Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1858-01-09
PARNRRS DEPARTMENT.
From the .7meriean
JANUARY.

Al first thin weav ct ing, till ~ last the hases
Fail broad, and wide, and fast dImmfngthetay
With continual flow The cherished fields
Put on their Winter robe Of purest white
'Tis brightness ALL save where the new snow no''s
Along the maEy current. Low the woods
Bow their hoar heads and de 70 the anguid sun
Faint from the west emits his evening ray.
Earih's universal face. deep hid, and chill
Is one vii d dazzling waste tha, butes wide
The works OF man"
There is something appropriate and
beautiful in closing the old year and be.
ginning the new, with covering of snow.
1t is at once winding sheet for the dead
past, and spotless tablet on which to write
the impressions of the future. All the face
of nature and the works OF man lie en-.
tombed under this pure marble surface -
The soil Of the farm is all of one seeming
quality, the upland and the swamp, the
rough and the smooth all beautifully
graded. Even the fences and stone walls
are, many of them, erased, and one sees
how charmingly rolling prairie looks
1t puts new aspect upon the whole face
of the country. Even the highways are
changed, and the merry sleigh bells and
the loaded wood sleds, pass over meadows
and cultivated fields. Deep, narrow val
lies are filed up, and unsightly brush and
brambles, under the walls and by the road
side, are concealed The farm of the
sloven is for once put in order, and looks
neatly The gaps in his fence, the briars
in his fields, the thistles and weeds around
his house and barns, no longer stare us in
the face.
The snow, as winding sheet, is sugges-
tive of many profitable lessons to the
husbandman. 1t buries up many Of his
defects that ought to be entirely removed
by more thorough and efficient management
That meadow, where the boulders have
never been disturbed, is now made smooth
by the snow it might be made SO by
little gunpowder and labor, and preserve
that even surface through the year. How
much better it would look you can now
see. How much better il would be, you
would have occasion to know for the rest
Of your days. There are, perhaps, fifty
unsightly rocks on every square acre, that
have always hindered the plow, and the
sOythe, to say nohing of the room they
have occupied. The expense of removing
these stones is considerable, but then you
gain soil by it, both in surface and in depth,
and increased facility in tillage for a
lifetime. The clearing up of an acre of
rocky land, is equivalent to a good SUBJ
soiling in most cases, and it makes that
operation comparatively easy whenever the
land is taken up for hoed crops. These
are important items to be deducted from
the expense of clearing. Then the age of
the moving machine has arrived, and you
connot avail yourself its great advantages
until the meadow is cleaned up.
Now the snow has obliterated that long
line Of bushes, brakes and briars, under
the wall, that have so long robbed you of
the use Of the richest strip Of land in your
fields Here foul weeds and vermin have
nestled, grass could not grow, or, if it did,
neither COW nor scythe could approach it.
You see how much better the fences look
with this nuisance abated. Now it is not
expensive to make clean work with these
brush under the walls. A bush scythe and
the grub hoe will finish them in single
season. You want the room they occupy,
and the rich soil that always gathers under
the fences.
Absurd as it may seem, there are far
mers that plead for bushes and rocks. The
former afford delicate browse for the
cattle, and the latter retain heat and mois-
ture for the land. They prefer land with
the rocks in it,-have perhaps seen land
spoiled by taking the rocks out of it. Of
course, ifyou add one eighth, or e-tenth,
to the surface of field by removing stones,
and if you bring large amount of sub-soil
to the surface by the digging, you increase
the demand for manure, and difthe demand be
not met the yield may not be as greatthe first
year after the operation. Bulletins demand
be generously met, and the thoroughly
loosened and deepened soil will give you a
better return for manure and labor, than
you ever received before.
But the snow has completely covered
those fences that divide o part of your
moving lots. Three fields are thrown into
one, and you have ten acre field. How
much time would you save in tillage i
that arrangement were made permanent
1t is great vexation to cultivate corn Oh
potatoes in small. walled lots, whore tht
rows are hardly dozen rods long, ant
naarlu half the time of unnr man and hnrs.