1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



215 



the most valuable as a material in compost. Our 

 garden corjcspondent, recommends for early cab- 

 bages, Jersey Wakefield, Early and Large York, 

 Early Ox-heart, Winningstadt, and Early Flat 

 Dutch; for later, Marblehead Mammoth, Stone 

 Mason, Common Ball, Flat Dutch, Green Globe, 

 Savoy. Of onions he names Weathersfield Red, 

 Danvers Yellow, White Portugal and Potato. 



WHO HAS PEACH AND CHERRT TREES FOR SALE ? 



Do you know of any one that has cherry and 

 peach'trees for sale that are grown in this State ? 

 I should like to buy some this spring. If any one 

 has trees I wish they would advertise in the Far- 

 mer, and then we should know where to go for 

 them. c. R. 



Lexington, Mass., Apnl, 1871. 



BEST EARLY CORN. 



I have raised com for over forty years, and think 

 the Scandinavian com that I got of A. M. Everts, 

 five }'ears ago, is the earliest and best kind I ever 

 raised. It cars well and has all been sound and 

 well filled over the ends of ears. The yield has 

 been large. In 1870 I picked my seed in seventy- 

 nine days from planting. Wm. Noyes. 



Salisbury, Vt., March 18, 1871. 



Waterless Prairies. — String Prairie in Green 

 county, 111., is well adapted to com raismg and cat- 

 tle feeding, but in dry seasons is much troubled for 

 water, though wells have been sunk 100 feet. It 

 was generally supposed that water would be reached 

 by boring not over 600 feet. A gentleman near 

 Carrolton, Mr. Geo. L. Burras, obtained a steam 

 engine and the necessary implements for an arte- 

 sian well, and sunk a shaft 370 feet, when the drill 

 was broken. A second well was started near by 

 and after going down 1004 feet, the work was aban- 

 doned. The materials passed through were, as 

 stated by a correspondent of the Prairie Farmer, 

 as follows : — soil and clay 47 feet ; shale, 334 feet ; 

 sand rock, 117 feet; lime rock, 506 feet. No state- 

 ment of the expense of this experiment, which ex- 

 tended with several vacations from November, 1867, 

 to January, 1871, are given. 



Maple Svgar. — On account of there being so 

 little snow on the ground, many predicted a small 

 run of maple sap this season. We are glad how- 

 ever to leam that the sugar harvest has been 

 abundant in all parts of New England. Our friend 

 J.' L. Goldsmith of Water Village, N. H., infomis 

 us that in his school district. No. 5, in the town of 

 Ossipee, twenty-eight of the thirty families in- 

 cluded in its limits have made as much as nine 

 thousand pounds of maple sugar this season. In 

 addition to a supply for his own family, Mr. 

 Goldsmith has sold one hundi-ed dollars worth, 

 mostly in Portsmouth ; for some of the earliest of 

 which in nice cakes he realized twenty -five cents a 

 pound. 



— The Elgin Gazette says that the Illinois Con- 

 densing Company ship 100,000 cans of condensed 

 milk every month from Elgin to New York City. 



SPKINQ.— AJS" INVOCATION. 



BY W. BRAILSFORD, 



Up in the hawthorn in the dale 

 The blackbird tells his lovely tale. 



With voice all blithe and free; 

 Bright sunshine on the willows gleams. 

 The perch moves softly in the streams — 



Spring I Spring I we call for thee. 



The torpid bee, with drooping wing, 

 Would fain pursue his ministering 



In orchard crofts and bowers ; 

 But ah ! he waits thy cheering smile, 

 Whose truth would all his fears beguile, 



And yield him pleasant flowers. 



The violet half opes its eye, 



As if it feared some fate was nigh 



To end its early day ; 

 The primrose leaves the mossy beds, 

 And wavering every petal spreads. 



With perfume for love's May. 



The snow-flakes melt, the ice is gone. 

 Only the winds sound drear and lone. 



Life trembles in the reed ; 

 Only the winds in forest trees 

 Awake sad echoes from the leas. 



And chill the growing mead. 



Only the winds, they seem to stay. 

 As if their part were meant alway 



For recklessness and doom ; 

 Come, fairest Spring, come bid them cease. 

 And give the slumbrous earth release 



From Winter's freezing gloom. 



We call thee from those regions fair, 

 Where all thy sweet handmaidens are. 



Love sighs where suitors weep. 

 Hark I hark I the notes of Time's old bells. 

 Would chai-m thee with their wonted spells. 



So waken from thy sleep. 



STEAM CULTIVATION IN ENGLAND. 



Prof. Cook, of the New Jersey State Agri- 

 cultural College, furnishes the Countrxj Gen- 

 tleman a highly interesting account of steam 

 cultivation as seen by him last summer in 

 England. The implement used was a trian- 

 gular iron cultivator with nine teeth, the out- 

 er ones being seven feet apart. In mellow 

 ground the teeth would penetrate about 15 

 niches. This one was working on very hard 

 soil, never ploughed more than four or five 

 inches deep, yet it was breaking it up to the 

 depth of 10 or 12 inches at the rate of 20 

 acres a day. 



Two locomotives of lO-horse power were 

 used, one at each side of the field, which was 

 perhaps a quarter of a mile across. A wire 

 rope extended from one to the other. The 

 engines advanced the width of the cultivator 

 each time it crossed the field. It was worked 

 at the rate of five miles an hour. 



One man rode on the cultivator, and could 

 steer it so as to pass around obstructions. 

 Two men were on each engine and a sixth 

 with horse and cart was engaged in drawing 

 water for the boilers. 



The work was done by contract, the farmer 

 paying 9 English shillings (say $2.25) per 

 acre. This in not much cheaper than the 

 work could be done with horses, but it was 

 better done, and could be rapidly done just 



