562 



NEW ENGLAND FARAEER. 



Dec. 



the shore of Bombazine Lake, in Hubbardtoa. 

 We also passed "Screw-driver," and one or two 

 other smaller lakes or ponds, whose names we 

 have forgotten. The residence of Albert Bresee, 

 of Hubbardton, the origiqator of the Early Rose 

 and other popular varieties of potatoes, was also 

 passed on our way. 



In Castleton we examined a large establishment 

 for "marbleizing" or enamelling slate for table- 

 tops, maatel-pieces, jambs, &c. The nature of this 

 stone is such that the materials used for glazing 

 adhere to it in the several processes of baking to 

 which it is exposed, as does the enamel to the clay 

 of which fine earthen ware is made. We saw 

 specimens of the work of great beauty and high 

 finish ; exceeding in these respects the most costly 

 marble, and we understood that it could be afforded 

 at one-fourth the price of marble. Any shade or 

 variety of coloring can be given. Without enam- 

 eling, the slate looks very rich, when polished, and 

 is largely sold with this finish. Roofing slates are 

 also manufactured to a large extent in this place. 



Slat3 Pencils. 



In Hubbardton we visited a slats pencil factory. 

 Here the steam engine was whirling the saws, 

 shoving the planes, and operating the other ma- 

 chinery necessary to convert a mountain of rock 

 into pencils for the boys and girls to cypher with ! 

 Men and women, girls and boys, were here at 

 work, as busy as bees, and all were breathing an 

 air so filled with the dubt of this "clay slate for- 

 mation of western Vermont," that we should think 

 but a few days would be required to change the 

 lungs, if not the heart, of every workman into 

 stone. After being mined, the stone is sawed and 

 split and planed into pieces about six inches long, 

 four or five wide and of a thickness required by 

 the diameter of the pencil. These pieces are very 

 rapidly put through one machine which cuts 

 grooves half the thickness of the slate ; they are 

 then turned over, when corresponding grooves are 

 cut on the opposite side, and of the same depth, 

 and the plate of stone becomes a row of well 

 formed pencils, ready to be put up by the gross in 

 pasteboard boxes, which are then packed in wooden 

 boxes for transportation. Notwithstanding the 

 large force employed, we understood that orders 

 were ahead of production. The waste of material 

 is large— one of our party estimating it at 90 per 

 cent. We wtre told that this debris had been 

 used for the manufacture of alum, but to what ex- 

 tent and with what success we are not informed. 



The country through which we passed this day 

 was "diversified," and exceedingly interesting. 

 Hills and rocks of a most rugged character marked 

 part of our way, while in other places we passed 

 fine farming sections. But as we were on the move 

 nearly all day, we had no opportunity for anything 

 more ttian the most casual observation of the 

 farming interests of this section, but we thought 

 the general aspect was that of prosperity and pro- 

 gress. 



Massachusetts Agricultural College. — 

 The conductors of the Amherst Record have as- 

 signed a portion of the columns of that paper to 

 matters pertaining to the Agricultural College, to 

 be conducted by the Senior Class, of which W. H. 

 Bowker, Wm. Wheeler, S. H. Richmond, L. B. 

 Caswell, G. W. Woolson, and W. C. Ware are 

 named as Editors. In the issue of the TJtcord of 

 October 26, the College Department is well tilled; 

 most of the space being occupied by an Introduc- 

 tory, an article on the Darfee Plant-House, and 

 one on Drainage. 



To sustain such a department in a weekly paper, 

 creditably to the Senior Class and to the institu- 

 tion to which they belong, will require an amount 

 of labor which we fear will be hardly consistent 

 with a thorough prosecution of their studies. We 

 agree, however, fully with the editors in the 

 opinion that if this department is well sustained it 

 will accomplish one at least of the objects which 

 they propose, that of placing "the college in its 

 true light before the people, and thus to render it 

 more useful to the agricultural community." 



FALL PLOUGHING AND MAJfUHINO. 



We are more and more convinced of the 

 utility cf fall ploughing. At this season the 

 plough may with more safety be put in deeply, 

 and a portion of the subsoil be brought to the 

 surface. The rain and frost, and air and sun- 

 shine, will pulverize it, and prepare it to be 

 mixed with the surface soil in the spring by 

 the plough, the harrow and the cultivator, and 

 to J ield its nutritive elements to the growing 

 plants. 



When a subsoil is brought up in the spring 

 by the plough, it takes nearly the whole sea- 

 son for it to become fine and mellow, and to 

 be of much value to the growing crops. It is 

 not enough that a subsoil be made fine by me- 

 chanical means. It needs the ripening, per- 

 haps the chemical influence of light and air, to 

 change and render more soluble the salts it 

 contains. 



Many farmers object to ploughing up the 

 subsoil. They say it is of no value to the 

 crop planted upon it, — that it is ofcen posi- 

 tively injurious. When a heavy subsoil is 

 thrown up in the late spring, and immediately 

 sowed or planted, this is doubtless true, and if 

 is because these same farmers confine their 

 ploughing to the spring, that they have become 

 prejudiced against deep ploughing. If they 

 had allowed the winter to act upon the sub- 

 soil, they would have found the following sea- 

 son, not only a deeper tilth, but a mellow soil 

 capable of mixing with the manure, and yield- 



