268 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



deep culture, all contribute to bring the air and 

 soil into contact. 



This is, then, a practical subject. Plants, as 

 well as animals, breathe. They cannot live with- 

 out air ; elements necessary to their growth are 

 furnished to them through the medium of the soil, 

 also. The atmospheric ocean by which we are 

 surrounded, is the great storehouse of nutrition 

 for them as well as for animals. Jethro Trull be- 

 lieved that plants derived all the elements of their 

 growth from the atmosphere and water. In this 

 he was probably mistaken. But it is undoubted- 

 ly true that soil hermetically sealed from the air 

 cannot yield nutrition to plants. Organic sub- 

 stances closed from contact with the air, do not 

 decay, and consequently, cannot be converted in- 

 to food for plants. This is a broad subject, and 

 these few remarks are suggestive of thought. They 

 show us how the teachings of science and the re- 

 sults of the best practice perfectly agree. Careful 

 experience confirms the lessons of science. 



J. E. 



For the Neio England Farmer. 

 WOBK SHOP AND TOOLS. 



Mb. Brown : — Being at present laid up for re- 

 pairs, and not allowed the ''liberty of the yard," I 

 propose to make a few comments upon some items 

 in your last issue. I am quite tenacious about 

 disagreeing with one point in your editorial, viz.: 

 workshops and common bench-tools for every far- 

 mer who is not independent enough to afford to 

 pay some mechanic. I do not propose to argue 

 for rich farmers, unless they have boys, in Avhich 

 case I must class them and their poorer neighbors 

 together. I will not speak particularly of the 

 profit, or saving, often resulting to farmers near 

 or remote from mechanics, or of our mutual obli- 

 gations to support their trades. 



My own observations, which have been some- 

 what extended among Yankee farmers, are, that, as 

 a general rule, the men who have poor tools and 

 learned the use of them in boyhood to some ex- 

 tent, furnish the mechanics a greater amount of 

 work than those who do no mechanical work at 

 home. The cause is obvious. Such a man is ac- 

 customed to do little jobs in repairing and improv- 

 ing his tools, «S:c., and if, (as is usually the case,) he 

 sees more such work needed than he has time to 

 do himself, he cannot rest satisfied till he has em- 

 ployed another to put his little job in order. And 

 this for the reason that the genteel hatter notices 

 your hat and the boot-maker your boots quicker 

 than the opposite. The result is, that you will 

 find his tool more handy, his contrivances to save 

 labor and thereby expedite his farm work more 

 to your mind, than those who either go to the 

 shop, or as is more often let alone, the various 

 little jobs so often needing attention. Such men 

 Avill use natural crooks and the old sled long after 

 their time is out, because they can't go off to get 

 it done at the shop. They will take down and 

 put up two sets of bars for every load or hay or 

 manure, where two hours and a hammer, axe and 

 auger, will make a good substantial gate. Can't 

 spend time to go off. 



But this is not the main point. It is the moral 

 effect of such workshops on farmers' boys. You, 

 sir, speak of unpleasant recollections of those 

 "rainy days." Your experience and mine differ 



essentially. In all my boyhood, along with a 

 baker's dozen of urchins, those rainy days v/ould 

 not come often enough. 



Don't you remember the boats, and ships and 

 houses, the saw-boys, the up-and-down saw-mills 

 for the little brook, the water-wheels and wind- 

 powers, the paring machines and tip-tops to amuse 

 the little ones, the hand-sleds and the larger 

 sleds that we used to make at Nod ? 



I do not argue that we were made richer in af- 

 ter life, as I might show, but I do affirm that for 

 many a day we were contented to go out to the 

 shop, instead of going to the village to associate 

 with boys, who like ourselves, were ready to lead 

 or be led into wrong practices and ultimately bad 

 habits. 



Now, sir, if I may be allowed a space in the 

 Farmer, let me urge every farmer, whether rich or 

 poor, who has boys, either his own or others' 

 children, to have some tools, as many as he can, 

 a turning-lathe if possible, and a place to use 

 them, and let the boys have some of these rainy 

 days, and see if the boys don't improve, — to say 

 nothing of the additional care he will bestow up- 

 on his own farm implements. P. j. 



Vermont, March 6, 1862. 



Remarks. — Happy boy ! And that often makes 

 a happy man. We think we agree with you en- 

 tirely. You were judiciously directed. Had op- 

 portunity to make things which your own taste 

 prompted, instead of being obliged to delve every 

 hour of every rainy day in patching up old har- 

 rows and ox-carts. We are decidedly in favor of 

 the tools and the work-shop, and supposed we 

 wrote so with clearness. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CARE IN PLANTING. 



Messrs. Editors : — I have recently met Avith 

 several farmers who used Coe's superphosphate 

 of lime last season on corn and other crops. 



In some instances the corn failed to come up. 

 In others it came up, and when 10 to 15 inches 

 high, it assumed a sickly appearance and ceased to 

 grow. My attention was called to a case of this 

 kind last August. On examination, it was found 

 that the phosphate had been dropped in the hill 

 all in one place, covering not more than 2 or 3 

 square inches, a little earth placed over it and the 

 corn dropped on it. The corn sprouted, and as 

 the root extended dowuAvards, it soon entered the 

 phosphate, which was too strong for the tender 

 root, and this caused the failure. 



In using this powerful fertilizer there should be 

 no more than two-thirds of a gill used in a liill at 

 one time, and this should be spread over a sur- 

 face of 4 or 5 inches and should be mixed Avith 

 the soil. Many persons have used a table-spoon 

 to measure and put it on with.. It can be more 

 evenly distributed with the fingers. 



Where it has beci. used and no failure from 

 this cause, it is almost universally spoken of as 

 having produced the best effect both in increasing 

 the quantity and hastening the maturity of the 

 crops. John R. Howard. 



North Easton, April 21, 1862. 



