uable Morgan mare, is very promising. This mare lish farmer able to meet this constantly increasing was by the celebrated old Morgan Horse "Com-demand? The answer is by bringing to his aid the et," or sometimes called "the Root Horse;" and most recent discoveries in science, relating to the constituents of different soils, rotation and adaptaher dam was of Messenger descent. Mr. Hill had tion of crops, the chemical qualities of the various the misfortune last spring to lose a two-years-old vegetables cultivated, and of the food which they colt, own brother to the one above named, and require, &c., together with the latest improvements which I thought a year ago now, the most prom-the New England farmer can compete with the in agricultural implements. And in like manner, ising colt of his age I had seen. Western, only by employing the same means. But Mr. EDGAR HILL, Son of D.Hill, Esq., and living the New England farmer labors under this addinear his father, has a young stallion by Black tional disadvantage. Taking in the whole counHawk, out of the dam of the "Myrick Horse." try west of the Alleghany mountains, the proporHe is a stock horse of great promise, and several tion of the population engaged in agricultural opportunities have already occurred to sell him at pursuits is as eight to one in all other pursuits. There, where the forests and the prairies are to be a high price. Mr. Edgar Hill has several prom-subdued, the old remarkof Adam Smith still holds ising colts by Black Hawk. He is trying the ex-good, that a widow with eight children is sought periment of coupling Black Hawk with fillies of after and married as an heiress; and as in the days his own get, so as to obtain colts three-fourths in of the patriarchs, the greater the number of arthe blood of the old horse. Great care is used, rows in the quiver of the Western cultivator, the greater is his strength in the gate. however, in selections for this course of breeding; Against this all but overwhelming competition, none but mares of extra limb and substance being the New England farmer, on his sterile soil and chosen. He has a three-fourths blood weaned worn-out acres, can never sustain himself, except foal, which is very fine and vigorous, and argues by bringing to his aid every improvement which well for the experiment. Where mares of extra trotting speed have been coupled with Black Hawk, the colts have with few or no exceptions proved fast trotters; and indeed almost any good middling mare bred to him produces a colt of considerable more value than the average of serviceable horses. Brattleboro', Jan. 11, 1854. F. HOLBROOK. For the New England Farmer. discovery in science and invention in art has brought to light, and which is adapted to his purpose. To cry out against these improvements and to refuse their assistance, is, therefore, clearly suicidal. The vast importance of this topic to the prosperity of New England can hardly be overrated, and some other considerations relating to it, will be presented in subsequent papers. D. C. Waltham, Jan., 1854. For the New England Farmer. THE DIX PEAR. REMARKS. In this and subsequent articles which we are promised, the reader will find the subject of New England Farming discussed in a manner FARMING IN NEW ENGLAND--No. 1. differing considerably from the usual mode of conThe farmers of New England can successfully sidering it, and must, we think, convince the compete with those in the more fertile regions of doubting of the importance of a more systematic, the West, only by conducting their operations and scientific management of farm affairs. with superior science and diligence. It is only by the aid of science and the cheapness of labor, that the British agriculturist can save himself, underthe operation of the free trade system,from being inundated by American productions; and the relations MR. EDITOR-In the Farmer for January, a of the New England farmer to the Western, is correspondent, in speaking of the Dix Pear, says quite analogous to that between the English and that it does not fruit for 15 years on the pear American. In England there is hardly one culti-stock, and that the obvious remedy would be to vator of the soil to four manufacturers and arti- graft on the quince. But a nurseryman says that sans, but in the United States, the case is exactly it is not good on the quince, though it may posthe reverse, there being about four cultivators of sibly bear earlier, and that scions set in an old the soil to one in all other occupations. By the stock must remain fruitless for 15 years. I have census of 1831, out of 3,414,175 families in Great three trees on the quince, planted four years, all Britain, 961,134, or nearly a fourth, (282 in 1000) of which bore a fair crop of fine Dix pears, and were employed in the product of food. The cen- look well for the coming season. Barry, in the sus of 1841 showed a still greater disproportion be- Fruit Garden, says of this excellent pear, "it suctween these two classes, the agricultural popula-ceeds on the quince double worked, but not othertion having in many places declined, and the man-wise." I can see no sign whereby you could tell ufacturing having immensely increased. The cen- that they have been double worked. The trees sus of 1851 exhibited a wider disproportion still are vigorous, and about six feet in height.. so that now considerably less than one-fourth are employed in raising food for considerably more than three-fourths of the population. Yours, BLYTHEWOOD. In the face of all these facts, however, the impor- CHEAP PAINT.--An excellent and cheap paint, tation of corn into Great Britain, except in cases for rough wood work, is made of six pounds of of unusual scarcity, has been gradually diminish- melted pitch, one pint of linseed oil, and one pound ing for the last thirty years. How, then, is the Eng- of yellow ochre. DANVERS WINTER SWEET APPLE. the stocks on which they are budded or engrafted, If the An abundance of good winter sweet apples is is an inquiry beyond my power to answer. stock does not have some influence on the quality demanded in our markets more than any other of the fruit, I should think it very strange-but fruit. Everybody likes them, cooked or uncooked; that it does, I am not prepared to assert. If it they are wholesome, easily prepared, and ought to does, then we can never be certain of continuing be plenty and cheap. any particular variety of apple for any considerable length of time." We were favored with the original of the portrait above, by the Hon. J. W. PROCTOR, of Dan- Mr. HYDE, another of our intelligent corresvers, a gentleman who, although not a farmer, pondents, and a practical fruit culturist, in an watches agricultural progress with unceasing in- article in volume 4, page 176, does not speak so terest. In a communication to the Farmer of favorably of this variety. last year, he says: We consider the Danvers Winter Sweet a varie It takes its "As to the Danvers Sweet, we know the town ty richly worthy of cultivation. and the farm on which it originated. I have been name from the town in which it originated.familiar with it from my earliest years. It was Fruit of medium size, roundish oblong. Skin owned by Daniel Eppes, Esq., at the time of the smooth, dull yellow, with an orange blush. Stalk discovery of the tree from which so many good apples have proceeded, and which now continue to slender, inclining to one side. Calyx set in a refresh all lovers of apples and milk, (than which smooth, narrow basin. Flesh yellow, firm, sweet, few better dishes can be found.) This apple and rich. It bakes well, and is fit for use the holds its original character with great distinctness. whole winter, and often until April. At the recent Ohio State Fair, a rare genius It has not the variety of shades that mark the Baldwin-it is unmistakable. Perhaps, like all other fruits, modified somewhat by the strength of the soil, or exposure to the sun; for all fruits took upon the show ground a hand cider-mill of are benefited by a fair exposure to light and heat, the improved kind, together with a quantity of cias well as the animal creation. How far these der apples, and essentially hit three birds with one fruits have been, or are liable to be modified by stone. He made his cider; sold it as fast as made at five cents a glass; and at the same time showed entire habits, and, like some of old, did nothing his machine to the best advantage. FARMERS IN PUBLIC PLACES. but hear or tell some new, and yet some thrice told story. We commend these considerations to our agricultural friends, and to the press. It is not nec The press has been burdened of late years essary to be a good public speaker in order to be a with lectures and sermons and satires, addressed MAN. At the same time, some of our most fluent to agriculturists, reprobating the fact that, on "orators" are, and are regarded as, very small public occasions, as cattle shows, &c., when men, while those who are always speaking in speeches are to be made, they fall into the rear, public are always laughed at. Of this, the last, and speak only by proxy. Facts are as stated. We we never knew an exception.-Plough, Loom and have a word or two to say as to their propriety. Anvil. THE OLD CORDWAINER. We remember that Lord Mansfield is reported to have said that he should be as much ashamed to know statute law as not to know common law. The reason is obvious. Statutes are constantly changing, and not one in a hundred is ever called off, Dobbin, said I, let your trotters be drumming, to the notice of a lawyer. Hence, to study them so as thoroughly to understand them in all their relations, would be time thrown away, and labor without profit. It is so, in our opinion, with the entire catalogue of working-men. If any one has the "gift" of public speaking without study, or experience, or science, we know not why he may not show it up. For the sake of the bar and the pulpit, and for their clients' and hearers' sake, we wish this faculty did "come by nature." But we are persuaded that it is not thus that men become eloquent, or persuasive, or instructive. Such qualities are only the result of much reading, of careful and close study, and no little experience. Hence, if farmers do make speeches, the presumption is, that the result will be about as if a lawyer were to undertake some of the most difficult and intricate of farmers' work, or a clergyman were to undertake to play the mechanic. True, we have some lawyers and some doctors, and some men of leisure, who enrol themselves on the list of farmers. Some are educated at college, or other equally useful institutions, so as to make them conversant with languages and with science; and thus, and thus only, are competent to acquit themselves handsomely in public speaking. But not one half the lawyers, nor one half the ministers, nor one half the doctors, can make a good speech at a dinner-table, or at a public anniversary. Our Benevolent Societies, annually meeting in New York and Boston, are obliged to use over their old stock, and that, too, several times within our own recollection, and even then fail to sustain the interest with which they first began. This is a matter of notoriety. Under such circumstances, to laugh at farmers for not exposing themselves as volunteer bores, is far from being judicious or in good taste. One moon-shiny night, Thanksgiving was coming, Down towards Uncle Lot's, and she soon had me there. O, good Uncle Lot, I remember the spot, And the bench where he sat, For Sally, and Hetty; What a faithful old cordwainer was he. Then there was the stitching so strong and so nice, Why, the threads held the leather, as strong as a vice; There was none of your pegging, nor none of your nailing, No fretting, no scolding, no jarring, no railing. When shoemaker Lot, He worked on the spot, Which I've not forgot, With his strap o'er his knee; What a useful old cordwainer was he. But alas! now-a-days, how changed is this matter,— BUFFALOES. A member of Gov. Stevens' northern route exploring party, in a long communication to the St. Louis Republican, written from the head of Yellow Stone, relates the following among many The farmer who toils all day, and at night makes other "sights and incidents" of the party thus plans for to-morrow, how can he be expected far: to become a good and acceptable speaker? If he On Sunday, after a march of some ten miles, has acquired the art before he becomes a farmer, the buffaloes were reached. They were before or the mechanic before he becomes a working and on each side of the train. For miles ahead mechanic, it is all well. We wish many, a multi-it seemed one vast drove yard. They were estimatude, might thus qualify themselves before they ted by some as high as 500,000-200,000 is concommence these arduous pursuits. sidered a very low estimate. Drawing up the Besides, our farmers are proverbially modest train at our usual halt at noon, a large herd were Different causes conspire to make them so. about half a mile ahead. The hunters, six in We should regret a change, and nothing would so number, were immediately dispatched, well thoroughly effect this change as frequent public mounted on spare horses reserved for that especial debate. We have known a few absolutely ruined purpose, and the whole train had an opportunity by this very process. They "outgrew their shoes." of witnessing a buffalo hunt. The hunters dashed They substantially outgrew their dresses and their in among the herd, picked out the fattest of the men. : Mr. Campbell made an experiment which he cows, and then separating the selected ones from the herd, soon despatched them. In less than an says was conducted as follows:hour the wagons were sent but a small distance from the route to receive the choicest pieces of the buffalo. "A barrel was filled with fresh scrapings from the stalls of horses. Over the manure, as thrown in, a little ground plaster was sprinkled from In the next two days' march the hunters were kept some distance ahead, to keep off the buffa- time to time. After the barrel had been compactloes; it was the only way the safe passage of the ly filled, it was allowed to stand some weeks untrain could be insured through this sea of flesh. til it had gone through the heating process which The pack mules and spare animals following on in always takes place when newly collected manure is thrown into heaps. But during this heating or the train, too numerous to be separately led, were hard to control; and despite every precaution there was none of that 'vapor or strong odor fermentation (as it may with propriety be called,) and care, one horse and four mules were lost, they which ordinarily arises from fermenting manure getting mingled with a herd of buffaloes. Every effort was made to reclaim them-hours spent in heaps. When the mass had become cool, clean rain water was passed through it and collected their attempted recovery. The efforts were enat the bottom of the barrel. This water was tirely useless. found to contain one of the elements of plaster, and one of the volatile substances (carbonate of ammonia) above alluded to. On emptying the barrel, a white powder, looking very much like plaster, was found mingled with its contents. But when tested, this powder was found to contain only one of the elements of plaster; while it contained also one element of the volatile carbonate of ammonia just mentioned." WILL DRY GYPSUM ABSORB AMMO NIA? That is, will dry ground plaster, spread on the manure heap, prevent the escape of its ammonia, so that on entering the stable where horses are kept, or the barn cellar, where the droppings from the leanto are collected, we shall not smell any odor from them? We have great confidence in the theory of the editor of the Farmer, and that confidence has As these escaping gases are very valuable, and been gained by several years' practice of that theas the amount of plaster now annually used for ory. When the horse-stalls have been neglected, this purpose, amounts to a heavy item of expendi-and the odor arising from them has become exture in farm husbandry, the question is an impor-ceedingly pungent, we apply the dry plaster, and, presto, the stalls are sweet. And so of the cattle stalls, the cess pools, the drains, and any other olfactory nuisance that comes in sight. tant one. That the plaster so used upon manures will absorb the ammonia, the editor of the Maine Farmer says he has always considered to be the true This dry plaster, however, is never applied to doctrine, he having sprinkled it on fermenting dry substances. When thrown upon the horse heaps of horse manure, and thereby destroying the and cattle stalls, the litter and the floor are wet; edor." He adds, "we have also scattered it in if they were dry, there would probably be no and about privies, and neutralized the offensive odor. But who has dry piles of manure in these odors thereof, for a time, and without any fur-days of inquiry and progress? Certainly not the ther examination supposed the theory correct." man who is in the habit of using plaster. The On the other hand, the editor of the Rural dry heaps under the barn windows, resembling New-Yorker “denies that plaster will thus unite camel's dung that has bleached an age on deserts with ammonia, unless it be dissolved." To es- of sand, belong to men of another age, tablish this theory he says a scientific farmer and laugh at you for expecting to find virtue in stones, writer took some plaster and guano and rubbed and look upon ammonia as a cabalistic word, them together in his hand, and upon applying it which, like Pandora's box, is filled with all manto the nose, found that “instead of fixing the ammonia, the plaster aided the decomposition of the guano, and the ammonia was driven off with conAderable rapidity." ner of evil. who is The theory of the editor of the Rural NewYorker, in this view of the case, may be correct; we do not believe, however, that it is necessary to The test was a simple one, but was it a fair go to the trouble of leaching the plaster, and ono? Could a sufficient quantity of plaster be using the water thus impregnated with it. held in the hand to neutralize the odors of even a The best mode of retaining the valuable properAngle thimble-full of so concentrated and power-ties of manures until they are wanted for use, ful a manure as guano? We think not, and do to apply to them daily, such portion of finely pulnot consider such a test as settling the question.verized, old meadow muck as will take up the The editor of the Farmer, in support of his the-juices so that none of them will leach out. This ory, quotes the experiments of another practical muck is the cheapest, most accessible and convenman, Professor CAMPBELL, of North Carolina, "by ient, and at the same time one of the most capawhich it would seem that plaster in a dry state, cious absorbents and best deodorizers at the comdoes actually absorb, or rather decompose, carbon-mand of the farmer. Try it in the filthiest pool ste of ammonia, while flying off from fermenting or on the most fragrant heap of offal you can manures," resort, and his time spent (if there is nothing else called for,) in reading interesting books to his wife and children. There is much more which might properly be said, but I trust "a word to the wise is suffi find, and see what a magic power it possesses! "To waste its sweetness on the desert air." Smithfield, R. I., 12th mo., 1853. A. TODD. THE COLD FRIDAY OF 1810. No man in this State was better qualified, we The 19th of Jan., 1810, was a day the intense think, to pronounce an opinion upon this subject, coldness of which will be long remembered by those than the late Mr. PHINNEY, of Lexington; no who experienced its rigor. Those who were not out of doors, but had reached an age rendering other person, probably, had used so much muck, them capable of retaining impressions then received, or made so many careful experiments with it upon have doubtless a recollection of occurrences taking almost all kinds of crops. We have often heard him place around them. The evening previous was as say that three loads of compost prepared as we mild as those we have been favored with in such have described above, was fully equal to three loads of the unmixed manure. For the New England Farmer. FUL. numbers this winter; but in the night the wind changed, the wind suddenly became cold, and the mercury in less than 16 hours descended to 13 de-. grees below zero. A boisterous wind prevailed, by which trees, and in some cases houses, were blown THE WAY TO MAKE A WIFE CHEER-down, and the day became memorable in New England as "The Cold Friday." Here in Concord, so near as recollection serves, there was very little I am aware that many husbands feel inwardly going from place to place. Farmers piled on the to complain because their wives do not always wood and attended to their cattle, and that was wear cheerful countenances. Now I would say about all for the day. In this village, such as to such that the fault is not in the wife, but in went to the neighbors or to a store, upon errands the husband generally. So far as my observations which could not be deferred, sped over the ground will prove, in nine cases out of ten, the husband like squirrels, and were fortunate if they returned is in the fault when things do not go right in- with no flesh frozen by the intensity of the frost. doors. I am well convinced that there are those From vol. v. of the New Hampshire Historical who have been husbands for years, who do not Society's Collections, the following account is know, or rather who do not seem to know, what taken of an occurrence on that day in the town of belongs to them as husbands. And for those of Sanbornton : this class I desire to impart a little information, "On Friday morning, the 19th of January, Mr. hoping that they and their wives may be bene- Jeremiah Ellsworth, of Sanbornton, finding the fited thereby; for I deem it indispensable to the cold very severe, rose about an hour before sunhappiness of a family to have the wife cheerful in rise. It was but a short time before some part of and around the house-fire-side. his house was burst in by the wind. Being ap Now it is well known that many husbands will prehensive that the whole house would soon be delie in bed in the morning, and allow their wives molished, and that the lives of the family were in to get up and build the fires. In my opinion this great jeopardy, Mrs. Ellsworth, with her youngest does not belong to her to do, (unless her husband child, whom she had dressed, went into the cellar, is indisposed.) It comes under the head of the leaving the other two children in bed. Her hushusband's duties to build the fires, draw the wa-band undertook to go to the nearest neighbor, ter, and put on the tea-kettle; and further, when which was in a north direction, for assistance, but there are children, he should assist in dressing the wind was so strong against him that he found them; for there is nothing that will put a smile it impracticable. He then set out for Mr. David on the face of the wife like having a "good start" Brown's, the nearest house in another direction, in the morning. And at all times during the at the distance of a quarter of a mile. He reached day (whenever he is in the house), the husband there about sunrise, his feet being considerably should interest himself in the care and manage-frozen, and he was so overcome with the cold, that ment of the children. Another thing will add both he and Mr. Brown thought it too hazardous greatly to the cheerfulness of the wife, and that for him to return. But Mr. Brown went with is, always enter the house with clean feet. Tracks his horse and sleigh with all possible speed to save of muddy boots on a clean floor are very apt to the woman and her children from impending deput an unpleasant look on the face of a tidy wife;struction. and well it may, for there is no need of a husband "When he arrived at the house, he found Mrs. being so slovenly. No husband need be in so Ellsworth and one child in the cellar, and the much of a hurry, or so negligent, but that he can other children in bed, their clothes having been clean his feet on the door scraper. Can not every blown away by the wind, so that they could not husband see that a little neatness on his part be dressed. Mr. Brown put a bed into the sleigh, saves labor to the wife? One thing more I will and placed the three children upon it, and covered mention, which in my opinion tends very much them with the bedclothes. Mrs. E. also got into to the object in question; and that is, for the the sleigh. They had proceeded only six or eight husband to spend as much time with his family rods before the sleigh was blown over, and the as possible, certainly his leisure hours. His children, bed and covering, were scattered by the house should be made the place of his evening's wind. Mrs. Ellsworth held the horse, while Mr. |