286 
FAILURE IN THE CLOVER CROP. 
er's home should be, and. what it too often is, it 
is not half equal to the truth. Is it any wonder 
that children forsake such an old " shingle pal- 
ace," or dirty-brick or dismal stone dwelling, 
that looks more like a prison than a " happy 
home," and wander away from the land that 
gave them birth, and never cast one single re- 
gret behind ? Is it singular that children forsake 
rather than improve and beautify their home ? 
Where are they taught to love the beauties of 
art or nature? Certainly not in the "district 
school house." Look at it, and where it stands. 
An old dingy, wooden, one-story house, never 
painted nor underpinned ; never fenced, and of 
course, the hogs always had a nest beneath the 
floor. Look at the windows. One, two, three 
old hats stop broken panes ; four are patched 
with paper, and one is filled with a shingle, and 
five still remain open on the side now in view. 
There is not a tree, not a shrub, nor a grass plat 
around it, and it stands in the fork of two dusty 
roads. The only place of privacy is a few dis- 
tant bushes, or a rail fence. Here is where 
farmers' children are educated — taught the 
beauties of botany, and arts of rural embellish- 
ments, by which home is to be made attractive. 
Yes, just as attractive as the old district school 
house — attractive of disgust. L pray you, friend 
Derwin, give us a few more pictures ; I will help 
you embellish them. 
Farm of Mr. French. — Many more interesting 
particulars might have been stated of this ex- 
traordinary neat farm. Among other things, I 
would have opened the interior of his "tool 
house," for some of your readers to look into, 
and wonder what on earth a man could do with 
so many, or how he managed to keep them in 
such order, and to have a place for everything, 
and everything always in its place. 
" The comforts about the house are such as 
might be expected." Yes, in a farmer's home ; 
that, is such a home as every American farmer 
ought to have, and might have under a better 
system of education and cultivation. Dark and 
bright pictures improve by contrast. Let us 
have more of them. 
Cultivation of Peaches on Long Island. — The 
writer says " One reason why peaches have not 
been cultivated more on this island, is, probably, 
because the farmers do not understand the 
treatment they require, &c." Are there not 
other reasons ? One of which is some portion 
of the farmers of Long Island do not belong to 
this age of improvements. They are antedilu- 
vians — living in their ancient " shingle palaces," 
cultivating their land justas their fathers did,and 
honestly believing that all the uncultivated land 
cannot be cultivated because it never has been." 
Economy. — Here is almost a page of matter 
under this title. What for? Is it an English 
word? Does anybody understand its meaning ? 
" Teach children economy." Do you think they 
would be so unfashionable as to practise what 
Webster's Dictionary defines this word to mean ? 
" The management and government of a family; 
frugal and judicious use of money ?" This is 
all very good advice, but the tyrant law of fash- 
ion will not permit it to be acted upon. 
Reclaiming Worn-out Lands without Manure. — 
The self-congratulations of this farmer that he 
had been able to keep his land fertile by feeding 
out all his hay upon the land, without using any 
foreign manures, is just about equal to a man 
congratulating himself that he had always been 
able to carry his .grist to mill on horseback, with 
a stone in one end of the bag to balance the 
corn, " without the aid of foreign" wagons. 
Where there is a convenient market for hay, it 
will probably pay better profits to the farmer to 
sell it, than any other crop, or feeding it on the 
fields where grown. Return an equivalent in 
foreign manures, and your land will not become 
exhausted. It is not always good economy to 
feed it all to cattle at home.* 
How Horses Get the Colic. — The " prevention " 
recommended in this article may do for Siberia, 
it never will be practised in this go-a-head coun- 
try. 
A Chapter on Various Subjects, one of which is 
a "hit" at the "Captain;" in which he is re- 
quested to " hold up his head and speak like a 
man," and give a categorical reason why he 
" guessed " a certain article was written by a 
lady. This is the first time I ever heard any 
surprise expressed because a Yankee guessed at 
anything. I thought they had a prescriptive 
right to that franchise. But as "Agricola" 
doubts it, I will only guess once more. I guess 
I cannot answer the question- put to me, not- 
withstanding I have held up my head as desired, 
and spoken as much like a man as I am able to 
under the circumstances ; as you are aware I 
am obliged to keep myself always in the dark, 
lest you should see my ugly face, and then there 
would be no more guessing who owned it. And 
now I guess I will pass over a great many other 
articles that enrich this number of the Agricul- 
turist, for fear somebody else besides Agricola 
will accuse me of " poking jokes " at him, and 
so poke them back at me, and injure the reputa- 
tion of your Reviewer. 
»•-» . 
FAILURE IN THE CLOVER CROP. 
For the last half century or more, the com- 
monly-cultivated red clover has often failed in 
many sections of Europe. This has been at- 
tributed to various causes, but principally to the 
exhaustion of one or more of the ingredients of 
the soil essential to securing a productive crop. 
Aelbroeck, in his work called L' Agriculture 
Practique de la Flandre, has, with no little reason, 
given the following as the principal cause for 
its failure : — 
He says . " the orobanche, or broom rape, 
(O. major, O. vulgaris, L.) is a parasitical plant ; 
that is, it attaches its roots to those of other 
plants, instead of fixing them in the ground. 
The seed of this singular plant vegetates, as 
usual, in the ground, and the plant grows to 
some height, when its connection with the ground 
is broken, and a new root formed and fixed on 
an adjoining plant. It is mostly found on the 
roots of clover, hemp, and broom, and most fre- 
quently on poor soils. The second crop of clo- 
ver seems, also, to be more liable to it than the 
first. Strong clay soils are less subject to the 
