244 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



this highway directly on the raih'oad, but there is 

 evidently a great uniformity, and so all writers 

 agree, in the structure and quality of the whole 

 interior of the island. At Hempstead, only ten 

 miles from the city, is, hovv'evcr, a tract known as 

 the "Hempstead Plains," which presents a diflfer- 

 ent appearance from the rest. It is a pi-airie, 

 slightly undulating, of smooth, grassy surface, 

 entirely free from tree or bush, 17,000 acres of 

 which are owned by the inhabitants of Hemp- 

 stead in common, and used for pasture. Leaving 

 now this superficial sketch, I will give a more 

 particular description of the soil, climate and ca- 

 pabilities of the wild lands near Islip, which have 

 been recently advertised for sale in the Farmer. 



As, however, any tolerably accurate impression 

 of them must occupy more room than can now be 

 spared, I will continue the subject in a future 

 number. 



For the Neic England Farmer. 

 COFFEE. 



Me. Editor : — In a late Farmer, I noticed an 

 inquiry by "S. W. M." in relation to raising coffee 

 in the New England States. I do not purpose to 

 reply to this, but in my opinion, though the thing 

 may be practicable, his time and trouble might be 

 expended otherwise to better advantage, consider- 

 ing the temperature of the latitudes in which it is 

 produced. 



Reading the above-mentioned article, however, 

 reminded me of a substitute, or rather a partial 

 substitute for coffee, which we have used in our 

 family, and which I will give for the benefit of 

 your readers. It is prepared as follows : Take a 

 quantity of barley, and roast it by a gentle heat, 

 till of a light brown color. Stir in among it a 

 lump of butter on taking from the oven. This is 

 to be ground and mixed with the coffee in equal 

 proportions. Infuse in the usual manner. The 

 beverage is scarcely to be distinguished in flavor 

 from pure cofiee. 



Coffee may be very much improved by the ad- 

 dition of a small quantity of carrots, prepared as 

 below. They should be thinly sliced, and careful- 

 ly dried and browned in a moderate oven. A 

 handful added to the coffee before boiling, gives 

 more body to it, and greatly enriches the flavor. 



Bath, March 12, 1860. A Reader. 



Massachusetts Horticultural Society. — 

 From Eben Wight, Corresponding Secretary, we 

 have received specimen sheets of the Report of 

 this Society for 1859. The dissertations or re- 

 ports of the various committees are valuable doc- 

 uments. We notice some strictures on the man- 

 agement of green-houses that all would do well 

 to read who have, or propose to have, plants "live 

 in glass houses." The weekly shows of the So- 

 ciety are to be continued free to the public, during 

 the ensuing season, thus affording people from the 

 country who visit the city on Saturday an oppor- 

 tunity ef seeing what fruits and flowers our soil 

 and climate are capable of producing. 



For the New Ensland Farmer. 

 FIRES IW THE WOODS. 



Dear Sir : — I have frequently thought that 

 farmers do not have that security and protection 

 against fires in the woods that they ought to have, 

 and as no one has called the attention of those 

 most interested to the subject, I have ventured to 

 solicit your co-operation in Avaking them up to 

 their duty. It is nothing uncommon to be called 

 to three or four fires on a dry, pleasant day in the 

 spring or early summer months, especially on the 

 Sabbath ; time and again have we been called 

 out, in the midst of divine service, to subdue fives 

 set in the woods by careless, reckless, strolling 

 smokers. The increasing habit of s])ending the 

 Sabbath in strolling over the -woods and fields, in 

 the vicinity of our cities and large villages, must 

 be broken up, or our woodlands will become en- 

 tirely worthless from the frequency of fires to 

 which they are subjected. There is also that silly 

 habit of travelling the streets with a fire under the 

 end of one's nose ; even in hot weather, how oft- 

 en we see half-human locomotives trudging along 

 in the highways and byways of our country towns, 

 with an old tobacco pipe in their mouth, some- 

 times walking beside the skeleton of an old 

 starved horse, and sometimes riding in a gay 

 equipage at a 2.40 pace ; how disgusting to see 

 the human face divine with a dirty stick in the 

 centre, with a little fire on the end, built in a di- 

 minutive furnace, and that delicate, matchless 

 machinery, the human lungs, used as bellows, 

 puffing and blowing, for the sake of burning up a 

 little Virginia tobacco, and nauseating the pure 

 air with the villainous smell. If that was all, we 

 could possibly endure it ; but when we take into 

 consideration the numberless fires that originate 

 from that same habit, I think it high time that the 

 Legislature pass some stringent law against smok- 

 ing in the highways and byways of the country. 



Why should we be subjected to so much anxie- 

 ty, trouble and loss ? There is almost as much 

 risk in a smoker's passing through woodland in a 

 dry time, as there would be in going through a 

 powder-house. How perfectly natural for a care- 

 less smoker to light his pipe, and throw down his 

 match in the pine boughs or leaves, and by the 

 time he is out of sight, the fire will blaze to the 

 tops of the trees, and some honest, hard-working 

 farmer will be subjected to the loss of hundreds 

 of dollars, beside hindering himself and his neigh- 

 bors half a day or more, to subdue the fire. Being 

 a working fiu-mer, verging on three-score years 

 and ten, I do not expect to be able to put my 

 thoughts in language pleasing to "ears polite," 

 but deem it a duty I owe to my neighbors and 

 myself to call your attention to it in my rough and 

 uncouth way, you being^ legislator and editor of. 

 an able agricultural paper, 



A Constant Reader. 



Chelmsford, Feb. 11, 1860. 



Remarks. — We believe a large proportion of 

 the fires that occur in town or country, are occa- 

 sioned directly, or indirectly, by smoking, as half 

 the men in the land, and — with shame we say it — 

 some of the women carry matches about them 

 most of the time. Smoking in the streets is a 

 nuisance, and ought to be abated as such. 



