1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FAR]VIER. 



1S7 



analysis, with a view of becoming accomplished 

 chemists, the time occupied in such studies and 

 pursuits must preclude them from acquiring that 

 practical knowledge and those business habits, 

 apart from which farming must, commercially, at 

 least, prove a disastrous failure. What is really 

 needed, and what is, I think, practicable, is so to 

 instruct our youth in the principles of science, as 

 to enable them to appreciate the results obtained 

 by scientific men, and advantageously co-operate 

 with them in effecting practical improvements. 

 The amount of scientific knowledge which such a 

 view assumes is no contemptible modicum, and 

 would demand years of patient study and careful 

 observation of an active business life to acquire. 



^GHICULTUKAI. Qualitative and Quantitative Chemical 

 Analysis. After E. Wolff, Frtseniiis, Kroclier, and 

 others. Edited by Q. G. Caldwell, Prof.ss^r of Agri- 

 cultural Chemistry in trie Cornell, {S. Y.) UiiiverHity. 

 New York : Orange Judd & Co. 1869. Price $2, 307 

 pages. 



The purpose of this work, the editor informs us, 

 is to supply a complete manual of chemical analy- 

 sis for the use, especially, of agricultural students. 

 Though prepared for the use of the students in the 

 New York agricultural college, it will undoubtedly 

 aid the student of chemistry who may not enjoy 

 the advantages of that or any other institution. 



Hampshire Cattle Show Journal. Amherst, Mass., 

 Sept. 1— Dec. 15, 1869. 



This is a new form of publishing the transac- 

 tions of a county agricultural society. It consists 

 of six numbers, 16 pages each, published at differ- 

 ent times from Sept. 1, to Dec. 15, and gives a his- 

 tory of the annual exhibition, &c., with names of 

 officers, by-laws, &c. 



On the Proximate Composition of Several Varie- 

 ties of American Maize. By W. O. Af.water, M. A. 

 Ph D. Grarluating Theses presented to the Faculty 

 of Philosophy and the Arts, Yale College, July, 1869 

 9 pages. 



We are glad to see papers or dissertations of 

 this kind printed in the cheap and convenient form 

 of pamphlets or tracts. We wish we had some ef- 

 ficient system for their more general circulation. 



Commercial Manures. A Lecture delivered before 

 the Farmers' Conveution held at Augusta, January 

 1869, by S. L. Goodale, Secretary Maine Board of Ag- 

 riculture. 30 pages. 



ONE OF OUR CORRESPONDENTS. 



For several reasons we have not adopted the 

 practice of several of our contemporaries in print- 

 ing a list of the names of the "distinguished writ- 

 ers" who have engaged to contribute to their col- 

 umns. We should be very willing, however, to 

 make a comparison of such names with any agri- 

 cultural paper in the country. Though personally 

 unacquainted with many of those whose names or 

 initials are familiar to every reader of the Farmer, 

 we have a family pride in the successes and hon- 

 ors of each one. We were therefore pleased to see 

 by a report in the Woodstock, (Vt.) Stcmdard ot 

 the proceedings of the late meeting of the Wind- 

 sor County Agricultural Socrety at that place 



that C. F. Lincoln of Woodstock, received the first 

 premium offered for the best managed farm of 

 twenty-five and less than one hundred acres. 



The awarding committee, by Dr. H. Boynton, 

 Chairman, say that the farm was examined in 

 June and September, and found in good condition 

 in all its departments. It comprises about eighty 

 acres. Mr. Lincoln has doubled the productive 

 capacity of his farm in about ten years, and that 

 without the aid of imported fertilizers, except to a 

 very limited degree. This has been accomplished 

 by a judicious rotation of crops, and by utilizing 

 every available source of manure, and keeping it 

 well housed till applied to the land. 



At the same time the first premium on orchards 

 was awarded to the "highly meritorious" one be- 

 longing to J. C. McKenzie of Woodstock. 



For the Xew England Farmer, 

 "WINDOW GARDENING --No. 2. 



Now that the days begin to lengthen, we should 

 stimulate our plants with liquid manures, to force 

 them to bud and bloom. For this purpose, we 

 prepare one small tablespoonful of Peruvian guano 

 well mixed, into one gallon of water quite warm 

 to the hand, and give our plants a very thorough 

 watering once a week. The leaves should not be 

 sprinkled with this decoction ; but the roots may 

 be fully wet with it, and allowed to suck ap from 

 the saucers all that they can for two or three 

 hours, then turn away the remainder. Helio- 

 tropes, pelargoniums, zohale geraniums, prim- 

 roses, verbenas, &c., treated in this maimer will 

 push forth 'most vigorous growth, and fully repay 

 the extra attention and care. 



Guano can be purchased for six cents per pound, 

 and one pound will suffice for months. Those of 

 our readers who dwell remote from towns and 

 cities can improvise their guano from their hen- 

 roosts. Two tablespoonfuls of the manure, col- 

 lected in this way, should be dissolved in one 

 gallon of hot water, letting it stand until cool 

 enough to use, and then water as above. Care 

 must be taken not to have too strong a solution. 

 Last winter, in our absence, many of our plants 

 were denuded of every leaf— from this cause. 

 Horse manure furnishes a fertilizer not quite as 

 efficacious as the hen's, but in default of that, it 

 operates well. An old pail or bucket can be half 

 filled with horse or cow manure (if the former is 

 not come-at-aWe, the latter will do). Turn on to 

 it two gallons of boiling water — when cool enough 

 use it. This will make young plants grow raj idly. 

 Seedlings, like tomatoes, and celery flourish finely 

 under its stimulating properties. These home- 

 made fertilizers have not the odors of "Arab}' the 

 Blest," neither has guano, but it is less obnoxious 

 to use in a parlor or dining room. 



All of our readers have by this time laid in their 

 winter supplies, — cellars and store-rooms bear evi- 

 dence to this assertion, for every provident house- 



