1863. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



311 



made, and by a curious chain of circumstances 

 the digging of potatoes has opened to the eyes of 

 the antiquarian world tlie '"Via Sacra" which 

 went fi-oni Athens to Eleusis. A long line of 

 tombs, completely buried in sand, runs along both 

 sides of this sacred way, by which great Athe- 

 nians used to be carried to their last home, and 

 the fashionable world of Athens used to crowd to 

 the fetes of Ceres. 



MY FIELD. 



I will not wronir thee, To-day, 



With iiUe Ionising lor To morrow ; 

 But piiticnt ploiiph my fiild, and sow 



Tlie seed of faith in every tirrow. 



Enough for me the loving light 

 That melts tlie cloud's repellant edges ; 



The still unfaliling, bud liy bud. 

 Of (to.i's most sweet and huly pledges. 



I breathe Ilis breath ; ray Ufa is His ; 



The hand He nerves knows no defrauding,— 

 The I<ord will make this joyless waste 



Wave with the wheat of His rewarding. 



Of His rewarding ! Yea ; and yet 



N'nt nime a single blade or kernel ; 

 The seed is His ; the quickening His ; 



The care, unchanging and eternal. 



His, too. the harvest song shall be, 

 W'hen He who blest the b irren furrow 



Shall thrust His shining sickle in, 

 And reap my little field to-morrow. 



Harriet JIcEwen EIimball. 



LETTER FROM THE FARM. 



The Weather — Haying — Hay Caps — Second Crop Abundant — 

 Millet and Hungarian Grass — A Pleasant Visit from the Au- 

 thor of "Hot Corn." 



Concord, August 24, 1863. 



Gent. — I have already sent so much "copy" to 

 to the printer, that little space is left for a Letter 

 from the Farm. Since my last notice of the weath- 

 er, it has continued remarkably regular in its ir- 

 regularity, being slioica-ij, foggy, hot, quite cool, 

 and interspersed with pelting rain, wind and a 

 hail storm '. x\t this date, Aug. 24th, haying is 

 not much more than half finished. Scores upon 

 scores of cocks are now out within view of my 

 window^, and are reduced fifty per cent, in value 

 by the rains and floods. I have no recollection 

 when the hay crop has been gathered in so poor a 

 condition as the present season. I hope the grain 

 crops will be abundant and sweet, so that our an- 

 imals may have a plentiful sprinkling of meal with 

 their unsavory herbage fodder next winter. Hay 

 caps have been in demand, and have probably 

 saved more than their cost this season. 



People have commenced cutting the rowen, or 

 second crop of grass, which is very abundant. In 

 my immediate neighborhood there are many fine 

 fields where nearly, or quite, a ton and a half per 

 acre will be cut. On one farm which I visited last 

 week, it was estimated that ffteen tons of rowen 

 would be cut. This is esteemed by our milk-rais- 

 iCrs as among their best fodder for the produc- 

 tion of milk. 



Millet and Hungarian Grass. 



Last spring, your excellent neighbors, Messrs. 

 Parker, Gannett Sc Osgood, said to me, that in sell- 

 ing the seeds of Millet grass, they found many 



persons were under the impression that the com- 

 mon millet and Hungarian grass were j)recisely 

 alike. Li order to settle this, they desired me to 

 sow the seeds of both. I did so, and send you a 

 specimen of each, which you will oblige me by 

 leaving with them for their examination, and for 

 the inspection of their customers. What is known 

 in this section as the common millet is not figured 

 in Flint's work on the grasses, but another vari- 

 ety, of very different form. It will be noticed 

 that the millet which I send has a large, compact 

 head, 4 or o inches long, somewhat resembling 

 the head of herds grass, but {much larger. Both 

 the grasses which I send were sowed on the 5th of 

 June. The millet was fairly headed on the 8th of 

 August, — the Hungarian grass not until a week 

 later. 



A Pleasant Visitor. 



One day last week, I had the pleasure of receiv- 

 ing, and of retaining over night, the able and dis- 

 tinguished Agricultural Editor of the New York 

 Tribune, Solon Horinson, Esq. There were 

 few gaps or "gapes" in the conversation while be 

 remained, I can assure yoti. Mr. Robinson has 

 been connected with the Tribune about a dozen 

 years, and has made himself well known by his 

 general knoMledge of agricultural matters, and by 

 the power of his terse and ready pen. His market 

 reports arc models. He is an able and attractive 

 writer on general subjects. His work, entitled 

 "Hot Cum," published six or seven years ago, un- 

 folded some of the darkest, as well as brightest, 

 phases of human existence, and greatly arrested 

 public attention at the time. I shall be glad if 

 others of the Editorial fraternity copy Mr. Rob- 

 inson's example in making his visit. 



Very truly yours, Simon Brown. 



Messrs. Nourse, Eatos & Tolma;?. 



"ONE-HORSE FARMERS." 

 The reader, especially he who cultivates but a 

 few acres, will peruse with pleasure the article in 

 another column under the title, "One-Hnrse Fa-nii- 

 ers." The reading will suggest many things, un- 

 doubtedly, in regard to the present modes and 

 peculiar circumstances under which farming is 

 conducted at the present day. To the older per- 

 sons it will suggest the great change which has 

 taken place in farm help within forty M|rs. The 

 peculiar charm and gratification of ruMl life has 

 been greatly affected by this circumstance, name- 

 ly the substitution of foreign, unintelligent labor, 

 for that of the educated and robust sons uf Amer- 

 ican sires. No one thing, perhaps all other things 

 combined, have not done so much as this to make 

 farm life unsatisfactory, and in many cases, repul- 

 sive. 



The farmer who has reached the age of sixty 

 years, and who has borne the heat and burden of 



