which greet us not with the smile of decep- 

 tion or the kiss of treachery, but with all the love- 

 liness- which our varied scenery can offer. 



Haying is just commencing, with a prospect of 

 more than a middling crop — consequently the at- 

 tention of the farmer is naturally drawn to his 

 meadows, and a fair opportunity offers for him to 

 make such improvements in them as will make 

 them beautiful and more productive. We say 

 beautiful— why not ? We are all of us admirers 

 of beauty, and sometimes when it presents itself in 

 worthless objects, very properly then may it he ad- 

 mired when blended with utility and comfort ; and 

 a meadow in order to be comfortable must be beau- 

 tiful. According to our idea of this beauty and 

 utility, a meadow should in the first place be made 

 very smooth, as much so as a nine-pin alley or a 

 J>urade ground — places which are seldom occupied 

 except for a ti3w hours' amusement, or to perform 

 the service of one or two days in a year. But we 

 are heedless about our meadows, which should oft- 

 en meet the eye and chain it with their even sur- 

 face, so much so that a man even in these temper- 

 ance days, can scarcely walk on them without 

 stumbling — a pretty apology for drnnkenness sure- 

 ly, these rough meadows, and a pretty employment 

 they furnish for the boy at the grindstone, besides 

 due encouragement to the scythe-maker, for in the 

 very first season of mowing-, these little protuber- 



is the stone on his meadows, some of which may 



lie in heaps from which an occasional one mav have 



rolled into the grass, just to inform the mower of 



his approach to a moniunent of folly, while others 



are scattered here and there as ihe harrow lef\ 



them last year— the raemoiials of indolence or 



j sheer carelessness. In either case their presence 



1 is attended with " vexation of spirit," a " dreadful 



; sort of feeling," which never ought to disturb the 



j farmer's bosom, because if m.ikes him unhappy 



I A very proper time for removing stones from mead- 

 I ows, when it has been neglected at a more proper 

 I one, is soon after the grass is taken oflT, and it may 

 : be done on a lowery day in hay time with much 

 \ more propriety and comfort than the said day could 

 j be spent in fishing or in many other employments. 

 j If not done then, attend to it as ■soon as hayin"- is 

 I over. 



I Another thing, (and in many meadows it is not 

 a small one) to be attended to is the selection of 

 the poor parts of the meadow, or those which are 

 in the lowest state of e.xhaustion. I'hese may be 

 truly defined now, for harvest tells no untrue tales 

 of the condition of the earth, and they should be 

 carefully marked out with stakes, (if they do not as 

 in some cases, extend to the fence or hedge-row 

 within it,) that they may meet with proper encour- 

 agement either in fall or spring, to do better next 

 and coming years. 



We have tried various ways to render these spots 

 and blemishes more productive. One which we 

 have found very beneficial is, to collect what ma- 

 nure we can in summer, [we always clear our yard 

 in spring] and os soon as may bo after the crop is 

 taken off, carry out and spread it, which we prefer 

 doing just beft u fi rain, that it may benefit the 

 earth insteuii A the atmosphere. We sometimes 

 repeat the operation of yard-cleaning in November, 

 for it is a principle with u? that manure is a capital 

 which should be soon iuvested in order to make the 

 greatest returns, and we had rather have it spread 

 in autumn than in spring by thirty per cent We 

 do not, however, apply it often as a top dressing, 

 except on lands too moist to plough advantageous- 

 ly, and we think that the sooner it is applied afler 

 the crop is taken off the better, provided rain soon 

 follows, as it is then that the grass is making new 



iffnrla tn =lir>/if f,^,.*!, „ r>>„ „ ..,l,;„1, 1 



