438 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



Sept. 



The Argentine Confederation sends 30 

 fleeces and 100 samples tiiat for length are 

 fair, and otherwise, — quality, luster, and 

 strength, are first-rate. She also shows sep- 

 arately her long wools, that are good, and a 

 few specimens of the wool or hair of the lama. 



Arizona seeds 30 fleeces and 100 samples of 

 perfectly splendid wool. Some is exceeding- 

 ly fine, but strong, very long, and of beautiful 

 luster. Samples that had been scoured were 

 white as Mwdriven snow. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 BURNING, 



AS A MEANS OF SUBDUING THE ROUGH PLACES. 



Fire has long been used as a help in clearing 

 land. It acts so quickly, saves so much time 

 and labor, that any other agent or process is 

 considered slow and too expensive. But some 

 begin to doubt the policy of using it at all. 

 A practice which may be tolerated by a back- 

 woodbmau in a fertile country, may not be ad- 

 visable in other circumstances. All the advan- 

 tages are temporary, and more than counter- 

 balanced by losses ; for fire is a great destroyer. 

 It does too much ; for, while it quickly re- 

 moves from sight, logs, stumps, bushes, and 

 other impediments to smooth fields and thor- 

 ough culture, a vast quantity of vegetable 

 matter at the same time is given ta the four 

 winds. The slow accumulation of vegetable 

 growth for years is speedily swept away. In 

 exchange we have a few buthels of ashes, which 

 it is true, are of easy application, and power- 

 ful in effect ; but which would have rendered 

 as much if not more benefit as fertilizers along 

 with the organic matter from which they have 

 been produced. 



Now the great want of our Eastern soils is 

 just this vegetable material that fire destroys. 

 Instead of wasting it by harsh means, it should 

 be the aim of every cultivator to preserve ev- 

 ery atom which nature supplies, and also to in- 

 crease it by every means at his command. 

 Stubborn facts are continually arising to con- 

 vince the most casual observer of this, and to 

 show that the ultimate effects of burning are 

 decidedly injurious, and that the practice ought 

 to be abandoned altogether. In the Eastern, 

 and in many parts of the Western States, the 

 rapidly increasing scarcity of timber and fuel 

 has given a market value to all kinds of wood 

 of any size, so that our noble forest trees 

 which are in reality a great gift to man, will 

 soon be saved from needless and ruthless de- 

 struction 1)} lire. With our ei'onomical stoves, 

 the smaller limbs and unsaleble parts can be 

 used to advantage upon tlie farm. Wlierever 

 land is so valuable that it pays to pull stumps 

 and roots, rather than let them decay in the 

 ground, they ought to have some value as fuel. 

 Yet still there is more or less refuse, and what 

 shall be done with that, if fire is to be excluded 

 from clearing the land? Let it remain upon 

 the laud and decay. Likewise, for the same rea- 



sons, bushes, brakes, &c.. mowed in pastures, 

 are allowed to remain. They do not materi- 

 ally interfere with cattle in feeding, while they 

 form a sort of light mulch which helps shade 

 the land from the sun, protects it from wind, 

 keeps it moist and warmer in cold weather, — 

 conditions which favor the growth of grass. 

 Plaster and other fertilizers can be sown on the 

 fallen bushes, and thus the original stock of 

 vegetable matter may be retained and increased. 

 Again, where a quantity of trash in the form 

 of twigs, trimmings of trees and coarse vege- 

 tation accumulates in the orchard or about the 

 Iiouse, unfit for stove or hogpen, it should be 

 moved to some convenient place and piled up. 

 By mixing a little lime, plabter, salt or ashes 

 and giving an occasional overhauling, the whole 

 will soon be reduced to fineness, especially if 

 made in a wet place. 



Nor in reclaiming meadows and bogs, even 

 where the vegetable matter is in excess, is it 

 expedient to burn any of the parings, either 

 to get rid of them or for the small quantity of 

 ashes they will yield. The toughest sods are 

 needed for filling holes and low places and 

 making roads and bridges, and as the adjacent 

 upland is almost always deficient in vegetable 

 matter, the more tender paiings and surplus 

 muck is needed to enrich it. It can be carted 

 directly to it, or perhaps what is better, first 

 worked up in hogpen or barnyard. The work 

 of reducing them to fineness can be hastened 

 by chopping. When slightly stiffened by frost a 

 strong man with a large axe can cut up several 

 cords in a day, and what was apparently almost 

 indecomposible without the assistance of fire 

 is thus speedily rendered fit for use. 



In tliese ways it is possible to increase that 

 black, rich mould so much prized in new land ; 

 while the surest and quickest way of exhaust- 

 ing any soil is to burn it often. Burn fre- 

 quently and crop continually, and even our 

 most fertile fields can be converted into barren 

 wastes. And what in nature has a more 

 dreary and desolate aspect than these parched 

 and arid fields, where only the scantiest vegeta- 

 tion barely exists. No man has a right to burn, 

 and complain of the poverty of his soil ; nor 

 can any one afford to follow such a wasteful 

 and exhausting operation, even if he is willing 

 to buy back the lost material in form of special 

 fertilizers at three to five cents per pound, and 

 strawy stable manures at six to ten dollars per 

 cord. Even if any one finds a present gain 

 fi'oui burning, it will ultimate!}' cost him or his 

 successors years of patient toil to restore the 

 e(|uivalent thus destroyed. ]\Iost assuredly, 

 then, fires are to be dreaded in the soil, as well 

 as in our forests or among our buildings. 

 July, I8(i7. N. s. T. 



—In Florida spring planting l)Cgins Fcliruary 

 first, for corn, melons, l)eans, siiuaslies, and such 

 things as will not l)car frost; wliilc peas, beets, 

 turnips, &c., do better to be sown in September. 



