212 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



ture crops are grown with less cost and greater 

 profit. And herein is the dividend paid by invest- 

 ments in the compost heap. They pay compound 

 interest. The more manure, the better crops ; and 

 the greater the crop, the larger may be the com- 

 post heap. I doubt whether any fertilizer, of equal 

 permanent value, can be bought at less cost than 

 One-fifth of such crops as hay, grain, turnips, car- 

 rots, at our distance from the market. In towns 

 nearer Boston, or other markets, it probably pays 

 better to sell most of the crop, and buy stable ma- 

 nure in the city. This answers the same purpose, 

 as it maintains the fertile condition of the soil, 

 and I do not believe any soil can be permanently 

 cropped, with profit, without liberal returns to it 

 in the form of animal manures. M. P. 



Concord, Mass., Feb. 29, 1860. 



THE GABDEN. 

 During the latter part of February the snow 

 pretty much disappeared from this section, and 

 the first week of the present month was so warm 

 and pleasant as to remind us of the approach of 

 spring, -with its important labors, duties and en- 

 ioyments — indeed, we saw one or two plows in 

 motion, though not perhaps actually "afield," as 

 those we noticed were engaged upon the warm 

 banks of a \vet meadow, preparatory to some per- 

 manent improvement. 



But how cheerless would spring be without the 

 voice of birds ! We returned from a stroll in our 

 garden, one of those pleasant mornings, with a few 

 notes of some of our earliest songsters in our 

 ears, and seated ourselves at a pile of exchange 

 papers. Turning over the pages of the last num- 

 ber of the Philadelphia Farmer and Oardener, our 

 eyes fell on the large letters which headed a com- 

 munication — "Spare the Birds." The writer states 

 that when he was a school-boy in the lower part 

 of Delaware County, the opening spring was an- 

 nounced by a multitudinous variety of warblers ; 

 the mocking-bird, cat -bird and robin ; the peewit, 

 wren, and bluebird; the thrush, bobolink, and 

 oriole; th« woodpecker, flicker, andbluejay; the 

 lark, kildee, blackbird, and many others. About 

 thirty years after these school-days, he was in- 

 duced to undertake farming in the same vicinity. 

 He was surprised to miss almost entirely his 

 pleasant birds. During the eight years that he re- 

 mained upon the farm in this place, he says, "I 

 do not remember to have seen more than one red- 

 headed woodpecker, a couple of bluejays, and a 

 few robins, and they migrating. A few cat-birds 

 and hedge-sparrows or chippies, were all that re- 

 mained. One robin made its nest in the early 

 spring, and then departed, as also one fieldfare 

 and one peewit ; these were all I observed. In the 

 meantime, all the orchards, every one that my 

 boyhood had known and courted, were cleared 

 away, because, as the owners said, worms had at- 

 tacked and destroyed the trees." The cause of 



this eradication of the birds, he ascribes to the 

 prejudice of farmers against the birds for their 

 fondness for cherries, and to the increase of sport- 

 ing habits among the young men in the vicinity. 

 In his school-days, tbfere were but three guns in 

 the whole township ; as a farmer, he found that 

 an adjoining mcighbor, a school-mate, had five 

 "crack" double-barrel guns — one each for himself 

 and four sons — and gloried in their use, by Avhich 

 nothing but chickens, ducks and geese were 

 spared. 



But this story of desolation, which we have 

 made as short as possible, has kept us some time 

 from the garden ; and if we might not hope to 

 meet these our feathered co-laborers there in due 

 season, we should have little heart ever to return. 

 But what is a garden? The books inform us 

 that Ornamental Gardening is one of the fine arts 

 — based on the love of the beautiful — and is 

 ranked with painting, sculpture, architecture, &c., 

 and that the idea of profit is as foreign to garden- 

 ing, as a "coach-and-six," or any other luxury. 

 But this is clearly not descriptive of a New Eng- 

 land farmer's garden, — it smacks of princes, no- 

 bles and artists. 



In one of our exchanges we find the report of 

 a description of a garden which was given by a 

 speaker on some public occasion, which we hope 

 will be recognized as true to the life by few of 

 our readers. "The garden, sir," said the speak- 

 er, "is a place back of the house where dish-wa- 

 ter is thrown ; where we have a few hills of pota- 

 toes and several hundred — pigweeds." 



The garden, then, is what each one makes it, 

 or allows it to become. It may be an expensive 

 plaything ; a repulsive and tangled thicket of weeds 

 and brambles ; or a little miniature farm, with 

 its model fields of crisp and tender vegetables, 

 rich fruits and pleasant flowers. 



It is now time for every farmer, and for every 

 mechanic who occupies a few square feet of soil, 

 to be thinking what his garden shall be this year. 

 Asparagus and rhubarb, if not manured last 

 fall, should have an immediate application, to be 

 leached into the soil by the spring rains. 



Orape vines and strawberry plants that were 

 covered over last fall should be taken up and un- 

 covered quite early, oj; the vines will be liable to 

 injury. An early sprinkling of guano on straw- 

 berries is recommended by some. 



Peas stand frost bravely, and may be planted 

 early. By filling a trench six to eight inches deep, 

 half or one-third full with horse manure, then fill- 

 ing up with sufficient to prevent over-heating, 

 peas may be advanced a week or two. Plant in 

 double rows a few inches apart, to save brush. 



Onions may be sown very early. But there is 

 little gained in hurrying most seeds into the soil 

 before the ground is wanned by the sun. Very 



