428 



NEW ENGLAND FARINIER. 



Sept. 



hope soon to improve, and then will tell the read- 

 er what we see and hear. 



Some of the stereotyped anti-progressionists 

 in our midst would find profit in visiting Mr, 

 Shurtleff's farm, if they would listen to his words 

 while "toting" them over his broad acres in his 

 easy wagon ! 



BORING AKTESIAN "WELLS. 



The greatest bore of any artesian well in the 

 world, is said to be that just completed in Bir- 

 mingham, England. The diameter fixed was the 

 unprecedented one of twenty-six inches, and was 

 accomplished by new and improved machinery. 

 The machine thus employed is described as con- 

 sisting of a very heavy bar of cast iron, armed at 

 its lower end with a number of cutting chisels, 

 and suspended by a rope, which was in connec- 

 tion with a steam engine at the mouth of the well. 

 As it is wrought up and down by the engine, the 

 tension of the rope gives a circular movement to 

 the bar of iron sufficient to vary the position of 

 the chisels at each stroke of the instrument. The 

 apparatus of some Avcll-borers has around the 

 chisels a cylindrical chamber, which by means of 

 single valves, receives and retains the abraded 

 portions of the rock. This chamber, which would 

 not hold many pints, had, of course, to be raised 

 to the surface at short intervals for the purpose of 

 being emptied of the debris, thus involving much 

 loss of time. But, by means of the improved ma- 

 chine, this operation is performed in a very dif- 

 ferent Avay. A cylinder is employed, eight or 

 nine inches in diameter, having a piston fitted to 

 it so as to form a pump, with one valve at the 

 piston and another at the bottom of the cylinder. 

 When the pump sinks to the bottom of the well, 

 the piston, by its own gravity, sinks also to the 

 bottom, and suddenly reversing the engine and 

 drawing up the sucker, not only is the crushed 

 debris drawn up, but also pieces of rock, six or 

 eight inches in diameter. By this means, six or 

 seven tons of matter are drawn up per hour. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 PLUMS— COE'S GOLDEN DROP. 



Mk. Editor : — Having had some conversation 

 with you respecting the plum culture, I send you 

 herewith a specimen of what mij plums promise 

 to be the present season. It is a small branch, 

 broken by the weight of the fruit. You will per- 

 ceive that the curculio has made no impression 

 upon it ; and it does not look as though this most 

 delicious of all fruits (in my estimation,) is in any 

 particular danger of "subsiding," in this region, 

 as some croakers have predicted. This specimen 

 is a fair sample of two trees of the kind (Coe's 

 Golden Drop,) in my garden ; and I have other 

 varieties equally promising. 



Last year I had very few plums on account of 

 the curculio ; but I took especial care to shake off" 

 the bitten fruit and bury it "too deep for resur- 

 rection," before the maggot left it to go into the 

 ground. This season, very little of the fruit has 

 been bitten by the curculio. I believe this pest 

 can be eradicated, provided fruit-growers Avill act 

 in concert, and take sufficient care to destroy the 

 punctured fruit for a few years in succession. 



As to that other strange pest of the plum tree, 

 the black wart, I know of no better way of over- 

 coming it than the one I have pursued — namely, 

 by applying the knife freely whenever and wher- 

 ever it makes its appearance. I have thus far 

 been able to keep it down, though at the expense 

 of disfiguring some of the branches of my trees. 

 I am inclined to believe that it is caused by some 

 insect that bites through the bark and deposits 

 an egg, which, turning to a maggot, poisons the 

 sap, and causes it to exude and form a fungus 

 around the spot. By cutting into the fungus or 

 wart, you will almost always find a little worm, 

 and, though I am not fully satisfied on the point, 

 I think the theory is a plausible one that the worm 

 does the mischief. E. c. P. 



Somerville, Aug., 1860. 



Remarks. — Nine beautiful specimens of Coe's 

 Oolden Drop on a single twig scarcely quarter of 

 an inch in diameter — more fruit than we have on 

 three good-sized trees. 



For the New England Farmer. 



TWADDLES AND WADDLES ON AGRI- 

 CULTURAL EDUCATION. 



[Continued from page 411.] 



Waddles. — The dead languages and the higher 

 mathematics certainly would be useful to some 

 classes of pupils as much as agriculture would 

 be to others. Each should study, as well as prac- 

 ticable, what may be called into requisition in af- 

 ter life, and not what would be unlikely to be. 

 Nothing hardly could be more improper than 

 forcing a complete system of agriculture into our 

 schools, as has been recommended — not only in- 

 to those of the rural districts, but into those of 

 our large towns and cities, and among children of 

 both sexes — which would not only embrace chem- 

 istry, botany and vegetable physiology, but also 

 the "raising of stock !" One gentleman of the 

 Jioarl of Agricultui'C, (in his undefined zeal to do 

 something for the cause,) gave it as his opinion, 

 that the question, "What was the best bull," was 

 very proper to introduce into a promiscuous 

 school of children ! These studies are useful, 

 but they have their time and place. It might l^e 

 equally proper to teach them from the pulpit ; for 

 it there is much that is useless taught in our 

 common schools, no candid and unprejudiced 

 mind wiH deny that the former institution is less 

 open to the same objection. 



Twaddles. — Shocking ! But certainly you can 

 have no objection to the schools teaching how 

 plants grow and arc fed, for our life as a people 

 depends upon this knowledge. 



W. — No, I have not. Some attention should 

 be given to the subject, by those who desire it, 

 and such is in fact the case now. But I object, 

 as before hinted, to shaping the minds of youth 

 in our common schools either to this or that call- 

 ing, exclusive of others. Probably no one of the 

 Board of Agriculture would submit to it in regard 

 to his own children. It is a matter of domestic 

 concern. 



T. — Bless you, Mr. Waddles, they do so in Eng- 

 land, and see what crops they raise ! 



11'. — True ; but in this republican country the 



