Yours truly, H. P. lime. On the third quarter, the same muck and ly finished by an unskilful farmer, and a hard, 12 bushels of unleached ashes, and on the fourth cruel driver. quarter not anything, and let us know the result. New York, June 13, 1854. SINCLAIR, in his Code of Agriculture, classi fies loams into four sorts: 1. Sandy; 2. Gravelly; the attention of the farmer more than that of the REMARKS.-There are few subjects which demand 3. Clayey; and 4. Peaty; but if decomposed slate contains a considerable portion of lime, and much proper management of the horse. A good horse, sound and kind, one that will work in any harof the remaing portions of the soil are evidently ness,-one that is not skittish, will not stumble, of vegetable origin, we do not see why the term "calcareous loam" should not be used as well as the carriage as well as steady on the farm, is now kick, overreach or interfere, and that is active in "sandy," "gravelly," or "clayey" loam. considered so valuable by those keeping but one, that scarcely any price will induce its owner to part with him. Such animals are very rare. The "A HORSE'S FOOT"---AGAIN. practice alluded to by our intelligent and observing MESSRS. EDITORS :-I was struck with the won- correspondent, is quite common, and ought to be derful mechanism of the horse's foot, so minutely discontinued, and the floor occasionally washed described in your last issue. No one, of the most with cold water and sprinkled with plaster or weak common observation could read it without being For the New England Farmer. instructed, yet this same foot, so necessary to the copperas water. The efforts of Dr. DADD, a vetwants of man, is the careless concern of many. erinary surgeon in this city, are calling more atNow with your permission, I will give you my tention to the horse than has been given him hereown experience in this matter. I purchased a mare, tofore, and we think will have a decided tendency, originally sound. Her feet became tender; she not only to improvement in the animal himself, had a colt. At three years old, her feet became tender also. The question arose, did the colt inher-but in the modes of treating and managing him. it tender feet? Is disease entailed with the brute creation? I found it for my interest to sell the CORK. animals. It was painful to drive them on a hard Cork is nothing more or less than the bark of road. I then purchased a powerful mare, with an evergreen oak, growing principally in Spain great action. In a few months she began to crip- and other countries bordering the Mediterranean; ple, and showed stiffness in the limbs. I investi- in English gardens it is only a curiosity. When gated and sought the cause. She stood on the the cork-tree is about fifteen years old, the bark same soft bed occupied by her predecessor, which has attained a thickness and quality suitable for was the same with the colt. This was her ma- manufacturing purposes; and after stripping, a nure, &c., with straw litter thrown in daily to farther growth of eight years produces a second keep her clean. It was suffered to remain till 2 crop; and so on at intervals of even ten or twelve feet deep, then pitched out. It was found to con- crops. The bark is stripped from the tree, in tain great heat and strongly impregnated with am- pieces of two or three inches in thickness of conmonia. The hoofs stood in constant contact with siderable length, and of such width as to retain heat, while the body of the animal was experienc- the curved form of the trunk whence it has been ing the heat of a hot bed while lying down. There stripped. The bark peeler or cutter makes a slit was no escaping it. The conclusion was, that we in the bark with a knife, perpendicularly from had ignorantly been manufacturing tender feet, the top of the trunk to the bottom; he makes anand the proof was apparent in this way. I sub- other incision parallel to, and at some distance stituted a plank floor, washed the legs and feet out from the former; and two shorter horizontal cuts clean, with cold water, 2 or 3 times a day, which at the top and bottom. For stripping off the piece retarded the fever in the limbs, and brought a re- thus isolated, he uses a kind of knife with two turning moisture to the hoofs. She soon recovered handles and a curved blade. Sometimes after the in every respect, which convinced me of the too cuts have been made, he leaves the tree to throw common error in the country of keeping horses on a hot manure bed instead of a hard floor. From whence comes pinched feet, corns, tenderness, and swellings of the fetlock joints and legs? Do not too many cases begin in the pens where the colts are wintered, and stand in their filth, with occasional littering, for decency's sake? off the bark by the spontaneous action of the vegetation within the trunk. The detached pieces are soaked in water, and are placed over a fire when nearly dry; they are, in fact, scorched a little on both sides, and acquire a somewhat more compact texture by this scorching. In order to get rid of the curvature, and to bring them flat, they are pressed down with weights while yet hot. Are not their young, tender feet susceptible of disease, and are not many contracted in this way? My experience satisfied me, and I was in season to save as sound an animal as ever travelled TO FARMERS.-The Hartford Times mentions a from impending ruin. I could trace no other farmer who took up a fence after it had been cause. Should this communication meet the eye standing fourteen years, and found some of the of Doct. DADD, we should be happy to hear his posts nearly sound, and others rotted off at the views in regard to it, through your excellent pa- bottom. Looking for the cause, he discovered that the posts which had been inverted from the Knowledge upon this subject can do the horse way they grew were solid, and those which had growing farmers no harm-perhaps, much good. been set as they grew were rotted off. This is cerWhat he begins ignorantly to accomplish, is easi-tainly an incident worthy of being noted by our farmers. per. CHURNING. to lay a large number of eggs, but cannot do so without the materials of the shells, however nourishing in other respects her food may be; indeed, of lime, and not finding any in the soil, or in the a fowl fed on food and water, free from carbonate shape of mortar, which they often eat on the walls, would lay no eggs at all with the best will in the world." For the New England Farmer. As the season of butter-making is at hand, it is a proper time to present to the reader whatever may facilitate the operation, and at the same time save manual labor. Churning is a laborious work even with the best churns, and under the most favorable circumstances; and occasionally, when the butter is long in coming, it becomes a discouraging and vexatious labor and one that severely taxes the patience. A gentleman extensivePROTECTING PEACH TREES. ly engaged in dairying in Western New York, MR. EDITOR-In the Farmer of last week you once informed us that he had long used a ma- make a few remarks on peach blossoms; you ask chine somewhat similar to the one represented of the peach tree by bringing them together in the if any person ever attempted to protect branches above, and operated it with a cosset sheep, who autumn, and covering them with matting or procame at the call of a whistle and did the churning tecting them in any way other than by snow. In every morning. A large dog, or a child, will also order to protect peach trees in this manner, it is answer the purpose well. The machine is now necessary to keep the trees dwarfed by pruning, made so as to be very light, yet with sufficient which may easily be done by beginning while the strength to do the churni of a large dairy, or den changes in the weather that we wish to protrees are small, as it is not the cold, but the sudto drive a grindstone, or to be applied to other tect the tree from. The covering need not be purposes. heavy; I have covered peach trees in the followThe manufacturers describe it as a simple end- ing manner-take four long spruce poles and set less platform, formed upon two india rubber them round the tree with the tops inclined to the straps, with strips of light wood firmly rivetted to then take some old mats and roll around the tree top of the tree; tie the poles together at the top, it. This endless platform is supported by a drum, and make fast to the poles. I do not think it is about 12 inches in diameter at each end, and the necessary to cover the trees clear down to the whole so arranged that it can be elevated to any ground, but only as far down as the branches. angle required by the weight of the dog, or work The result of this covering was a good crop of to be done by it. fruit, whilst the rest of the trees in the orchard were barren and fruitless. I think it is better to It will be seen by the cut that the movement leave them open a little at both top and bottom, produces both the vertical and rotary motion, so to admit air in warm weather; the peach being a that it may be applied to the crank or common dash churns, or both, at the same time. They may be found at the Agricultural Rooms of Messrs. Ruggles, Nourse, Mason & Co.-Price $12,50. fruit that is very uncertain in this part of the ་་ FEEDING POULTRY.-Professor Gregory of Aber- MIXING SOILS.-The benefit derived from the apdeen, in a letter to a friend, observes:-"As I sup- plication of clay to very light, sandy soils, are ofpose you keep poultry, I may tell you that it has ten most remarkable. Clays may also be much been ascertained that if you mix with their food a improved by the application of sand, and those sufficient quantity of egg-shells or chalk, which whose "garden spots" chance to be in need of they eat greedily, they will lay twice or thrice as either amendment, will find early spring the best many eggs as before. A well-fed fowl is disposed time to attend to it. For the New England Farmer. ADVANTAGES OF LIVING ON POOR LAND. they are renowned throughout this, if not foreign lands, as a people well-trained in the arts, which require unflinching industry in overcoming obstacles thrown in the way by arbitrary rulers, MESSRS. EDITORS:-What advantage is there in as well as subduing the rugged soil. having a poor parcel of land for a farm? I will If the land in New England requires three try to state the advantages, as I view them, if it times the labor to produce any given quantity would afford any amusement or gratify the curios- that the western land requires, it is a course of ity of the reader. To live, stay on, or rather get discipline, though rigorous, which has not been a living off of poor land, will call latent faculties without its advantages. If idleness is the mother into activity. If the farmer makes up his mind of vice, industry is the guard of virtue. It has to get his meat, bread and vegetables, by making often been said by my western friends, that the poor land better, his thinking powers will be habits of the New Englanders were much needed called into exercise to select the best course to be there; they think the leven of industry might pursued to accomplish his purpose. produce a wholesome fermentation which might, In the first place, his faculty of skill will be ultimately, leaven the whole population. called into exercise in order to adopt the best A modern writer observed that had there been method to improve his poor land, then the neces- no New England, there would have been no resity of his circumstances will confirm him in the public in America to boast of. Had the lot of habits of industry; and his wallet, not being very the same men who have subdued the land covered highly replenished with cash, will be a practical with stumps and stones in New England, been lecture to him on economy, and his ambition to cast upon the richest land of the great valley of accomplish his purpose, will excite his energy to the west, it is possible they might have been enaction, and hope of reward will prompt him on ervated, and their posterity become a degenerate to perseverance and patience "in well doing" to race. They might have fallen an easy prey to the time of harvest. Here we can see faculties the ambition and domination of the mother coun- . and talents exhibited and applied to useful pur- try, and to this day, been the humble servants of poses which would have continued smothered in the British queen. Living on luxuries, sleeping the bosoms of the rich, for the want of the com- on down, and having all wants supplied without pulsive power of necessity to excite them to ac-knowing their value, does not qualify men to retion. The young man who is solely dependent sist oppression or fill their brains with patriotic upon his own efforts and resources, has every fac- blood. Those who boast of living on the proceeds ulty for self-support called into requisition. The of three days' labor in the week, generally have great display of mental and physical efforts is very little reason to boast of their conduct during seldom the result of riches and luxury. The the other four days. young man in easy circumstances, whose every It appears by the reports of charitable associawant is supplied without any of his own exer- tions that the residents on the hard soil of New tions, has nothing to arouse or call his native fac- England, subscribe more for various benevolent ulties into exercise which have been in a dormant purposes, than the inhabitants of all the other state, and till necessity is forced upon him, they States in the Union. So we fancy, Mr. Editor, will continue to sleep; he is educated to such that we can trace out some advantages by being numberless wants that it would be impossible to inured to the hardships and constant employment have them supplied from the products of a poor growing from the necessity of our location as inland farm. Would the inhabitants of New Eng-habitants of New England. SILAS BROWN. land have probably been more intelligent, ener- Wilmington, 1854. getic, industrious, persevering, enterprising, virtuous or even more wealthy had their soil rivalled WEEDS IN DOOR YARDS. One prolific source of spurious vegetation on our farms, is the neglect of which too many of REMARKS.-Excellent. We hope every reader that of the mighty and far-renowned valley of the will give this article an attentive perusal, and esMississippi? Riches and rich land have a tenden-pecially those who find themselves in the posseɛcy to deteriorate, rather than to invigorate both the mental and physical faculties; idleness and sion of poor fands. dissipation are frequently the offspring of plenty. It was said by a farmer of my acquaintance who had lately bought a large worn-out farm, "that any clown could live on rich land but the man for me, is he that has skill and ability to get rich on poor land," which has frequently been done to our agricultural friends are guilty, to destroy, at my knowledge. the proper season, the weeds which befoul their This farmer went to scattering leached ashes door-yards, and unoccupied places by the roadand compost upon his poor land, and soon had the side. satisfaction of seeing his crops, of grass, especially, increased to nearly ten fold. I have known numerous instances of young men of small capital affluent in the principles of vegetable nutrition, to purchase poor farms because they were cheap, those weeds which are indigenous, ordinarily and in a few years become independent farmers, flourish with great luxuriance, and if not eradicaand as comfortable livers as any in New England. ted with a timely hand, produce an abundant crop Discipline is necessary to make a good soldier, of seeds, a very considerable proportion of which and equally necessary to make a good farmer. As the so in such places is almost invariably The New England farmers have been trained on find their way in time, and by a variety of ways, what western people call hard, sterile land, but to the fields and cultivated grounds, where they this very land has made them what they are; radicate, and render the labor of cultivation per W. plexing and unprofitable. Never suffer a weed to after having prepared it in a barn-cellar; and if mature on your premises; cut down, root up and the land wont produce better crops than it did annihilate all. This is the only true policy. This in other hands, then I will emigrate to the West, that's all. I do not think compost better for the tles, white-weed, mullen, burdock, chickory, and land than stable manure, but I believe for a corn a host of other indigenous and exhausting produc- crop it is worth fifty per cent. more. tions, which are of little or no value, are ever-Journal of Agriculture. ready to spring up, and abridge the profits of the farm, and require no idle hand to hold them in check. All weeds are gross feeders, and sap the soil more than cultivated plants of equal size and weight. For the New England Farmer. SHALL I BE A FARMER? "Shall I engage in farming, and when," is the inquiry of your correspondent B., in the Farmer of the 6th inst. The question is asked of Massachusetts farmers; but a New Hampshire farmer BOOK FARMING A SWAMP. MR. EDITOR-I have recently purchased about ventures an answer,-which is, certainly engage 20 acres of land, being a slice off from the sides in farming, if you are an intelligent, enterprising of two adjoining farms, both now vastly too large. and industrious man, and being a subscriber to The soil is a light loam, perfectly free from stone the New England Farmer, is indication of intelliand beautiful land to cultivate, but in a miserable gence at least. We want you to engage in the most state of cultivation. In the centre, on either side ennobling calling that occupies human beingsof the old line brush fence, is a muck swamp concultivating the earth. taining about two acres, which has been covered On the other hand, if you are a stupid dolt, with alder bushes time out of mind, and has been believing that Adam and Abel knew all that is the receptacle of the wash of the highway ever since necessary to know about farming and rearing the settlement of the town. In 1851, I let out flocks, and that scientific culture is a humbug, and the land at the halves, while erecting my building, agricultural papers are a nuisance, then be advised and took what the unlucky tenant pleased to give to go thy way to college and a profession, or any me, which I assure you was not much. where else, rather than to the farm, for the generous earth now mourns and looks sad by reason of so many stupid cultivators. The last season I carried it on myself, and I increased the potato crop 55 bushels to the acre, the corn crop 20 bushels to the acre, and oats 20 As it is of less consequence where a man is than bushels to the acre. I planted about an acre of what he is, if you are of the right sort, you need corn on land so poor that the man of whom I have no difficulty in selecting a spot of earth for a chased said it would not raise corn at any rate, farm, that needs your care, and will reward abunand so all my neighbors said; but as I knew noth-dantly your labor, both of head and hand. pur Yours truly, W. H. FARMER. ing about farming, I was fool enough to try. I began by carting 49 loads of manure, about half horse and cattle manure, rather strawy. I then For the New England Farmer. plowed it, holding the plow myself, and I put in pretty much all but the beam and handles, and I WASH FOR FRUIT TREES. must confess, that after the operation the land Various compounds are recommended as washes looked rather pale; but as "revolutions never go for fruit trees,-as potash, ley, soda, white-wash, backwards," I was determined to go ahead. I took &c. In the January number of the Farmer, D. care that the manure was covered immediately W. L. advises a mixture of soap suds, soap stone after spreading-I then put into the hill, on about dust, lime and ochre, an application of doubtful three-quarters of the piece, a liberal supply of utility I should think. Some of the above I know the very best stable manure from a neighboring have proved injurious and destructive, and others barn-cellar, and on the remainder I put swamp I thing rather objectionable. The design of all mud, that was carted out the fall before, and washes should be to free the bark of foreign substanmixed with barn-yard manure in the proportion ces-as dust, moss, insects, &c., cleansing the bark, of one load of manure to eight of the muck.-opening the pores and stimulating to healthy action. Both patches were cultivated alike. I have used with good effect, soap suds (for econo Now for the results. In four to six weeks my) that in which clothes have been washed, apfrom planting, the corn where muck was used, plied very freely with a sponge, and in some inwould weigh at least four times as much as the stances with a soft scrubbing brush. For two other, and was much more even and of a better years past have used once during the growing color. Many of my neighbors examined the season, (the month of June I prefer) soft soap, 1 piece, and were perfectly astonished at the dif- part, soft water 2 parts, applied with a swab and ference in favor of the compost, at the same time, rubbed quite hard; it should be used during damp remarking that the other would overtake it be-weather or just before rain. fore harvest. The other did gain upon it, but Cultivators of fruit trees now are very much was never nearly as sound and heavy. The differ- annoyed with the green aphis, the bark and scab ence, in the fall, was strikingly apparent. The louse;-the_woody aphis, has also made its apcrop I did not measure, but it was admitted on pearance. For the first on apple trees I find a deall hands, that more than an average crop was coction of Quassia a perfect remedy. I make it raised on what was termed a miserable piece of quite strong-1 lb. of Quassia chips (costing & land wholly unfit for corn. cents) to 8 galls. water boiled to 6 galls., applied Now, Mr. Editor, that is book-farming, for I with a garden syringe. To two or three trees badknow very little about any other, and I intend to ly infested, I found it necessary to make a second book-farm that swamp on to the rest of my land, application. Previous to this experiment, the trees had entirely ceased growing, the leaves There is a class of boys, however, for whom I curled up, and with the shoots and small limbs, think a beginning might be made immediately became discolored and dirty. I tried various practicable-the sons of parents who could clothe remedies with but little benefit, until at last I them, provide them with books and see to their heard of Quassia. The trees in each instance soon schooling and incidental wants for the first year. after commenced a second growth, making vigor- [The clothes, by the way, are the sore spot in boy ous shoots, entirely free of the aphis. I presume wrongs in the country, and the extinguisher to this decoction will prove equally efficacious and that boy pride without which his character becomes harmless on other varieties of trees, but have not the fruitful soil for rustic meannesses. Among tried. A white-wash of soft soap, water and lime is the old farmer's "dodges," the excuse for all his recommended for the bark louse. I have not overworkings of the boy is "the money it costs to tried it, but feel prejudice against any application clothe and school him"-while the poor lad's habiwhich will form such a lasting coat-closing the liments are the remainders of the old man's wornpores of the bark. I believe that soft soap diluted out coats and trousers, fitted and patched with such with the Quassia water, will prove a remedy if skill and taste as Heaven may have vouchsafed applied early in the season, while the insects are to the old woman's needle. The consciousness young; I intend trying it. Will some of your (No. 1) with which the "young farmer" walks correspondents experienced in this matter, advise about in a pair of patched and big-breeched panas to the best mode of ridding our orchards of taloons "fitted" by only cutting the legs off at the these destructive insects? Waukesha, Wis., 1854. A. G. H. OUT-DOORS AT IDLEWILD; OR COUNTRY-LIFE WITHIN CITY REACH BY N. P. WILLIS. knee, and the consciousness (No. 2) with which he hears himself glorified by a political orator, a few years after, as the country's "independent bulwark," "bone and sinew," "nature's gentleman" and "best citizen," are two points between which, to say the least, there is a chasm.] There are progressive steps of agricultural life I find the farmers generally willing to admit under this phase, of course, which would follow that a boy's work for four hours a day, would in due succession. A literature for the boy-class fairly pay for his board. In pushing inquiry as of farmers is wanted-beginning with a simplifito the different kinds of farm work, I find, too, cation of so much of the science of soils and prothat there is but a small portion of it which is be- ducts as the youthful mind could readily underyond the strength of a well-grown lad of fifteen. stand. Other and correlative knowledge might For ditch-digging, hay-pitching, cradling of grain, be selected and combined into a series expressly wall-laying and heavy plowing, they would de-designated THE YOUNG FARMER'S LIBRARY. pend, of course, on the main strength of a regular newspaper for them would soon flower upon this "hand;" but for sowing, light-plowing, hoeing, stem, and it is not difficult to imagine that the weeding, carting and scattering manure, reaping, pride and enthusiasm of boys throughout the thrashing, and all the lesser industries of stock-country might thus be gradually interested in the tending and barn work, a smart boy is often as pursuit. A capable as a man. This applies to grain farms, One word as to an important point-the subor to those mainly devoted to hay and stock. sequent setting up of the young farmer for himWhere the produce is only fruit or vegetables for self. It would be but a "middling sort of chap," the city market, the work is easier, and perhaps in this part of the country, who should have the whole of it could be done by boys. lived and worked in a neighborhood, for years, and not have character and credit enough to get trust But boy-labor, to be reliable for the master, ed for land to live upon. Almost every one of must not be boy-slavery. It must be enlivened our oldest and now independent farmers took his and steadied by an understood footing of recipro- land originally on that tenure. But, while a cities between boy and master-both having an much smaller quantity of land is wanted for the interest in its being faithfully done. And this is skilful and well practised gardener, the profits are a state of things that could not be entered upon far beyond those of ordinary farming. The soil to-morrow-with the present general idea of how increases in value, too, under the hand of the boys may be used. Information is sadly wanted cultivator. By purchasing forty acres, he could on this subject. The most valuable addition that so improve, while taking off crops, that twenty could be made, just now, to "literature for the would sell, after four or five years, for more than people," would be a manual of boy-employment the cost of the forty. This has occurred so often, and treatment-defining his rights like those of a as to be calculated on, among regular prospects hired man, giving the terms of an agreement for and resources. And it is for this facility of a first his labor, specifying his privileges of spare time start on arriving at manhood—a start upon charand agricultural instruction, describing the care acter without capital-that I should advocate the of him by the mother of the family, and plainly education by boy labor upon single farms, in prestating the ways to make him think for himself ference to education in Farmers Colleges. Ever and respect himself, and so be thought of and re- so well instructed in a large institution, the youth spected by those around him. With this kind of is adrift, when he leaves it. To have a farm, (as understanding, every intelligent farmer could prof- a stranger wishing to settle anywhere,) he must itably take half a dozen boys to work with his one buy and stock it, with "money down." And, not or two hired men, and teach them farming while only has the laboring boy the advantage of havallowing them to play enough and read enough ing supported himself, and extended his roots of as well as earn enough-a Utopian idea for the character and credit where he means to grow and present, perhaps, or, one at least by which the flourish, but the practice of his agricultural edupoor boy is not likely to profit for a while. cation has been upon the soil, and in the climate, |