1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



399 



I found borers this year in the bark three or four 

 inches below the tops of the ashes. The ashes 

 •were put on too late last season. It is better to 

 haul the earth away from the tree in the fall, and 

 permit the bark to harden down to the root ; for 

 the insect which lays the egg cannot drive his 

 ovipositor through hard bark. M. 



Wilbraham, July, 1861. 



Remarks. — Treating trees from their youth as 

 our correspondent does, all the pruning that is 

 necessary — unless it be in case of accident — may 

 be done at almost any time. Still, there is a 

 principle underlying this matter. The tree has 

 different conditions, in different seasons of the 

 year, and some of those conditions are far more 

 favorable for the operation of trimming, than 

 others. The practice of our correspondent is ad- 

 mirable in most of the particulars which he has 

 stated. 



OUR FARMERS. 



Their homes arc their castles — their hearthstones a throne ; 

 They rule without sceptre the kingdom they own ; 

 The stalks and the vines and the fruit-bearing tree, 

 Are subjects that bend not to tyrants the knee ; 



But bend with the weight of the harvest and field, 

 Ever loyal and faithful, a harvest to yield. . 

 No planning and plotting among them is known- 

 No traitor the sovereign would strike from his throne. 



He stands, 'midst his acres of grass, wheat and maize, 

 Like Crusoe, "the monarch of all he surveys ;" 

 His banks are the earth-banks that stand on his farm ; 

 The banks that are safe when the panics alarm. 



The STOCK is the cattle— not fancy in breed ; 

 The SHARES are the plow- shares that score for the seed- 

 Not quoted on Change is the broker's array ; 

 But shares on which Nature will dividends pay. 



Their bank? are not those which the widows condemn ; 



No officers pilfer deposits from them ; 



If small the potatoes that in them are found. 



Yet none are so small as we find out of ground. 



The farmer with appetite ever can eat 



The bread on his table, "as good as the wheat ;" 



And, loving most dearly his wife he may utter, 



"My bread and my wife ! I'll not have any but her !" 



With juice of the apple the wife then may fill 

 The glass in which linger no tremors or ill ; 

 And she may respond that, whatever betide her. 

 Most happy she'll be with her husband beside her ! 



There's many a hearth where the embers are glowing; 

 There's many a heart with Its joys overflowing ; 

 The hearths and the hearts from the world's rude alarms. 

 Are safe in the homes that are reared on our farms. 



Mowing Machines. — We recently had an op- 

 portunity of trying two leading mowing machines 

 of the day, the Buckeye and the Wood. We have 

 used them in thin and in heavy grass, and on 

 rough and smooth land, and in every place they 

 have given us great satisfaction. They are both 

 excellent machines. Any person who purchases 

 one, and uses it judiciously, may cut an acre 

 very handsomely in an hour, with a one-horse 

 machine. With a two-horse machine, on level 



land, and the long cutter -bar, he may cut an acre 

 in forty minutes. They are well made, not liable 

 to get out of order, and easily managed. A farmer 

 who has twenty or twenty-five tons of hay to cut 

 will not regret having purchased either of these 

 machines. The Wood machine is for sale by 

 Nourse & Co., 34 Merchant's Row, and the Buck- 

 eye by Parker, Gannett & Osgood, 57 Blackstone 

 Street. 



l<'or the New England Farmer. 

 HINTS FOR THE SEASON". 



Weeds. — These are likely to get the start of 

 us during the hurry of the hay season, and the 

 first opportunity should be improved to destroy 

 them. This may be accomplished with the hoe 

 when they are small, if the work is done in a clear, 

 hot day, when the ground is dry ; but "otherwise, 

 many will escape to seed the land for another 

 crop of "tares," and although it is hard work, 

 every weed remaining alive should be pulled out, 

 and deposited in the hog-yard, not forgetting that 

 those on the border of the field or in the edge of 

 the grass will scatter seed just as surely as though 

 growing in the centre of the field. In this way, a 

 farm may soon be almost entirely cleared of many 

 varieties of weeds, and all so much diminished as 

 to save half the labor of hoeing after a few years. 

 Weeds around barn-yards, &c., &c., will, of 

 course, call for a share of attention. 



Canada Thistles. — Much is said about cut- 

 ting thistles before the seed ripens, which advice 

 may be very good in some locations, but is of no 

 practical value here, because there is so much 

 seed ripened in waste places where it is altogeth- 

 er impracticable for a large farmer to attend to 

 it, that there is always enough to come up in 

 any place adapted to its growth. There is no dif- 

 ficulty, however, in eradicating them in pastures, 

 by mowing when the first heads begin to ripen, 

 and if done just before a rain, one mowing will 

 frequently nearly finish them. On cultivated 

 land they can be exterminated by cutting up with 

 a hoe as often as they appear above the ground, 

 in one season. 



Bass Matting. — This very convenient article 

 for tying up plants and small trees, as well as for 

 budding, may be readily obtained by peeling the 

 bark from the bass or linden, in strips of suitable 

 length for use, and keeping it under water until 

 the layers will separate readily from each other. 

 In very still water, the mucilage of the bark is li- 

 able to decay and cause an offensive smell, and in 

 streams liable to floods, it is necessary to secure 

 it thoroughly by placing stones upon it, or it may 

 secede. 



Seeds. — Those who raise their own garden 

 seeds, can improve the quality of carrot and pars- 

 nip seed by cutting off all the small clusters of 

 blossoms, and beets by pinching off the ends of 

 the shoots, as soon as sufficient length is grown, 

 or when all the seed is formed which will ripen 

 before frost; all the strength of the plant will 

 then go to develop the remaining seed, and they 

 will be larger and better filled. 



Wm. F. Bassett. 



Ashfidd, July 14, 1861. 



