14 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jaw, 



ry on the work, and no means to do it. But the 

 thing lias been done for a score of years, and in a 

 feu- more years, this same road will be one short 

 link in a chain of roads connectins? the Atlantic 

 vith the Pacific. Agricidture will be taught in 

 o.ir common schools. If we have not teachers, it 

 IN no fault of the cause. Let them be called for, 

 a-id they will come up, a host innumeralile. The 

 people are beginning to demand such teachers. 

 Let I'Ur Board of Iviucation and Normal Schools 

 so far yield to the call of the people as to see that 

 a f dl supply is provided. 



'•And, tliirdhj, are not old enough to understand 

 it, and have no time to devote to it, without neg- 

 lecting their other studies." Here Mr. Goldsbury 

 assumes another undefined position, to wit, "our 

 scholars generally are not old enough to under- 

 stand it." At what particular age this power of 

 U'lderstanding comes, he does not enlighten us by 

 saying. The love of natural objects is inherent in 

 children. Flowers and fruits are early subjects of 

 their admiration. Animals are also petted in early 

 life. 'J'hey begin their little farming operations as 

 an amusement very young. We have seen chil- 

 dren four and five years old, planting their little 

 patches in out of the way places, and imitating 

 their fathers in their little hay and harvest fields. 

 Are they old enough to understand the principle 

 when they do the thing ? 



They are not "old enough to understand it," and 

 yet we have shown in many of our schools, schol- 

 ars were led forward in other studies quite as in- 

 tricate and much less useful. Again, many of {he 

 winter scholars in our country schools spend their 

 summers in practical farming, and are good help 

 to their parents. It is a gross libel upon tliese 

 boys to say they are not old enough to understand 

 the science of firming. 



Last summer we noticed several well arranged 

 gardens on the grounds of scliool-houses, worked 

 by the scholars, male and female. They dug the 

 ground, did the setting out, sowed the seeds and 

 kept the i)lants clear of weeds. Were these schol- 

 ars incapable of understiinding all about the sci- 

 ence of these things ? "They have no time to de- 

 vote to it without neglecting other studies." We 

 consider this objection fully answered by showing 

 that we have several studies in our common 

 schools of far less practical utility than that of ag- 

 riculture, and these ought to give way to it, in so 

 much as the less important should yield to the 

 more important. That if it cannot he tolerated 

 furtlier tl".v;n that, books like those we have named 

 should be introduced as reading books, through 

 which much practical knowledge would be gained, 

 without interference with other studies, and a vast 

 amount of knowledge would thus be acquired. 

 Here we leave the subject for the present, hoping 

 Mr. Goldsbury and others will pursue it with their 

 pros and cons until public opinion shall be reached, 

 and public action follow as the result. 



William Bacon. 



Eichmond, Nov. 10, 1862. 



Grape Cultuke. — Marks & Miller, lessees of 

 Fowler's High Gap Farm, in this county, have 

 developed a new feature in the rich resources of 

 our climate and soil. We refer to the culture of 

 the grape. From less than four acres they have 

 this season sent to market no less than seventeen 



tlwiiftand pounds of luscious Catawbas. They sold 

 the entire crop to an enterprising fruit dealer at 

 Chicago for T-i cents a pound. 



Mr. Marks, who has a life-long experience in 

 the business in one of the largest vineyards of Cin- 

 cinnati, has purchased a small ftirm a few miles 

 below the city, and will enter largely in the culture 

 of the grape. — LafaijeUe Courier, Iowa. 



Fur itie ]Sew England Fanner. 

 VEGETABLE GROWTH. 



Mu. Editor : — I sometimes wonder that the 

 science of botany, teaching as it does so- many cu- 

 rious and interesting matters concerning the 

 structure and growth of plants, is not more stud- 

 ied by farmers and their families. There is no 

 branch of knowledge that gives us higher ideas of 

 the wisdom and goodness of the Infinite Architect. 

 Such varieties of structure, such changing forms 

 of beauty, such wonderful adaptation of means to 

 ends, such bountiful provisions for the supply of 

 animal food, are shown in the vegetable kingdom, 

 tJiat we cannot but be filled with reverence when 

 we think of Him whose wisdom has devised and 

 whose hand has wrought all this beauty and use. 



If we attempt to read from the book of Nature 

 the history of a single plant of our common Indi- 

 an corn, we shall soon find how little we know, 

 and shall wish to know more even of that plain, 

 every-day thing. We cultivate it year after year, 

 we have studied how to make it grow, we know 

 what kind of soil it likes, what manure is best 

 adapted to increase the stem and leaf, and Avhat 

 will give us larger returns of grain. But there is 

 much beside this in the history of the plant that 

 should interest us. 



Let us take a grain of coiti and plant it. We 

 know that when it is deposited in the moist earth 

 it soon begins to swell, and ihen pushes out a lit- 

 tle white root, which runs down into the ground ; 

 next a small Avhite shoot starts up towards the 

 surface, becoming green as soon as it gets above 

 ground. Now how is this done ? Who can tell 

 why the rootlet always takes a downward course 

 and the plumule reaches upward ? What subtle 

 influence of the air or light changes the plumule 

 from white to a rich green ? How does it gi"ow at 

 all ? We see that the plant daily becomes taller, 

 daily increases in thickness, soon shows other 

 leaves pushing out, then a stout stem is built up, 

 on the top of which what we call the spindle pres- 

 ently shows iteelf, soon to hang out its pollen- 

 bearing stamens ; side bi'anches strike out at the 

 axils of the leaves, and a soft thread-like cluster 

 of long pistils apjjears at the tips of the branches 

 to receive the pollen from the staminate flowers 

 above and convey its magic influences to the 

 germs on the young ear, causing them to enlarge 

 and in time to harden into the ripe seed. These 

 are some of the more appai-ent ojierations of na- 

 ture while producing this invahiable grain. 



Now would it not be interesting to all who 

 labor to assist the corn to grow, to study the 

 mysteries of vegetable growth ? Would we not 

 like to know the elements of which the seed is 

 composed, what chemical changes take place in it 

 during germination, how the plant draws nourish- 

 ment from the earth seemingly in the form of 

 mere water, but that water containing in solution 



