A HOME PICTURE. One autumn night, when the wind was high A-popping corn in the ashes: And his sister, & curly-haired child of three, The blast went howling round the house, It rattled the latch of the outer door, Then it seemed a baby crying: Now and then a drop down the chimney came, Pop! pop! and the kernels, one by one, Came out of the embers flying; And kept it busily plying; He stirred the corn and it snapped the more, Some under the stool of the brother; And called them "a flock of milk-white sheep." At once the boy sat as stiil as a mouse, He quite forgot he was popping corn, For he looked where the wood was blazing; Still steadily gazed the boy at these, and thriftily, they must be well hoed after planting. They may remain in the nursery rows two or three years, but if more than two years, the tap root should be cut away with a sharp spade. They will then throw out side-roots, and will endure transplanting the next year all the better. There is no difficulty in transplanting chestnuts, if the tap root has been cut off a year or two before. We transplanted six trees last spring from a nursery in this neighborhood, and they have since made an average growth of three feet. Many people complain that their chestnuts are stunted in their growth, or, that they grow crooked. This may be remedied by cutting them down even with the ground so soon as they have become stout enough. They will then throw up a nice, straight shoot, that will grow very rapidly, and very little if time is lost in making a large and any healthy tree. The whole nurishment from the roots, however, must be thrown into the one shoot, by cutting or rubbing all others off.-lawa Farmer. For the New England Farmer. OBSERVATIONS IN A GARDEN, SUPER-PHOSPHATE OF LIME. For the few past years, I have been on the lookout for a cheap concentrated manure. Last year I tried guano on a few young trees, and was well satisfied with the results. But this season I was told that there was none in the market-although there was occasionally a little, but very dear, and sold in too large quantities. Guano will always sell well, and why is it that our merchants do not import more, if it is to be had? Disappointed in procuring this article, I purchased a sufficient quantity of Deburg's super-phosphate of lime, to give it a test. But instead of making vegetables "jump," it did'nt hardly keep them awake; and this was discovered only when it was too late to remedy the evil. Later in the season, a dealer in the article told me he had some that he knew was good. Still I shook my head, when he, (determined that I should try it) gave me 15 or 20 pounds. I tried it in corn and around corn, and MESSRS. EDITORS:-"Will you please to give also around potatoes, cucumbers, squashes, tomayour readers some directions for the cultivation of toes, &c., but did not perceive any benefit. The chestnuts. I tried to raise them two years ago, potatoes and tomatoes look very fair, but not so from seed, but failed entirely, and a neighbor tried well as if ordinary manure had been used. The them last year with like success. She took up the corn in her pinafore, Harper's Magazine. CULTIVATION OF THE CHESTNUT. Yours, &c. Columbus City, Iowa. C. D. corn, cucumbers and beans, are a little below respectability; and the poor squashes hav'nt been able to keep alive upon it! The article was Deburg's. Now Lam unable to say what its composition PLUM TREES. There is no difficulty in raising chrstnuts from was (though I fancied I saw a little guano in it) yet the seed, if proper precautions are taken in gath-I can hardly conceive of a chemical composition, ering, preserving and planting the seed. The having so many ingredients as it is said this has, chestnuts which are designed for planting should that would not have told more beneficially. If all be gathered as soon as they are fully ripe, and the odors were not permanently fixed in this new the largest and plumpest should be selected. fertilizer, I might venture to say it evolved one, They should be immediately placed in mould or and that was suspicious! sffted earth and put away in the cellar, or buried in the ground, out of the way of the frost, rats The curculio has committed its ravages as usual and children. Be sure to use earth enough about this season on my trees, and those of the neighthem to prevent their heating. When the spring bors, in spite of brick and mortar paving, which opens, prepare a place of ground, by pulverizing some of them have adopted. On some trees that and ploughing it deeply, and plant the seed in set full, hardly one was to be seen in August. But rows three feet apart in the rows. They should next season they anticipate better results, as they not be covered deep, else they will rot in the say the insect will not be able to burrow beneath ground. Half an inch of covering will answer the tree the present. But how did the curculio every purpose. If you wish them to grow straight get up through the pavement this season? The best remedy which I have tried, as yet, is sprink- Published in monthly numbers of 32 pages each, ling the fruit and the ground with slacked lime. by ALFRED E. BEACH, 86 Nassua St., New York. If the spiritual rappers, who profess to shed so Price 50 cents a year. much light on benighted man, in the form of fancy theology, would lend their aid in exterminating this pest to the culture of the plum, there's a bare chance that they might do some good! And any reliable facts from them, as a remedy for the potato rot, would be handsomely rewarded by the State. WASH FOR TREES. For the New England Farmer. MANURES---BARN CELLARS. MR. EDITOR-I am much obliged to you for showing such deference to my wishes in relation to that long communication. It fills a little more space than I expected otherwise, with the excepFor the two previous seasons I have used ley as tion of a few slight errors-the greatest one in the a wash on about 20 young apple trees, simply pass-conclusion," where it should read, "the results ing a moist sponge once over the surface of the of the experiments of our best practical chemists," bark. These trees grew well, and only one seemed it answers my sanguine expectations. But I injured by it, which finally died. I am not certain was sorry that you found it necessary to remark that the ley hastened its death, as the tree was on its great length, and shall regret that so much not vigorous, and might have died at any rate; of my worthless scribbling was mixed in with but the dark and cracked appearance of the bark those excellent extracts from our best authors, if led me to believe that it was injured by the wash. it prevents the reading of the latter. I divided it On the whole, I think ley rather dangerous. The as it was for two reasons; 1st, it was a season of past season I used a mixture, which seems to me little leisure, and I could write but a few lines at a preferable-one certainly which I shall try again. time; 2d, some farmers' boys have but little leisure Fine soap-stone dust, with a little lime, was mixed for reading, and that mode of dividing would give with strong soap-suds, to about the consistence of them ample stopping places. For one I prefer paint, with a small quantity of yellow ochre stirred entire articles, even to ten pages at once, rather in to improve the color, and applied with a brush. than be ten months, or even weeks, reading the The trees grew finely with this harmless coating, same number of pages. Indeed, I seldom read and new, in November, are of a very uniform light anything that is to be continued" till it is disconfawn color, the body of the mixture having been tinued; then, if it is interesting, it can be read washed off by the rains. I think this wash pos- more understandingly and without the vexatious sesses all the good qualities of ley, without the suspense and anxiety that enters so largely into the experience of readers of "Popular Tales;" if uninteresting,it is a gratification to know one is not bad. THE DIX PEAR. I find this pear is highly valued in the market, to be bored with it again. One reason for the though not handsome, and sells for from 50 cents great length of the communication was, being unto one dollar per dozen. As to quality, very few willing to omit regular reading for the sake of pears equal it, and an extensive retailer of fruit finishing it, I continued to find, in every agricultold me a few days ago, that, in his opinion, it tural book I took up, and every paper that came was "a great way ahead of anything else." Its to hand, something that seemed to prove that the good quality is not denied, but Mr. Cole and other guidance of science is preferable to that of uncultivators say, "that it is uncertain, and 15 years scientific experience. in coming into bearing." The obvious remedy Without waiting to see whether Mr. Silas would be to graft it on the quince, or upon old Brown and his friends-arrayed in their inviolapear stocks. But a nursery-man says it isn't good able armor-turn upon me and overthrow me, I on the quince, though it might possibly bear ear- wish to make another reference to him on his lier, and that scions set in an old pear stock must" Barn Cellars, Restorative Gases," &c. A corbe fruitless for 15 years! For a pear so excellent respondent of the Maine Farmer, Mr. Jabez D. as the Dix, one having so strong a character, and Hill, of Moscow, in a criticism on the above named retaining it even in the last stages of decay, this communication, says :-"It is true that the gases is discouraging. Can not some cultivators who from my dung heap have not succeeded in escapread your journal speak more hopefully of this ing from the world; but what individual benefit fruit? D. W. L. do I derive from the fact that they have been conWest Medford, Dec. 6th, 1853. condensed in the great laboratory of nature and descend with their fertilizing influence upon REMARKS.-Thank you, sir, and hope to hear my neighbor's swamp?" I think Prof. Johnstonfrom you again. as capable of "accurate chemical experiment and nice observation" as any man in America,-says PEOPLE'S JOURNAL.-This is the title of a new the gases are absorbed by plants in proportion to paper, which we have just received. It is princi- their healthy, thrifty condition, nature herself pally devoted to Agriculture and Mechanics; and, seeming to be partial to the fields of the best cultivators. Your correspondent says: "I am not if the first number is a fair sample, the journal able to comprehend what loss green manure can will be no small addition to the rank of similar sustain in a few weeks while lying in a conical publications. The number before us is profusely form as thrown from the window before the proillustrated, with forty engravings, some of them cess of fermentation takes place to disengage the very fine and of a large size. It is printed in an gases." -Probably no one could comprehend the excellent manner, and altogether presents a most be prevented for the time. But it appears from loss sustained if the process of fermentation could inviting appearance, which we hope will not fail to the sentence before the one quoted, that the desecure it a large sphere of usefulness. composition of manure is hastened by the action of rain and snow, which in this country seldom a bone, throw it in. It is wonderful how they falls at intervals of weeks. As good authority as accumulate. If you want to dissolve them, make the Cultivator affirms that even freezing and a pile of bones and fresh ashes; wet moderately, thawing wastes the valuable properties of manure. and leave it for a month or so. In every two It is also well known that Prof. Mapes, a practi- hundred lbs. of bones there is enough animal cal farmer as well as chemist, mixes large quan- matter, phosphate of lime, and salts to grow an tities of prepared muck with his manure, to ab-acre of wheat; and, we know not how many sorb the volatile portions. In answer to your cor- barrels of apples. When you plant a fruit tree, respondent A., of Tarrytown, N. Y., let us see give it bones at the root. what Dr. Dana and Prof. Johnston have told us about manure and the loss it sustains by exposure. For the New England Farmer. Muck Manual, 3d. edition, Sec. 191. "EstimatDEATH OF BEES IN WINTER. ing the nitrogen as ammonia, the yearly produce of one cow is 156 lbs. of nitrogen, equal to 189 lbs. MR. EDITOR:-Believing that the several comof pure ammonia, or equal to 677 lbs. of bi-car- munications relating to the death of honey bees bonate of ammonia of the shops. A single cow during the winter months, which have appeared will, therefore, give annually, fed on hay and in your paper, may have convinced many of your potatoes, 31,025 lbs. of dung, containing 4800 lbs. readers that they die for want of proper protection geine, 677 lbs. carbonate of ammonia, 71 lbs. of from the cold, and not being satisfied that such is bonedust, 37 lbs. of plaster, 37 lbs. of chalk, 24 the fact, I feel bound to submit, for the consideralbs. of common salt, 15 lbs. of sulphate of potash. tion of your readers, such facts and opinions as Lectures on the applications of Chemistry and have been gathered from many years of experience Geology to Agriculture: XVIII, § 11. "The and careful observation. recent urine voided in a year by a cow 13,000 lbs., The fact that most bees die during our coldest solid matter 900 lbs., containing of urea 400 lbs., winters has naturally led many to suppose that and yielding of ammonia 230 lbs. When left to intense cold is the agent which causes their death; ferment for 5 or 6 weeks alone, and with the ad- but a careful observation will, I am confident, lead dition of an equal bulk of water, the urine of the to a different conclusion. If cold is the only cause cow loses a considerable proportion of volatile of their death, tight hives and warm houses will matter, and in these several states will yield in a be the remedy. But he who tries this remedy, year, will often find it a fatal one for the bees. Yielding of Solid Recent urine Every case which has come to my knowledge, where bees have died, have been in tight hives, while those in the same house, that lived, were in open hives. To more fully satisfy myself on the $17. Of farm-yard manures, &c. 10 cwt. of dry subject, in December last, I took three swarms for food and straw yield in recent dung 23 to 25 cwt., an experiment. No. 1 was a young swarm in a at the end of six weeks 21 cwt., after eight weeks hive with iron legs 3-4 of an inch in length, to al20 cwt., when half rotten 15 to 17 cwt., when low a free pass of air between the hive and the botfully rotten 10 to 13 cwt." Muck Manual, Sec. tom board; this was placed in an open pen exposed to 204. "Barn-yard manure is too often exposed to the coldest winds. No. 2 was nine years old, in a rain. Its salts are thus washed out and the hive of similar construction, but protected at the natural liquids mixed with it drain away, and are bottom by a cellar, and placed in a warm house, thus lost. It is a positive money loss, for the com- though in an exposed situation. No. 3 was seven position of an imperial gallon of this muck-water, years old, in a hive with legs an inch long, proas determined by Johnston, in two samples, is as tected by a cellar, and covered with thick rugs, follows: Solid organic matter............200,80 479.20 grs. sia, with a little phosphate .25.10 Carbonate of lime................18.20 From yard dung watered with cow's urine. 23.30 grs. 77.60 518.40 617.30 grs. 420.40 grs. 44.50 31.10 3.40 19.00 268.80 518.40 and also placed in a warm house. No. The result was as follows:-In No. 1, about onehalf pint of bees died during the winter; in the spring they were in good condition, and the first of June sent out the largest swarm I ever had. 2 lost but very few bees during the winter, had a middling sized swarm. No. 3 lost more than a pint of bees during the winter, and did not swarm. the present time they are all doing well. At If the cold, and that alone, will cause their death, why did No. 1 survive the intense cold of last winter? or why did a swarm of my neighbor's which were in an open hive, escape, while in the same house, three swarms in tight hives died? The following is my opinion. The vapor arising from the animal heat, or breath of the bees, often collects in such quantities as to run down the sides of the hive to the bottom, where, in very cold weather, it congeals, and thus seals up the hive of the entrance, which is easily closed by the first and makes it nearly air tight, with the exception driving snow storm. To suppose bees can live a single day with a hive thus closed, would be unBONES.-Have these carefully saved. Keep an old reasonable. That all bees which die in cold weathbarrel beside your ash house, and whenever you find er are killed in this way, I will not attempt to as sert, but that some do, I am fully convinced by ac-ing and evening. Yet the Englishman takes ca tual experience. That bee-hives should be as well to provide his residence with trees; the breeze ventilated as our dwelling-houses I have not a that enter his windows come purified by a previous doubt; in fact, I am fully satisfied that a hive should passage through dense foliage: while too often the never set within three-fourths of an inch of the American neglects to surround himself with these bottom board, though I think it may be well to conservators of health and comfort; so that he and place a cellar loosely round, during the winter his family breathe air, not only scorching hot, but months, to keep the winds from driving directly often surcharged with carbon and ammonia. An through the hive. TREES ON FARMS. Y. For the New England Farmer. American fasm-house, without trees at a little distance, (not so near as to produce injurious dampness,) is out of all taste, is unfavorable to Another point of some importance, as connected health and comfort, and in utter disregard of the with British farming, is that of scattering trees in great law of adaptation to circumstances of situathe hedges and open fields. On lands devoted tion and climate.-Albany Cultivator. exclusively to pasturing, such are needed for their shade; and, scattered generally over a country, they add much to its beauty and picturesqueness. Especially is this the case in this country, where, LOW-LIMBED, VS. TALL TREES. owing to a damp atmosphere, the falling leaves Oak, elm, maple, pine and most other trees, soon decay and mingle with the soil, instead of be- which, in a dense forest, send up smooth, bare coming dry and littering the land and highways, trunks, that may be measured by tens of feet, will as with us. Englishmen are justly proud of their in an open field, if left to themselves, limb out old, spreading trees. Landlords often enter it in near or quite to the ground. Analogy seems to their leases, that no tree shall be cut down. Still, suggest the propriety of allowing apple trees, in in those parts of the empire, where the farming similar circumstances and in our climate, to follow is best, the trees are going. You now see but few their own modest instincts in this respect, instead trees in the wheat-fields of the low-lands of Scot-of compelling them to Bloomerize, without even a land, for instance; and very few in the fields of leaf to protect their spindle-shanks from the direct such farmers as Mr. Pusey and Mr. Mechi. These rays of an August sun. men do not sacrifice their love for the beautiful in On this theory, confirmed by some little obnature. They cultivate trees in their proper place. servation, I planted an orchard of over one hunThey are the last men, I suppose, who would dred trees in the spring of 1850. After considerleave a country naked and bald; but trees have no able inquiry among nursery-men, I bargained with longer a place among their wheat and barley. the Messrs. LAKE, of Topsfield, who said they In our land of scorching summers, let there be could furnish just what I wanted-trees not tall trees. It would be barbarous to root them out enough to sell well! They were to be two years from our cultivated fields, where they are injurious, from the bud; consequently small at best, and still without, at the same time, securing their growth smaller for being "stunts." Some were however in other places, where they are not only harmless, three or four years old-less attention being paid but pleasing to the eye, conducive to health, and to age than to the required form of the trees. often more profitable than anything else the soil When they were delivered, Mr. L. pointed to a will grow. Let them stud our pasture lands, as slim, lank-bodied, small-topped tree, and remarkgems of beauty and of comfort. Our cattle needed, "there is a fine one-sold it for 75 cents; but, the means of coolness in summer, and warmth in as it is not taken away, you may have it for 50 winter. Only by attending to this matter, shall cents." I replied, "I would like to see it grow we ever approach that excellence in this depart- with the low-limbed trees I have bought of you for ment, which our British brethren have attained. a shilling each, and will promise to set it out well.' More depends upon cherishing the breeds we have, Now for the result of four seasons' growth. than upon importing new. Let trees line our The tall tree was put in the garden, and in a soil highways. Their roots and tops will be a little in which a Louise Bonne de Jersey pear, planted injurious to the bordering lands, but not much; near by and at the same time, has added full six the weary traveller and his beast will rest under feet to its stature; while the twigs of the apple their shade; our children will delight the palate have shot out one, two, sometimes six inches a from their produce; and our grand-children build season; but not enough in the four years to change their houses with the timber they grow.. If our its original forlorn appearance. The trunk, a foot road-sides were adorned with a tree once in five from the ground, measures six and a half inches in rods, the rows alternating with each other, as far circumference, and is now, as it was when planted, as convenient, the roads, with the exception of nearly of the same size all the way from the here and there a wet place, which might be inter- ground to the limbs, which branch out 5 feet high. mitted if thought desirable, would not be a whit The small trees were set in a light, sandy and worse, and in many soils would be far better. If gravelly soil, from which wood had been previously one-fourth of these trees were rock maples, they cut; was cleared off and plowed in the fall prewould furnish sugar for the population, whenever vious, when a compost of meadow mud, lime, it should be cheaper to manufacture than to buy; ashes and leaves, was made into piles, convenient and no one knows what future times will be. Ru- for use in setting the trees in the spring. This is ral dwellings should be adorned by shade trees. all the "manure" they have had, except what they An American farm-house, under a sun shining may have stolen from corn and potatoes, lightly intensely at least two hundred and fifty whole manured in the hill, that have annnally been days in a year, is a very different thing from an planted among the trees, and one mulching of English country residence, where the sun scarcely coarse meadow hay. I have measured a row of shines as many hours, and that mainly morn-14 trees, which I think a fair average of the or chard, and find the circumference of the smallest common eight-rowed, yellow corn, will require 270 Now dividing six inches; of the largest, ten inches; average of ears for a bushel of shelled_corn. the whole fourteen,about one foot from the ground, the number of ears on an acre by the number of seven and one-half inches. The shortest trunk, ears (270) required to make a bushel, and it gives seventeen inches; the tallest, three feet; average of the fourteen trunks, two feet three inches. I 65 bushels and about 27 quarts, to the acre. Now measured one limb that had grown eight feet in if 46 bushels of corn were added to an acre suc the four seasons, but in most cases I could not as has been described, it will not seem strange decide where the first year's growth commenced. that we wondered what kind of an appearance it But, take the trees together, the small ones have would present. It certainly would be a sight such made about as many feet as the tall one has inches. as we have never yet been permitted to see. The exact circumference of either the small trees or the tall one when planted, is not known; but, while the first have changed from mere bushes to respectable trees, the latter has remained in statu quo. HOW TO HAVE PLENTY OF WATER. Pure, clear water, forming, as it does, at the The tall tree has been full of blossoms every same moment, both the emblem and embodiment spring, but has borne no fruit. Of the small ones, of refreshment and comfort, is looked upon as a seven bloomed last year, (the third year from vital element of satisfactory existence, by all who planting), and matured seven apples; this year hate dirt, parched lips, dusty lungs, stratified detwenty-one bloomed, but only one apple ripened. posits on the skin, and parti-colored linen. It also In justice to the tall tree, I ought to add that forms a most agreeable class of pictures for the it has sent out shoots every season from both roots eye, in the form of placid sheets, bubbling and trunk, apparently for the purpose of remedy- brooks, sprinkling jets and flashing fountains; and ing its unnatural position; but these have been through the ear, it gives us the music of cascades, regularly Jack-knifed, to give the tree a "fair the thunder of cataracts, and the grave roar of chance," and the full benefit of "cultivation." ocean surges. Winchester, Nov. 8th, 1853. GREAT CROPS. 8. F. It is no wonder that all are ready to labor for and welcome so agreeable a companion. The large cities have brought it many miles in hewn masonry, at a cost of millions, that they may syringe their streets, feed their baths, and keep a ready The Annual Meeting of the Rockingham, N. H., antidote for the incipient conflagration. The counFair, was holden at Exeter, on the 9th inst. We try resident longs for the termination of the parchfind in the News-Letter the report of the commit- ing drouth, when drenching rains shall fill his cisterns, replenish his failing well, and set the brooks tee on crops, awarding the following premiums: in motion. Many are looking with envy at some The Committee on crops awarded the following pre- rare and "lucky" neighbor, who happens to have an unfailing spring; and others, as we have often To Joseph Winslow, of Epping, for 111 bushels and 14 witnessed, placing the water hogshead on the oxquarts, of Indian corn on one acre of ground, $5. sled, proceed to drag their needed supply from a To Joseph Cilley, of Nottingham, for 121 bushels and 14 distance of one to three miles, as the case may be, quarts of Indian coin on one acre and 23 rods of ground, $3. miums: on one acre and 24 rods of ground, To A. C. Taylor, of Hampton, for 50 bushels of Barley on one acre and 10 rods of ground, To Stephen Dow, of Brentwood, for 1754 bushels of Rye and as they can get it from the pond, creck, or on 4 acres 41 rods of ground, $4. some better supplied risident. We have positively To Daniel C. Long, of Kingston, for 30 bushels of wheat seen a wealthy farmer drawing rain water a mile, $4. after having allowed five times the amount he ever 84. would have needed to run to waste immediately To James H. Dow, of Rye, for 68 bushels Oats on one and before his eyes; and we venture to assert that $4 not one farmer in a hundred who has suffered from To Rufus C. Sanborn, of Hamptonfalls, for 1514 bushels a want of water during the present year's severe of carrots on one quarter of an acre of ground, drouth, has not committed a similar waste, though 85. perhaps sometimes less in degree. a half acres of ground, $3. The Committee on Bog Meadows awarded to G. C. Brown, of Stratham, a premium of The above are certainly large corn crops. We The great mass of country residents seem to have no more conception of the enormous floods were wondering what appearance that field would of clear, pure rain water, that annually pour off present, which gave to its fortunate owner, one of the roofs of their dwellings, wood-houses, barns, hundred and eleven bushels and fourteen quarts of sheds, and other out-buildings, than if they had corn on one acre! We have recently harvested never heard of such a huge watering-pot as the a field where we obtained about sixty bushels, only, clouds in the sky. If all the rain which falls in the Northern States within a year, should remain to the acre. On passing through it repeatedly upon the surface of the earth without sinking into before it was cut, we could find scarcely a dozen it or running off, it would form an average depth hills to the acre that contained only three ears; on of water of about three feet. In the Southern most of the hills there were four ears, and on States, it would be more; within the American many of them were five, six and seven, making tropics, it would amount to about ten feet; and near Bombay, in Asia, to twenty-five feet. an average, as we thought, of five ears of good Every inch of rain that falls on a roof, yields sound corn to each hill. We planted three feet two barrels for each space ten feet square; and and six inches apart, each way, giving 3,555 hills seventy-two barrels are yielded by the annual rain to the acre, which multiplied by 5, the number of in this climate, on a similar surface. A barn ears to the hill, gives 17,775 ears on an acre. The thirty by forty feet, yields annually 864 barrels |