HINTS ON ENCLOSING LOTS IN RURAL CEMETERIES, ETC. 
17 
will not pay cost. On the contrary, for hogs, they 
are of hut little value when fed raw. I should like 
to see the experiment carefully tried, to ascertain 
the relative value between potatoes and Indian 
corn, for fattening both cattle and swine. 
Mural Pastimes by Social Labor, No. 4. — The 
reading of this article has carried me back to the 
days of my childhood, to the joyful husking frolics 
of New England. It grieves me to think that these 
old-fashioned rural pastimes are being superseded 
by a refined state of society, that certainly gives no 
increase to the happiness of the rural population. 
R ural population! ! ! did I say 1 Why, the phrase 
is almost obsolete. Excess of refinement in these 
latter days, forbids that a bevy of country girls 
should engage in a most gleesome party of huskers, 
and spend an evening out in the orchard, or barn, 
with old men and boys, red ears and speckled ones, 
jokes, songs, and stories, all to wind up with a 
wholesome, hearty supper, and, perhaps, a most 
exhilerating dance. But perhaps the most jovial 
and happy husking frolics in the world, as your 
correspondent alludes to, are among the negroes of 
the southern states. These, and the Christmas 
merry makings, are bright spots in a darkie's life. 
And here, with minds full of reminiscences of the 
pleasures of rural life, let us be impressed, while 
buoyed up with the pleasing reflection that we 
are administering to the stock of information 
or benefit of that class of our fellow laborers, 
whom we desire to see elevated above the mere 
drudging day laborer, or cringing serf of some ex- 
acting landlord. And I am well assured that such 
a class of population can never exist in this coun- 
try, if our rural laborers will continue in the well- 
begun practice of supporting and reading works 
like the Agriculturist, and numerous others, that 
have been published within a few years ; for they 
tend to enlighten the mind so that it will be the 
surest guarantee against the evils of "land mo- 
nopoly," and give us an ever increasing population 
of cultivators of a soil they are proud to call their 
own. Reviewer. 
HINTS ON THE MODE OF ENCLOSING LOTS IN 
RURAL CEMETERIES. 
For an evergreen hedge, as an enclosure to a 
bui'ial lot, in a cemetery, I think, all things con- 
sidered, the arbor vitee ( Thuja occidentalis), is the 
most appropriate. Planted, and treated as a hedge, 
that is, shearing and clipping it annually (and no 
plant will better bear the shears), it may be kept 
down to the height of three or four feet. Or, if it 
is left untrimmed, it will form a dense screen, or en- 
closure, from ten to fifteen feet in height. It would 
always be a harmonious and agreeable mode of 
marking the limits of proprietorship in any of our 
cemeteries, and would be much more in accordance 
with the feeling of seclusion, which one naturally 
associates with a resting place of the dead. 
The evergreen Variegated-leaved Euronymus 
would, also, make an excellent low hedge for an 
enclosure of this kind, perfectly hardy, and very 
pretty withal. So would the tree box (Buxus sem- 
vervirens arborescens), but more dense than the euro- 
nymus, and it would bear equally well the shears. 
The Mahonia equifolia is a desirable shrub for an 
evergreen hedge, being hardy and growing to a 
height of three or four feet, displaying its beautiful 
yellow flowers, which form a pleasing contrast 
with its rich, deep-green leaves. 
The Double-leaved Altheas, intermingled with each 
other, would likewise answer an admirable purpose, 
and perhaps stands unequalled by no deciduous- 
leaved plant, unless it be the purging buckthorn 
(Rhamnus catharticus) . The latter makes a most 
perfect hedge, if properly trimmed, by the time it 
acquires a height of three or four feet. 
Among the trees of a larger growth, suitable for 
ornamenting burial lots, the hemlock spruce (Abies 
canadensis), a native of our forests, is most beauti- 
ful in its character, and is much to be admired for 
the deep color of its finely-cut and glossy leaves, 
which render it much more graceful in its appear- 
ance than most other evergreens. 
The Deodar Cedar, however, without exception, 
is the most magnificent evergreen that has ever been 
introduced. It is a native of the Himalayan Moun- 
tains, in Asia, and has thus far proved perfectly 
hardy, as has been fairly tested in several nurseries 
at Flushing, and elsewhere, for three or four win- 
ters past. Its foliage, in appearance, in the early 
part of summer, is very much like that of the 
larch ; and its beautiful weeping habit excites the 
admiration of all who become familiar with it. 
Another beautiful ornament for a cemetery lot, is 
the Swedish Juniper, an evergreen attaining a 
height of ten or twelve feet, and much more rapid 
in its growth, and far more graceful than the Irish 
yew. Its feathery light foliage and pendant 
branches place it far above any other evergreen of 
an equal-sized stem. 
The common yew (Taxus baccata), although 
long associated with burial grounds, or church- 
yards, in Europe, and attains an advanced age and a 
large size, is less hardy than the Irish, and is not 
adapted to the climate of the northern parts of the 
United States. The association, perhaps, might be 
kept up by the American trailing yew (Taxus cana- 
densis), which is perfectly hardy and will grow on 
almost every variety of soil. 
There are many other desirable varieties of trees 
and shrubs, which would be appropriate for the ob- 
ject above, but the present will suffice. 
Sempervirens. 
Flushing, L. I., November 12th, 1848. 
. « 
Another Fact in Book Farming. — A corres- 
pondent writes us from Winchester, Virginia, that 
he has been a subscriber to our journal for five or 
six years, and that he would like to see it more ex- 
tensively circulated in that place. He says that 
he has shown his neighbors, the last season, how to 
raise 83 bushels of shelled corn to the acre without 
the application of any manure, whereas 35 bushels 
in his " diggins," is considered a good yield. He 
attributes his success to the knowledge he obtained 
from the American Agriculturist. 
» 
Phosphoric Acid Essential to the Growth 
of All Nutritive Plants. — In all the plants, or 
parts of plants, which are of any great nutritive 
value, phosphate of lime, or some other compound 
of phosphoric acid, is always to be found in a con- 
siderable quantity, whilst the proportion in which 
it occurs for the same plant, is so uniform as to 
preclude all question that it is essential to their 
very existence. 
