1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



27 



estimate for the whole commonwealth. Certainly 

 our climate is salubrious, and the man of good 

 constitution and correct habits may cherish the 

 reasonable expectation of good health and a green 

 old age. 



GOOD MARKETS 



are another of our home blessings not to be over- 

 looked in our view of the year. This would com- 

 pensate for a much poorer soil than we have. The 

 New England farmer has, within an hour's ride of 

 his home, a hungry market for every product of 

 his farm. There is little danger that anything 

 will spoil upon his hands if he have enterprise 

 enough to harness a horse, or yoke up his cattle. 

 He is in the midst of a trading people, and can 

 often sell everything that he has to spare at his 

 own door. His hay and grain of course he will 

 not think of selling, as they yield the largest profit 

 when consumed upon the farm. But beef and 

 pork, poultry and eggs, lambs, calves and sheep, 

 cows, oxen and horses are always in demand, and 

 there is no prospect of an over production while 

 our commerce and manufactures continue to flour- 

 ish. 



In many parts of the great West there is indeed 

 good soil and bountiful harvests, but it costs so 

 much to send the products to market that the far- 

 mer has little profit of his labor. It avails little 

 to have a fertile soil where wheat is worth 'but 

 fifty cents a bushel, and corn but half that price ; 

 where the only sale of potatoes is at the starch 

 factory at a shilling a bushel ; where beef is three 

 cents a pound and pork but four. These are phy- 

 sical advantages readily appreciated by all. 



THE BLESSINGS OF EDUCATION, OF SOCIETY 

 AND RELIGION, 



are not less important, if less prized by the cul- 

 tivators of the soil. The school-house and church 

 are familiar landmarks in New England, conven- 

 iently situated to all. The academy, the seminary, 

 and the college are within reach of every youth 

 who hungers and thirsts after knowledge. These 

 institutions have moulded our society, and made 

 the mass of the people more generally intelligent 

 and cultivated than can be found in any other part 

 of the land. 



One needs to travel in the sunny South, or over 

 the prairies of the West, and mingle with a pop- 

 ulation that have grown up without free schools 

 to appreciate present blessings. We who abide 

 in New England, have always the privileges 

 and enjoyments of good society within our reach. 

 Neighborhoods exclusively bad, the resort of the 

 vicious and idle, are almost unknown among us. 

 Enterprise, intelligence, thrift, happiness and 

 piety, are the prevailing characteristics of every 

 community. For these things, farms a little rich- 

 er or a little broader are no- compensation. For 

 these blessings let us give thanks to the Author 

 of all good, as we come once more to the festal 

 day of New England, 



Appakatus for Salting Sheep. — A corres- 

 pondent of the Boston Cultivator writes : Last 

 year I carried a large hogshead, for which I paid 

 38 ets., into the field and laid it upon the ground 

 making it fast — one head having been j^reviously 

 taken out. I was careful to smooth off all pro- 

 truding nails or rough substances liable to pull 



the wool. Then upon the inside of the other head 

 I nailed a seven by nine box to contain the salt, 

 and the work was completed — the whole costing 

 in money and labor, about 50 cts., and so far as 

 necessity is concerned, it answered a very good 

 purpose. 



AMMONIA — CKAKCOAL — GYPSUM. 

 Ammonia is contained in snovr, dew and rain- 

 water, especially in the last when falling in the 

 vicinity of cities. It is a principle highly advan- 

 tageous and even indispensable to vegetable de- 

 velopment, and is lost by evaporation unless ab- 

 sorbed and fixed by some substance capable of at- 

 tracting and fixing it. That ammonia actually 

 exists in rain-water as it falls from the clouds, in 

 no inconsiderable quantities, is demonstrated by 

 chemical experiments of a familiar and simple 

 character. If a few gallons of water be carefully 

 distilled, and the first few pounds distilled be 

 mixed with a little muriatic acid, a very distinct 

 crj'stallization of muriate of ammonia, or sal am- 

 monia may be obtained, which crystals have an 

 opaque or brownish color. If a small amount of 

 sulphuric or muriatic acid be mixed with a quanti- 

 ty of rain water, and the mixture evaporated to 

 dryness by boiling, the amm.onia will remain as a 

 residue, and may be detected by the addition of a 

 small quantity of powdered lime, which, combin- 

 ing readily with the acid, sets the ammonia free, 

 in which state it is immediately recognized by its 

 pungent smell. 



As a "fixer" of ammonia, common charcoal is 

 probably one of the most economical and efficient 

 articles known, as it possesses the power of ab- 

 sorbing ninety times its weight of ammoniacal 

 gas, which it retains until it is freed, or worked 

 into the soil by rains, where, no doubt, by the 

 voltaic action of the spongioles of plants, it is 

 conveyed into the vegetable system and circula- 

 tion, and constitutes the principal source of ni- 

 trogen, which is recognized as so indispensable 

 to the health of plants. Gypsum, or common 

 piaster of Paris, a.s it is more popularly called, is 

 also a good "fixer," and possesses a high value as 

 an application on most soils. This is especially the 

 case on those soils that are dressed annually with 

 manures, which, in the process of decomposition, 

 evolve large quantities of ammonia, which plaster 

 serves like charcoal to fix and retain for the ben- 

 efit of the growing crop. 



As a top-dressing for grass lands, gypsum pos- 

 sesses considerable value, operating, as in the 

 case of crude manures, to catch and save what- 

 ever fertilizing properties are in the rain, dews or 

 atmospheric vapor. Few substances produce more 

 obvious efi'ects, especially if the soil to which it is 

 applied is of an argillaceous or clayey constitu- 

 tion. 



A late writer says, "In itself, simply considered, 



