298 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
AN OliD MAN’S PSALM. 
BY J. G. WHITTIER. 
1 mourn no more my vanished years — 
Beneath a tender rain, 
An April rain of smiles and tears, 
My heart is young again. 
The west winds blow, and singing low, 
I hear the glad streams run ; 
The windows of my soul I throw 
Wide open to the sun. 
No longer forward nor behind 
I look in hope and fear ; 
But, grateful, take the good I find, 
The best of noio and here. 
I plow no more a desert land. 
To harvest weed and tare; 
The manna dropping, from God’s hand. 
Rebukes my painful care. 
I break my pilgrim staff — I lay 
Aside the toiling oar ; 
The angel sought so far away, 
I welcome at my door. 
The airs of spring may never play 
Among the ripening corn. 
Nor freshness of the flowers of May 
Blow through the autumn morn : 
Yet shall the blue-eyed gentian look 
Through fringed" lids to heaven. 
And the pale aster in the brook 
Shall see its image given ; 
The woods shall wear their robes of praise. 
The south winds softly sigh. 
And sweet, calm days in golden haze 
Melt down the amber sky. 
Not less shall manly deed and word 
Rebuke an age of wrong ; 
The graven flowers that wreath the sword 
Make not the blade less strong. 
But smiting hands shall learn to heal. 
To build as to destroy ; 
Nor less my heart for others feel. 
That I the more enjoy. 
All as God wills, who wisely heeds 
To give or to withhold. 
And knoweth more of all my needs 
Than all my prayers have told ! 
Enough that blessings undeserved 
Have marked my erring track — 
That whereso’er my feet have swerved. 
His chastening turned me back — 
That more and more a Providence 
Of love is understood. 
Making the springs of time and sense 
Sweet with eternal good — 
That death seems but a covered way 
Which opens into light, 
Wherein no blinded child can stray 
Beyond the Father’s sight— 
That care and trial seem at last, 
Through Memory’s sunset air, 
Like mountain-ranges overpast, 
In purple distance fair — 
That all the jarring notes of life 
Seem blending in a psalm, 
And all the angels of its strife 
Slow rounding into calm. 
And so the shadows fall apart, 
And so the west winds play ; 
And all the windows of my heart 
I open to the day. 
THE BOSTON CULTIVATOR AND THE CHINESE 
Sugar Cane. 
It is with some concern that we have read the follow- 
ing article on the Chinese Sugar Cane. The editors of 
the Boston Cultivator are gentltmcn whose opinions are 
entitled to much weight. We had hoped that the Chinese 
Sugar Cane would be established as a valuable forage 
plant for cattle. We had supposed that the evils charged 
to its account were the same which would occur from 
the excess of any other succulent green food. In the 
article we extract from the Cultivator, it will be perceived 
that the editors of that paper concur with the French 
Marquis, in affirming that the Chinese Sugar Cane pro- 
duces not only a diminution of milk, but absolute steril- 
ity in cows. We trust that no unfortunate discovery will 
be made in regard to this plant as a food for hogs. Com- 
ing in after the stubble fields are exhausted and before 
corn is ready, we have considered it as filling an impor- 
tant place in hog raising, and would be very sorry to be 
compelled to abandon it : 
Sorgho as a Forage Plant. — Much has been said and 
written upon the Chinese Sugar Cane, within the past two 
or three years, some maintaining that it contains more 
valuable.qualities than any other field plant known. The 
two chief ends to be gained by its introduction and culti- 
vation, ‘as claimed by its enthusiastic advocates, are or 
were, that it would enable every farmer to make his own 
sugar, and to produce a cheaper forage for his live stock, 
than could be done by the cultivation of any other plant. 
With regard to the first claim we never had much confi- 
dence, yet quite as much as with regard to the second. 
Concerning the latter, that is to say, its use as a forage 
plant, we copy the following statement, translated from 
the French J,mrnal of Practical Agriculture, for the 
Mark Lane Express. Similar conclusions relative to its 
use for feeding cows, have been reached here, to those 
contained in the following experiments, which were made 
in France: 
‘'When in your columns, Mr. Editor, you opened an 
enquiry respecting the qualities of the sugar sorgho of 
China as a forage plant, you ought to have received the 
observations of one of the oldest contributors of the Jour- 
nal of Agriculture, when to that title was united that of 
being one of the first introducers of the sorgho. 
“On principle, and in quality of member of the Zoologi- 
cal Society of Acclimation, I have shared in the distribu- 
tion oT seeds sent to the Society by M. de Montignay. 
These seeds have ripened with me from the first years of 
their introduction. I cite the fact, not to profit by if, for 
our latitude (40'^ 36m.) will not permit us to expect a 
fructification, constant, regular and normal, but to let you 
see that my experiments have from the first continued un- 
interrupted. A cultivator in Sologne, seeking improve- 
ments, I have directed my attention to the i-orghr,and 
its power of vegetation, to call u lo my md uS a forage 
