the mind and labor are so divided, in the care of large farms, that neither can be brought to act with sufficient judgment or effect. A proper disposition of cattle, added to a judicious collecting of manure, will always produce the means of enriching and invigorating the soil, nor can there eyer appear any want of a sufficient supply of manure for every purpose of the farm. The collecting of compost, or manure, being indispensible to the farmer, it shall be here first attended to. Compost, is to be considered, both as to its quantity and its quality. The quantity may be increased by mixing clay, or other unfermented matter, with the manure; the entire ass will partake of the salts, and all ferment together. The quality, which seems of more importance than the quantity, may be improved by choosing a proper site for the manure heap. It should not be made in a hole, because the rain water will soon fill the hole and chill the manure; which should, in order to fermentation, preserve a considerable heat: it should not be made on a hill, because its juices will run from it; it should not be exposed to rain, because the water passing through it will carry away its most valuable part; nor should it be entirely excluded from the air, which is essentially useful to it. With these general observations in view, the farmer will easily contrive a proper plan for collecting a sufficiency of rich compost for all the uses of his farm, which, thus plentifully supplied, will never degenerate into a barren waste. The manure heap should be placed near the farm yard, so that the rotten straw, bedding of the cattle, &c. may be easily removed to it; a sewer or gutter should also be contrived to carry the urine from the cattle's stalls to a reservoir near the manure; and finally, it should be collected on a flat spot of ground, so hard as to be, if possible, impervious to the juices, which would otherwise sink into the earth, and be totally lost. An ingenious farmer, in Europe, recommends the following plan, which he adopted with the most beneficial success. He laid the bottom of his compost-heap with brick, laid level as a house-floor; a numbers of gutters were formed, for the purpose of conducting the juices into a cistern sunk into the ground, which was occasionally returned on the heap by a pump. A wall four feet high was raised on three sides of the heap, and a thatched roof, supported by posts, covered the whole at four feet above the wall. A floor laid at the lower part of the roof formed a house for fowl. In the anVOL. I. No. 4. nexed plan and elevation A a a a a represents the gutters, B the reservoir, C the pump, and D the roof. It may be remarked, that the American farmer may find it most convenient to use plank for a flooring, logs for a wall, and shingles for a roof. After securing the gutters so as not to admit any matter that would prevent water running through them, a layer of earth, leaves of trees, or other matter to be found on the farm, were laid eighteen inches deep, and become saturated by manure, which was overspread; a like layer was placed at three feet above the bottom layer, and so continued alternately heaping on manure from the farm yard, and clay, leaves, &c. to any height the manure heap could be conveniently raised. Repeated trials have proved that oxen, cows and horses, thrive better in stalls than in the fields, while the following advantages are too evident to be slighted: the produce of the same quantity of land, which will feed one beast in the field, will support three in stalls; and twice the quantity of manure will be produced by stall-feeding that can be had otherwise. Thus giving, in point of quantity of manure, the preference to stall-feeding in the proportion of six to one. Here then is a plan which, if pursued, will certainly produce, from any given quantity of land, a quantity of good manure, sufficient to enrich the land and prevent it from remaining unproductive. A farm of fifty acres may be thus divided: House, offices, and farm-yard, 2 acres. 3 45 50 Here then is a short view of a farm of only fifty acres, which will produce at least one thousand bushels of grain and vegetables, and feed sixty head of cattle, besides fowl, exclusive of the produce of garden and orchard. Yet the uncalculating farmer predicts that fifty acres will not suffice to support his family. Prejudice and custom, aided by ambition, are in favor of large farms, nor will it be easy to convince farmers of the superior advantages of small ones. The produce of fifty acres as here calculated is so much within the compass of probability, that none will, it is expected, discredit it. It shall, however, be shown, in the prosecution of this interesting topic, that the calculation is less than would be the produce of such a farm well managed, and that many other advantages, derivable from small farms, are yet to be explained. [To be continued.] THOUGHTS ON RAIN AND VAPORS. The vapors arising from the earth ascend, in imperceptible particles, far above the region of clouds, in order to attain a new spirit or life from the etherial principle in the atmosphere; then they fall together, or collapse in the form of clouds, which is, as it were, a kind of ground or earth to fall upon. Again they collapse into still larger particles, and descend in rain. The particles of vapor first went up destitute, as it were, of life or fire; they ascended to heaven for fire, and having obtained it, fall down and afford nourishment to the vegetable world. All this corresponds to the WORD, and man's instruction thereby. The vapor rising from the earth may be compared to natural science, obtained from the things of this life through the medium of the senses, which must be exalted to the superior regions of the mind, there to receive a spirit and life before it can be of any real use to man. The etherial principle above the clouds denotes the internal sense of the WORD, or Heaven; the clouds are the literal sense; and the earth is the Church, which receives all its nourishment from the letter of Scripture, as this also receives its virtue and power from the spiritual sense. A man desirous of instruction from the WORD, is like the parched earth looking up to the clouds for rain. The earth in such case answers to a man desirous of truth, from an affection thereto; the rain is truth; the electrical fire in the cloud is the principle of good in the WORD, which is communicated with truth, and is the very life and soul thereof. The primary cause of vegetation is fire, the secondary cause is rain; which latter is a fluid body containing the former as a soul within it. Both are necessary to produce the end, for neither, without the other, can effect it. Just so spiritual nutrition is effected by good and truth united together. Good alone will not nourish, any more than fire alone will cause to vegetate; still less will truth alone, or water alone, produce such effects. But both united together, will yield an abundant increase, like the union of male and female in the animal kingdom of nature; for as rain is the conductor of electrical fire to produce natural vegetation, so truth is the conductor of heavenly good to effect spiritual nutrition. M. K. While deeply musing on celestial themes, We'll full display a sainted nuptial pair." In Still softly driving, near the earth it drew, Through azure fields, by snowy steeds, was drawn And as they gently waved each shining crest, The angels me with melting voice address'd: |