Farming, or a Love for the Profession Necessary another is put forth, until at length, the full ear is formed, and all is well stored in his ample barns.

gin to fall, and cold, wintry winds howl around his dwelling, the faithful farmer has the satisfaction of knowing all around him are comfortable; he loves to retire at night, with the happy consolation that nothing dependent on him suffers from cold or hungerr

The farmer not only takes pride in raising good crops, but he also takes pride in raising good stock, which he finds both a source of enjoyment and profit. He loves to feed them, litter and keep them clean and comfortable. In a word, he is interested in their welfare; for what is for their good, is for his benefit. He loves to have them hearty, and to this end gives them a change of food. He loves to see them look sleek, and he knows the "card and curry," with good feed, will do it. But above all, he loves to have the name of having the best stock of cattle and horses in town; and Occasionally have some well known Boston cattle-dealer compliment him with "a bigger pile of rocks,' than he had paid any body else," for his best fat oxen.

Another pastime our hero of a farmer loves dearly; that is, to sit the long winter evenings with his " gude wife," lovely daughters and promising boys around him; and all enjoying the good of their labor.-Cor. N. E. Farmer.

Application of Manures.

As this subject lies at the root of all good culture, you should have it fully discussed; every member should state the result of his practice and observation, and bring all the virtues of the different fertilizing materials to light. I will contribute my mite, with some data. We should cultivate enlarged views; look over the garden fence upon the farm, and consider the value of the products. My own soul was once so small as to bury my brains in a flower-pot, and to think that a garden with a few glass structures was the universe; but now I see what a big place the world is.

and the mold at the bottom of the wood-pile is better; wood ashes leached are used extensively upon sandy soils, produce good crops, and solidify such soils. Waste charcoal is valuable in pot culture, but too expensive for general use. Saw-dust is all converted into manure around the city of Edinburg, Scotland, by bedding cows and horses with it. Tan-bark is also there converted into manures by composting it with other materials, and nurserymen grow the hardier rhododendrons and azaleas in beds out doors, made up with twothirds of decayed tan-bark and one-third garden loam.

The

Salt as manure hastens vegetation, and gives earlier maturation to plants than any other kind of manure. I have used night soil, fresh from the walls of this city, upon acres; and for onions, beets, radishes, turnips, and carrots, I have never found anything to equal it for early and heavy crops. Poudrette has a similar effect, but these rich manures make cabbage "club-footed," and do not suit potatoes. low meadows around Edinburg, into which the sewers of the city empty, yield the greatest crop of grass to be found; they are divided into lots of three and four acres by ditches which lead the liquid manure around them, and are flooded with it at pleasure; they are let yearly at auction to dairymen. The grasses are fit to cut by the time that grasses elsewhere begin to grow in the spring; they give seven cuttings knee high, and so heavy that the scythe can hardly carry the swath through. The market gardeners of Leith surpass all their contemporaries more inland in the production of early and fine vegetables, by the use of sea-weed they gather off the beach after a high tide or storm.

Upon the flat meadows of Long Island Sound, between Harlem and Throg's Neck, the grass, after being flooded by the spring tide, grows up at a wonderful rate; and asparagus of the finest quality springs up spontaneously all over these. Country people empty the brine of their meat and fish barrels in spring upon their asparagus beds, which is the only manure they get, and they yield plentiful crops. I have used both salt, lime and urine around the base of peach and plum trees for the cut worm, which always keeps them off and invigorates the trees. Walter Elder, in Proceedings of Progressive Gardener's Society.

It is generally conceded by cultivators, that barn-yard manure is the best for common use; and as it is the droppings of several species of animals, together with straw, I think it better than that of any one species, when applied to clayey soils and heavy loams in its long, fresh state. It warms them, renders them more porous, and allows the roots of rapid-growing plants to enter them more freely. Indian corn, potatoes, melons, squashes, &c., seem to do best upon heavy soils with fresh barn-yard manure; WHERE ENGLAND GETS HER TIMBER. but for sandy and light soils it is best when well rotted, and in that state has a more im- Britain and Ireland import annually some 27,mediate effect on crops in general. For pot-000,000 cubic feet, or 540,000 loads of Canating plants it should be almost a mold, and be dian pine timber, the greater part of which is mixed many months with the soil before being used.

Ligneous manures I think must be most beneficial to trees and other woody plants, although seldom ever applied to them. Leaf mold is almost indispensable to pot culture,

Great

manufactured on the Ottawa river and its tributaries. The operations of this manufacture extend over upward of 11,000 square miles, and gives employment to more than 40,000 men.

A farmer should never be so taken up with political affairs as to neglect his farm; yet he should not be entirely ignorant of those matters of national or State policy which always agitate a free people.

I could now point to several farmers who never beg fruit while he can so readily plant own farms of from two hundred to three hun-trees, or borrow tools when he can make or dred acres, whose actual income is less than buy them; "for the borrower is servant to the when they commenced with seventy-five or one | lender." hundred acres. The reason is obvious: they increase their land without increasing their active capital; they spread the same amount of labor, manure and capital over one-fourth or one-half more land, and receive no actual increase of crops in return; whereas, the farmer who expends his surplus capital in manures, draining, &c., &c., receives an increased return in exact proportion to the amount of capital which he invests in such improvements. There are hundreds of farmers now among us who would be much better off if they were to sell one-half of their farms, and invest the proceeds in the remaining half.

A farmer should shun the doors of a bank as he would a plague; they are for speculators, with whom a farmer should have nothing to do.

No farmer should allow the reproach of a neglected education to lie against his family. "Knowledge is power," and its foundation should be early and deeply laid in the district school-house.

A farmer should never refuse a fair price for Another class will, as soon as they have suranything he has to sell, for any rise of price plus capital, convert it into railroad, corporawhich may or may not take place will generaltion or bank stock; or, worse still, in westernly be swallowed up by the interest upon the land, instead of laying it out for manure or capital invested in the article, tile for the improvement of their farms.

Old English farmers, who have had long experience in draining, say that when judiciously done it will return the original investment once in every three or four years, or in other words, pay from 25 to 30 per cent. per annum. The same might be said of investments in lime and

manure.

By proper management I am fully convinced that an acre of ground can and will yet be made to give one hundred bushels of corn. Any one can see the advantage a farmer working one acre of such land would have over his neighbor who was compelled to plow, harrow, plant and work two acres for the same return. If you have more capital than you can use, then make use of more labor, plow deeper, harrow and cultivate more on the same ground; one acre with a soil twelve inches deep, is worth more than two on which the soil is six or seven inches deep.

In recapitulation, allow me to direct your attention to several other mistakes, as well as those already mentioned:

As has been proved by your friend, AGRICOLA, in Ger. Telegraph.

Grass Lands-Seeding and Manuring.

The reseeding of grass land by ploughing it just after a crop of hay has been taken off, and sowing the seed on the inverted sward, has been practised more or less in this vicinity for several years, and appears to be gaining favor. There is much land that is more profitable for grass than for anything else, and the mode alluded to admits of a continuation of that crop without intermission. The first crop after seeding is somewhat later, but seldom fails to amount to a fair yield if properly treated.

The present is a favorable season for this mode of reseeding grass-land. The moisture of the ground, from frequent rains, renders it easy to be ploughed, and at the same time favors the rapid decomposition of the sward, which affords nourishment to the new crop. The seed will germinate readily, and the young grass will be pushed forward, obtaining strength of root to secure it against injury by frost.

In the preparation of the ground it is quite important to roll it heavily, after it is ploughed and before the seed is sown. The advantages of this are two-fold: 1. The edges of the furrows, and all other points which appear above the general surface, should be so compressed that the old grass will not be likely to start, and that the ground may be made level. 2. Grass, like wheat, requires a pretty firm soil. A little light earth for the seed to vegetate in, is necessary. After the ground has been sufficiently rolled, a very light harrow will loosen enough of it to make a seed-bed.

A farmer should not keep more cattle, sheep or hogs than he has food for. If he has too many sheep or cattle on the pasture, it becomes very short towards fall, and he must either commence on his stock of winter food sooner, or let his cattle or sheep suffer. If on the other hand he has more stock than he has winter food for, he must turn out to pasture sooner in the spring, much to the detriment of his meadows, or buy hay for his stock. I have seen many farmers who would have been actually better off if they had given two or three head of cattle away in the fall, and fed the whole of their keep to the balance, than to feed as they did. It is an old and true saying Unless the ground is very rich, it will be that an animal in good order the first of De-advisable to apply manure of some kind at the cember is already half wintered.

A farmer should never depend upon his neighbor for what he can produce himself;

time of sowing. Precisely what manure can be applied to the best advantage, will depend on the particular circumstances which surround

the farmer. If he has common barn or yard manure at hand, so well rotted that it will crumble down fine, a few loads to the acre, spread evenly and harrowed in, will start the young grass, ensure a good sward, and a good crop the following season. If such manure cannot be had, superphosphate of lime, ground bones, or ashes, may be used. But if experience has not already proved the economy of using the latter manures on the kind of land and for the purpose indicated, it will be advisable to apply them on a somewhat limited scale, and in such a way that the exact effect of them may be known.

Voelcker prove that it is possible to leach potash and other manurial matters from soil containing a fair proportion of clay, but these results were only obtained when a very large quantity of liquid was applied. The examination of drainage water by Prof. Way, showed that under the ordinary rain-fall, soils of sufficient tenacity to require draining, retain their fertilizing elements, or that the water at least extracts but a trifling amount. With very loose soils the case would probably be different. In regard to the waste of manures by evaporation,-a point which has been much discussed, and on which difference of opinion The top-dressing of sward is a matter of im- still exists,-it is sufficient to say, that it is portance. Experience has amply proved that not intended to advise the application of masome land may be kept permanently in grass nures by top-dressing under circumstances by this means. Much has been said in regard where such a result would be likely to ensue. to the best time for top-dressing grass-lands. It is not intended that the manure shall be Farmers who have had considerable acquaint-dried up, or exposed to extremes of wetness ance with the subject, say they prefer making and dryness. It is well known that moist the application on mowing-lands soon after a earth possesses a very strong affinity for macrop has been taken off, provided the weather nures, and in ordinary cases, grass-land which is moist. It is not often that such weather oc- it is advisable to top-dress will be sufficiently curs here at the season alluded to; it is gen- moist to prevent the exhalation of any fertilizerally dry, and the manure if spread is liable ing elements.-Boston Cultivator. to lie sometime without producing much effect. But this year the case is different. The abundant moisture in the ground causes the grass to start rapidly where a crop of hay has been taken; so that manure spread on the surface would not only be kept moist, but it would soon become embedded in a growth of green grass, and, if tolerably fine, the sward would become netted above it.

Objections to top-dressing probably still lurk in the minds of some farmers-especially to the surface application of manure for a considerable length of time previous to the growth of the crop it is particularly intended to benefit. Hence it may be urged by some, that to spread manure in summer or autumn for the benefit of the grass crop of the following season, would render it liable to be wasted. It is contended that the manure is liable to be washed away, to have its strength leached through the soil, and dissipated in the air.

In regard to the first of these objections, it may be remarked, that slopes of such declivity as to render common farm manure, spread on them, liable to be washed off, are unsuitable for top-dressing, except it be with saline manures, the properties of which might be at once soaked into the soil. As to the alleged loss by leaching, it is only on quite porous soils that this would be likely to occur, and such are not those for which top-dressing is recommended. This mode of manuring is only adapted to moist lands which are capable of supporting a constantly-green and vigorous turf. Of course they are not porous and dry, but contain sufficient clay to make them retentive of moisture, and also to possess a strong affinity for the more valuable elements of manures. It is true that the experiments of Prof.

Economy and Economising.

These are two words which are now all the

rage among our farmers, and it is amusing to see how well some of them understand them.

Their economy and economising is like that of the man who, seeing that his cider barrel was leaking at the spile, turned it over to tighten it, but did not notice that the bunghole was open and under.

farmers who are economising (and there are by Let me draw you a picture of some of our far too many such.) He cannot apply any lime this year, because he must economise and can't afford it; or, in other words, cannot afford to spend one dollar now that it may produce ten in a year or two.

He cannot afford to hire a man, and so his corn goes unworked and the crop is materially shortened; his ground is only half plowed, because he has not time to do it well himself, and thereby loses several dollars to save one.

He does not place his manure under shelter in the spring, because he cannot afford to hire a man to do it, and has not time to do it himself; and yet will tell you if asked that one load of sheltered manure is worth two of that not so taken care of.

He discontinues taking (if he ever did such a thing) an agricultural paper, and thus places his finger in the spile and leaves the bunghole wide open, with a vengeance.

He cannot afford to buy plaster for his clover and corn, although he knows that it will do much to increase his crop; whereas, if he were to apply plaster to his grass, he would double or treble his money in a very short