1830. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



549 



posts along the rows, ten or twelve feet apart, and 

 al:iout two feet high, upon which nail anything that 

 will support a covering of sa-aw or cornstalks, placed 

 with then- butts down, in the form of a roof, and thick 

 enough to keep out the frost. Cabhages kept in this 

 manner are said to come out in the spring in excellent 

 condition. The first plan wc have tried, and found it 

 a good one ; the other we have not tried. 



EGYPTIAN CORN. 



I saw in last week's Farmer that Abraham B. Davis, 

 of Palmer, had shared his profits in the culture of the 

 Egyptian corn. When I saw Mr. Crandall's adver- 

 tisement of the above mentioned corn in the Farmer, 

 last spring, I enclosed one dollar to him ; in return I 

 received one hundred and forty kernels, and planted 

 it the last of the fitVh month ; about one-third of it 

 came up and shot out in tree form. It averaged about 

 ten or twelve cars to a stalk, upon wliicli only about 

 three ears had corn on them, and were three to live 

 inches long, and not filled out at the top. I had to cut 

 up even this, to save ir from the frost. I think that 

 Mr. Crandall made a mistake in stating that there 

 might be two crops i-aised in one year. Mine would 

 have gi-own another year, if it had not been for a 

 frosty winter, before the ears would have filled out. 



A. S. Payson. 



FoxboroKfjh, lOth Month I5th, 1860. 



EGYPTIAN CORN. 



Noticing the advertisement of Mr. Crandall in the 

 Farmer, I was induced to send for the seed, which I re- 

 ceived. I supposed it must be something better than 

 our common corn. I thought no man would have the 

 audacity to recommend to the farmers of New Eng- 

 land anything opposed to their interest through the 

 columns of the Farmer. I accordingly planted my 

 corn wiih much care in good soil, well manured, and 

 took good care of it, and gathered it after the frost in 

 October. The husk was very green when the frost 

 came, though I think that some of the cars may lie 

 ripe enough for seed, if any one should wish to try it. 

 I planted it about the last of May. The best of the 

 ears are not more than five or six inches long, and 

 very small, the larger number being entirely without 

 corii. Now it seems to me that Mr. Crandall meant 

 to impose upon the public bj' his great statements that 

 this corn was better in quality than any other corn, 

 and that it would produce two hundred bushels to the 

 acre, when, according to my success, it would not 

 yield more than twenty. Peter Wait. 



Daiivers, Oct. 16, 1860. 



PENCE POSTS AND FROST. 



Will you inform me through the columns of your 

 paper, the best method for setting fence posts on frosty 

 land, where every spring the fences arc tumbling over, 

 being hove up l>y the frost. 11. H. Davis. 



Essej;, Sept. 20, 1860. 



Remarks. — We know of no way to prevent posts 

 being thrown out by frost but to set them so deep that 

 the bottom of the post shall stand on firm ground be- 

 low whei-e the frost reaches. This would require a 

 pretty long post, but that would be cheaper than to be 

 at the cost of building up the fence annually, and re- 

 pairing the parts broken by the tumbling over of the 

 posts. 



DRAIN TILE. 



Having been engaged more or less during the last 

 Six years in draining my land with tile, instead of 

 the stone drain that t formerly had been very conver- 

 sant with, and finding b}' mj' own experience in tile 

 draining a great advantage and satisfaction, I have 

 several times procured tile for my own purposes, and 

 at the same time accommodated such of my neighbors 

 as are draining their lands. 



I have found that in draining land naturally too wet 

 for cultivation with profit, that the increased crop of 



two seasons, with early potatoes and cabb-age, will ful- 

 ly repay all the cost of draining. P. E. Hall. 

 'Medford, Sq^t., 1860. _ 



A GOOD YIELD OF BARLEY. 



On the 5th day of May last my father sowed one and 

 a half l)ushc!s of barley, on one and one-eighth acres 

 of land, and threshed and winnowed upon the 6th of 

 October, sixty-five bushels of good barley. 



Stephen E. Gale. 



Canterhury, Y. II., Oct. 9, 1860. 



FRITTERS. 



Have you ever eaten fritters made as follows ? If 

 not, try them. 



One cup of squash, boiled and strained, one cup of 

 milk, one egg, seasoned with salt and enough Hour to 

 make a batter. Methuen. 



THE LESSON OP THE LEAF. 



We men, sometimes, in what we presume to be 

 humility, compare ourselves with leaves; but we 

 have as yet no right to do so. The leaves may 

 well scora the comparison. We who live for our- 

 selves, and neither know how to use nor keep the 

 work of past time, may humbly learn — as from 

 the ant, foresight — from the leaf, reverence. The 

 power of every great people, as of every living 

 tree, depends on its not effacing, but conforming 

 and concluding, the labors of its ancestors. Look- 

 ing back to the history of nations, we may date 

 the beginning of their decline from the moment 

 when they ceased to be reverent in heart and ac- 

 cumulative in hand and brain ; from the moment 

 when the redundant fruit of age hid in them the 

 hollowncss of heart, whence the simplicities of 

 custom and sinews of tradition had withered away. 



Had men but guarded the righteous laws and 

 protected the precious works of their fathers with 

 half the industry they have given to change and 

 to ravage, they would not now have been seeking 

 vainly, in millennial visions and mechanic servi- 

 tudes, the accomplishment of the promise made 

 to them so long ago : "As the days of a tree are 

 the days of ray people, and mine elect shall long 

 enjoy the work of their hands ; they shall not la- 

 bor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble ; for they 

 are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their 

 offspring with them." 



This lesson we have to take from the leaf's life. 

 One more we may receive from its death. If 

 ever, in autumn, a pensiveness falls upon us as 

 the leaves drift by in their fading, may we not 

 wisely look up in hope to their mighty monu- 

 ments ? Behold how fair, how far prolonged, in 

 arch and aisle, the avenues of the valleys — the 

 fringes of the hills ! So stately — so eternal ; the 

 joy of man, the comfort of all living creatures, the 

 glory of the earth — they are but the monuments 

 of those poor leaves that flit faintly past us to 

 die. Let them not pass without our understand- 

 ing their last counsel and example : that we also, 

 careless of monument by the grave, may build it 

 in the world — monument by -which men may be 

 taught to remember, not where we died, but 

 where we lived. — Buskin's Modem Painters. 



Top-Dressing. — A con-espondent of the Fm'- 

 mer and Gardener contends that the beneficial ef- 

 fects of top-dressing applied in the fall are owing 

 to its action as a mulch, rather than as a manure 

 — that it protects rather than enriches. 



