1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



561 



What shall I do ? If we dispute, 



Though I talk best, the man may shoot. 



And, if the fallen creature should 



Find I'd a fancy for this wood, 



He might conceive a fancy, too, 



As tough wills, when you drive them, do. 



No ^ I must, with my ready wit, 



More certain than his rifle, hit I 



I"ll beat before him, in the van. 



And give all warning of the man, 



Except the hunter. 



So, I scare 

 Quail, partridge, rabbit, cowering there. 

 And thus my friend, the sportsman, got 

 Nothing, but tired of the spot. 

 No more of game he caught, that day ; 

 And, by-and-by, he went away. 

 And then, I came upon him ; and 

 Bid him good day, and shook his hand ; 

 Designing him to closely scan, 

 And in my fancy catch a man ! 

 — And so I did ; he proved to be 

 The best of game, that day, for me. 

 An ancient hunter — all the ground 

 And streams he knew, for miles around. 

 And, though he saw there but the real, 

 Nature had shaped to her Ideal 

 His manners, which expressed her well, 

 As once did Wordsworth's "Peter Bell." 



COMPOST FOR PEAR TREES. 



For those who have a poor soil, or those who 

 are desh-ous of making the culture of pears a spe- 

 cial object, the compost described below will be 

 valuable. Take of vegetable muck, one cord; 

 stable manure, half a cord ; wood ashes, ten bush- 

 els ; and, if it can be obtained, twenty pounds of 

 horn shavings ; add to these two bushels of 

 crushed or ground bones, and from two to three 

 bushels of charcoal, reduced to a fine powder, and 

 two of plaster. 



The ingredients should be intimately incorpor- 

 ated by frequent stirrings, and kept moist by dai- 

 ly effusions of urine, mixed with the wash from 

 the sink or laundi'y. This compost is highly stim- 

 ulant in its effects, and when applied to trees, 

 causes a rapid and healthy development. The 

 above quantity will be sufficient to manure from 

 fifty to seventy-five trees. It should be applied 

 in the fall, and thoroughly mixed with the soil, 

 and then the trees mulched in the spring. 



HEALTHFULITESS OP APPLES. 



There is scarcely an article of vegetable food, 

 says Hall's Jour7ial of Health, more widely useful 

 and universally loved, than the apple. Why 

 every farmer in the nation has not an apple or- 

 chard, where trees will gi-ow at all, is one of the 

 mysteries. Let every family lay in from two to 

 ten or more barrels, and it will be to them the 

 most economical investment in the whole range 

 of culinaries. A raw, mellow apple is digested 

 in an hour and a half, while boiled cabbage re- 

 quires five hours. The most healthy dessert which 

 can be placed on a table is a baked apple. If 

 taken freely at breakfast, Avith coarse bread and 

 butter, without meat or flesh of any kind, it has 



an admirable effect on the general system, often 

 removes constipation, correcting acidities and 

 cooling off febrile conditions more effectually than 

 the most approved medicines. If families could 

 be induced to snbstitute the apple — sound, ripe 

 and luscious — for the pies, cakes, candies and 

 sweetmeats with which their children are too often 

 indiscreetly stuffed, there would be a diminution 

 in the sum total of doctors' bills in a single year, 

 sufficient to lay in a stock of this delicious fruit 

 for a whole season's use. 



FLAX— PIBRILIA, 



Some time since, the subject of the culture of 

 flax to a considerable extent in the free States 

 was discussed in our columns, but failed to excite 

 that general attention which it seems to us its im- 

 portance demands. Very few people among us 

 at this day are acquainted with the crop, or the 

 nature of the material derived from it, so thor- 

 oughly has its cultivation ceased on New England 

 farms. Rut since the discussion occurred, the con- 

 dition of things in our country has widely changed, 

 and all are now eagerly looking for some staple 

 that will take the place, in part or in whole, of the 

 cotton which we have drawn chiefly from the slave 

 States. On the eleventh of February, 1860, Ste- 

 phen M. Allen, Esq., addressed a meeting in the 

 Representatives' Chamber, at the State House, and 

 gave much interesting information in relation to 

 the culture of flax and its manufacture into fibrilia, 

 and about that time furnished us with some fur- 

 ther facts bearing upon the subject which we did 

 not then pubhsh, for fear of pressing the matter 

 too fully upon the reader. As the subject has as- 

 sumed a new importance, we now give what he 

 then furnished, as follows : 



If we should take from the tillable lands of each 

 State, one-quarter, and devote it to the cultivation 

 of flax, and estimate the product as one bale of 

 fibrilia, 500 pounds to the acre, which would be a 

 small estimate, the aggregate would be 16,003,809 

 bales, and would be apportioned nearly as follows : 



Maine 509,899 



New Hampshire 562,872 



Vei-mont 650,352 



Massachusetts 533,359 



Rhode Island 89,121 



Connecticut 442,044 



New York 3,102,241 



New Jersey 441,997 



Pennsylvania 2,157,154 



Delaware 145,215 



Total number of bales of 500 lbs. each... .16,003,809 



The value of this, cottonized at the mill, would be 



20 cents V lb., or $50 W bale, making $800,190,450 



The seed from the crop, at market, would be at $1 



^bushel 240,057,135 



Maryland 699, 



Ohio 2,462, 



Michi gan 482, 



Indiana 1,261 



Illinois 1,259 



Missouri. 734, 



Iowa 206 



Wisconsin, 261 



Minnesota 1 



476 

 ,873 

 ,277 

 ,635 

 ,886 

 ,606 

 ,170 

 ,374 

 ,258 



$1,040,247,585 



The seed from flax will pay all expenses of cul- 

 tivation, and yield a small profit beside, to be add- 

 ed to the value of the fibre, arid feed from the 

 straw — which, in the aggregate, will render it a 

 profitable crop to the farmer. 



