1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



21 



SORGHUM AT THE WEST. 



The past season has been very unfavorable to 

 the sugar cane business at the West. The Cin- 

 cinnati Commercial publishes an account of the 

 extensive operations in this line of Mr. A. W. 

 Nason, Perry county, Illinois. He planted 250 

 acres, which produced "only seventeen gallons to 

 the acre, wkereas it should have been, according 

 to the results of past years, 150 gallons." The 

 crop is said to be deficient this year in about the 

 same proportion throughout the West. Notwith- 

 standing the unfavorable results of this first ex- 

 periment, Mr. Nason has concluded to plant 400 

 acres next year instead of 250, and to add to the 

 expense of his establishment, which has already 

 cost him $7000, an additional $3000 for boilers 

 and other machinery, although his present steam 

 mill ground the cane this flail as fast as ten teams 

 could haul it half a mile, and fast enough to pro- 

 duce in one case fourteen gallons of juice per 

 minute. 



SIN KINO ROCKS. 



In reply to a recommendation to dig under and 

 sink rocks below the reach of the piow, a corres- 

 pondent of the Country Gentlemam, after premis- 

 ing that with his own hands, assisted by one man 

 and a span of horses, he has cleared between fif- 

 ty and sixty acres from boulders weighing fi-om 

 half a ton to twenty tons, and in places as many 

 as twenty rocks to the acre, writes as follows : 



I have dug under and sunk boulders, or as I 

 used to say, "sold them ;" but I have learned bet- 

 ter. I can blast, dig out, and draw off ten rocks 

 on an average, where 1 can sink one, and the 

 rocks are saved for fencing or building purposes. 



For a while I did my own blasting, but after- 

 wards hired it done. I paid twenty-five cents a 

 blast, and one blast is usually enough for a rock. 

 Take a pick-a.xe and loosen the earth around the 

 rock, put in the hole, charge and fire ! and with a 

 cant- hook, made on purpose, get under the pieces 

 and throw them out; and then take another rock 

 of equal size in the same soil and sink it, and see 

 the difierence. 



I think, after said corresponilent had sunk a 

 rock in my orchard, measuring 28 feet long, 10 

 feet wide, and 8 feet above the ground, and per- 

 haps more below, he would write no more articles 

 on sinlcing roclcs. D. B. Waite. 



Springwater, N. Y. 



We once had ajice years experience in drilling 

 and blasting rocks on a twenty-acre lot. That is, 

 improving every opportunity during mild weather 

 to get them out We then resorted to digging 

 and buryini] them below the plow. This experi- 

 ence brought us decidedly to an opinion exactly 

 the reverse of that given above by Mr. Waite. 

 If rocks are wanted for walls, or for other pur- 

 poses, we should not hesitate to use them, but 

 beyond that, we should never dig out and take 

 them from the land. What are upon the surface 

 we would take away, if the soil were filled with 



them. If not, we would even dig and bury those 

 found on top of the ground. We have hereto- 

 fore spoken of the injurious effects to the land of 

 taking out and carrying away large quantities of 

 stones. 



For the New England Farmer. 



THE BOY ON THE FARM. 



Garck'ning — Winter Schools — Parental Encouragement — Amuse- 

 ments — fishing, fowling, nutting— A Life Uevetod to F.duca- 

 tion— flow to Get It — " iialf is more than Uie Whole" — Man- 

 liness and Scholarship. 



Messrs. Editors: — I was born and brought up 

 on a farm, and, from my earliest days to the pres- 

 ent moment, I have taken the greatest interest in 

 farming and gardening. My lather was a physi- 

 cian of extensive practice, and seemed to have the 

 means of educating his children as well and as 

 fully as any man in the little town in which we 

 dwelt. Yet, from the time my brothers and myself 

 were able to do anything, as soon, every year, as 

 there was anything to be done in the garden or on 

 the farm, he took us from school and kept us at 

 work until the last ear of corn was husked. He 

 then sent us back to school. He was highly ed- 

 ucated»himself, and took care that, for tlie winter 

 school, which was kept about half the year, a teach- 

 er should be employed possessing the best qualifi- 

 cations for what he considered that most impor- 

 tant otfice. 



We boys were kept busy in doing whatever 

 boys could do, — driving the cows to and from the 

 pasture, dropping corn, beans and pumpkin seeds, 

 planting potatoes, sowing and weeding in the gay- 

 den, and afterwards, as we gained strength, using 

 the spade, the hoe, the rake, and, finally, tiifc 

 scythe and the flail. I thus grew up famiiiar with 

 all tlie operations of a small farm and a large gar- 

 den, and somewhat skilful in the use of all the 

 common agricultural and horticultural tools. 



My father was not a hard master, though a 

 somewhat particular one. He often quoted the 

 old proverb, "All work and no pluy make Jack a 

 dull boy," and he acted as if he fully believed it. 

 Fishing and fowling were among our recreations. 

 When the lime forsalmon-trouts came, he took us 

 to a creek two miles ofi', to places which he knew, 

 from which we commonly returned with full bas- 

 kets. When the shad began to make their appear- 

 ance in the river which ran by our garden, we 

 went below the mills, and, with s|)ears, often suc- 

 ceeded in getting a fine one — sometimes scveriil. 

 He knew where the pickerel, the perch, and the 

 .shiners were to be found, and showed us how to 

 catch them. Once or twice a year we went, tak- 

 ing a whole day for it, with all the lines, hooks 

 and bait that were necessaiy, to some well-known 

 spot on the coast, four, or five, or seven mil-s 

 off, to catch cunners, or sea-perch, bass, pollock, 

 or whatever else ofl'ered itself; and we some- 

 times brought home a fare of hundreds — as many 

 as we wanted. These excursions were not acci- 

 dental. They were intended as a gentle stimu- 

 lus to boyish industry. "When all the weeds 

 in that square of carrots "are taken out clean, we 

 will go a fishing, boys," said the kind old gentle- 

 man. The weeding was usually accomplished at 

 the time fixed. "W'hen the potatoes and corn are 

 well hoed, we will take the wagon and go to Cape 

 Porpoise and catch cunners, or to the Bass llock 



