1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



325 



For ihe New England Farmer. 

 FABMEBS' HYMN. 



BT K. F. FULLER. 



When a week of toil is o'er, 



Welcome is the Jay of rest ! 

 In those courts we come, once more, 

 By devotion to be blest ! 

 Kindle, Lord, our Christian fires ; 

 And draw upward our desires '. 



With us, when we hence depart, 



And our weekly toil renew. 

 May Thy presence, in the heart. 

 Still abide in all we do ! 

 And, whate'cr our labor be, 

 We will work as unto Thee ! 



Farmer's toil may symbolize, 

 And the spirit lessons teach. 

 If we labor to be wise 

 And the sense of symbols reach, 

 Nature's volume shall impart 

 Still instruction to the heart I 



In the season of the year. 



While to sow the seed we haste. 

 Life has such a seed-time here. 

 We remember, not to waste : 

 Still reminded, as we sow. 

 We will harvest, weal or woe. 



When the tender corn we weed, 



With the soft earth freshly stirred, 

 'T will remind us to give heed. 

 Lest a sin should choke the Word. 

 While the cherished corn wc hoe. 

 In our hearts the Truth shall grow ! 



As the stalks rejoicing rise. 



In a glad and green increase, 

 We will watch, with anxious eyes, 

 For the growth within, of peace- 

 Has the gentle herb of grace 

 With the corn kept even pace .' 



When, in sparkling morning hours, 



Dews, like incense, soar again. 

 And, when soft refreshing showers 

 Fall, in blessings of the rain, 

 Father ! we will pray Thee, thus 

 Pour Thy spirit down on us ! 



When we cure the crop of hay ; 



And the herb we cut, at morn. 

 Withers ere the noon, away — 

 So the life of man is shorn ! 

 Swaths we mow shall moralize, 

 As the tree falls, so it lies ! 



When our harvests all are o'er. 



And the end of summer comes, 

 Doubly precious is the store, 

 Treasured in our harvest homes : 

 Garners of the soul were filled. 

 While the busy farm wc tilled ! 



SULPHURIC ACID. 



"A. R." asks us if sulphuric acid, when applied 

 bj' itself, has any value as manure ? AVe answer, 

 Yes ; for although its value may be materially in- 

 creased by availing of its chemical action on other 

 substances, still, used alone, it has high value. 

 It should always be applied, however, in an ex- 

 tremely dilute state, certainly never at a greater 

 strength than one part of acid to 1000 of water. 

 There are very few plants which do not contain 

 sulphuric acid, or its salts, in some form, and when 



applied to the soil there are few of those bases 

 with which it combines advantageously, which do 

 not exist in the soil to a greater or less extent. 



Sulphuric acid when aj)plied dilute to compost 

 heaps, prevents the escape of ammonia without 

 interfering with its solubility ; all free alkalies are 

 changed into sulphates, and with the exception of 

 lime, are still left soluble in water ; many of the 

 primaries are more acceptable to plants as sul- 

 phates than in their simple condition, while a large 

 number of the proximates have inci'eased value 

 being acted on by dilute sulphuric acid. — Work- 

 ing Farmer. 



ONE CAUSE OF DROUGHTS AND 

 FRESHETS. 



It is plain to every observer, that our countrj' is 

 now more subject to droughts than it was twenty 

 or thirty years ago. Within the last five years, 

 we have suflered in this respect seriously. The 

 loss to the farming community, and through it to 

 the whole population, has been many millions of 

 dollars. If they continue for several years more, 

 in frequent succession, there is reason to fear that 

 the "hard times" will pass away very slowly. Is 

 there any natural cause for droughts, or are they 

 sent upon us solely as special visitations of Provi- 

 dence for our national sins ? We would not speak 

 lightly of such visitations, but we are inclined to 

 think that our sufferings in this particular may be 

 traced chiefly to our own bad management. The 

 wide destruction of our forests doubtless has 

 something to do with the production of droughts, 

 and of these destructive floods or "freshets" which 

 are becoming alarmingly frequent. 



If the country is widely denuded of its trees, 

 the land is more exposed to the burning rays of 

 the sun, and to the winds which cause a very rapid 

 evaporation. Then, too, forest trees are so many 

 pumps to suck uj) moisture from the depths of the 

 earth, and to diffuse it through their leaves into 

 all the surrounding atmosphere. From thence it 

 falls upon the surface of the ground. Perhaps 

 some of our readers have amused themselves with 

 making estimates of the amount of water evapor- 

 ated from the leaves of a single tree, and then of 

 a large forest, in a single day. To one who has 

 never thought about it, the subject is one of great 

 interest. AH readers of history know that many 

 of the rivers and streams of the Old World, which 

 once were wide and deep, have now shrunk into 

 much smaller dimensions ; from what cause, can 

 any one tell, if not that the hills and mountains 

 are now almost entirely bereft of trees ? Droughts 

 prevail all over the Eastern continent, with in- 

 creasing severity ; and scientific and observing 

 men everywhere proclaim that this is owing chiefly 

 to the cause of which we now speak. 



Valleys and low-lands, and fertile plains, should 

 of course lie cleared of trees, and devoted to farms 

 and gardens ; but at least the rocky hills and 

 mountains should not be shorn of their leafy hon- 

 ors. Let the trees stand sacred from the desolat- 

 ing ax, all along our heights, to break the fury of 

 storms, and to condense and bring down the use- 

 ful vapors of the clouds upon our fields, and into 

 our springs and streams. It is high time that the 

 older States of the Union began to move in this 

 matter, either regulating the destruction of our old 

 forests, or encouraging the growth of new. We 

 believe that some wholesome laws touching this 



