546 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



soon convince him that plants thrive best 

 where they stand upon a deep and pervious 

 soil ; one which rain water, and also the air 

 and the sun''s rays can readily penetrate. The 

 roots of plants travel in search of food, and 

 in so doing, if they approach a dry, compact 

 soil, tbey will turn aside and seek a way which 

 is more easily penetrated ; and that way will 

 be one which will usually be moist and afford 

 the most food. 



We are clearly of opinion, that soils which 

 are made up of less than fifty per cent, of 

 sand, drained and ploughed 12 inches in 

 depth, finely pulverized and well manured, 

 will bring a fair crop any year, be the weather 

 wet or dry. 



Jf too much rain falls, such a soil will allow 

 it to pass readily down out of the way. If 

 too dry, it will retain and use all the dew that 

 settles upon it. If too dry and hot, the evap- 

 oration on the surface will cause the water to 

 ascend from the porous subsoil ; this water 

 alwajs brings with it a quantity of saline mat- 

 ter, which it leaves behind when it rises in 

 vapor. The longer, therefore, the dry weather 

 and consequent evaporation from the surface 

 continues, the larger will be the amount of 

 saline matter coming towards the surface. 



The saline matter is just what the plants 



need, and it will certainly come to them if the 



soil is in a condition to admit its passage up. 



These views are corroborated by a very able 



writer, C. C. Langdon, of Mobile, Ala., which 



we find in the Rural Carolinian, one of 



our most valued "exchanges," published at 



Charleston, S. C. He sa}s : — 



"In a soil thus prepared, the roots not only de- 

 scend without obstruction to a depth sufflcient to 

 he hyond the reach of the burning atmosphere, 

 but the moi-ture from below it is raised to the 

 roots hy .capitlary attraction in time of drought, 

 while, in seasons of too much rain, the water is 

 luac'e to sink below tbe roots by the attraction of 

 gravitation. A fitniliar illustration of the modtis 

 'operaridi of these important and interesting agen- 

 cies is thus given : 'It you immerse a cimpact loaf 

 of sugar in water, it will require many minutes 

 for the fluid to penetrate through all its parts ; 

 but, it'you reduce it topowder before applying 

 the water, it will be saturated in a few seconds. 

 Just so it is with the earth. If you break it shal- 

 low,, and leave it in clods, it will be slow to ab- 

 sorb the moisture from below ; while, if you 

 plough it very deep and cl )se, and thus separate 

 its particles thoroughly, it will, like the pounded 

 sugar, take up the moiiture with very great fa- 

 cility.' Eveiy year we hear complaints of injury 

 or destruction ot crops by drought. Ic is time for 

 intelligent farmers to under,-tmd that all this is 

 the result of a defective system of culture, and 

 that it is entirely within their power to guard 

 against any such calamity. Examples are nu- 



raero'is of the entire success of the system, a^d it 

 is founded in reason and sound philosophy. There 

 is nothing at all mysterious about it, and nothing 

 to preveut its universal adoption." 



Old Mortar bt the Roadside. — Notwith- 

 standing all that has been said with regard to the 

 value of lime added to the soil, there are many 

 persons who do not use it, even when it is in their 

 way and must be disposed of. It is not uncom- 

 mon to notice a cartload or two of old mortar, 

 carried out from a house that is undergoing re- 

 pairs, and dumped down by the roadside ! Here 

 it remains for years, perhaps, in the way, and an 

 unsightly blemish -upon the premises. We know 

 of such heaps on farms now, where they have 

 been lying for a long time, and this, too, where 

 the owner raises wheat. Broken u p and spread 

 where wheat is sown, we have known it to add 

 materially to the crop, and so we suppose it would 

 benefit any of our old gardens, if made fine and 

 mingled with the soil. On clay or peat lands, the 

 sand contained in the mortar would be of essential 

 service. 



'WINTERING SHEEP. 



Winter is near at hand and every owner of 

 a flock of sheep should make his arrangements 

 for it. In most of the Northern States an ex- 

 aggerated f^icling of discouragement still per- 

 vades the growers of tine wool. Many of 

 them wintered their flocks poorly last winter, 

 on the ground that they could not afford to 

 feed them well — and probably will do the 

 same this winter. This in our opinion is a 

 cruel and suicidal policy. Less returns are 

 thus obtained from a given amount of food. 

 Thirty half starved sheep will produce less 

 good merchantable wool than twenty properly 

 kept ones ; will lose twice or three times as 

 many by death ; and will not raise half as 

 many lambs. And what farmer possessing a 

 spark of humanity is willing to see these poor 

 defenceless animals slowly growing thinner and 

 weaker — all of them tottering before March 

 closes — many of the inlambed ewes incapable 

 of rising with their burthen, and d)ing in 

 parturition. A more painful spectacle of 

 brute suffering than a flock in such condition 

 near the close of winter, cannot be witnessed, 

 and we believe that morality has a voice in 

 this matter as well as humanity. 



Every flock master who has more sheep 

 than he can keep properly or sell, should kill 

 the surplus when winter sets in, if he gets 

 nothing from them but the pelts. — Dr. Bun- 

 dall, in Rural New Yorker. 



— William A. Wheeler writes to the New York 

 Farmers' Club that he has known a very foul cask 

 to be entirely cleansed by filling it with dry earth 

 and leaving it four or five days. The earth treat- 

 ment, followed by scalding lime-water, will sweeten 

 anything but a very old and rancid tub. 



