270 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



June 



grows best on a given spot — is entirely depend- 

 ent upon the chemical constitution of the soil." 



But both the soil and the vegetation which 

 it nourishes, according to Prof. Johnston, are 

 seen to undergo slow but natural changes. 

 Lay down a piece of land to grass, and after 

 a lapse of years the surface soil — originally, 

 perhaps, of the stitfest clay, — is found to have 

 become a rich, light, vegetable mould, bear- 

 ing a thick sward of nourishing grasses, al- 

 most totally dilFerent from those which nat- 

 urally grew upon it when first converted into 

 ])asture. So in a wider field, and on a larger 

 scale, the same slow changes are exhibited in 

 the forests. 



Occasionally we see on a tract where pines 

 have been cut down, the land burnt over and 

 then cropped with rye, that birches and other 

 growths will spring up, but after awhile young 

 pines will appear again and take the lead. 

 This seems to be a proof that the elements of 

 nutrition which sustained the pines had not 

 been exhausted, as the pines usurp their for- 

 mer dominion and soon smother the birches 

 and other growths out. We have seen ex- 

 amples of this kind occurring where a vig- 

 orous growth of comparatively young pines 

 were cut down. 



In relation to these changes the writer re- 

 ferred to above, says : — 



"We may take a practical lesson from the book 

 of nature. If we wish to have a hixurious vegeta- 

 tion upon a given spot, we must cither select such 

 kind of seeds to sow upon it as are fitted to the 

 kind of soil, or we must change the nature of the 

 land so as to adapt if to our crop. And even when 

 we have once prepared it to yield abundant return 

 of a particular kind, the changes we have pro- 

 duced can oiUy be more or less of a temporary 

 nature. Our care and attention must still be be- 

 stowed upon it, that it may be enabled to resist 

 the slow, natural causes of alternation by which it 

 is gradually unlitted to nourish those vegetable 

 tribes which it appears now to delight in maintain- 



DOES A DRY WINTER INDICATE 

 SHORT CROPS? 



Some persons are predicting that the winter 

 drought in New England is a pretty sure indi- 

 cation that the coming summer will be a dry 

 one, and that short crops will be the result. 

 It is quite certain, we think, that if the spring 

 rains are withheld through the latter part of 

 April, and all through ]May, that the most 

 abundant summer rains would hardly compen- 

 sate for the loss of the former. It is not 

 probable that the mechanical or chemical 

 operation in the soil, whereby plant food is 



supplied, is the work of a day or a week. 

 The process of preparation of food, digestion, 

 or whatever it may be, we take it is carried 

 on in the soil, so that when the root receives 

 it, it is true sajj-food, and passes on as such 

 to the leaves where it is elaborated into sub- 

 stances which are to form its own kind, whether 

 it be the poison hellebore or the delicious 

 peach. 



If this "be true," then the soil needs con- 

 tinuous rains, so that active operations may 

 be constantly going 'on in it, to make ready 

 the food which plants must have, or cease to 

 grow. 



Cases have been recorded in England and 

 in other countries, where winters of unusual 

 droughts were followed by short crops. In 

 Algiers, and in the lower plains in that region 

 a few winters ago, the drought was very 

 severe, and the succeeding summer a famine 

 was the result. 



Those who plant under these convictions, 

 will do well to select moist land, plant early 

 and cultivate highly, so as to carry crops for- 

 ward rapidly, and if possible, beyond the 

 reach of a drought. 



Jfor the Knv England Farmer, 

 HAY AND STRAW. 

 Is it good policy for New England Farmers to 

 make a specialty of any crop ? 



It may appear presumptuous in me to advo- 

 cate a practice that is so generally condemned, 

 and the converse of which is generally advo- 

 vocated by yourselves and your contributors. 

 I think, however, that with some few excep- 

 tions, the great changes which have taken 

 ])lace and are now in progress in our country, 

 in the interchange of commodities, and espe- 

 cially of farm products, have greatly altered 

 the question we are now to consider. We are 

 not so much competitors in our markets with 

 our immediate neighbors as with the products 

 of the people of remote States who come to 

 our very doors with theirs, by means of the 

 facilities we have in large measure made avail- 

 able for their use, and by which facilities we 

 are discriminated against, and the distant States 

 encouraged. We do not propose to discuss 

 this apparent injustice to ourselves now, but 

 rather to look at the consequences of our mar- 

 kets being furnished in a large degree from 

 sources remote from home. We ought not to 

 object to this being so, for in itself considered 

 it is very proper in every respect. There 

 should ever be unrestricted markets and free 

 interchange of products within our country's 

 limits, liy reason of this reciprocal inter- 

 change alone, can we be in any true sense one 



