1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



541 



sauce the first two years, 1853 and 1859. The 

 first year we manured in the hill ; the second 

 year we spread on about twenty loads of compost 

 to the acre ; had very good crops both years. As 

 soon as the crops were removed from the land 

 the second year, (early in the fall,) we seeded 

 down to grass with timothy, redtop and clover ; 

 harrowed, bushed and rolled well with a heavy 

 roller, so as to make the ground quite smooth and 

 even. 



When we had finished preparing the land for 

 grass, and seeded it as above stated, we calculated 

 the expense we had been at and the value of the 

 crops taken from the large field, up to that time, 

 and found that we were well paid for all that we 

 had done to the land. 



The next season after seeding down to grass, 

 we took, (as before stated,) eight tons, and this 

 year thirteen tons of the best of hay. We mowed 

 about half of the lot twice, and could probably 

 have taken two tons more where we did not mow 

 the second time. In estimating the expense, we 

 did not include the manure we put on the land, 

 but everything else was included. I think well of 

 this kind of drain, especially where we have 

 rocks and stones we want to clear from our land ; 

 for by this way, as the saying is, we "kill two 

 birds with one stone," clear our field of rocks and 

 drain our land at the same time. 



Augustus H. Grosvenor. 



ShaJcer Village, Harvard, 3Iass., Oct., 1861. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 EETKOSPBCTIVB NOTES. 



A Pleasant Home. — At page 444 of October 

 number of this journal, we find an interesting ar- 

 ticle by Judge French, with the above heading. 

 And even if the Judge had not written in as in- 

 teresting a style and manner as he has, still 

 there would have been a degree of attractiveness 

 about the communication, as the very title could 

 scarcely fail to suggest, in most minds, a train of 

 interesting reflections, aspirations and longings, 

 and to set imagination and constructive faculties 

 to work, either in castle-building or in planning 

 or re-constructing a more substantial home. A 

 Pleasant Home ! this is or should be the ultimate 

 aim and object of all the labors of the farmer, as 

 also, indeed, of all other men. A Pleasant Home.' 

 without this what avail all the plans and projects 

 of the head, all the toils and various labors of the 

 hand, all our industry, all our gains, all our ac- 

 cumulations of property, and all our gathering 

 together the means of enjoyment ! — all these may 

 be regai-ded but as the plowing and sowing, and 

 other operations of the seed-time and summer, 

 and of but little worth, save as means of securing 

 an abundant harvest. He who fails to secure a 

 pleasant home as the harvest of his life-labors is 

 as unfortunate, or as poor a manager, as he who 

 should labor hard and take the utmost pains in 

 preparing his soil, sowing his seed, and cultivating 

 his crops, and yet, in the end, fail, through mis- 

 fortune or mismanagement, to secure a remuner- 

 ating harvest. The latter loses the natural fruit 

 and reward of the labors of one season ; and the 

 former fails to secure the most desirable and 

 most heart-satisfying of all the compensations 

 and rewards appointed by a kind Providence as 



fruits of human industries, and fails, not for one 

 season only, but for a whole life. A Pleasant 

 Home is, of all things earthly, the sweetest, the 

 most heart-satisfying, and the nearest thing to 

 Heaven. 



Among the advantages and blessings which 

 make a pleasant home so valuable, is the moral 

 influence which it exerts upon all within its hal- 

 lowed sphere. It tends certainly to cultivate, de- 

 velop and strengthen a taste and love for the 

 pure and the beautiful wherever these may be 

 found, in nature or in art, in human character, or 

 in the graces of social intercourse. It tends to 

 elevate and refine all within its sphere, to make 

 vice, and crime, and low pursuits, unwelcome or 

 disgusting, to pale or take away the glittering at- 

 tractions of the tavern and similar resorts ; and, 

 in a word, to cultivate all the good qualities of 

 the occupants, and to repress, or remove by de- 

 grees, the bad. In addition to these refining and 

 elevating influences of a beautiful and pleasant 

 home, Judge French has very vividly pictured 

 to the mental eye some of the similar good influ- 

 ences whi h the memory of a pleasant home is 

 adapted and likely to exert upon those who have 

 been called to leave such a paradise, either by the 

 stern voice of war, or by a love of enterprise con- 

 joined with a hope of bettering their condition. 

 His remarks on the good influences of recollec- 

 tions of such a home will be interesting to many 

 at the present, and will, probably, inspire with 

 hope, and consolation, and encouragement, some 

 of the parents, sisters and friends of those who 

 have left pleasant homes to save the best govern- 

 ment in the world from the overthrow which 

 traitors at home, and monarchs, aristocrats, and 

 anti-republicans of all kinds abroad, would re- 

 joice to have befall it. 



And now, if the efforts made by Mr. French, 

 or our own, to set forth attractively some of the 

 excellences of a pleasant home shall avail with 

 any of our readers to kindle or strengthen a long- 

 ing for this supreme blessing of our life on earth, 

 it will naturally follow that they will desire more 

 eagerly than ever before to ascertain what they 

 can do to secure it. One of the things that they 

 can do — that all can do — is to beautify and adorn 

 their dwellings, and all around them ; and to aid 

 them in this department of the manj'-sided and 

 multiform work of making a pleasant home, they 

 will find some valuable suggestions in the article 

 of Judge F. now under notice. And if they 

 should wish to receive still more assistance in the 

 work of laying out their front-yards, and the 

 grounds surrounding their residences, in good 

 shape and graceful form, I know of no advice 

 that could bo given to such, better than that 

 which the E litor of this journal gave to an in- 

 quirer for assistance of this kind, in the Decem- 

 ber number of last year, which was this : "Send 

 to Luther Tucker' & Son, Albany, N. Y., for 

 a volume of their Illustrated Rural Register, in 

 which you will find just what you want." The 

 same may be said to all who are seeking assis- 

 tance in laying out their grounds, in seeding and 

 planting their front-yards or lawns, and in beau- 

 tifying and adorning their premises generally : 

 They will find in the two volumes referred to, 

 (the proper title of which is Rural Affairs, and 

 the price of which is $1 per volume, post paid.) 

 just what they want or need, acd more than they 



