134 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



Then let the learned gard'ner mark with care 

 The kinds of stocks, and what those kinds will bear; 

 Explore the nature of each sev'ral tree, 

 And, known, improve with artful industry : 

 And let no spot of idle earth be found ; 

 But cultivate the penius of the ground : 

 For open Ismarus will Bacchus please ; 

 Ta1)urnu3 loves the shade of olive trees. 



* * * » * 



Much labor is required in trees, to tame 

 Their wild disorder, and in ranks reclaim. 

 Well must the Rround be digged and better dressed. 

 Now soil to make, and meliorate the rest. 



***** 

 But various are the ways to change the state 

 Of plants, to bud, to graft, t' inoculate. 

 For, where the tender rinds of trees disclose 

 Their shooting germs, a swelling knot there grows : 

 Just in that space a narrow slit we make. 

 Then other buds from bearing trees we take ; 

 Inserted thus, the wounded rind we close. 

 In whose moist womb th' admitted infant grows. 

 But, when the .smoother bole trom knots is free, 

 We make a deep incision in the tree. 

 And in the solid wood the slip inclose ; 

 The batt'ning bastard shoots again and grows ; 

 And in short space the laden boughs arise, 

 With happy fruit advancing to the skies. 

 The mother plant admires the leaves unknown 

 Of alien trees, and apples not her own. 



***** 

 I teach the next the diffring soils to know. 

 The li-'ht for vines, the heavier for the plow. 

 Choo?e first a place for such a purpose fit ; 

 Then dig the solid earth, and sink a pit ; 

 Next fill the hole with its own earth again. 

 Anil trample with thy feet, and tread it in: 

 Then, if it rise not to the former height 

 Of superflce, conclude that soil is light, 

 A proper ground for pasturage and vines. 

 But it the sullen earth, so press'd repines 

 Witliin its n-'tive mansion to retire, 

 And stays without, a heap of heavy mire, 

 'Tis good for arable, a glebe that asks 

 Tough teams of oxen, and laborious tasks. 



***** 

 The fatter earth by handling we may find, 

 With ease distinguished from the meagre kind; 

 Poor soil will crumble into dust ; the rich 

 Will to the fingers cleave like clammy pitch. 



***** 

 Fat, crumbling earth is fitter for the plow, 

 Putrid and loose above, and black below ; 

 For plowing is an imitative toil 

 Resembling nature in an easy soil. 

 No land for seed like this ; no fields afford 

 So large an income to the village lonl ; 

 No toiling teams from harvest-labor come 

 So late at night, so heavy-laden home. 



***** 

 Happy the man, who, studying Nature's laws, 

 Through known effects can trace the secret cause — 

 His mind possessing in a quiet state. 

 Fearless of Fortune, and resign'd to Fate ! 

 And happy, too, is he who decks the bow'rs 

 Of Silvans, and adores the rural pow'rs — 

 Whose mind, unmov'd, the bribes of courts can see, 

 Their glitt'ring baits and purple slavery, — 

 Nor hopes the people's praise, nor fears their frown, 

 Nor when contending kindred tear the crown, 

 Will set up one, or pull another down. 

 Without concern he hears, but hears from far, 

 Of tumults, and descents, and distant war ; 

 Nor with a superstitious fear is awed, 

 For what befalls at home, or what abroad. 

 Nor envies he the rich their happy store. 

 Nor bis own peace disturbs witli pity for the poor. 

 He feeds on fruits, which, of their own accord, 

 The willing ground and laden trees afford. 



***** 

 The peasant, innocent of all these ills. 

 With crooked plows the fertile fallows tills, 

 And the round year with daily labor fills ; 

 And hence the country markets arc supplied: 

 Enough remains for household charge beside, 

 His wife anil tender chfldren to sustain. 

 And gratefully to feed his dumb, deserving train. 

 Nor cease his labors till the yellow field 

 A full return of bearded harvest yield— 

 A crop so plenteous, as the land to load, 

 O'ercome the crowded barns, and lodge or ricks abroad. 



But this article, for one of the kind, is already 

 too lon{^, and yet, only a few fragments of the first 

 two Georgics have been given. A review of the 



two remaining poems, upon domestic animals and 

 honey bees, must be postponed until another time 

 — providing the editor thinks it advisable to con- 

 tinue the subject. 



Enough has already been quoted to show that 

 the ancients — or one of them at least — and a poet 

 too, understood the farmer's art to a degree of 

 perfection almost equal to the boasted knowledge 

 and wisdom of the present century. And yet the 

 world progresses — in some things slowly, in oth- 

 ers rapidly. What the ancients most needed in 

 husbandry was suitable farming implements ; in 

 this matter we are greatly their superiors. 



S. L. White. 



So. Qroton, January, 1861. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 CATTLE MARKET BEPOKTS. 



Mr. Editor : — ^You "invite criticism on your 

 cattle reports" for last week, at the Cambridge 

 and Brighton markets. By inviting criticism, I 

 understand you to ask the farmers to express 

 their opinions for or against a more extended and 

 accurate report of the weekly markets than has 

 heretofore been given in the Boston agricultural 

 papers. 



You will remember publishing an article more 

 than a year since, that I wrote for the Farmer, 

 complaining of the meagre and comparatively 

 worthless reports contained in any New England 

 agricultural paper, when contrasted with the ac- 

 curate and luminous reports of the New York cat- 

 tle markets, prepared by the prince of reporters, 

 Solon Robinson, of the A^ew York Tribune. That 

 article was published in the Tribune as an en- 

 dorsement of the sentiments it contained. I then 

 referred to the too limited reports hitherto made 

 of our markets, giving no accurate description of 

 the different grades of cattle, and their value, 

 leaving the farmer in ignorance of their value in 

 the stall ; so that the drover and butcher might 

 easily take the advantage of him in purchasing. 

 Your report of the market, last week, is a good 

 beginning in a very important and much needed 

 reform. 



Your reporter holds a ready and pretty skilful 

 pen, and only needs more practice to enable him 

 to give us accurate reports. The Tribune report 

 makes some two or three columns of fine type in 

 that paper, minutely describing 5000 head of cat- 

 tle, from what State they came, by whom fat- 

 tened, and by whom taken to market, the ex- 

 pense of freight, to whom sold, with the price 

 per pound, and the per cent, of shrinkage of dead 

 from live weight, &c., enabling any fatter a thous- 

 and miles off" to estimate the exact value of his 

 bullocks in the stall, and worth to every cattle 

 fatter in the country more than five times the year- 

 ly price of the Tribune. Yes, go on as you have 

 began, and give us such weekly information of 

 the exact state of the market, as the great inter- 

 ests of our New England stock demands ; and de- 

 pend upon it the publishers and readers of the N. 

 E. Farmer will receive a mutual benefit. Brighton 

 market controls to a great extent the price of 

 stock all over New England. The farmers of 

 Princeton fatten, principally in the summer, from 

 400 to GOO or 700 head of cattle, and though but a 

 small part of thera go to Brighton, most of them 



