1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



515 



tient toil. These sandy lands must remain ghast- 

 ly and profitless aspects in the landscape, because 

 those who own them are deprived of the power of 

 dressing and keeping them by a combination of 

 soulless and wicked corpoi'atious. 



As we labored in removing these rich deposits 

 from their native beds, we could see all around 

 us hundreds of acres of standing grass into which 

 a scythe had npt entered, nor will enter, this sea- 

 son. The water has been so high all through the 

 haying period, as utterly to forbid the harvesting 

 of this grass, and on the last days of September 

 men and teams were engaged in getting away a 

 portion of it, for litter, perhaps to the amount of 

 one ton in fifty. A gentleman who lives on the 

 margin of one of these meadows, states it as his 

 opinion, that he can look out from his windows 

 upon two thousand tons of standing grass ! That 

 is, grass that would make that amount if dried as 

 hay. Here is ten thousand dollars' worth upon a 

 single meadow, a loss to its owners through the 

 injustice and rapacity of others, who have not, in 

 our judgment, the slightest claim upon the land 

 or the slightest right to flow it. 



This state of things cannot always last among a 

 people as just and intelligent as are those of Mas- 

 sachusetts. Sooner or later, the stupendous fraud 

 practiced upon the last legislature will be made 

 clear, and the punishment which such conduct de- 

 serves visited upon the heads of its perpetrators, 

 and those rights will be restored which have so 

 long been wrested from the land-owners in the 

 beautiful Concord River Valley, 



For the New England Farmer, 

 SUMMER-MADE MANURES. 



Mr. Editor : — Within the last few years many 

 of our best farmers have changed their mode of 

 saving their summer's manure, and now, instead 

 of yarding the cattle at night, they stable them, 

 using a sufficient quantity of some absorbent to 

 save the liquid portion, the whole being thrown 

 into the cellar or a tight shed ; but experience has 

 sometimes shown that such manure is unfit for 

 some purposes. 



I have seen such manure carted out in the fall 

 into the fields, and the next spring shovelled over, 

 and at planting time put in the hills for corn, and 

 the result has been a very light crop, not as good, 

 I think, as it would have been without anything 

 in the hills ; so often has this been the case, that 

 some have felt inclined to return to the old meth- 

 od of making in the open yard. 



Now it seems strange to me that the corn should 

 refuse to grow upon such manure. I suppose 

 many will say that "the reason is very plain — the 

 manure was too strong." I do not think that this 

 is all the trouble with it. I know of a small piece 

 of corn, which was planted upon manure made 

 last season by stabling and using loam to save the 

 liquid portion. Late in fall it was removed to the 

 field and when put in the hills at planting time a 

 spoonful of superphosphate was tlii'own over most 



of it, but was omitted on a part. Where the 

 phosphate was put there is a fair crop, but next 

 to nothing where omitted. 



Had it been owing to the strength of the ma- 

 nure, I think that the addition of the superphos- 

 phate would have only made the matter worse. 

 If you or some con-espondent would enlighten 

 me a little upon this matter, I should esteem it a 

 favor, as my object in writing is merely to draw 

 out the opinion of others who have had more ex- 

 perience in the matter. Li the instance which I 

 have just mentioned, the effect of phosphate was 

 more evident than in most other places where I 

 have seen it used this season, as in quite a num- 

 ber of cases its effect was scarcely perceptible. 



Worcester County, Sept., 18G2. Tyro. 



Remarks. — We can conceive of no objection 

 to such summer-made manure as our correspond- 

 ent describes. Such manure, if properly pre- 

 served until hauled out, must be very strong, and 

 of course ought to be judiciously used. At any 

 rate, he describes our own practice in collecting 

 and preserving summer manure, and we certainly 

 receive the most decided benefits wherever it is 

 used. 



THE GRAY SQUIRREL, 



The gray squirrel is one of the most beautiful 

 and graceful of the inhabitants of our forests, in 

 which it generally makes its home, hardly ever 

 venturing from them, unless occasionally, when 

 the Indian corn is ripe, it enters the fields to add 

 a little to its winter store of nuts ; the amount 

 which it pilfers could hardly be missed, however, 

 unless the field should happen to be in or near the 

 woods. 



It prefers forests of chestnuts or oaks, in which 

 its winter store can be readily collected. The first 

 heavy frost is the signal for this work to com- 

 mence, and the dropping of the chestnuts and 

 acorns which the frost has loosened, accompanied 

 by the rustling of the squirrel through the newly- 

 fallen leaves as it gathers the nuts together, and 

 carefully deposits them in hollow trees and crevi- 

 ces of rocks, or buries them in some secure place 

 beneath the leaves, are the sounds most intimate- 

 ly connected with our woods in the autumn sea- 

 son. 



The summer nest is built in some tall tree, at 

 the junction of several limbs with the trunk. It 

 is composed of sticks and leaves, and is lined with 

 soft grass and ferns ; in this the young are reared, 

 and live with the female till they are old enough 

 to shift for themselves. At the approach of win- 

 ter, some hollow in a tree is selected, sometimes 

 the abandoned nest of a woodpecker, in which a 

 warm nest is built, composed of grass and soft 

 leaves ; this is the winter home of usually the 

 whole family. In early spring the young are driv- 

 en off" by the old ones, who soon build the sum- 

 mer nest, in which to rear another family. The 

 young, after being driven off", soon pair, and in 

 their turn become heads of families. 



The habits of this animal are very interesting. 

 You may be walking through the woods, and 

 shortly you hear what you at first think to be the 

 barking of a small dog ; on listening, you discov- 

 er your mistake ; the abrupt notes qua qua, with 



