124 NEW ENGLAND FARMER. of the solar system to another group of the same and the muscle seemed to be covered with a skin, system; and the great system itself corresponds to spotted and colored as when the animal a thousand the other systems of spheres which revolve around years ago had made the forest to tremble beneath the great centre of the universe. There is no break its cry. The character of the animal can be known in the creation-no disjointed members-no isola- because this character is written down on every tion of parts. One style or general character limb, member, and part of its body. They who seek to know of the harmony of the subdues the most varying into the common expression. Creation is an extension of divine wisdom; spheres have been ridiculed "as men of prurient But something more than fancy the most minute part is perfect, and the general imaginations." perfection is a repetition of these perfect parts. is required. Stern science and laborious deduc Symmetry is, then, the many signatures of the one tions are the only avenues to this knowledge. The archetypal seal; it is the participation of all footsteps of men like Cuvier must be followed. things in the pervading and immutable wisdom of Knowing a part of the solar system, even one sphere as a leaflet of the tree whose branches coyGod. The study of the symmetry of the solar system er the heavens-knowing some one phase of the is the great work of the astronomer, and all his great law which binds together the brotherhood of researches in this direction will bring to him a due worlds, it is possible for the mind of man to conreward. He can know of remote worlds because ceive, for him to see with the inner eye what inhe knows of this world. He can estimate the mag-struments can never measure, what telescopes can nitudes, distances, and periods of afar-off spheres, never reveal the solar system as a perfect symbecause there are magnitudes, distances, and pe- metrical whole. He can appreciate This world is wisely made, and the far-off Nepriods which he can measure. the beauty and sublimity of the heavens, because tune is in symmetry with it. The position of the he feels the beauty and sublimity of that part of Moon relatively to the Earth was wisely determined; so the distance of the group of the sattelcreation which lies open to his eye. Could our view embrace the solar system at one lites of Neptune bears one and the same relation glance, were the full depths of space thrown open to its primary. As there is a known proportion upon us in awful sublimity, re-echoing in our ears between the periods and distances of the planets, One fact must be used "all things are double one against another." But so is there also a fixed proportion between their our view is limited; the glory of the heavens lies magnitudes and distances. buried in the obscurity of distance. We must look to evolve other facts; and these again to make around and about us, and comprehending the vis-known some truth at a greater distance, until the ible objects, ascend by toilsome steps from the solar system is reconstructed in the human mind. "That which the human mind demands to know, minute to the grand-the unknown from the known, every day widening the horizon and en- what it resolves to attain it never fails to discover." Truth often lies nearer to us than we sup larging the view, Let us recall the symmetry of one simple wild pose. But is there any present attempt among the flower of the myriads of such growing in the fields, astronomers of the day to push the inquiry for The segments new manifestations of the symmetry of the spheres? forest, and on the mountain tops. Astronomers watch for the return of comets inof its cup, of its petals, of its stamen, of its style, are regular, equal, and alike; every part of it has to the fields of the telescope. They discover new a corresponding part; even the tints and shades of planets and asteroids; they compute the elements color on one side are repeated on the other side. of orbits; they pass whole lives in mathematical We could draw the flower reconstructing it from abstrusities, buried up in wise drawn calculations of planetary perturbations. They find what they one of its smallest divisions. Again, a leaf declares the form of the tree on seek. Newton, in their opinion, has attained all which it grew. Its petiole or foot-stalk is an an- the principles that can ever be attained. In their alogue of the trunk of the tree from the ground own language, "Newton seized the golden key to the point of the offset of its first branches. The which unlocks the mysteries of the universe and veins of the leaf, as they extend from the centre holds it in an iron grasp." Nothing is left for or the midrib vein, shoot out at the same angle as them to discover, no truth for them to evolve; and shoot out the branches from the stem of the tree; since the days of Newton not one general principle and the veins are whirled, reticulated, or other- of physical astronomy, manifesting the simple majwise distributed as are the branches.* A leaf thus esty of the heavens, has been disclosed. We have full faith that there is to be built up a gives a miniature drawing of its parent tree; it writes down in its tiny page the character of the philosophy of the heavens opening to the human great vegetable organization of which it is a mi- mind a distinct view of the symmetry of this almost boundless creation of God; for this great sysnute appendage. Compare the leaves of two strawberry plants, tem of worlds is but as one world, is as one creaone being a red, the other a white berry; both tion, the limbs of the members of which, though leaves are of the same form, serrated alike, and of stretched out in infinite space, are in harmony one the same shade of green, but on the apex of the with the other; their magnitudes and distances one leaf there will be found a red dot, while in growing out of each other so directly that the the same position on the other leaf will be seen a magnitude and motion of the Sun, as the central white dot, as marks or indices of the color of the fruit. body, being known, the magnitudes and motions of every revolving sphere to the most minute satellite of the farthest planet may be also obtained, the whole being the seamless vesture of the creative wisdom of God. Cuvier could reconstruct an animal from a small fragment of one of its bones, and teach of its habits and food, and generally of its character. Astronomers have rested long enough on the The bit of bone under his eye grew to the perfect bone; the skeleton appeared re-clad with its flesh, triumphs of the Keplers and Newtons of former CRYSTAL PALACE AWARDS. ages. Honor to their memory! Let such never roots penetrated a hard clay more than eight feet, be mentioned but with heartfelt reverence! But and has gathered wheat roots by the handful, there is work yet to be done: new truth yet to be in a drain more than three feet beneath the sur attained. If the work is not done in the present face. He hence infers that the deeper the soil age, if the further truth is not attained by the can be plowed, and rendered friable and fertile, living, future ages and coming astronomers will the better. not permit the science to remain as it was left by Newton two hundred years ago. Recall the words of Newton at the close of his Principia: "In the The awards of the juries of the New York Cryspreceding books I have laid down principles not tal Palace have been published. Medals and "honphilosophical but mathematical; such, to wit, as you may build your reasoning upon in philosoph-orable mentions" appear to have boen scattered ical matters." He foresaw to what his mathemat- with a very liberal hand. The whole number of ical system would lead; as the seer and prophet, silver medals is 115. Of bronze medals there are a vision rose before him of the true philosophy of 1185, while 1210 exhibitors (or articles) receive the heavens, of which his laborious and abstruse calculations were the scaffolding. the more simple distinction of an honorable men We reverence the Arys, Adams, and Le Verriers tion. The greatest number of silver medals falls of Europe the Pierces, Maurys, and Mitchels of to the lot of the United States. The next country our own country. Their minds are accute and in rank is France, which has 15; while Great their labors truly praiseworthy; their observations Britain has 9, Germany 5, and Switzerland, Ausgive a knowledge of the past, present, and future positions of the spheres, and are highly valuable. tria and Italy one each. Of the bronze medals, It is the extended eye-sight. Their abstruse cal- the United States has 505, Great Britain 143, culations, too, are indispensable. They make the France 153, Germany 106, Prussia 30, Belgium courses of the stars, otherwise invisible, to be as 10, Switzerland 29, Holland 12, Austria 18, Italy golden wires across the heavens. and Sardinia 44, British Possessions 26. But this is not all. There is another department in astronomical science for other purposesOf the silver and bronze medals awarded, 115 purposes less worldly utilitarian, but far more val- were given to New England. Massachusetts takes uable, and demanding the use of other faculties of 57 of these medals, and 42 "honorable mentions." the mind. We want not a science shut up in ob- The following is a list of the Massachusetts conservatories, hidden from the common eye in the tributors to whom silver medals were awarded: abstrusities of mathematics, and comprehended on ly by those who devote there whole lives to the Ruggles, Nourse, Mason & Co., Boston and Worstudy, but an astronomy that appeals to cultivated cester, Mass., for the scientific principles which have men and to intelligent women; an astronomy which been practically perfected by Samuel A. Knox, their will bring the human into connexion with the Artist, and adapted to the series of Sod and Stubble Plows, exhibited by them. Divine, which will develope the creative power of man, that he may be in sympathy with the form and fashion of the universe; that he may be able to place his tiny footsteps in the track through which the creative power of God has passed. Adams, S. & J., Boston, for Standing Printing Press. Ames, James T., Chicopee, for Eccles' Patent Gingham Looms. Whipple, John A., for Crystalotypes, a new art. The following is a list of the Massachusetts contributors of agricultural implements, to whom bronze medals were awarded: Massachusetts Shovel Co., Worcester, Sumner Balleable iron sockets. com, Agent, for Kimball's Patent Shovels, with mal Ruggles, Nourse, Mason & Co., Boston and Worcester, for Armsby's Patent Corn Sheller, and for the general assortment of Agricultural, Horticultural and Dairy Implements of their own manufacture. There is a power in astronomy which has not been developed; there is a light in the science which is yet to cheer and brighten the common mind, to elevate it to the contemplation of the boundless power of the Creator of worlds; so that when men look up to the heavens, seeing there the almost infinite number of spheres dotted down on boundless space, when, in the stillness of the night, they behold worlds in number without end, each one filled with life, intelligence, and happiness, the thought may rush into their minds that this vast creative power has been and is now in action for beings like them; not only that they might eat and drink and die, but that, dwelling in the edi- Partridge, Henry, Medfield, for a very superior colfice of God, they may have the high and the ex-lection of Potato Rakes and Manure Forks. quisite joy of hearing from the stars of the glory of God, and of learning from them of the simple majesty of His handywork in the heavens. S. E. C. *This is stated in a paper read before the "British Association" as true of one hundred and ten species of trees which the author of the article had examined. DEPTH OF ROOTS.-LINUS CONE, of Michigan, states in Moore's New Yorker, as the result of all his examinations, that he has invariably found the roots of grass, grain, vegetables, fruit and forest trees, occupying all the soil, no matter what was its depth. He has taken out stumps where the Ames, Oliver & Sons, North Easton, for a case of heavy Shovels and Spades. Ruggles, Nourse, Mason & Co., Boston and Worcester, for Perry's Patent Meat Cutter; for a Vegetable Cutter; for the Double Sod and Subsoil Plow, improved by the application of the principle discovered by Knox. "Honorable mention" was awarded to the following citizens of this State, for agricultural implements, &c. : Dennis, John H., Boston, for a Bee Hive. Old Colony Iron Company,Taunton, for a beautiful case of good looking Shovels and Spades of steel and in flower, 79 starch and 8 sugar; and in the meayellow metal. dow oat, 80 starch and 10 of sugar. Phelps, E. W. & Co., Westfield, for premium Combination Bee Hive. In what we have said, we take it for granted Rugg, Amos, Montague, for improved bent Hand that you have drained properly-that is, have so Hay Rakes. far ascertained the wants of the land as not to Ruggles, Nourse, Mason & Co., Boston and Wor- take the water off too far from the surface on one cester, for a neat chest with assortment of Horticul tural Tools; for Sausage Fillers, in consideration of hand, or suffering it to rise too high on the other. their superior mechanism; for a Horse Hoe, and for Draining, is by no means an operation of the the superior workmanship of their Plows; also for hands alone; without the aid of science, it often Combination Pumps, Drawing Knives, &c. proves detrimental, rather than a benefit. EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. POUDRETTE. HOW TO USE GUANO. "If you will inform me how to apply guano the best to promote our common crops, you will "I have heard something said about a kind of confer a favor on myself, and I doubt not on many manure got up at New York city. I understand others beginning to use it." that it is the filth, night-manure, &c., &c., of the REMARKS.-Pound it fine, mix with loam, moist city, which is collected by a company, and manu-sand or meadow muck, one part guano to four of factured somehow and sent off in barrels. It is said to be second to no other substance as a ma- the muck or loam. Mingle it thoroughly and apnure. Please tell me what you know of it, and ply as much as would make one gill of the guaits cost per barrel?" no to the hill. If you use it for the garden, steep REMARKS.-Poudrette is manufactured from the it in water and sprinkle with the watering-pot. materials mentioned above, principally night-soil, See Monthly Farmer, vol. 4, p. 214, and vol. 5, pp. however, and is sold in small quantities at $2,00 12, 25, 30, 100, 148, 155, 160 and 254. a barrel-something less for a number of barrels. CRUELTY TO HORSES. The Eastern Mail, Waterville, Maine, has a cap It is a powerful fertilizer, and held in such esteem by the most intelligent cultivators, as to make a demand greater than the supply. If you address ital article, on this subject, of which the following "The Lodi Manufacturing Company, New York is a part :City," your order will reach the persons engaged in the sale of the article. SOWING MEADOWS TO GRASS. "Passing a blacksmith's shop, some time since, we stopped to admire a beautiful horse belonging to Mr. S., as it stood waiting for a set of shoes. No wonder that horse was a pet-and none but a I am about ditching and clearing the moss, bold man would dare abuse him in the presence of breaks, bushes, &c., from a tract of low, boggy meadow, and am spreading the mud that comes tive at the driving of the first nail, the smith flew out of the ditches upon the surface. After it is into a passion, and dealt blow after blow with his finished, I should like to know what kind of grass hammer, with the fury of a madman. The owner seed I shall sow, or what would probably be the did not know how that blood came upon his horse's most suitable for such meadow ? his owner. cuted." When the flies made him a little res nose, or those bunches upon his ribs but we did. West Hardwick, Jan., 1854. A SUBSCRIBER. It is doubtless a legal question-it is certainly a moral one-how far a man has a right to vent his REMARKS.-As far as you go with your meadow, fury upon a 'balky' or a vicious horse. We say - reclaim thoroughly, and you will find double the fury, because nothing renders a passionate man so profit in it. Plow, if possible, but if not, bog frantic as a contrary horse. We have seen a mere deep, gather and burn the roots, hassocks, &c., with the whip would foam at the mouth like a looker-on turn pale with anger; while the man scatter the ashes, level the whole and sow seed the rabid dog. To those who have not seen it, this is, same as for upland-herd's grass, red-top, and in beyond credit; to those who have, it is strange. the March following, a little clover seed. We For such men the law against cruelty to animals mention these grasses because they are all good was provided; and upon all such it is the positive and hardy, and in our present state of knowledge duty of the ministers of the law to see it exeof the grasses, the best, perhaps, we can use. But that there are other grasses of equal or greater The GRANITE FARMER, Manchester, N. H., value, we are strongly inclined to believe, and we has been enlarged, united with the Monthly Visitgreatly need some well authenticated tests of their or, and secured the services of LEVI BARTLETT, relative merits. The grasses vary widely in the Esq., of Warner, as Associate Editor. Mr. B. proportions of their nutritive properties, as well is a good farmer, and vigorous writer, as all who as other plants. In 100 grains of rye grass, there have read his articles in the Journal of Agriculare 65 parts of mucilage or starch and 8 parts of ture well know. He understands Chemistry in sugar, the remainder being bitter and saline mat- its relations to agriculture better than most of us ter; in the meadow cat's-tail, or herd's grass, 74 who are interested in the subject. We have no parts starch, and 10 sugar; in white clover in doubt his articles will give great additional value flower, 77 parts starch and 2 sugar; in red clover to the Farmer. range of the For the New England Farmer. operates with such force, that population multiFARMING IN NEW ENGLAND---No. 2. plies inward not outward, and cultivators divide and subdivide their freeholds among their children, The great obstacles to the successful prosecu- and cultivate them more and more highly from tion of agriculture in New England, are generally generation to generation. supposed to be our hard soil and unfavorable cli- Now, although this feeling has doubtless bemate. But as these obstacles are triumphantly come excessive in older countries, and therefore surmounted by many of our farmers, it proves that fetters enterprise and compresses the they can be by others; and that our real difficulties intellectual powers, it is quite certain that we are more recondite and farther removed from the have long been going off into the opposite expopular apprehension. Two or three of these will treme. With us almost every man is anxious to be specified, and one of them I believe to be the sell his farm, or cut it up into building lots. The moving, nomadic character of our population. I papers are crowded with advertisements of "Farms do not know that the data can anywhere be found, for Sale;" many are sold which are never adverwhich would show precisely what proportion of the tised, and many more would be, if purchasers farms in New England are now owned by the de- could be found. It would seem from this popular scendants of their earliest proprietors. From a movement as if there were about to be a general somewhat extensive observation, and considerable exodus of the farming population of New England reflection on the subject, I am satisfied that but a -a stampede of almost the entire class to some fasmall per centage of our farms,are now in the hands bled garden of Hesperides in Wisconsin, or some of the families, which felled the forests which El Dorado in Australia. Multitudes are anxious originally covered them. In very many cases to convert their farms into cash-to realize, as the they have been sold, and re-sold, and sold again, phrase is; and after selling out their paternal acres and their original proprietors and all their de- and investing the proceeds in articles or projects scendants have alike disappeared from among us. of moonshine, of which there are always enough This spirit of restlessness, of dissatisfaction with at hand, they,in the end, begin to realize that they our present condition, and desire to improve it by are fools, and that they will be likely to die in change, is attempted to be sanctified by calling it the poor-house. Not a few of our farmers seem the spirit of the age, or indomitable Yankee enter- to be cousins to the "squatters" at the West, who prise. The rich prairies of the West, the "base- cultivate farms only for the purpose of making less fabric" of the golden visions of California, or some improvements, and of selling them to the a tempting clerkship of three hundred a year on first bidder, to dash into a wilderness still more Washington Street or Broadway, have exerted a Western, and try the experiment over again. Or, most disastrous influence on everything like per- to use a more appropriate similitude, they rather manence and progressive increase in the farming resemble the wandering Arab, who settles down operations of New England. In Great Britain, upon one oasis till he exhausts it, and then reFrance, Flanders and Germany, where agriculture moves to another, to repeat the same impoverishis carried to greater perfection than anywhere ing process. The Bedoweens of the desert are else, there exists among the owners of the soil, the not very celebrated for agricultural thrift, and strongest possible attachment to the freeholds, the Bedoweens of New England, with good reagreat or small, which they cultivate, and which son, are not much more so. their fathers for centuries cultivated before them. This strong and laudable attachment to one's earliest home, the play-ground of his infancy, the scene of his youthful labors, the arbor of his For the New England Farmer. wedded love, the nursery of his children, and the sepulchre of his fathers, which is native to every WHEAT---45 BUSHELS PER ACRE. human heart, has long been violated by the mi- MR. BROWN:-Knowing that facts are better gratory habits of New England: and this viola- than theory, to convince the understanding, I altion of so sacred a tie has inflicted an incalcula-(luded, in a former communication to the fact of ble injury on the persevering industry and cumu- having raised about fifteen bushels of wheat on fiflative prosperity of our farmers. Mungo Park ty-four square rods of ground, or at the rate of tells us how strong this natural love for the spot nearly forty-five bushels to the acre. of one's birth is in the heart of the African negro; You ask me to give the details of my manage"To him no water is sweet but that which is ment. You shall have them, though they may drawn from his own well, and no shade refreshing not be so definite in some things as I should like but the tabba tree of his native dwelling. and here I would say, that it was not in 1853, but When carried into captivity, he never ceases to 51, that I raised the wheat alluded to. My usual languish during his exile, seizes the first moment mode is to break up the ground and manure and to escape, rebuilds with haste his fallen hut, and plant it two years; and then to seed down with exults to see the smoke ascend again from his na- wheat, barley or oats. When with wheat, I put tive village." In France, the same feeling is ob- on more or less ashes, and by this means I usually served, and Arthur Young long ago remarked that succeed in raising fair, and sometimes large crops it "continues undiminished in strength, though of wheat. Further views of the subject will soon follow. D. C. the freehold is reduced to the fraction of a tree.' The piece of ground on which I raised the fifBishop Heber tells us that in Ceylon, the attach-teen bushels, was on a hill gently sloping southment of the cultivators to their little properties soil deep and warm-plowed, and planted with is such, that "it is not unusual to see a man the potatoes the first year, with five loads of stable proprietor of the hundred and fiftieth part of a manure spread over it. The second year, plowed single tree." In Canada, too, this local attach- in five loads of unfermented manure, and put six ment among the habitans of French descent still of well rotted manure in the hill and planted with 128 NEW ENGLAND FARMER. corn. Crops heavy both years. The third year, from the inspection of the bee-keeper as the cave plowed and sowed about three pecks of wheat the in which the hyena dwells. Travel in almost any first week in May, plowed deep and fine. Fine-direction and enumerate the hives which are thus ness of pulverization I consider very essential to dark, and at the same time mark those which are insure a good crop. Levelled the furrows with so constructed as to give the keeper even a toleraa light harrow, sowed and harrowed once each ble view of the interior, and you will find the proway. I do not like to run over my fields when portion of the latter compared with the former I get them plowed up light and fine, with too many extremely small. In many instances those which such things as harrows, brush, rollers, &e. So I pretend to give us a view of the interior are so ill take that which does the work best with the least adapted to this purpose as only to tantalize our trouble. When the wheat had got up two or three earnest search after further light and knowledge. inches, I sowed on about six bushels of ashes just Add to this darkness of the hive another fact, viz.: before a light shower. Harvested about the first that a majority of bee-keepers read very little and week in September. My hired man, who was a reflect less, and experiment less upon their bees, Canadian, remarked to me when reaping it, that and you have a solution of this matter, or can unhe had "rept a great deal of wheat in Carnada, derstand why it is that such erroneous views are but this was the huviest he ever seed." And in extensively prevalent, and absolute ignorance also The where enlightened views ought to be entertained. fact it was the heaviest that I ever saw. straw was not so tall or so large as I have seen a I have often been surprised at the degree of iggreat many times. It was stiff, hard and small, norance which exists among persons who have so that it did not lodge at all, notwithstanding it been bee-keepers for years. Some of them know was very thick and the heads so heavy. The wheat as little respecting their peculiar habits as if they was very nice and plump. The amount might be had never kept them. In these circumstances a a trifle more, or a trifle less than fifteen bushels; it very serious obstacle exists to the adoption of any enlightened and successful system of bee-culture, was not measured very exact. We have raised at the rate of between thirty and and this obstacle is not to be removed except by forty bushels to the acre before. The kind of an application to the appropriate remedy or remewheat which I sowed is very superior, and is said dies. Hives are to be differently constructed. Into have been brought from the vicinity of Hudson's formation is to be sought. Experiments are to be Bay; I know not with what truth. I think much made. In other words, a different mode of beeof fine pulverization, and ashes, for growing wheat, culture is to be adopted. Such a result can be in fact for growing any kind of crop. I have made anticipated only in connexion with adequate quite a number of experiments with ashes, gyp-knowledge in reference to Becology. sum, lime, &c. The experiments generally turn in favor of ashes. Marlboro', N. H. J. T. W. For the New England Farmer. North Bridgewater. For the New England Farmer. I fence? What is the JOSIAH A. FRENCH. It is evident to every experienced apiarian that have in my care a few acres of good land, and bee-culture is carried on to a very limited extent wish to make it all produce at the best possible in this country, compared with the facilities which advantage. I wish for more light. are afforded for its most successful prosecution. best mode for a poor man to pursue in regard to labor and expense? Please give information to As he looks abroad on our cultivated fields, upon making his land produce the most with the least our hills and valleys extending from Mexico to Canada, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, one who beholds the light just beaming, what is something like a painful sensation comes over him the best mode of laying round cobble stones for as he is compelled to witness an entire loss of vast quantities of honey on every side, which, without injury to any one, might be gathered, if bees in REMARKS.-Here is a fine opportunity for some sufficient numbers were set at work under a proper and well regulated system of bee-culture. Here of our correspondents of experience to increase the he discovers a vast source of wealth, the smallest "light just beaming" upon the endeavors of the fractional part of which has scarcely been secured. This state of the case brings to his mind most forcibly the causes which operate to produce this result. These causes I shall denominate, OBSTACLES TO BEE-CULTURE. North Clarendon, Vt. inquirer. For the New England Farmer. OYSTER SHELL LIME. MR. EDITOR-In your paper of Dec. 3d, the The first which I shall name is the want of adequate knowledge in reference to the peculiar hab- inquiry is made in relation to oyster shell lime as a cement. I have used it in laying the walls of its and economy of the Honey Bee. It is not at all surprising that very little should more than twenty cellars, and have found that it be known relative to the nature and operations of answers very well. It sets equally as well as the bees, when we consider the circumstances in which stone lime, and I think it is, at least for this purthey have been placed, or the mode of culture pose, equal to the best-and as its cost is only which has been adopted. The bee-hive has been, about one third that of the stone lime, it is preto a great extent, a dark apartment. There are ferable. It will bear the addition of more sand. BENJ. PAGE, Stone Mason. commendable exceptions to this, but they are few The proportions should be about 5 parts sand to and far between. By far the great majority of one of lime. hives now in use are as dark and as far removed] Charlestown, Jan., 1854. |