272 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



again by the morning sun, instead of being drank 

 in by the parched soil. Thoroughly drain it, and 

 the roots of the plants go down below the imme- 

 diate effect of the burning sun. The soil is more 

 finely pulverized with half the labor. Capillary 

 attraction draws up the moisture from below, and 

 drinks in the evening dew. 



Fruit and most forest trees are much helped 

 by draining. They naturally send their roots far 

 below the surface ; this furnishes them with a 

 broader field to obtain food from, and also pro- 

 tects them from drought. If prevented from do- 

 ing this, they are stunted and of little value. If 

 upon land wet but a portion of the year, they 

 grow well, but seldom bear flowers or fruit. The 

 growth of the tree generally stops in the early 

 part of the autumn. After that time, till checked 

 by the cold, it is busy at work laying by a store 

 of nutriment to commence, and for a considerable 

 time, to carry on the growth of the leaves, blos- 

 soms and fruit of the next spring. Unless this is 

 done, there will be no blossom, and consequently 

 no fruit. If the soil is in a fit condition, and the 

 autumn mild, a luxuriant blossoming may be ex- 

 pected the following spring, unless the trees are 

 exhausted by a great growth of fruit. 



If, during the fall, the ground is wet and cold, 

 the trees are prevented from laying up this store 

 of nutriment, and therefore no blossoms are pro- 

 vided for the next spring, and no fruit can be ex- 

 pected, although the ground may be sufficiently 

 dry to ensure a good growth of wood during the 

 summer. 



Thoroughly drain the soil, and the hungry roots 

 no longer kept back by the chilling air and un- 

 healthy contact with stagnant water, go deep down 

 into the soil. The air has free access, decompo- 

 sition is going on rapidly, the tree grows fast 

 through the whole season, and lays up a store of 

 food to commence with in the spring — thus pro- 

 ducing a fine blossoming and a rich harvest. 



Microscopic Writing. — At the London inter- 

 national exhibition, 1862, a machine for the execu- 

 tion of microscopic writing, was exhibited by a 

 Mr. Peters, which has enabled the Lord's Prayer 

 to be written in the 356,000th of a square inch — 

 a space like a minute dot. The English Bible 

 contains 3,566,480 letters ; the Lord's Prayer, end- 

 ing with "deliver us from evil," 223 letters ; so 

 that the Bible is 13,992 times longer than the 

 prayer, and if we employ round numbers we may 

 say it could be written in 16,000 times the space 

 occupied by the prayer, or in less than the twenty- 

 second part of a square inch, in other words, the 

 whole Bible might be written twenty-two times in 

 one square inch ! This wonderfully minute writ- 

 ing is clearly legible when placed under a good 

 microscope. In using the machine the operator 

 writes with a pencil attached to one end of a long 

 lever ; whatever marks he makes on on a piece of 

 paper are infinitesimally reduced in correspond- 

 ing motions, by which a glass plate is moved over 

 a minute diamond point. By means of a geomet- 

 ric chuck, beautiful geometric designs may be en- 

 graved on a similar scale of minuteness. — Wells^ 

 Annual. 



^^ Temperance puts wood on the fire, flour in 

 the barrel, meat in the larder, vigor in the body, 

 intelligence in the brain, and happiness in the whole 

 family. 



THE HORSE HOE, OB KOTAEY SPADER. 



It is an axiom in farming, that if the crop cul- 

 tivated costs all that it will bring to produce it, 

 no profit will be left for improvements or for fu- 

 ture support. 



If a man should cultivate his corn entirely by 

 hand, spading the soH and hoeing the crop, un- 

 aided by any mechanical appliances, he might find 

 it difficult to sustain a bare existence, without any 

 of the common comforts or elegances of life about 

 him. 



In the hard soil of much of the New England 

 States, especially if the farmer had been obliged, 

 for the last fifty years, to produce his crops aided 

 only by a few of the most common and simple 

 agricultural implements, the aspect of these States 

 would be very unlike what they now present. In- 

 deed, a scanty subsistence, without much progress 

 in education, in architecture, in the arts or sci- 

 ences, would undoubtedly have been the result. 



It is as reasonable that the farmer should avail 

 himself of the advantage of mechanical contri- 

 vances in his business, as it is that the manufac- 

 turer of cotton or woollen cloth should do so in 

 his, or the traveller take to the cars, instead of 

 making his journey on foot. 



The rapid progress to wealth in the free States, 

 the great changes which have taken place in the 

 style of our buildings, vehicles, furniture, &c., and 

 the vast amount of labor which has been averted 

 from human hands, to steam, water, or horse 

 power, may be fairly attributed, in a great mea- 

 sure, to the inventive genius of our people, and 

 to the industry and skill of our mechanics. The 

 farmer himself is greatly indebted to the mechanic 

 for the facility and cheapness with which he gets 

 his crops, and, consequently, in an indirect way, 

 for a higher moral, intellectual and physical posi- 

 tion in life. Mechanism is the handmaid of ag- 

 riculture. Separated, they both fail to work out 

 their great mission in feeding and elevating the 

 world. 



These thoughts have been suggested by wit- 

 nessing the operation of a new agricultural ma- 

 cliine, which is illustrated on the following page. 

 Thei-e is a little too much of it, and it com- 

 bines too many principles, to be termed an imple- 

 ment. 



By a careful inspection of the engraving, the 

 reader will perceive that, in outline, this machine 

 greatly resembles the common expanding culti- 

 vator now so generally in use. Instead of the 

 cultivator teeth, however, it has, forward, directly 

 under the draft hook, a small plough, with mould 

 boards turning each way. Behind this is a per- 

 pendicular iron wheel having six spokes, but no 

 felloes, and then a horizontal shaft with several iron 

 teeth passing through it, and projecting from it 

 some six or eight inches. Both sides are alike. 



