For the New England Farmer. applicable to all animal life, in man or brute, and MATURING PLANTS. [REPLY TO R. Mc I.] BY A. G. COMINGS. is alike applicable to all vegetable life. It should be written where it would be read in the morning and in the evening, at the going out and at the coming in of every thinking, moving mortal. Life Mr. McIntire further notices my article as fol- and health are more for our own keeping, than to lows:-" He asserts that those plants which pro- be thrown into the care of doctors. Trees, grapes, duce seed the first year of their growth, and then shrubs, all may die from overbearing. It is the die, draw away the substance of the roots to ma- exhaustion of the vital energies. Death is not ture their seeds, and is the cause of their death natural from any other cause. Man, the monarch Is this true, or do they die because they have full- of this mundane sphere, may overtax his energies filled the law of their being? Are these [there] for the reproduction of his species, or task himself not perennial plants that produce and mature in daily toil beyond his gifts, or neglect his regutheir seed from the first and many successive years lar supply of wholesome aliment, and he quickly from the same root?" brings the enginry of death thundering along his 1. I will answer: first, as to the law of being of track. Not an eye grows dim, not a bair is blightplants, that is part of the question. It has ed, not a flower fades, without a cause. been supposed by many, like Mr. McIntire, that 2. Mr. McIntire says, "Some farmers never plow certain plants have a fixed time to live, however in grain crops, and yet for many years raise good they may be treated, and that their death must crops of corn and grain. How is this fact reconcome then, "as shure as fate." Certain bulbous ciled with his remarks about seed-producing crops rooted plants, as the onion, (and I think herd's- exhausting the soil, and rendering it necessary to grass has the same habit,) form a bulb one year plow in grain crops?" and produce seed the next. A new side bulb is Answer. There were in my old arithmetic, formed on the year of seeding, and the seed-pro- which I used in the simple times of my boyhood, ducing bulb dies with the production of seed. when I went to school at the old district schoolYet the onion, if it does not mature the bulb the house which stood on the shady side of a New first year, will not produce good seed the second Hampshire hill, two very simple rules, called Adyear. Put that idea up garret, and if you want to dition and Subtraction. From the simple rules of raise good onion seed, be sure you set the most that very simple old arithmetic I was simple perfect and ripe bulbs; for it is a law of such enough to take the idea that a continual taking plants to depend for the accomplishment of the away, which was called subtraction, without any second year's work, (producing seed,) upon the putting back, which would be called addition, capital accumulated the first year. Small bulbs, would result in the exhastion of what there was at or small tap-roots, in a soil containing only a small first; so that, after a while, when the trial should amount of carbonaceous food, will produce but a be made to take something away from nothing, the small quantity of seed, and much of that will most answer as given by the old school-master would likely be shrivelled and worthless. This fact is be, "You can't." Well, I fell into the simple idea sustained by the experience of almost every far- of applying this to farming. So I would say to Mr. mer. The reason is evident. McIntire, if those farmers who have taken many We may also add, if it is so with bulbous and good seed-crops from the same soil work only by tap-rooted plants, how much more dependent upon the rule of subtraction in reference to the carbonathe soil will be the fibrous-rooted plants, such as ceous matter in the soil, the time must sooner or corn, wheat, rye, oats, &c. It' I mistake not, none later come when the answer of their figuring will of these die at the root until they make the natural be "You can't." Facts are as strong as figures. attempt to produce and mature seed. Yet, the Carbon comes not alone from the plowing in of biennial plants, whenever for any cause they are green crops; but it all comes from green crops, hurried to mature seed the first season, lose vitality originally. From deposits of meadow muck, or at the root. from animal excrements, the needed supply of old I have seen fields of clover used as pastures for vegetable matter may be obtained, for small lots cows, in which the clover roots lived many years. of ground. But why should the idea of manuring It would not be so, however, to use pastures as with green crops be so generally disregarded, New England farmers generally do. (Of that I when millions of acres of New England soil could have not now time for further explanation.) thereby be made worth double what it now is, by Facts assure me that clover, in proper circum- a small outlay of expense. There is just the same stances, will live many years. It will not, how-sense in crop after crop, and then crop after crop, ever, if it is allowed to drive its vital forces into requiring carbon, without adopting a course of acthe production of seed. Even the blossoms of clo- tion to replemish the soil, that there would be in ver contain a rich store of carbon and nitric acid, milking, milking, milking, day after day, week realy to supply the first want of the growing after week, the old brown cow, without giving her seed. If the root is exhausted of these substances hay, grass, grain or roots, out of which to manuin combination, die it must. No plant dies until facture milk. the vital energies of the root are exhausted, in ordinary circumstances. Certain it is that the husbandman has a right to put the atmosphere and the rain under the strict In the animal and in the vegetable kingdoms, payment of tribute, for his profit, as well as the the first great law of health and life is that the merchant or the miller, the sawyer or the sailor. preservation of the vital energies preserves health Right up here in this blue atmosphere, ready to and perpetuates life; while the only natural cause be sucked into the solid matter of vegetable growth, of death is the exhaustion of those vital forces. is a mine of manure, more inexhaustible than the This great principle ought to be understood by mines of Peruvian Islands, and more precious in every man, every woman and every child. It is value than mountains of gold. Every breathing ร ities." HOME-MADE FURNITURE. thing is contributing daily to increase it, and every plant sucks in a part of it. The great Creator has provided it, and it is open and free to every man In the present pecuniary troubles many a wife who will accept the gift. "I don't believe in this finds an unusual necessity for practicing the strictidea that this vegetable matter ever goes down into est economy in household matters. Perhaps housethe plant," says Grandfather Fogy; "I believe it keeping is just to be commenced, and the great all goes upwards in the plant, to the very extrem- problem is, how much furniture and how many conveniences can we afford to procure. A little money Well, now, just follow down that pine root, if must go as far as possible. Such would perhaps you please, fifteen or twenty feet below where like to be initiated into the art of making cheap there is any other carbonaceous matetr. There it articles of furniture, both useful and ornamental. is, the same substance of those spreading limbs. Many a neat and comfortable sofa or lounge, chair, The carbon bas gone down there, and there it is, stand, bed, book-shelves, &c., &c., have we seen, in the little fibres, creeping out this way-creeping that cost its owners almost nothing. out that way-creeping in every direction; and not a single soul in all the realm of reasonable existence, wise man or wizard, fanatic or fool, can screw his credulity up to the point of believing that those roots began to grow at the outer end, and then grew bigger and bigger, until they bit hold of each other and found a tree ready to be fathered by the fraternity. New Hampshire. A. G. COMINGS. FOR WHAT? "Pa, did God make oysters?" "Well-but then, why do they have shells ?" This was a riddle to the little fellow-that oysters are made to be eaten, and yet were made with shells to prevent their being eaten. The same question of the intention of God in the creation of things, meet the student of Nature at almost every spot. A few boards, a little stuffing, and a few yards of shilling calico, put together with ingenuity, will give a tasteful and even elegant air to an otherwise bare and comfortless room. Most of the work we shall describe can be done by the females of the household, and we are sure will afford them more pleasure and comfort than the so-called "ornamental" worsted-work, bed-quilt piecing, &c. And in almost every family there is enough mechanical ingenuity among the boys, if not among the girls, to do the sawing and nailing. A simple Lounge can be made by taking a broad, thick plank, strengthening it by nailing on cross pieces underneath and inserting four short legs; add a cushion filled with any material you wish, and add a valance of the same to conceal the legs. A back and either one or two ends may be added, if desired, by nailing on boards and cushioning them like the seat. A Cot Bedstead many of you know how to three inches square, make. Take four sticks about four feet long and bore an inch hole through the Every plant has been given some way of resistmiddle of each, and put a round stick, six feet long, ing injury. The blades of grass have saw-like through, and pins through the ends; arrange these margin. The leaves of corn are sharply edged like the four legs of a saw horse; then, to form the with flint. The heads of grass are bearded. The sides, connect the head and foot posts by nailing a kernels of all nuts are cased in by a shell to pre- of bagging 6 feet by 4, stretch it across and nail it rod or strip of board on to their tops; take a piece vent their being destroyed. And yet there have ceive them. By lifting this head-board out, the bedstead can at any time can be folded together and laid aside, if not wanted. A convenient Seat for children, or for the garden, is made like the cot bedstead, with the head board foot long; those for the legs, one foot six inches omitted. The sticks for the seat should be one been animals made for the destruction of all these. firmly on to the side pieces. To strengthen this, Cows with rough tongues for drawing grass into make a narrow head board, nail on a small rod at their mouths; horses with front teeth like shears each end, and bore holes in the side-pieces to refor cutting it off; and sheep that chop it off with their under teeth against their upper gum, as a batchet chops on a block. The teeth of squirrels are softest on the inside that they may wear sharp, and grow continually that they may not become too short. In this way, they are kept keen enough to go through the shell of a dried butternut, though it turus the edge of a knife. These self-sharpening teeth long. Bind a bit of carpeting for the seat. These were surely made for chiselling the shells of nuts. are so light, and so easily folded and carried about with one hand as to be Every animal also has been given some means of defence. Horses have their teeth, and their Loofs and their speed. Oxen have their heels and their horns. Even sheep have their wool, and some speed, and can butt. Oysters and turtles their shells, and hedge-bogs their quills. convenient. very Hanging Book Shelves are another article of furniture easily made, and very convenient. For a small size, take three planed boards one-fourth of an inch thick, let the largest shelf be about 30 inches long by 8 wide, the others each one inch But for the destruction of these, there are the narrower and two inches shorter than the one below carniverous races, with claws to catch them, with it. If convenient, paint, or oil and varnish them. tusks to transfix them, and with intestines that Bore a gimlet hole in each of the four corners, take can be used for no other purpose than to digest their flesh. Fish have been given an instinct of fear, and the use of fins with which to escape from the fish-hawk, and yet this bird was given a beak and talons, and must live by their destruction. It seems as though everything has been arranged to prevent death on the one hand, and yet to effect fit on the other. Country Gentleman. each shelf, taking care that it is at the same corner a stout cord and pass it down through one hole in of each, then pass it up through the remaining holes in the same end, making a knot in the cord under each shelf for it to rest upon. Pass a cord the four ends of the cord together a foot and a half through the other end in the same manner, and tie above the upper shelf, and hang it up.-Ohio Cul tivator. For the New England Farmer. twenty-five in the floor, are eighteen feet in AN HOUR IN A GREAT BARN. height. The scaffold, usually called the "6 ryeA little above the Concord station on the Fitch-beams," is of uniform height with no drops, which burg Railway, the traveller may see on the north some consider a gain in unloading hay. A room side, at a distance of one-third of a mile, a most in the north side of the barn, opening into the spacious barn, built by the present proprietor of floor, is devoted to meal, grain, and farm implethe "Treasurer BARRET farm," S. P. WHEELER, ments. Esq. The carriage-house and horse-stables are all The building is one hundred and twenty-five comprised in an L which opens upon the doorfeet in length by fifty-four in width. The man- yard. Here is room to drive in several carriages sion house was occupied by Harvard College dur- and untackle, entirely protected from the weather. ing a portion of the revolution. What a space The common labor of "getting fixed off," must this barn would have furnished the students for be almost wholly unknown with such convenirecitation halls! ences. The barn has a projecting roof with water gut- of the barn, and has an entrance (sliding-door) on I next went into the cellar; it is the whole size ters, which not only make the entrance more The bottom is planked to prevent comfortable, but protect the painted sides of the the east side. building from being scoured by the heavy rains. the escape of the liquid manure, as the cellar was None can deny, too, but that the projecting roof dug in sand. The manure of course occupies the combines a great deal of beauty with its util- south side- an immense pile. It is occasionally ity. levelled, and earth and absorbents thrown on to The barn stands nearly east and west. The keep it in a good state. On the north side of the cow stable is on the south side, extending the cellar were immense piles of roots, of which about whole length of the barn; there are several en- a thousand bushels were raised the present season. all the doors being upon wheels, and This fact may have some connection with the soft opening with a touch. The stable is also perfectly skins of the animals above. The cellar is eleven lighted by numerous windows, protected outside feet in height, is walled in a very substantial manand in, by substantial guards. There was a pump ner, and perfectly lighted. trances -- by the door where I entered, which supplied wa- The outside of the barn is covered in the style ter to the stock indoors, when desirable. One of known as the "Swiss fastening," that is, boards are Fay & Dakins' large bore wooden pumps was put on extending from the brackets down, and about being set in operation in the yard adjoin- then the joints covered with narrow, levelled ing. Taking things as I saw them, the next thing strips, about two and a half inches wide. There was the scuttles; these were a foot wide, back of is a large cupola on the ridge, and a number of the trench, and hinged on to the platform; no smaller ones along on the roof at intervals half manure falls upon the scuttles. They can be way down. The whole exterior is handsomely thrown over with ease with a hoe, and the stable painted. frequently cleaned with very little labor. The This, Mr. Editor, is a sketch of my observations scuttles shut down upon the bottom of the trench, during the hour I spent in this fine barn. I fear leaving a large and sufficient passage for the eshave conveyed to your readers, a very inadequate idea of the whole. A good barn is a matter of so cape of the urine. much consequence to the farmer, that I am interested in every attempt to improve the standard. There are several others in town; I hope to be able to report to you, perhaps more fully. Respectfully yours, The trench, the space between the scuttles and the platform under the cows, is eighteen inches wide and two and a half deep. Experiments prove this depth to be hardly enough. ters. I Concord, Mass., 1854. WILLIAM D. BROWN. The cows are all fastened in stanchions which were numbered. The stanchions were each supplied with a chained pin, are uniform, planed, and painted a dark lead color. The long stall for cows holds forty head; nearly this number APPLES.-The crop of apples in New England looked sleek and happy in their comfortable quar- this year, as it has been every even year since the The stable is fourteen feet in width, which Baldwin came into general cultivation, is too large includes a space three feet in width in front of the for the demand, and the price has been drooping, stanchions, forming also a desirable widening to the until they are now dull in Boston at $1.25a$1.50 barn-floor when not in use for feeding. There is per barrel, and may be had delivered at the railno" crib" or "rack" to be seen. The cattle eat road depots, 30 or 40 miles from Boston, at 35 to from off the floor. The timber holding the foot 40 cents a bushel, or $1 without the barrel, the of the stanchions prevents any hay from being cost of the barrel and of transportation bringing drawn under their feet and wasted. As I saw no them to about $1.25 to $1.50 on the railroad. partitions between the cows, I asked the polite superintendent if the cows didn't hook one another; REMARKS.-We copy the above from the Boston he assured me that they did not. The cows had Daily Mail. Good Baldwin apples are selling in been fed with husks, and a man took a rake, and Quincy Market, to-day, Nov. 10, for $1.50 to 2.00 with the back of it, slid the butts left into a pile as a barrel, and the demand is equal to the supply. quick as he could walk the length of the floor. The sale is quick for good, well selected apples. saw a cutting machine and a mixing trough; but I We hope our friends will not find discouragement made no inquiries about the feeding. in this report. They can raise apples at a profit The barn-floor extends from end to end, where at 18.00, barrel not included; and when they are there are large doors upon the largest size rollers. lower than this, they can feed them to cattle and The floor is planked lengthwise, and is very smooth swine with as much profit as can be found in any and substantial. The posts, of which there are other cron. From the Ohio Farmer. BRIEF PRACTICAL HINTS TO FARMERS. In addition to the advantage of such reservoirs for stock, it may not be amiss to hint that when the places for them are well selected, and the surroundings arranged with some degree of taste, they may be made to add much to the beauty of our farms; and in favored situations, when they stocked with fish, and thus afford a new source of can be supplied with good springs, let them be The Israelites had this proverb, "He that soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly, but he that soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully." This saying accorded so well with their sense of what is fitting and right, and was so often verified pleasure or profit. OF SUMMER FEED.-During two or three of in their experience and observation, that it came to have an application much beyond the special the hotter months, our cattle and sheep improve and simple import of the words. In fact, this prov- but little. This is not so much owing to the diserb is but a partial expression of the great truth, comfort of the heat, as to the fact that the grass that this world is arranged on a system of order stops growing during the hottest and driest weathand justice, which conditions every man's havings er. If our pastures could be kept as fresh and or his doings, his receivings or his givings, his suc- luxuriant through July and August, as they are cess upon his enterprise depends, and it causes through May and June, how much more uniform society, and even nature, to reflect back on him would be the growth and improvement of our the tone of his own spirit, whether he be a niggard or whether he be a man of a liberal soul. stock. To secure a continual growth of feed, scarcely On looking at the condition of our farms, and anything is needed but a continued supply of thinking of the objections so often urged, and still moisture to the roots of the grass, and this supply oftener felt, against almost every proposition for of moisture may be secured by deeper tillage. On agricultural improvement, it has occurred to me lands that have been deeply plowed, and especially that we especially need to receive the lesson con- on those where subsoiling has been practiced, the will tained in the proverb to which I have referred, roots of clover, or grass, below the parched and to become much more deeply impressed with surface, and support a continuous growth of herits truth, and the extent of its application. Wheat, bage in the driest weather, or even in the driest and oats, and rye, are not all the farmer has to seasons. propose go sow; thought, and labor, and capital are as much Underdraining is also an important adjunct of germinal and productive principles at his disposal, deep plowing in promoting the growth of summer as the seeds of plants, and it is in his use of these, feed. On tenacious soils, where underdraining is especially, that he will find the proverb verified, not practiced, the surface is usually thrown up into and be compelled to reap as he has sown. That lands to facilitate the escape of what in some seamy remarks may be practical and useful, I sons would be a superabundance of water; when so far as time will permit, to specify cases to this is done, but little moisture penetrates the soil which this principle will apply; or in other words, for the summer supply. Were such lands underI will endeavor to point out a few opportunities of drained at the depth of three feet, or more, the securing bountiful returns for some additional out-surface might be left entirely level, and all the lays upon our farms; and first:— water falling upon it invited to sink into the soil OF PROVIDING WATER FOR STOCK.-In in connection with the various fertilizing agents many portions of Ohio there is, in dry seasons, a suspended in it; this would obviate all danger deficiency of water for stock. I think its imporeven continued droughts; from temporary or tance in the animal economy cannot be understood while in wetter seasons the drains would prevent by many of our farmers, or more strenuous efforts mischief from excess of moisture. And in seasons would he made by them to secure a supply. Wa- like the past, woods pastures are of great value. ter is needed by animals to supply the waste occa- If those portions of our farms which are reserved sioned from the blood by evaporation, and the uncleared for the sake of the timber, were undervarious secretions-the stomach needs its aid as a brushed and fenced, and well seeded with blue solvent of the substances taken as food, and which, grass, which grows finely in such situations, they without it, cannot be readily digested; and besides, would, in the driest months, and especially in seait enters largely into the composition of all animal sons of excessive drought, afford more than twice bodies, not only of the fluid portions, but also of the pasture that could be obtained from fields perthe solid. Some animals may indeed make out to fectly cleared. A prudent farmer will certainly live with but a scanty supply, but none without it provide against a "rainy day;" should he not also can thrive as they would with an abundance of provide against dry days, which, in this climate, water to drink. In some localities there are neith- are perhaps more to be feared? er durable streams nor copious natural springs; OF SHADE AND SHELTER.-What a tree hatbut stock ought not therefore to be permitted to ing spirit possessed the earliest settlers of Northern suffer; certainly not, if we can find at the foot of Ohio, and their immediate descendants. How few hills, or banks, wet places where by carefully col- fine trees were left, either to beautify the landlecting the water by drains, made of stone or drain- scape, or for grateful shade. In Southern Ohio, ing bricks or tiles, it may be brought to one point, the pastures are usually shaded with groups of forand into a trough, or some other convenient way, est trees; and who that has seen the satisfaction be made available. When springs of this kind that cattle and sheep manifest in their shadows, in are to be improved, it is probable that on most the scorching days of summer and autumn, can farms are streams or temporary water courses, doubt their utility? When the thermometer is up large or small, which, though not durable, may be to 90° Fahrenheit, it is as much as fat cattle, or dammed up to form ponds or reservoirs, in which indeed any cattle, can do to keep cool, even when the water may be kept through the whole summer, not subjected to the direct rays of a burning sun. fresh enough for stock. If they do keep cool under such circumstances, it is by means of excessive evaporation, and a great drought of summer he plowed it and harrowed it waste of moisture from the system, and when sub- several times, and in this way exposed the roots jected to this, they will add but little to their size to the sun. The expense, be informed me, was or weight. about ten dollars an acre, which was cheap for Shelter is as important in winter as shade in land worth in the market one hundred dollars an the summer. I need not dwell on the liability to acre. By repeated plowings, the land becomes sickness and death from exposure to all the vicis- completely dry during summer, when not covered situdes and inclemencies of our winter weather. with vegetation, and witch-grass roots will die The annual loss sustained from such causes has, I when deprived of moisture, as well as other roots. presume, made this matter sufficiently clear; but I remember, when a boy, that my father, whom the increased consumption of food consequent on I honor as having been a skillful farmer, was in deficient shelter, is possibly not as well understood. the habit of sowing his fields, which were of a Food, as every one knows, is required to furnish sandy soil and subject to witch-grass, with winter the materials for building up the animal frame, rye, and turning them out to a sheep pasture, and and for repairing its continual waste; but in cold taking up another portion of pasture into his field. weather the larger portion of what is consumed, is In a few years the witch-grass was completely eradiappropriated to the production of animal heat. cated, except around the stumps and fences. I The carbon of the food combines with the oxygen believe that witch-grass rarely ever spreads by the taken into the lungs in respiration, and in the road-side, even where it abounds in the adjacent union heat is evolved in a manner analogous to fields. When witch-grass is troublesome around that by which heat is obtained from the consump- fruit trees, I have found spent tar not only a tion of fuel in a stove. Whatever the temperature good mulching, but also a check to the roots of of the atmosphere, the circulating fluids of animals this grass. must be kept up to a uniform heat, or death will I have no theories or suggestions to make on ensue, and enough of the food consumed will be this subject. What I have written are plain matused for this purpose before any can be appropri- ters of fact: and if they offer suggestions to ated for the purposes of growth or fattening. Build others by which they may at least partially rid good comfortable shelters for all kinds of stock, in themselves of a weed ten times more troublesome which they can feed and lie warm, and it will than thistles, I shall be gratified. soon prove to have been a profitable investment in the saving of food and in the better growth of the animals. N. T. TRUE. We hope to hear often from Mr. Bethel, Me., Dec. 9, 1854. N. S. T. MR. EDITOR:-It is often the case that we may partially cure an evil, when we cannot who! ROCKINGHAM FAIR. The annual meeting of ly eradicate it. A selection in the last week's Far- this society was held in Exeter, N. H., on Wedmer, on the subject of witch-grass, a subject nesday, Nov. 15, and the following persons were well calculated to excite the malevolent feelings chosen officers for the ensuing year, viz: of one's nature, who may have much of it to deal with, has led me to pen a few thoughts on the subject. I have succeeded pretty well in eradicating it from three different kitchen gardens by breaking up the ground and planting with potatoes, and the next spring, after plowing, by going over the ground with the manure-fork, and throwing out the roots into heaps, and wheeling them into the hog-pen; plant again with corn and potatoes in large hills, and during the first hoeing dig out every root. This, though a slow process, is not so much so as might at first be imagined. By watching every blade of this grass as it springs up during the season, it can be completely subdued, without any further trouble, after the second year. It is of no use to get vexed in the spring of the year, and swear vengeance against it by digging out a pile of roots, and stop there. The worst part of the difficulty is over, but a blade left here and there will, by the next spring, form an extensive supply of roots, for they grow late in the fail and early in the spring. President. Vice Presidents. James Pickering, Newington, Trustees. Winthrop H. Dudley, Brentwood, Secretary. Wm. P. Moulton, Exeter. DEADENING TIMBER. When the bark slips freely in June, July or August, it is the best time to girdle trees. Cut the small growth three feet While surveying a piece of valuable intervale, above the ground; the roots do not sprout, and the last summer, on the farm of TYLER P. TOWN, the stumps are more easily removed. Esq., of this town, I was struck with the garden like aspect of his farm, and was informed by him IMPORTANCE OF DRAINING.-By a recent dethat he had succeeded completely in eradicating cree of the French government, 100,000 francs, witch-grass from his field, wherever he had tried about $20,000, are devoted to encourage the manuit, by summer tilling. He took a given piece of facture of draining tiles for agricultural purposes in land and let it go fallow one year. During the the provinces. |