18&4. 



NTW ES'GL-^XT TARMER. 



123 



vooM be hxrd to denionstrate. 



Th« writer of this article hss had s-ome erper!- 

 tsxe for the list thirrr years en tbe Fubject in 

 qi:e3*ion. and hi* arrived at ere C'rr.clusior. deai- 

 oastrated by feet*, which actually ^rcur : :: is this : 

 let trere be »r.y jiven anjctint cflicd prep^ired in 

 tbe srrLng of tbe rear, sav f:r :at». s-cw one-half 

 to oats and tbe other half tc rye, cr ar.y part to 

 Cits and tb-e ether to rve. cnlv let them b-e r'snt 

 s.ie by side ; the land s~a^ be prepirtd jnst alise. 

 eiirtly. and see-*d alike, exic'ly. to grass, and 

 there will be at le-a»t one-half m;re grass in the 

 laid sown to r^e than en tne lam sewn t? oats. 

 Tse lani where tbe rye is ^:11 h^ ::mrletelT cov- 

 e.'ed lite a mat: and where the rats are. extreiceiy 

 snare: we never knew itt: fail, ani have often 

 tried it. navlng had c•^ra5::n t: s;w jtrrln^ rye in 

 that way. to save the unne-oes-sary expense of 

 breaking up land elstwhere. Xow this proves. 

 1, that grxss will grow- veil wbea it is sba>ieti 

 •one ; 2, tfast it out be shaded too mach, (anless 

 there is msme oCfaer var to aerount for the non- 

 appearance of the grass aiDoi^ the oats other than 

 the great amount xii loam, wbich ererybodT says 

 is the eame.) Bat it does not prore, in the third 

 place, bat vliat the grass voald have grown jast 

 as veil as if it had not been shaded any. But 

 tbe qoestian cannot, ve think, be &iilj answered 

 vitboat being tiMrooghlj experimented upon. It 

 is poaaiUe that grass might be made to grow bet- ! 

 tfr sown bj itaelf entzrelr, and ret taking into ' 

 emsidention the extra cost, it might not pay, and 

 voold be better to sow grain with it. So that, as 

 ve said before, we shall take the. medium cocrse 

 and eontinae to aow grass aeed with some kind of 

 grain, antil some farther derelopments appear. 

 And hoping that some able pen may disease this 

 ■ uM e ct more at length, I dose. J. F. 



OBbndge, Jmm. 19, 1864. 



Qaa» tl aa ilmtM,' 



Fir tie Hew MmgUmd Farmer. I 

 WHAT EI£E SHOniiD HE TAUQHT IS ! 

 THE SCHOOIjS* 



Erery farmer must, cf necesrlty, be more or ' 

 leas of a medianie. He has to raise heavy weights ; 

 he Aodid. know what a lever is, and bow power is 

 gained brit. He has to weigh, and does not w&nt 

 to cheat or be cheated. He ought to know bow 

 seales and steelyaids are coostructed, and on what 

 principle. He has to make roads, and to drive 

 Deary loads op hill and down. He ought to know 

 the princ^iles of the inclined plane. Sixty years 

 ^o there was a mania for turnpikes. S'tAight 

 roads were made from Boston to Xewbaryport, — 

 from Boston to Worcester, — from Boston to Con- 

 coni, — and varioos roads connecting other places. 

 These roads, often made at great expense, went, not 

 nnfreqaentij, iSrectly over considerable hills, when ' 

 a neariy lend road might have been made, at far ' 

 ksa ezpenae,hj a trifling departure from a straight ^ 

 line. There are sereral remark able in*t»ni^^ of 

 this mistake, to be seen on the tLree turnpikes I 

 have named, witUn ten miks of Boston. Even 

 St tbe present day, with vastly increased inter- 

 eou7«e, tbe billy parts cf these roads are very Ht- j 

 tie used. No loaded wagoo, and few heavfly la- ] 

 den veindes of any kind, go over these hills, ex- 

 cept in cues of afaaohite oecesnty. 



If the rlmple fact bad been known, that, to con- 

 vey a l;ad to the top cf a hill, tbe wh<'le weight 

 •mu't Se attually lifted perpendi; ^lar.y. to aheight 

 equal t: the perpvendicu.ar hciirnt cf tr.e h;J. and 

 tca^e t; surtneunt. tn ac-ittcn, .i^. tne ir.cqu&uces 

 of the r;ad. the greater part c: all tL:> useless 

 expense wculi have been saved. N"ow. no more 

 ;n-truf::n is given apon tiie prinoples nf tbe 

 inclined plane, in the common schools, — the only 

 schx>l5 to which the boys of the greater part of 

 the State have access, — than was given sixty years 

 ago. 



Every farmer has frequent occasion to use ropes, 

 and, not seldom, tackles ; he ought, therefore, to 

 be acquainted with tbe prindples of the rope ma- 

 chine, the toggle joint and the pulley ; and they 

 curbt to be taught in the common schools. 



Every farmer ought to understand enough oi 

 machinery to see into the working of a grist rrnll, 

 a saw mill, a wind milL or of any of the mowing 

 machines, threshing machines, or other machines 

 used in agriculture. He will have occasion to use 

 one or more of these mills and machines, and he 

 may wisn to construct or superintend the construc- 

 tion of any one of them. He ought, therefore, 

 to study the elements of machinery, elements per- 

 fiectly simple when taken individaally, and yet 

 which may become very complex and difBcuh to 

 comprehend, when seen combined. 



.\lmost every farmer has occasion to d% ditch- 

 es, to build dikes, and to dig wells, and employ, 

 and often to repair, pumps. He ought, therefore, 

 to understand tbe principles of the pressure of 

 water, so as to be able to build wells and dikes ef- 

 fectually to resist that pressure. He ought, then, 

 to study what are called hydrostatics and hydrau- 

 lics. When he understands them, — and they are 

 more easy to understand than most thing? in his- 

 tory, arithmetic and grammar, and many things 

 in geography, — ^when he understands them, he 

 will be sHe to direct, with very little aid, Ae 

 building of hydraulic presses and pipes, and other 

 water conveyances of every kind. 



Tbe farmer ought to understand on what prin- 

 ciples it is that the pressure of air causes water 

 to rise in the pipe of his pump, and thus rea- 

 dei s a common pump possible, and bow the com- 

 mon Hiting pump and the common forcing pump 

 act. That is, he ought to sludy the elementary 

 principles of pneumatics. These are hard Greek 

 names ; but the things themselves and the prin- 

 ciples on which they operate are as intelligible, 

 with proper bo<^ and tolerable instruction, as 

 anything in the plainest English. In addition to 

 these thills, he ought to know sonwthing of the 

 action and laws of beat. He ought to know how 

 much heat wOl convert snow or ice into wattt ; 

 how much additional heat will raise the water to 

 the boiling point, and how much will convert it 

 aC into steam ; and bow much heat will be re- 

 quired to give to this steam, if confined in a dose 

 vessel, any certain amount of explosive force. 



With this knowledge, and the knowledge ot 

 which I have already spoken, any Earmer's boy 

 may easily understand the structure of the steam 

 engine, and its mode of acting, and the power 

 with which it act*. .\nd so much knowledge ev- 

 ery fanner ought to possess. 



And the time which might be saved from that 

 now devoted to arithmetic, spelling, reading and 

 English granunar, without injury to either of those 



