TO BRING UP WORN-OUT LAND. Probably the most effective way to improve and bring up an old and exhausted pasture, would be to plough and cultivate the land and bring it into good condition. If that is not practicable, it would be a good plan to haul on a good compost topdressing, and spread it in the fall. Then as soon as practicable in spring, that is, as soon as the team can go on without poaching and injury to the land, sow on a thick seeding of clover and orchard grass, say ten to fifteen pounds to the acre, and go over first with a tooth, and then with a brush larrow. If you cannot command a sufficiently heavy dressing of compost or yard manure, adu a dressing of plaster of Paris, say one hundred and fifty pounds to the acre at the time of sowing the seed or harrowing, or directly after. The distance to haul the manure may be lese objectionable in winter when there is more leisure, and when possibly it may be sledded. If you have not the manure to spare, you can easily make arrangements for it in the fall, when the top-dressing may go on earlier, say in December. If no yard manure can be spared for it, you cau use some artificial manure, like guano and plaster, early in spring, when a little clover seed would, no doubt, be beneficial. The cheapest way may be to stock the lot with sheep, if it is so situated as to be practicable. Stock a little hard, and feed them extra, and they add to the fertility of the land, and rapidly bring it up. But ploughing, where it is practicable, or thorough cultivation, is probably the best way to treat it. The coating of manure we spcak of can be got on when the ground is frozen much better and cheaper than in spring. If the pasture is rough and rocky, full of bushes, so that it cannot be ploughed, cut the bushes, and stock heavily with sheep. Sheep will keep down almost all, except huckleberry bushes and alders. The former should be loosened with a heavy harrow, and the latter are easily killed by cutting. Go over the huckleberry pasture with an iron-toothed harrow, and then grub up the bushes. It is rather expensivo, but the cheapest way in the end. Blueberry bushes, sumachs, wild blackberry vines, and many others, the sheep will surely destroy, and they will improve the land while doing it. FARMERS' CLUBS. During the long evenings of the late fall and early winter, it is a capital plan to start up, and keep up, a farmers? club. It may be made the means of great good, whether considered in an educational, or social point of view. It won't do to get rusty and dull, as any one is apt to do, who has nothing to interest him, and much time to fill up. Farmers' clubs are kept up with interest and spirit in some towns, while in others they languish after the first year of novelty. We are inclined to think the interest flags from some want of management on the part of those who assume to lead off. There is certainly variety enough in the innumerable subjects connected with agriculture, and there would seem to be no good reason why the attendance and the interest in the meetings should fall off. At the same time there is constant need of effort, to make each meeting attractive, and this effort should be directed to drawing out facts and the results of experience, the procuring and distributing pamphlets, books, reports, seeds, &c., and the bringing out of new men, especially young men, who may be too modest to put themselves forward without a little gentle urging. We believe it has been found by experience, that meeting at each others' houses has been more satisfactory all round, than meeting in any central hall. There is greater freedom, more of a social and home feeling about the meetings, less stiffness and formality. A subject is assigned for special investigation, to be presented, say by the member at whose house the meeting is held, who is followed, after he is through, others who take part in the discussion, asking questions for further information upon certain points, &c. Now, in those cases where the interest, for any cause, seems to lạnguish, we yould suggest that the plan of meeting around be adopted, if it is not already practised, or that some new plan be tried to awaken the interest of those who need it. It is not advisable to leave the management to take care of itself. It is better to have a fixed and well understood subject assigned beforehand; and if the programme can be made up at the beginning of the season by a committee appointed for the purpose, so much the better. It gives time for thought and investigation, and will bring out better matured results than any reliance upon chance, or any dependence upon the spur of the moment. The exercises may profitably be varied occasionally by essays, lectures, and social gatherings, visiting and uniting with neighboring clubs, &c.; 'but at any rate let the interest be kept up by a study of novelty and change, if necessary. One thing is certain, and that is, a farmers' club can be made successful, interesting, and useful, for we know that such is the case with many clubs; and what has been done may be done again. cess. MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. The large number of students that have presented themselves shows, at least, that there was a want of such an institution in the community. It is, perhaps, too soon to pronounce it a final and complete success till one or more classes have graduated, and chosen their occupations for life. If a large percentage of them should adopt farming as a pursuit, go out into the community, and show that the practical training which they have received is what it purports to be, such a fact would settle the doubts which some have entertained in regard to the value of % careful education for the farm, as well as for the professions. Perhaps the question of success or failure should not turn upon this point; but it will, undoubtedly, in the minds of many, since there are institutions enough already devoted to the preparation of young men for teaching and the learned professions, and the training requisite for these pursuits might as well have been obtained in them. Besides, the farmer has been inclined to feel that the Agricultural College was an institution peculiarly his own, and if the course of education there should result in leading students away from the farm, instead of attracting them to it, the experiment would be regarded as a failure, whether justly or not. The course of instruction is, in many respects, an excellent one. It is more practical, and better calculated to prepare the student for the active duties of life, than that pursued in the older institutions of learning. Less time is given to studies designed merely to train the human mind, and more reference is had to the living present. Such sciences as botany, chemistry, geology, and the applied mathematics, like surveying and engineering, may be said to form the basis of the course, while little or no attention is given to the dead languages. German and French are well taught, as they should be in every school or college. It must be admitted that the tendency of public sentiment among educated and well-informed men is, at the present time, strongly in this direction. More direct, practical instruction is demanded. Men have come to feel that less time should be given to mere abstractions; that the same discipline may be acquired upon studies that are useful as well as ornamental. So strong has this impression become that the older colleges are fast modifying their classical course, and adapting it to the wants of the age in which we live. There are now in the College three classes, known as the Freshmen, Sophomore, and Junior, with the same relative grade as in the older colleges. Another year will give it a Senior class, to graduate in 1871. TIME TO CUT GRASS. . One of the most important things in the whole range of practical farming, and one which every farmer must consider, is the best time to cut grass for hay. The hay crop is our chief reliance in this cold climate. To raise and cure the largest amount of the best winter feed is, therefore, the great object, and it so far surpasses all others, that the money value of a farm is estimated in practice, and for the purposes of buying and selling, by the quantity of hay it can raise. There is a great difference in the actual nutritive value of hay, depending, in a great measure, upon the time at which it was cut, and the condition in which it was cured. The time when it contains the largest amount of rich nutriment, is just when it comes into blossom. Previous to this time it abounds in rich juices, or, in other words, is more succulent. If cut as it is coming into blossom, it will produce more milk when fed to milch cows, than if it stands longer. Immediately after coming into blossom, the formation of woody fibre begins, and advances rapidly till the plant arrives at maturity. This process is the change of the rich, nutritive elements, the starch, gum,, sugar, &c., whereby they are stored away in the seed, while the stock is changed into a hard, and comparatively indigestible, substance. After this period the tritive substances are concentrated chiefly in the ripened seed. The object of the farmer should be to arrest this process at the very beginning, when all the rich juices of the plant are elaborated, and before the formation of this woody fibre. Practically, however, it is difficult to do this at precisely the right moment, on a large farm, because the grasses arrive at this stage of growth at so nearly the same period. It is vastly better to cut before this exact period, than it is to follow it - better for the grass, better for the land, and better for the stock which is to consume it. It is plain, therefore, that the rule should be to begin early, that is, take the more advanced pieces, and that, a little before they come into full blossom, or at the latest, as soon as the blossoms appear. This point is perfectly well settled, by careful, practical experiment, which shows that the actual money value of early cut hay, is very much greater than that of late cut. Early cut, and properly cured hay, that is hay not over cured or exposed too long to a “ broiling sun,” is more like green grass, more succulent, juicy, palatable, and nutritious. All stock will thrive better upon it. Many a farmer now begins haying by the 20th or 25th of June, who never used to begin till after the 4th of July. Every one who has tried it carefully will continue it. POETRY, ANECDOTES, ETC. * * THE INDEPENDENT FARMER. NEWSPAPERS. Let sailors sing of the windy deep, By the REV. HENKY WARD BEECHER. Let soldiers praise their armor, But in my heart this toast will keep In the United States every worthy The Independent Farmer. citizen reads a newspaper, and owns the When first the rose in robe of green paper which he reads. A newspaper is Unfolds its crimson lining, a window through which men look out And round his cottage porch is seen on all that is going on in the world, The honeysuckle twining; Without a newspaper a man is shut up When banks of bloom their sweetness in a small room, and knows little or yield, nothing of what is happening outside of To bees that gather honey, himself. In our day newspapers keep He drives his team across the field, pace with history and record it. When skies are soft and sunny. A good newspaper will keep a sensible man in sympathy with the world's eurTo him the Spring comes dancingly; rent history. It is an ever unfolding To him the Summer blushes; encyclopædia; an unbound book forever The Autumn smiles with mellow ray; issuing, and never finished, His sleep old Winter hushes. No doubts or fears confound him ; THE PENDULUM. Swing on, old pendulum of the world, Forever and forever, Nor griefs nor ills may harm her; Keeping the time of suns and stars, He's nature's nobleman in life The march that endeth never ! The Independent Farmer. Your monotone speaks joy and grief, N. Y. Christian Advocate. And failure and endeavor; Swing on, old pendulum, to and fro, FOOD FOR THOUGHT. Forever and forever! There's food for reflection in the following calculation. If a man buys and Long as you swing shall earth be glad, pays the present price for two glasses of And men be partly good and bad, liquor and two cigars a day, it will And each hour that passes by, amount to 146 dollars a year, which sum A thousand souls be born and die; will purchase two hats at $0 each, two Die from the earth, to live, we trust, bonnets at $12 each, three barrels of Unshackled, unallied with dust. flour at $14, one hundred pounds of beef Long as you swing shall wrong come at 2+ cents, 40 pounds of butter at 45 right, cents, two pairs of boots at $s, and two As sure as morning follows night; pairs ditto for $5 each which would go The day goes wrong - the ages never à long way in supplying the needs of a Swing on, old pendulum - swing forever! inan and wife. THE GENEROUS HEART. SWIJIMING WITHOUT BLADDERS. By HENRY ABBEY. It is an old truth which Dr. Arnold O! cramped and narrow is the man who here states; but it will bear repetition. lives Only for self, and pawns his years and lives sparingly all his life, for the Many an unwise parent labors hard, away Fof gold, nor knows the joy a good deed children a start in the world, as it is purpose of leaving enough to give his gives; But feels his heart shrink slowly day the money left him by his relatives, is called. Setting a young man afloat with by day, And dies at last, his bond of fate out like tying bladders under the arms of one who cannot swim; ten chances to run; No high aim sought, no worthy action him to swim, and he will never need the one he will go to the bottom. Teach done. bladders. Give your child a sound eduBut brimmed with molten brightness cation, and you have done enough for like a star, him. See to it that his morals are pure, And broad and open as the sea or sky, his mind cultivated, and his whole naThe generous heart! its kind deeds ture made subservient to the laws which shine afar, govern man, and you have given what And glow in gold, in God's great book will be of more value than the wealth on high, of the Indies. To be thrown upon one's And he who does what good he can each resources is to be cast into the very lap day, of fortune, for our faculties then undergo Makes smooth and green, and strews a development, and display an energy, of with flowers his way. which they were before unsusceptible. APRIL DAYS. UNDER THE CLOUD. Twice in the year the maple tree BY CHARLES G. AMES. Grows red beneath our northern skies; O, beauteous things of earth! Once when October lights the lea I cannot feel your worth To-day; O, kind and constant friend ! Our spirits cannot blend The first faint color rise. To-day; 0, Lord of truth and grace! These morning hours blend joy with grief That draw the fuller spring-time near, I cannot see Thy face And hint the tender opening leaf, To-day; And pour the robin's carol clear; A shadow on my heart For not the time of ripened sheaf, Keeps me from all apart And rainbow woods, is half so dear To-day; As this, the boyhood, bright and brief, Yet something in me knows The earliest of the year. How sair creation glows To-day; And something makes me sure That love is not less pure Every man has his faults, his failings, To-day; his peculiarities. Every one of us finds himself crossed by such failings of others And that th’ Eternal Good from hour to hour; and if he were to Minds nothing of my mood resent them all, or even notice all, life To-day; would be intolerable. If for every out- Fed from a hidden bowl, burst of hasty temper, and for every A lamp burns in my soul rudeness that wounds us in our daily All days! path, we were to demand an apology, require an explanation, or resent it by retaliation, daily intercourse would be im. If thou workest at that which is before possible. The very science of social thee, following right reason seriously, Infe consists in that gliding tact, which vigorously, calmly, without allowing avoids contact with the sharp angulari- anything else to distract thee, but keep. ties of character, which does not argue ing thy divine part pure, as if thou about such things, which does not seek shouldst be bound to give it back immeto adjust or cure them all, but covers diately; if thou holdest to this, expect them as if it did not see. So a Christian ing nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied spirit throws a cloak of love over these with thy present activity according to things. It knows when it is wise not to nature, and with heroic truth in every That microscopic distinctness in word and sound which thou utterest, which all faults appear to captious men, thou wilt live happy. And there is no who are forever blaming, dissenting, com- man who is able to prevent this. plaining, disappears in the large, calm The Emperor MARCUS ANTONINU6. gaze of love. And it is this spirit which our Christian society lacks, and which PITHY CORRESPONDENCE. we shall never get until each one begins with his own heart. The following is given as the substance of a correspondence between the late W. H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury TRUE COURAGE. under Monroe, and an agent of the de partment in the State of Alabama. If, in years of fierce endeavor, Dear Sir : Please inform this departAll your efforts have been vain, ment, by return of mail, how far the Struggle on, believing ever Tombigbee River runs up. That the victory you will gain, Respectfully, Are you friendless ? you can conquer W. H. CRAWFORD, Sec'y, &c. Foes without and foes within; REPLY Mobile, What are trials, pain, and hunger, Hox. W. H. CRAWFORD, Dear Sir : In When there is a prize to win? reply to your letter, just at hand, I have Noble natures prove ascendant the honor to say that the Tombigbee In the world's ignoble strife River doesn't run up at all. And true courage is descendant I have the honor to be, &c. Of the dauntless souls in life. The agent's joke cost him his place. On life's changeful scene of action Though defeat may oft appear, FAITH. Laurels, prizes, wealth, and station WHITTIER. Yet love will dream, and faith will trust, Alas for him who never sees The stars shine through his cypress trees; When a man says “ I lie," does he lie, Who hath not learned in hours of faith, or does he speak 'the truth? If he lies, The truth to flesh and sense unknown, he speaks the truth; if he speaks the That life is ever Lord of death, see. THE DROWNED AT SEA. QUESTION IN GEOMETRY. Never bronze or slab of stone A ship was in a perilous situation, with May their sepulchre denote; a hole in one of her planks of 12 inches O'er their burial-place alone square; and the only plank that could be Shall the shifting sea-weed float, had was 16 inches long by 9 in breadth. Not for them the quiet grave Required to know how this said piece Underneath the daisied turf; must be cut into four pieces, so as to They sleep below the sleepless surf. waste. ANAGRAM. Rethe si a rowd ni veyer limec, Ot voel dan rinfedspih read; Loud or low, shall be their dirge; Ni Gisheln 'sit “torfeg em ton," And each idle wave that breaks, Ni Hrenfc 'its “ vensuior." ENIGMA. I am composed of 22 letters. My 14, 11, 22, 16, 17 is used to separate bran from meal, If you wish to be happy, and to make My 13, 15, 3 is what people are often glad others so, always be cheerful, and look to do. upon the bright side of everything. It My 18, 12, 11, 5, 7 is a very common name. is just as cheap, and three times as good My 12, 1, 10, 13 is an officer of a ship. for digestion. My 6, 15, 10 is a domestic animal. My 12, 20, 19, 17 is under ground. My 6, 7, 20, 9 is a part of the face. My 8,5 is one of the most common words Be like the promontory, against which of the English language. the waves continually beat, but it stands My !5, 2, 4, 1 is a grand division, firm, and tames the fury of the waters My whole is an old saying. about it. ANSWERS TO PROBLEMS, AND DOUBLE ACROSTIC. 1. A country seat. 2. Termination. ANSWER TO MATIIEMATICAL QUES 3. To spring back. TION. -- The numbers are, 64, 25, and 1. 4. A great river in the United States, ANSWER TO PROBLEM. - The farmer 5. A fertile piece of land, bought 63 tons on the forenoon of April 6. A race of people. 3d. In the calculation, the months are 7. A weight. supposed to be of equal length. My initials give one of the United States. ANSWER TO ENIGMA. – The borrower My finals a county in the same. is servant to the lender, ANSWER TO RIDDLE. - Drouth. PUZZLE. ANSWER TO CHARADE.- Mosquito, WORD PUZZLE. CHARADE. Take away three lines, so as to leave In my first is found water. three perfect squares. RIDDLE. I am composed of 6 parts. As a whole I am a useful implement, or a means of A man hired out for a year for $200 conveyance; take away my 1st and I am and a suit of clothes; at the end of nine broken and rough; remove my 2d and I months he got $ 140 and the suit of clothes. become a plant; remove both 1st and 20 What was the suit worth? and I can either divide or mark division. |
