394 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



•wonders they could achieve if they only could 

 command a sufficiency of the article. They have 

 teams of oxen or horses which must be fed 

 whether they are employed or suffered to remain 

 idle. The present is a good time to employ them 

 in forming compost heaps for farm use. On most 

 farms, there are deposits of valuable muck, and 

 the team may be profitably employed in drawing 

 out and depositing this article in situations where 

 it will be easily accessible when wanted for future 

 use. The dry weather which we usually have dur- 

 ing this delightful month, is peculiarly favorable 

 to this operation, and the comparative leisure en- 

 joyed seems to indicate it as the most appropri- 

 ate opportunity that can be selected for the work. 

 Good muck is a valuable article, and composts 

 formed of it, are perhaps the best stimuli that 

 can be applied to most crops — especially, on our 

 sandy loam lands. 



During this month the careful farmer will make 

 proper preparations for the comfortable shelter of 

 his domestic animals during the approaching win- 

 ter. A much less quantity of food is required by 

 a stock of animals if they enjoy a proper warmth 

 — and dairy animals yield, it is said, about one- 

 third more milk and butter. 



Root-crops which have been kept clean during 

 the season, are often neglected at this period of 

 their growth, and suffered to become weedy. Go 

 through the grounds carefully, and destroy every 

 weed. It is bad policy, after having been to the 

 expense of numerous hoeings, to permit the soil 

 to become foul with spurious products which will 

 mature their seeds, and render the land corrupt 

 for many succeeding years. 



Cellars should now be thoroughly ventilated 

 and whitewashed, and the bins prepared for the 

 reception of the several root-crops now rapidly 

 verging to maturity in the fields. A cellar cum- 

 bered with rubbish and foul matter is not a prop- 

 er place for the deposition of edibles of any de- 

 scription, while one that is clean and neatly kept 

 is an interesting sight. Roots, cabbages, &c., in 

 any considerable quantity, never should be kept 

 in the cellar of the dwelling-house, as the odor 

 arising from them soon pervades the rooms and 

 renders the atmosphere impure and unhealthy. 



Hogs intended for the meat tub, should now be 

 put up to fatten. Keep them clean ; feed liber- 

 ally and regularly, and be careful to keep them 

 warm and dry. 



September is a proper month in which to turn 

 in green crops by plowing. At this season of the 

 year there is much green matter on the surface, 

 which, if turned under by the plow, will supply 

 a tolerably good dressing to the soil, and be 

 a means of preparing it for the production of a 

 crop of roots or grain. 



Go through your cornfields as soon as the 



gleam of the golden grain can be seen through 

 the opening husks, and select the largest and 

 best formed ears for seed. In this way you may 

 effect a most valuable improvement in the grain, 

 and with very little trouble or expense. 



BEAUTY OP M03SES. 



Lichen and mosses, though these last in their 

 luxuriance are deep and rich as herbage, yet are 

 for the most part of the humblest of the green 

 things that live. Meek creatures, the first mercy 

 of the earth, veiling with hushed softness its dint- 

 less rocks ; creatures full of pity, covering with 

 strange and tender honor the scarred disgrace of 

 ruin, laying a quiet finger on the tumbling stones, 

 to teach them rest. No words that I know of, 

 will say what these mosses are. None are deli- 

 cate enough, none perfect enough, none rich 

 enough. How is one to tell of the rounded bos- 

 ses of furred and beaming green, the starred divi- 

 sions of rubied bloom, the traceries of intricate 

 silver and fringes of amber, lustrous, arborescent, 

 burnished through every fiber into a fitful bright- 

 ness and glossy travesty of silken change, yet 

 all subdued and pensive, and framed for sweetest 

 offices of grace. They will not be gathered, like 

 the flowers, for chaplet or love-token, but the wild 

 bird will make his nest of them, and the weary 

 child his pillow. And as the earth's first mercy, 

 so are they its last gift to us. When all other 

 service is vain from plant and tree, the soft moss- 

 es take up their watch by the head-stone. The 

 woods, the blossoms, the gift-bearing grasses, 

 have done their parts for a time, but these do ser- 

 vice forever. Trees for the builder's yard, flow- 

 ers for the bride's chamber, corn for the granary, 

 moss for the grave. Yet as in one sense the hum- 

 blest, in another they are the most honored of the 

 earth-children. Unfading as motionless, the worm 

 frets them not, and the autumn wastes not. 

 Strong in lowliness, they neither blanch in heat 

 nor pine in frost. Slow-fingered, constant-heart- 

 ed, to them is entrusted the weaving of the dark, 

 eternal tapestries of the hills ; to them, slow-pen- 

 cilled, iris-dyed, the tender framing of their end- 

 less imagery. Sharing the stillness of the unim- 

 passioned rock, they share also" its endurance ; 

 and while the winds of departing spring scatter 

 the hawthorn blossoms like drifted snow, and 

 summer dims on the parched meadow the droop- 

 ing cowslip gold, far above, among the moun- 

 tains, the silver lichen spots rest, star-like, on the 

 stone, and the gathering orange stain on the edge 

 of yonder western peak, reflects the sunsets of a 

 thousand years. — Buskin. 



Skimming Milk. — Our women have a way of 

 taking off the cream without the use of the skim- 

 mer. They use a knife only. They run the knife 

 around the milk in the pan to separate the cream 

 from the sides of the pan. Then they set the bot- 

 tom of the milk-pan at the edge, on the rim of 

 the cream-pan, then with the left hand elevate 

 one side of the milk-pan so that the cream with 

 the help of the knife in the right hand, will run 

 off into the cream pan. After a little practice, it 

 is done very quickly, and saves both time and 

 cream. — S. L. Wattles, in Country Qentleman. 



