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about one-fourteenth of an inch in length, oblong in faction, and that of his employers. In this way the shape, and deposited side by side, each on its end. rude machine with which he began has come, by A peculiar substance of a very viscid consistency, We understand he has sold the right to its use for slow degrees, to be the one he has recently patented. and which indurates and becomes strongly glutinous the four counties, cornering on the place of his resion exposure to the atmosphere, attaches them firm- dence, and that the individuals who have purchased ly together, and to the tree, or any other substance these county rights, are selling out town rights satisto which they are appended. These eggs may be factorily, while yet it is hardly known beyond those easily destroyed by acids or alkalies applied with a connection with the ready sale it meets where best limits. The fact of its slow, practical growth, in sponge or brush. known, would seem to be a strong argument in its

Professor HARRIS mentions nearly every remedy favor. that has been resorted to in order to prevent the But in commending it, while we are pledged to ascent of the worm, and those persons troubled commend nothing which we do not believe to be with them should consult his work. Some of them worth buying, we are guided principally by what we have seen of its working. Mr. Willis took us into are a broad belt of cloth or strong paper, six to a field, which must have yielded a very large crop twelve inches wide, fastened around the trunk of pine boards. His force consisted of two men, with strings, and apply the tar as early as the first neither of whom had ever worked at the business of November, perhaps in October, and renew it dai- before, and a small pair of oxen. He said, "which ly as long as the insects continue rising. stump will you see taken out." We selected the largest, the ugliest and the worst situated stump in Another method is to fit a collar of boards the field. He hitched to it, as described by Gov. around the tree, and smear with tar underneath. Brown, and lifted the great circle of roots and adCollars of tin-plate, belts of cotton wool and troughs hering earth, raising the side farthest from the of tin or lead, filled with oil, have all been resorted machine in advance of the other side, till it stood at to with greater or less success. Showering the trees knocked off the earth, letting it fall back into the an angle of 45 degrees. At this point the men with air-slacked lime, and sprinkling them with whale-oil soap water, has sometimes proved beneficial.

hole, the yellow subsoil at the bottom and the darker top soil above it. He then worked the machine again, and drew it along until the last root was The apple crop in the vicinity of Boston, where it detached. The time of the whole operation did not is usually large, will be greatly reduced this year, not measured. He then drew up eight stumps, seem to be more than eight or ten minutes, but was through the ravages of these minute yet destructive large and small as they came, in 30 minutes, as insects. He who will devise some certain remedy measured by the watch; and neither the cattle nor against their attacks, will become a public benefac- the men appeared to work faster than would be

tor.

consistent with a long and steady pull at the business. He stated, and we thought proved, that he could clear an acre a day, with a force which could be afforded,including the use of the machine, for ten dollars a day.

WILLIS' PATENT STUMP PULLER. The statement copied from the N. E. Farmer, on page 121 of this No., we understand to be from We learn from Mr. Willis, that in view of the the pen of Lieut. Governor Brown, editor of that prospect that he will be able to manufacture but journal. Since reading it, we have visited Orange, few machines, compared with what will be wanted, examined the machine, and seen its power fully test- he is willing to sell either State or County rights ed. It is all that Mr. Brown has represented; and for manufacturing and using them. We advise any in two or three particulars, we think, is somewhat who may feel interested in the matter, to visit Mr. more;-1st, it is equally as well adapted to draw-Willis at his manufactory, at Orange, which is on ing out stones, removing buildings, or almost any the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad, about 16 other business requiring a high power, as to the pul- miles east of the Connecticut river. He will afford ling of stumps; 2d, it will operate without unrea- them the best possible means of judging of the sonably severe effort on the part of the men and capabilities of his machines; and we have no doubt team, more rapidly than Mr. Brown represents; will deal with them liberally. It might not be well 3d, it has come to its present improved state, slowly for every farmer, perhaps for no one, to be at the and by successive trials; did not come from the expense of procuring one of these machines simply brain of a theorist, as Venus is said to have leaped for his own use. But if they were distributed about from the brain of Jupiter, all beautiful and mature; so that one or two should be owned in a town, and armed cap-a-pie, ready to love or to fight, but result- worked by the owner, we should think they might ed from the experience of a practical man, one be put to many valuable uses; and especially that thoroughly schooled in the rough and tumble busi- they might become an important auxiliary to a neater ness of drawing rocks and stumps. and more profitable husbandry than that of cultivatFor eight years, Mr. Willis, in as wide a region ing around rocks and stumps.-The Farmer, by as can well be found, has been making the rough Professor Nash. places plain. He commenced with a rude machine of his own construction, following the lumbermen, and tearing up what of the old pines they had left in the ground. As exigencies required, he made alter- saw on the farm of Mr. HENRY COBB, of Amherst, ations, tried them, and adopted or rejected them, Mass., on the 20th of June last, a stalk of rye 7 accordingly as they answered, or failed to answer, feet in height, and it had not then attained its ful his purpose-that of pulling stumps to his own satis- growth.

TALL RYE.—A correspondent writes us that he

freshing breezes of New Hampshire. Either those breezes, or the excellent feed with which the Sher

For the New England Farmer. LETTER FROM THE COUNTRY. Sunday-Extensive Prospects - Lakes, Mountains-Recollec-iff's better half entertains her visitors, (and you tions-The Haying Season-Prospect of the Crops-Hay have often tried it,) have already added to the fair Crops Country Visits and Watering Places-Visit to Lake Massabesic-Chowder-Music-Effect of Location upon Char-proportions of your humble servant, as our friend Greenough's steelyards testify.

acter-Invocation.

Chester, N. H., Aug. 12, 1855. MY DEAR SIMON :-Forgive the familiarity, my order of the day. The wet, and somewhat backI am among the farmers here. Haying is the dear Lt. Governor, but it does come so natural, adward season, has delayed the gathering in of the dressing you from this, the old place of my nativiupland crop of grass even to this late day. When ty, and your childhood, and boyhood, and youth, you and I used to swing the scythe here, it was not to call you by the old familiar name, by which, often that we gathered hay from the upland after more than forty years ago, I used so often to ad- the advent of August; but this year, I think nearly dress you, that you will, I know, excuse me, although all the hay in this vicinity has been cut since the George IV, never forgave Beau Brummell's 25th of July, and much grass still remains standing. "George, ring the bell!" You are more forgiving The crop is a good one, and, thanks to the new inthan the king, I trust. vention of "hay-caps," it has, notwithstanding the This is Sunday morning, and a glorious morning "long spells" of rainy weather, been got in well. A it is too precisely such an one as old Herbert had friend of ours, who resides here, but spends considin his mind when he composed his beautiful stan-erable time in Massachusetts, and who has recently zas, commencing

"Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,

The bridal of the earth and sky."

returned from there, told me a few evenings since,

that the farmers in the vicinity where he has been, had heard of hay-caps, but had never seen any, and

I am not at the "old homestead," from which my came to him for a description of them. I presume brother Henry-I beg his pardon--the Judge, dates you have enlightened your readers on the subject, his interesting letters. Let me say, in parenthesis, though I do not remember to have seen a descripthat if "my feverish longings for fame, and dreams tion of them in your columns. Those used here— of distinction," were not all gone, I should be trying and they are getting into general use are thus to get in as one of the editors of the New England made and used; viz: Farmer "Governors and Judges!" haven't you a For one cap, take 4 yards of yard-wide cotton vacant Generalship, or sich like, that you could be cloth, cut it in two pieces, and sew them together, stow on a fellow? As I was remarking, I am not so as to make a square. Loop up each corner so at the old homestead, but am, at present, sojourn that a piece of common cod-line will pass through, ing with his Honor, the Sheriff of the County of tie in loops of line, spread the cap over the hayRockingham; in good hands, you see, and from this cock, and with 4 sharpened sticks of about 18 spot where you and I have stood many's the time and inches in length, fasten the corners, by passing the oft, at this blessed moment a prospect is presented sticks through the loops, either into the hay or the worth a journey from Boston to witness. You know ground. A cock of hay thus protected, may stand what a sweep of horizon is presented to the eye from through a long storm, uninjured.

this place do I exaggerate in saying hundreds of The crops in this vicinity, as all over the country miles? I think not. Well, there it lies, the interme- where I have been, promise an abundant harvest. diate space dotted with villages, farm-houses, green In the Judge's "Letter from the Homestead," fields, forests, &c., all glittering beneath the just-contained in yesterday's Farmer, he remarks very risen sun, and every valley filled with mist, pre- properly as follows:

senting the exact appearance of lakes and lakelets, "How rational men and women from the cities studded with islands, headlands, and peninsulas can be persuaded to pass the summer at the beachin the far distance gleams, like a thread of silver, es and fashionable watering-places, parading round what the oldest inhabitants have ever regarded as on the sea-shore without shelter or shade of any the ocean. Not one cloud is to be seen, not one green thing, suffering the tortures of Regulus, who breath of air can be felt, and all that row of elegant with his eyelids cut off-how they can endure the was exposed by his enemies to the noon-day sun trees mentioned in the Judge's letter show not the glare of the ball-room in dog-days, and the crowdstirring of a single leaf. If a man's thoughts do ed chambers of fashionable hotels, not to mention not ascend through such a scene as this, up to Na- the killing conclusion by way of paying the billsture's God, he must possess a hardened heart, and how all this can be translated into pleasure by rabe, indeed, a hardened sinner.

tional people, when the peaceful, quiet hills and valleys of the country invite them to health and freedom from restraints of fashion and artificial life, passes comprehension.”

I am here, with all the dear ones of my household, as you are aware, on a visit to my kinsfolk, and to exchange for a short time, the heated atmo- Exactly the thoughts that have passed through sphere of Washington City, for the cool and re- my own brain, when I have been crammed with all

my family into a 7 by 9 room at Saratoga, or at forest trees, from sweet and ringing voices, were some of the watering-places-hot as blazes-eaten sent forth, upon the summer breeze, tones to awakup by flies in the day-time and musquitoes at night, en the best feelings of the heart. "The Star Spangsweating under the glare of gas-light in the ball- led Banner" was sung in full chorus. "The Old room in the evening, and under the burning sun by Folks at Home" were not forgotten. "Auld Lang day. Do you remember our own experience at Syne" came back fresh and glowing, and many Piney Point one burning August? We went for other songs of the olden and of the modern times pleasure, and perhaps we might, had we been pro- rang out on the joyous air. The party from the vided with places in which we could have slept, passed some hours (to quote Byron)

"In dreaming this was pleasure," but, alas, we could not sleep, and therefore had not even the consolation of the dream, much less the reality. You have not forgotten it, I know.

hill having retired to the arbor, and all being there assembled, "Auld Lang Syne" was joined in by all who could raise a note, and then the party prepared for its return. On the way back we paid a visit to "The Devil's Den," but, his Majesty being out, our stay was not long, and, at sunset, we were Now, if the real health and pleasure seekers, all safely back at our respective domiciles, perfectly would come here, where the summer days are satisfied that we had spent the day in a manner delightful, and however they may be warm, there is as satisfactory as it could well be spent. always fresh and salubrious air to breathe, and the In this region of country, cultivating the soil is nights are always comfortably cool, they would find the main purpose of the people; of course there is what they seek. And then we have the old forests nothing of the starched and stiff formulas of the city. all around us, and the beautiful lake Massabesic, Every man, woman and child is taught to wait upon spreading its broad and pure waters in our imme- him or herself, and consequently every man, woman diate vicinity, where we can go and sail and fish, and child is independent, and all is free and easy in and have chowder, and in which we can bathe and their social intercourse. A hearty welcome is given swim, and disport ourselves, fearless of surf and to all comers who are entitled to be esteemed for the sharks and sea-serpents ! ordinary virtues of life-talent is respected, as it

Let me describe to you one day of the pleasures should ever be, in the humblest individual, but rank of old Chester. On Friday morning last, in accord- and dollars cannot purchase either respect or attenance with previous arrangements, nearly forty of tion, unless combined with adjuncts deemed of far us, old and young, started for the Massabesic. A greater importance-the power to instruct, or please, large stage wagon was put in requisition, in which or to render those about you contented and happy. nineteen of us were comfortable stowed, and amongst The location of a people, as it seems to me, has them the Register of Probate of the County of Suf- much to do with their characters. Here, where an folk and his wife and daughter. The others went immense expanse of country is ever open to the in such carriages as they could conveniently procure. view, the tendency of the mind, as it gathers in We arrived at Auburn between ten and eleven, and knowledge, is to expand and become enlarged in all found, upon a plateau of land, in front of which, that does honor to human nature-the soul swells spread far and wide the beautiful lake, and behind as the eye embraces a magnificent prospect, and one which arose, what we modestly term, Mine-hill-with an imagination whose vision has never embracin fact quite a tolerable mountain-a beautiful arbor, ed more at a time than the single street of a city, erected for our accommodation, with a table set the would go almost into ecstacies, could he be suddenly entire length of it, and all the necessary appliances placed at any point like this, where the eye could to make us comfortable and happy. The day was rove over thousands of square miles of landscape lovely. As soon as our preliminaries were adjusted, unimpeded. Then the natural tendency of the the party broke into groups. Some went fishing, opening mind, whose daily vision is thus enlarged, some sailing, some bathing, and the younger fry is to enlarge with it, and to become generous and were amused by the erection of a swing in an ad- noble in its impulses !

joining grove.

God bless the good people of old Chester.
Very truly and faithfully yours,

B. B. FRENCH.

LARGE EGGS.-GEORGE W. WHITE, Esq., of

At one o'clock, P. M., the chowder, prepared by our excellent host and hostess, was brought on, and the table was loaded with good things, in abundance, and all ate and were filled. Any one would have readily answered to the question of the stage- North Cambridge, handed us four eggs this morndriver" all full inside?" as Charles Lamb did-ing, which weigh one pound. They were laid by "I don't know how it is with the rest of them, but the same hen, and three of them in three succesthat last piece of pudding did the business for me!" sive days.

After dinner, most of the party made an excursion Mr. GEORGE HAYES, of North Cambridge, and to the top of the hill, from which the view is very one of the best farmers of Middlesex County, is the extensive and beautiful, and there, beneath the old owner of the Biddy, and possessor of the secret of

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CHERRY TREES,

which have suffered severely the past winter. There
is a lesson yet to be learned in this vicinity on this
point. It will never do to rely on the catalogues
of nurserymen in this particular. We want some
varieties that will stand our winter, without protec-
tion. I know of none to be relied on, except the
common Kentish or Pie cherry, which is perfectly
hardy here. I wish some correspondent would tell
us what to do here in Maine. I was astonished to
see such splendid cherry trees in Nova Scotia, while
recently there; they were large, and so glossy that
you could almost see your face in the bark. One
man sold cherries from his garden last year to the
pretty little sum of one hundred and twenty dol-
lars.
Bethel, Me., July 20, 1855.

N. T. T.

For the New England Farmer.

TURE,

AND ITS CONNECTION WITH CHEMISTRY.
BY JOHN GOLDSBURY.

I apprehend that your correspondents overlook one important principle in discussing this subject. The potato is not a root, but a tuber, an excrescence as it were from the stock. I suppose it to partake somewhat of the nature of a bulb, which will devel-1 op itself remarkably under favorable circumstances, essentially the same as any bulbous or tuberous plant. All such plants require a combination INCREASED ATTENTION TO AGRICULof the most favorable circumstances for their complete development. Plant large tubers and a drought may produce small ones, but I do not see as their capability of reproducing large ones the next year can be seriously impaired; but follow up the plan, abandoned, and continued to be neglected, till the Agriculture, for a long time, was almost wholly and it must be an exception to nature's operations, introduction of the feudal system in the fifteenth if in a series of years the product be not dwarfish. I have suffered severely for three years past, by century. This gave every man a distinction and planting small potatoes. It has so happened that rank according to the quantity of land he occupied. we have had a severe drought soon after planting, Nothing contributed more to give an importance to which has impaired the vitality of the plants exceedagricultural pursuits, than the introduction of this ingly. They came up looking feebly, and never re-soil, as well as the landlord who owned it, political system, which gave the tenant who cultivated the covered the shock. The same remark applies to cutting out the eyes. If correspondents will bear privileges which were enjoyed by no other members this fact in mind, it may reconcile some of their of the community. conflicting testimony. Notwithstanding all this, England has done more I remember hearing my father relate an experi- fifty years, than during double the amount of years for the advancement of agriculture, during the last ment which he made about the year 1812. He bought a bushel of potatoes, which were harder to in any preceding period of her history. She has alpay for at that time, than twenty-five bushels would ways been engaged in war. Her history is made be to a young farmer at the present day. He took up of little else but accounts of sieges, of battles, a pointed penknife and cut out the eyes so as to diand of conquests. While she has been so much enminish the bushel about two quarts after the opera-language of her own statesman, "she has been cargaged in foreign and aggressive wars,-while, in the tion, and planted them on burnt land, and harvested thirty-four bushels of handsome potatoes. rying her arts and her arms to the four quarters of After all, I like what my neighbor, the Captain, cultivated and unproductive. the globe," she has left her own soil at home, unsays: "I like to plant the same kind of seed as I Within the last fifty would raise." years, she has given more attention to agriculture; She has more than doubled the amount of her agand her efforts have been crowned with success. ricultural productions.

Possibly you may remember some experiments which I communicated to the Farmer, on protecting

PEACH TREES.

The same remarks apply as well to the French; nay, they apply with more force to the French than

I varied the experiment of protecting them last win- they do to the English. For the French have had ter to ascertain how much exposure they would an equal amount of wars to carry on, while they bear. I tied the limbs together and wrapped round have suffered more from the effects of bad governthem a single turn of furniture matting. One of ment. them had a foot of the top extending exposed above advancement in agriculture, but are still far behind Since the revolution, they have made some the matting. The trees came out bright as you could Great Britain, notwithstanding they have a climate wish for, although the thermometer was down to and soil adapted to every variety of vegetable 37° below zero once during the winter, the lowest growth. In all parts of the continent of Europe, ever reached in this place. It was curious to se increasing attention is paid to this subject. In Lomhow effectual the protection was, for the portion of bardy and Flanders, it is carried to the highest the tree exposed above the matting was killed just state of improvement. to it, and no further. I consider the question settled in regard to protecting the peach in this lati- been paid to the cultivation of the soil. In the old In all parts of the world, increased attention has tude, after a trial of seven years. The only question with me is, how they shall be treated so as to

bear.

A step further brings me to the

and new world, and in both hemispheres, men are beginning to see, that an all-wise Creator has decreed that plants and animals should derive their subsistence chiefly from the soil, and that all the el

ements of vegetable and animal matter are to be the crops, is the reason why the once rich and profound in the soil. What these elements and ingre- lific soil of Virginia is now in many parts no longer dients are, it is the province of the chemist to in- able to raise its former staple productions, wheat form us. The chemist has given us all the knowl- and tobacco; while, on the other hand, China, edge he has on the subject; the air and the water, which has existed many thousand years, continues the soil and the subsoil, have each a part in their to be as populous and productive as ever, because possession, and should each be made to contribute a she exports nothing, and wastes nothing that is deshare. Nature, in the production of a perfect plant, rived from the earth. does not restrict herself to the animal, vegetable or mineral world. It is highly probable that the newly-created world was, at first, entirely a mineral mass of matter, from which vegetables soon grew abundantly enough to support all animated nature. Geologists generally suppose the action of the elements for an indefinite length of time, was necessary to fit it for the abode of plants and animals; but it is believed that the action of the frost, with the winter's rain and snow, is a powerful fertilizer in this climate; and that fall plowing, and, occasionally, deep plowing, should go together.

Farmers are beginning to see, that the continual cropping and carrying off the products of the soil, year after year, without making any returns by manuring and enriching it, tends to exhaust the soil. Plowing and harrowing, stirring and pulverizing the soil are not alone sufficient to restore the properties which have been taken away by the crops. In addition to these, lime, potash, phosphate of lime or bones, common wood ashes, soot, salt, saltpetre plaster of paris, and human excrements, should be mixed with the soil in different proportions, according to the nature of the soil. Besides, the farmer can find, sometimes by the roadside, and always in swamps, a rich deposit for the supply of food for his plants. The business of composting manure by the use of muck and other ingredients, such as green vegetable matter mixed with mineral substances, is of the highest importance to the farmer.

SONG OF THE HARVESTERS.
We gather them in-the bright green leaves,
With our scythes and rakes to-day,

And the mow grows big, as the pitcher heaves
His lifts in the swelt'ring bay.

O ho! a field! for the mower's scythe,
Hath a ring as of destiny,

Sweeping the earth of its burthen lithe,
As it sings in wrathful glee.

We gather them in-the nodding plumes
Of the yellow and bended grain,
And the flash of our sickle's light illumes

Our march o'er the vanquished plain.
Anon we come with the steed-drawn car-
The cunning of modern laws;
And the acres stoop to its clanging jar,
As it reeks its hungry jaws.

We gather them in-the mellow fruits
From the shrub, the vine and tree,
With their russet, and golden and purple suits,
To garnish our treasury.

And each had a juicy treasure stored

All aneath its tainted rind,

To cheer our guests at the social board,
When we leave our cares behind.

We gather it in-this goodly store,
But not with the miser's gust,
For the Great All Father we adore
Hath but given it in trust:

And our work of death is but for life,
In the wintry days to come-
Then a blessing upon the Reaper's strife,
And a shout at his Harvest Home.

For the New England Farmer. SOURCES OF PLEASURE FOR THE

FARMER.

Chemists have analyzed almost all the useful vegetables and fruits, and ascertained the exact proportion of all the elements which enter into the composition of each. Their method of analysis is, first to dry, then to weigh, then to burn and weigh the ashes, and then to analyze the ashes. The ashes are supposed to contain all the mineral substances which vegetables draw from the earth; and these substances must be restored to the earth in some MR. BROWN:- How pleasant, during the long way or manner, in order to secure a good crop af- winter evenings, when the cattle are all housed and terwards, especially if it be of the same kind. For perfectly cared for, and the work of the day is done, if this abstraction from the soil of certain proper- to sit down in the old arm-chair, before the bright ties goes on year after year, for considerable time, the fire, with happy faces around you, and such papers soil will become exhausted and unproductive. The as the New England Farmer to read. What if mineral substances found in plants must first exist the storm-king does reign without? Our hearths in the earth, and must come from the earth; other- are secure-we fear it not. The summer shall chase wise the plants cannot grow there. it away, and the calm shall succeed it. Chemists have not only analyzed almost every ar- During the long evenings, or in leisure moments, ticle used as the food of animals and of man; but, I love to snatch a paper or book, and pore over the also, every part of the animal body,-the bone, the thoughts of others, and weave the rich gems of muscle, the fat, the milk, the skin, the horns, the thought and bright figures into my own web of hoofs and the hair. These are all formed from the knowledge. And I love to read the Book of Nafood which animals consume, and are consequently ture too, and receive her lessons, fresh and at firstall drawn from the earth. And when we consider hand. And thus her teachings may not be distorted the numbers of cattle, sheep, horses, hogs, poultry, by ignorance or prejudice the channels through &c., which have been driven or carried away from which they sometimes come.

the country to some distant market, no part of I often feel as though I would take my pen and whose bodies has been returned to the same soil to give you some of my musings, as I pore over the preserve its fertility, we are surprised, that the soil leaves of Nature's own book. I think it well that from which so much has already been subtracted, the farmer should be a reading man, but he should should continue to produce so much as it does. be a thinking man, too. It is not safe for him to This continual skimming of the soil and carrying off trust entirely to the thoughts of others. Nor should

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