1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



561 



must be precisely the same. If the reader will 

 reflect for a moment, he will see that no suspend- 

 ing power can be derived, except from without 

 the animal. 



The check-i-ein should be abolished. It wastes 

 motive power. Its use is unhealthy for it dis- 

 turbs the otherwise naturally and eqiuilly distri- 

 buted vital forces. It shortens the life of the 

 horse. It diminishes his speed, and lessens the 

 free and quick action so essential to the animal's 

 safety and that of his driver. 



Brethren of the press, let us emancipate the 

 horse from the British check rein. — Bvjfalo Dem- 

 ocrat. 



For the New Eglnand Farmer. 



DEEP AND SHALLOW CULTURE FOR 

 CORJNT. 



I notice that a correspondent of the Farmer 

 recommends four inches as a sufficient depth to 

 plow, where Indian corn is to be planted. I hold 

 this to be one of the most valuable crops grown i 

 in our climate, and should 1)e sorry to have it mis- 

 placed in a soil too shallow pulverized to aid its 

 growth. After many years experience of its cul- 

 ture, I think cicfht inches depth of plowing will 

 be better than four, provided sufficient fertilizers 

 are applied ; and no man may expect a fair crop 

 without such application. 



I remember to have heard, when a boy, of two 

 farmers travelling together from Massachusetts 

 over the plains of Nashua, N. H., when they saw 

 a man engaged in planting corn on the plain 

 lands of that town. They spoke to the laboring 

 man, and one of them inquired what crop he ex- 

 pected to realize on that land. The venerable 

 man reverently replied, "With the blessing of 

 heaven, ten or fifteen bushels to the acre." The 

 questioner rather harshly exclaimed, " Give me a 

 good shovel-full of dang to a lull" this is the 

 best blessing that I want." 



How much labor is lost every year on our farms, 

 by neglecting the preliminaries for insuring a 

 crop. Our lands that have been long cultivated 

 are not fit to be planted with any crop, without 

 being thoroughly pulverized, and liberally fertil- 

 ized. The man who presumes to plant without at- j 

 tending to these pre-requisites greatly mistakes 

 his own interests. Essex. 



Nov. 1, 1862. 



Animal Instinct. — I knew of a jackdaw that 

 often used to eat the gum that exuded from plum 

 trees, and always did so when it was unwell. In 

 connection with this subject, it may well be men- 

 tioned that a careful observer would find himself 

 repaid by watching the modes of care employed 

 by sick and wounded creatures. We all know 

 that the dog and cat resort to grass when they 

 feel out of health, and hares to a species of moss. 

 I was told, on the authority of an eye-witness, 

 that a goldfinch which had been struck by a hawk 

 and wounded, made its way to a dry puff" ball, tore 

 it open with its beak, and dusted the wounded 

 shoulder with the spores, thereby stopping the ef- 

 fusion of blood. The spectator was greatly sur- 

 prised at the incident, and being induced to try 

 the same remedy upon a wounded finger, found 

 that the experiment was completely successful. — 

 Routledge's Illustrated Natural History. 



BUSINESS IN -WAR TIMES. 

 The Bangor Times, in a recent issue, had some 

 sensible ideas in relation to the prosecution of 

 general business, or the carrying out of the pub- 

 lic enterprises in war time. We ask the especial 

 attention of every reader to these appropriate re- 

 marks. So far as the common business of life is 

 concerned, in its thousand forms among us, all 

 we need is confidence in each, other. Stop im- 

 portations of all articles of luxury, so as to stop 

 the demand for gold to send abroad, and then our 

 currency, whether of gold and silver, or paper, 

 will have a steady value, and the prices of articles 

 will have as little fluctuation as they have hereto- 

 fore. All we need is, confidence in each other, and 

 confidence in the government, that it will faithful- 

 ly discharge its obligations to the people. Let 

 us, then, one and all, cultivate this confidence, 

 and press on, not only to complete the plans al- 

 ready made, but to initiate others that shall intro- 

 duce new elements of industry and prosperity. 



He who stands idly by with folded hands and 

 a doubting, halting heart, is a coward, as such 

 conduct leads directly to the loss of everything 

 which we have so nobly gained, — name, nation 

 and prospects, — and would result in reducing us 

 to subjection to an unprincipled oligarchy, which 

 would introduce slavery, and wailing and woe all 

 over our fair and beautiful land. 



Let us, then, we ask again, have confidence in 

 the government and in each other. Our soil does 

 not withhold its bounties, nor our sons and daugh- 

 ters their industrial labors, and the Lord of the 

 harvests is ready and willing to give the increase 

 to intelligent and faithful application. No mat- 

 ter what amount is demanded for the army and 

 navy, in addition to that required for home con- 

 sumption, if we are courageous, faithful and in- 

 dustrious, we can reproduce, annually, to supply 

 the demand to any extent that supplies may be 

 exhausted. 



In this respect, we are the favored nation of 

 the world. The monstrous waste occasioned by 

 the rebellion, the withdrawal of hundreds of thou- 

 sands of productive laborers from our farms, and 

 the constant demand from abroad, does not ex- 

 haust the vast granaries of their means of sup- 

 port. 



And so of the mechanic arts. The opening of 

 the rebellion found us utterly incapable either of 

 assault or defence. Our arsenals had been stript 

 of arms and ammunition. Our ships of war — 

 what few were afloat — had been ordered into for- 

 eign seas ; two only, the Brooklyn and Harriet 

 Lane, remaining on a coast stretching along the 

 Atlantic border for two or three thousand miles. 

 And this was not all. The high officers of the 

 government, the faithless and perjured wretches, 

 who had sworn upon the altar of God to preserve 



